soooooooooooo, the mechanic I've been going to for 5 yrs. wants to charge $180.00 for oil change and valve adjustment. Does this seem reasonable. Oh, 71 stock 914 1.7...

Not for a man running a business.

Sound reasonable to me. ~$30 for 20-50W oil (Brad Penn) + his hourly time to do the valves.

There are some days I would give someone $250 to get this all done.

At the end of my shop ownership, I charged an hour for a 3K service ($120/hr). Oil, drop and clean the screen, valves and gaskets if needed, look the car over, check the dwell, lube the doors and other latches, check the CV joint boots and bolts, inspect the brakes, what have you. Add the parts and you're pretty close to $180.

The Cap'n

You can do all that in an hour?

Seems fair to me.

I hadn't adjusted the valves on a car with actual heat exchangers and the rest of the heating stuff in place until I worked on T.C.'s car. I'd say with an oil change rolled in as well that's easily an $180 job at a competent shop (read: it does take some skill to get in there and do everything accurately with all the stuff in the way). I work for beer and comradery with T.C. but if I had a shop that would seem a reasonable rate with parts added in, as others mentioned.

I thought it was reasonable. I'm just getting to old going under the 914 on jack stands. Air cooleds only, in Prescott, has been doing my oil change and valve adjustment since I bought the teener. They take pride in their work.