What markup should a UK garage put on parts in 2026?

Parts markup is the part of workshop pricing people are least comfortable talking about, which is why so many garages land on a number by accident and then defend it badly. It is not a secret and it is not a scam. You are carrying cost, risk and time that the customer cannot see, and the markup is what pays for those. This is how to set it and how to explain it.

If you have not set your labour rate yet, do that first, because parts margin cannot rescue a labour rate that is too low.

The usual range

For UK independents, on ordinary parts bought at trade:

• Fast-moving service items (filters, plugs, wipers, bulbs): 30 to 50 percent
• Brakes, suspension, clutches and similar (mid-value, everyday): 25 to 35 percent
• High-value single items (DPF, turbo, ECU, gearbox): 10 to 20 percent
• Main-dealer-only parts you have to buy at retail: often 10 percent or less, sometimes nothing

The pattern is the important bit. Markup falls as part value rises, and it should. Thirty percent on a £900 turbo is £270 of margin on a single item, which is more than the job is worth to the customer and more than you need. Thirty percent on a £4 bulb is £1.20, which does not cover the ninety seconds it took to find it.

Why a percentage is the wrong tool at the bottom

A percentage assumes your cost scales with the price of the part. It does not. Sourcing a £4 bulb takes the same phone call as sourcing a £40 one.

The fix most established workshops use is a minimum cash margin on top of the percentage: whichever is greater. Something like £3 to £5 minimum on any part, with the percentage taking over once the part is expensive enough for it to matter. That single rule removes the two worst outcomes: losing money on cheap parts, and looking greedy on expensive ones.

What you actually keep

The markup is not the margin. Take it off for:

• Returns and wrong parts. The one you ordered from the reg, that did not fit, and the factor will not take back.
• Warranty. You replace a failed part and often the labour with it. The manufacturer covers the part; nobody covers your time.
• Carrying stock. Anything on a shelf is money not in the bank, and some of it will still be there in two years.
• The time spent sourcing. Phone calls, chasing, collecting.

A garage running 30 percent nominal is usually keeping somewhere in the low twenties once those are honest. Which is fine. It is a normal margin for a business that carries risk. It is just not 30.

The customer who found it cheaper online

This conversation is coming, so decide your answer once rather than improvising it at the counter.

What works is being straightforward: the price includes fitting it, standing behind it, and sorting it out if it fails. The part on the marketplace has none of that, may not be the right one, and if it is wrong it is their problem and their second day off work.

What does not work is pretending your price is the same as theirs, or getting defensive. Most people are not trying to catch you out. They have looked something up and want to understand the difference.

On customer-supplied parts, have a policy and write it down: many workshops will fit them, charge full labour, and warrant the labour only, not the part. That is a perfectly honest position as long as the customer is told before the car is in the air, not after.

Where the real money is, and it is not markup

Two workshops buying the same parts at the same trade price can have very different months, and it is rarely the markup that separates them. It is whether the parts got quoted at all.

An advisory noticed at a service and mentioned at the counter is worth nothing. The same advisory, photographed, priced and sent for the customer to approve, converts a surprising amount of the time. That is a bigger number than moving your markup five points, and it does not involve charging anybody more for anything.

Setting yours, in one sitting

1. Pick a base percentage for everyday parts. If you have no view, 30 percent is where most of the trade sits.
2. Add a minimum cash margin, £3 to £5, for anything cheap.
3. Set a lower band for anything over about £300.
4. Write down what you do about customer-supplied parts.
5. Put those rules into whatever you quote with, so the person on the desk on a Friday afternoon prices it the same way you would.

Where software helps

A default markup that applies automatically means the number is a decision you made once, not one your front desk improvises per job. Autera carries a markup per part and applies it when a quote or invoice is built, so a part costed at trade sells consistently, and the margin on a job is visible before you send it rather than discovered afterwards.

The bottom line

Thirty percent on everyday parts, less as they get expensive, a cash floor so cheap parts pay for themselves, and a written answer for the online-price conversation. Then stop worrying about markup and go and quote the advisories, because that is where the month is actually won.