Porsche Mechanics

You will only be paid a flag rate until you get a lot more experience. You might try working at a Honda or Toyota for a couple of years until you transfer to a Porsche dealership.

 

IF I remember correctly, back when I was a mechanic at Mercedes-Benz, we had some guys come out of UTI's MB Elite Program and I think one of them told me his starting salary was around $40K. And I think that the way UTI works is that once you complete their school, then go into your area of specialization (Porsche, MB, BMW, Audi, Jaguar, etc...), then once you graduate the specialized training you are contracted to work for a dealer, and it could be anywhere in the country as I understand, so be prepared to relocate!

I was actually fortunate enough to be trained at MB's own schools, (one in Schaumburg, IL and the original centre at Sindelfingen) but I bet the teachers are a bit more bearable at UTI and not ex-Third Reich members

But long story short, I left the dealer after I'd had enough of their BS politics and opened up my own MB shop. Much happier these days.

Cheers,
Aaron
'82 GTSi
'83 400iA

 

Why not be a Porsche Engineer?

 

Masters degree in engineering... at least. I like your idea of being a mechanic (they call themselves technicians now) and if you want to continue school, do it while you work. I have a buddy that has been a tech for about 15 years, 5 at a shop that does high end cars. Last I heard he was making about $75K/year. He's good and works hard though, lots of other techs don't make near that. Another thing to think about is getting a non-paying apprenticeship at a dealer you would like to work for while you are going to school. You'll be doing a bunch of crap work, but when graduation rolls around, you'll be first in line for the job! Good luck! -m

 

A Porsche mechanic will never be able to buy and maintain a Ferrari...go to college and get at least a Masters in Engineering if auto technology is something that interest you...otherwise, you will just end up repairing nice cars that belong to other people...

 

That's not quite true Frank........the two Porsche techs in our shop make $32 an hour and consistently book out 10 + hours a day.........$85K a year more or less.

They could easily throw $1000 a month at a F-car payment after accumulating a nice downstroke.

Whatever kind of tech the OP wants to be, the best advice I can give him is DO NOT just take any job, but find one that involves the cars you want to work on. Anything less is cheating yourself down the road.

 

We had a Porsche mechanic in Dallas years ago... his name was Dusty Rhodes - no kidding. Rumor had it he was making a buck-fifty... and that was 20 years ago.

 

$85k a year may get you a 308, but not much more...and one $10k repair bill and its in the "For Sale As-Is " section of the classifieds or the poor guy goes in debt with a credit card or worse, a line of credit on his house. A person only making $85k a year income that wants a sports car should be in the market for a Honda S2000 or Nissan 350Z, not a Ferrari.

 

$150k a year is still a little low for exotic car ownership. After the mortgage and home ownership costs, retirement account/401k/IRA funding, daily driver cars for you and wife,children's college fund savings, investment account funding, food, clothing, ect...that amount of income would not give you much left over to buy, own and maintain an exotic car...

 

Go to a Porsche dealership near you and ask if they would hire you straight out of the box.

We had 2 guys making their way up the ranks as they were still taking courses. Our dealer did it for cheap labor, some may find the same value if their shop is large enough.

 

Frank, if you look closely at my msg, I said he was making $150K 20 years ago. If you click below and put $150K in 1986 and hit the enter key for 2006, it comes out to $276K in today's dollars. $276K may not make you a millionaire and able to sport a Murcie in the stable. On the other hand, I wouldn't consider it chump-change for the majority of the general public... let alone an automobile mechanic.

http://woodrow.mpls.frb.fed.us/Research/data/us/calc/index.cfm

 

Not really.....we're talking about mechanics owning cars (therefore the labor is free and parts are at wholesale cost)........not retail customers.

Several Porsche techs that I know own 911's/930's and 944 Turbo race cars for the track days.......an F-car is not really that financially different.

They could qualify to lease the 512BBi that ClassicFerrari (Vasco) has for sale on his website for $120K CAD.....put $30K down.....it's $1075 a month (it's 15 % of their gross income)......with a $70K buyout in 36 months......it's a Boxer......so it's worth the same (or more given the trends) in 36 months, unless something untoward happens in the world and depresses prices. In which case it is all irrelevant.

Not everyone is married, has kids, a mortgage, 401K, loads of consumer debt, etc, etc, etc.....