Looking down on the auto service industry?

what threads?

 

why are you assuming that a few people are the voice of everyone?

 

I will agree with you Arlie.

 

I'd have to agree with you. I got my start slinging rubber for Goodyear and really enjoyed my job. It gave me a "nuts and bolts" common sense that still serves me today. I have 100% respect for anyone who does his best to earn an honest day's pay.

The way I look at things: "If your job wasn't important, you wouldn't have been hired to do it."

 

I applaud this grease monkey for knowing how to use a computer.

 

I will give Rob a call and see if he will consider renaming the board FatCatChat.com

 

No one should look down on anyone's profession, regardless of what it is.

I can build large layer 2, layer 3 networks and have build large AD and exchange networks yet I came to ferrarichat to learn how to replace some dink flywheel sensor on my car and even then I was second guessing myself the entire time.

I could not do there job, they could not do mine (I think. Most mechanic's are IT engineers now).

I think in most cases, many people would be hard pressed to do any other job then what they are currently doing.

A stockbroker could not be a full time construction worker and vice versa.

A attorney could not be a longshoreman and vice versa.

Looking down on any job just shows insecurity

 

Eh gads, sniff, I really pity the poor bugger who has to call for a lift himself. Know your place, man! Such menial tasks are for the hired help. Can you imagine the consequences if the staff ever saw you doing such a, such a, low thing?

(Said under breath) damn Democrats!

Dale

 

As an auto technician, I fully understand why my occupation is looked down on. My dealership charges $84.00 an hour. In my shop there are only two techs (me and one other guy) that have ever had factory Toyota training. I am the only Master Technician my dealership has ever had.

Four of the other techs in my store have less than 2 years experience.

Yet the customer is charged $84.00 an hour no matter who works on their car. Our CSI (customer satisfaction index) is among the lowest in the Gulf States Region. The reason it's among the lowest is that my dealership is also among the lowest in the Gulf States Region for technician compensation. My dealership only hires kids fresh out of Technical School because they will work for peanuts. I have been told every year for the last 5 years that I make too much money and that my salary seriously effects the service department's profit percentages. So much so, that I don't get to do much basic service due to my expense against the job, and services are the money making part of my job. I am mainly the warranty and difficult problem tech and it is impossible to sell any additional service work when the customer is expecting the repair to be free.

The only customers that get the benefit of my experience are the customers that are the least likely to return for service when their warranty expires. A large percentage of my work is performed on leased vehicles. No one with a leased vehicle is going to spend a dime on their car. That is the biggest selling point of a lease. There are no expenses for maintainence because they just turn the car in and walk away. Since my labor for these customers is not paid by the customers, they get the minimum required repairs that are covered under the Toyota new car warranty. Toyota pays for nothing additional that might make the repair more beneficial to me or the customer. The majority of my day is spent on warranty repairs and quite often I get to reset Check Engine lights for free due to customers not tightening their fuel caps, or Jiffy Lube knocking vacuum hoses loose. Customers scream bloody murder when they are charged $84.00 to tighten a fuel cap, so we just don't charge them. Guess who eats that labor? That would be me.

Enough rant already. I can understand people looking down on my profession because the profession is seriously flawed and it is getting worse. It has finally gotten so bad that I am walking away from 27 years as a Technician in August.

I have no idea what I am going to do, I just know it won't have anything to do with the car business. I am tired of feeling ashamed when I go out to eat in my uniform. I am tired of making less money every year. I am tired being a glorified electronics technician, and I am tired of being tired.

I am done.

 

VERY sorry to hear that. A good mechanic is a valuable resource and should be respected. Have you thought of opening your own shop?

 

nothing wrong with those jobs the World needs ditch diggers too, besides sometimes I like to hang with the little people for fun.

 

Don't be done with your profession, be done with your employer. Find a highly rated Toyota/Lexus dealer and go apply.

Or, go independent. People like me would love to have somebody we can trust.

 

I know a ditch digger on this site who owns a 355 spyder. I'd dig ditchs anyday.

 

My good friend is a Honda tech who was in the same position. You could actually be him talking. Like you, he got fed up and left. He opened his own shop and works as much as he wants. His old dealership now calls him to diagnose problems and he charges them, you guessed it, $84 an hour.

 

As somebody who gave up a very very lucrative carrer to play with buggered old Italian cars, no there isnt any snobery (at least in the UK) 996tt is a prat..plain and simple (if one of the other mods hadn't spoken to him he'd have been banned!)

As a bit of a giggle in the shop last week we took an online IQ test.....I've got a master's, MBA and several professional qualifications .... Robin our head tech was within 15 IQ points of me........a Barrister (wig wearing lawyer) I know is almost 40 points beneath me

there will always be people who think they matter when in reality they don't.....when they have a problem with their toy's it's fun to pull them down to earth and ask if they'd like to help out in the workshop to reduce the cost of the repairs

 

That is what I was thinking he should do. God bless a good mechanic!

Jay Leno wrote a great piece in Popular Mechanics a few years back about the lack of quality machinists and other technical people in the U.S. Great reading if someone can dig it up.

 

Service writer? What about an instructor at your local college? Open up your own business, car restoration maybe?

 

Guys

I appreciate the support, but I have nothing left for mechanic work. I was going out on my own in March, (I even put down a deposit on a shop) until I realized that being out on my own didn't solve my problem. Being on my own only meant more hours, more headaches, and a very substantial investment in infrastructure. I couldn't pull the trigger on the SBA loan because it basically came down the fact that I no longer find any satisfaction fixing cars. No matter how good a job I do, I just don't care anymore. Investing any more time and money into a career that has long since failed, is just not something I want to do. The prospect of making more money on my own was overshadowed by my total lack of interest in the endeavor.

I have ruined my back and my hearing is shot. I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on tools that are worth less that .02 on the dollar. I have spent the last 27 years bent over under a car and have absolutely nothing to show for it. I have made less money every year for the last five years, while my expenses have almost doubled. The future of auto technicians is bleak. Tools cost so much now that new technicians often spend 25% of what they earn in tool payments. Seniority is not a plus as management sees only the cost of labor. A new technician, while he may make more mistakes, is much better for the bottom line. If a new technician makes a mistake, he repairs his mistake for free. If it takes him a week, he doesn't make a dime for a week. While the dealership is not making money while the new technician is fixing his screw up, it is not costing them much either. Over a years time, the dealership will have a better bottom line by having a bunch new technician that they pay MUCH less, even with mistakes, than they will by having several experienced and higher paid technicians that don't make mistakes. It's just simple math.

There is nothing left to service on today's Toyota's. We now have 120K spark plugs, 100K coolant, 100K+ transmission fluid. Even the brake pads last forever. Hybrid cars will be 50% of the Toyota line by 2010. Hybrid cars are not technician friendly and they are lethal if you make a mistake. There is NO scheduled maintenance on electric motors or batteries. Leases are killing the service departments because no one spends money on a leased car.

I cannot find a single compelling reason to stay in the business, so by August, I will be gone. I have absolutely no idea what I will do. I honestly don't care. I will be a greeter at Walmart if that is all there is.

From where I stand, any job is better than the job I have. I am tired of being viewed as a crook, and I am tired of being maligned by total strangers, but most of all, I am tired of feeling like an idiot.

 

I like being an auto tech