Advice from a technician, on becoming a technician

[DB_Cooper]

Yep..the old flat rate system. A tech payment system that is decades behind the technology. It is the reason I left the business years ago. If your smart and enjoy problem solving..dispatch will give you all the odd-ball intermittent electrical or driveablity problems. You lose time and money. Dispatch will try and help with some "gravy" easy pay jobs..and your fellow techs will cry and complain. It is awful.

I always thought the techs should be paid a salary, with a productivity bonus. Of course this would require the service manager to actually manage and monitor individual tech productivity. Too much work for most.

Auto service is a high profit center in most dealers and independent shops. Maximizing the profit and putting most of the productivity loss/profit incentives on the tech (with many thousands of dollars personally invested in tools) to keep it that way.

The example of the starter replacement on a Toyota Corolla..would you do that job at home in your garage for $22? I wouldn't. Remember too the customer probably paid $110 to $150 (labor rates around here are $100 per hour and more) for labor for that starter install..pretty big spread in cost vs sale price.

 

[cb_13]

Let's not forget the "deals" that complaining customers are cut by advisors and managers. Those deals usually cut down on the flat rate hours or remove the pay for diagnostic time completely. I'm pretty satisfied to not be working on cars for a living anymore.

 

[SumpChump]

Originally Posted By: mehullica
If you're fast you'll produce lots of hours of work in one shift. ...... When you lose your [censored], you start cutting corners on jobs & the snowball effect starts


Ahh, glory! Now that's a system designed for quality results and attention to detail. One can surely rest easy when their new "acme-mobile" has a recall for a head gasket or something in the dash deep... I bet it all gets put back just like factory new. No cracks creaks, grease smudges. Presented back to you just like the new car you deserve and paid for.

I feel bad for mechanics.

 

[mehullica]

I work in a union shop & have worked in a few other non-Union ones. By far the union shop is the best because the manager cannot change labor times & other working conditions without a group of technicians voting on it. At least when the dealer tries to run "specials" or discounted services, we aren't forced to lose even more labor than we already do.

 

[Chris142]

Don't do it! You will need a $8000 scanner so you will buy it,only to never need it again. And you must buy all kinds of tools to keep up with technology. You won't ever break even on them

 

[qdeezie]

I went to school for Automotive Systems Techonology and used to do it for a living back in the 90s and got out of it because I was disappointed in the (small town) money I made vs the amount of work I had to do and the workplace drama I had to put up with.

Also, my young mind at the time couldn't put up with with the amount of workplace politics/jockeying there was at the dealership I used to work at.

My mindset at the time was 1) Pull the car in my bay, 2) Fix it right, 3) Provide a writeup on what was done and 4) Move on to the next vehicle and repeat #1 - #3. Workplace politics greatly annoyed me.

Keep in mind that the money likely isn't great unless you are in a large metro area (and you're doing something other than changing oil and rotating tires) or you're looking to go into business for yourself. Or you specialize in an type of repair that requires a good bit of specialized skill.

 

[qdeezie]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
Don't do it! You will need a $8000 scanner so you will buy it,only to never need it again. And you must buy all kinds of tools to keep up with technology. You won't ever break even on them


You just brought up something I forgot about. To buy my tools, I worked at the dealership during the day and a seafood restaurant at night. I worked all the time to get what I needed and didn't have much of a life.

 

[Mr Nice]

I was makng $35 an hour in 2009 doing field service repairing medical equipment for a major manufacturer, non union job with no pressure to beat the clock and regular OT approved without boss interrogating me.

As you get older you need a job that's easy on your body with low stress. I like working on cars but there is no way I could be under constant pressure to get the job done under book time.

What is starting flat rate pay for a dealer car mechanic ?

 

[01rangerxl]

Originally Posted By: SumpChump
Originally Posted By: mehullica
If you're fast you'll produce lots of hours of work in one shift. ...... When you lose your [censored], you start cutting corners on jobs & the snowball effect starts


Ahh, glory! Now that's a system designed for quality results and attention to detail. One can surely rest easy when their new "acme-mobile" has a recall for a head gasket or something in the dash deep... I bet it all gets put back just like factory new. No cracks creaks, grease smudges. Presented back to you just like the new car you deserve and paid for.

I feel bad for mechanics.


The pay system definitely puts the tech between a rock and a hard place with quality vs. making ends meet.

I have encountered VERY few techs who truly did not care, or who were comfortable doing work they knew was shoddy. Most do want to do a good job and fix the car right the first time.

The reality in most shops is, the customer is all freaked out and wants to spend $0 and wants to leave with their car fixed now, the service writer just wants to make a sale now and cash the RO out ASAP, and the tech is expected to spend a minimal amount of time coming up with a 100% spot on diagnosis. Then a bunch of oil change waiters will come in, keeping you from the drop off RO you really want to be working on, and of course those have to be inspected for upsells because nobody is making money on the oil change at all...but you only have 0.3 hours to do a clean, mistake free oil change and do that courtesy inspection the service writer wants so bad. Everything is needed 5 minutes ago, with no errors, and cheap. The tech usually ends up on the losing end of that impossible formula.

And of course, when you go over book time on a diagnosis, it's probably on the hooptie where everything will get denied anyway. Or the owner does want it fixed, but can't comprehend that the car is old and other worn/aged/brittle parts may break in the process, or if the car is all rigged up or rusty, additional time is needed just to do the main repair.

 

[Joe_Power]

Unless you specialize in a specific field, or brand of vehicle, it's not worth it. With today's technology, to know everything about every automobile, you need more schooling than a doctor. And if that's he case, just go be a doctor. 10 times more money, and you won't get greasy fingers. Well, maybe one greasy finger........

 

[hpb]

It's a young man's game. I started my 4 year apprenticeship at a Ford dealer in the 90's, aged 16. After I was fully qualified, I moved around a few different places. I was never out of work, in fact I had my choice of jobs a couple of times. By my mid 20's, I was over it. Sore back, hands that were constantly stained, cooking in summer, freezing in winter, and of course the low pay.

So I got out, and have no regrets.

As an aside, when I left the trade in 2001, we were paid an hourly rate, with a monthly bonus for beating book times, which back then were fairly generous. So most months I'd get say a $200 bonus. The US system described by other posters sounds horrible!

 

[Falken]

Yikes, as mentioned, the constant tool purchases, totally forgot about that.

I managed along well enough just to get my diploma and work on my own car and work nights when in school with just Mastercraft Maximum tools I bought as a big cheap set.

I bought a Maximum impact set, and 3 Snap On ratchets (locking flex heads in 1/4", 3/8") and a low profile 3/8" ratchet.

I got off easy using a cheap 50$ FatMax impact, and an IR die grinder to do tire changes.

I still have and use all the tools on my own car, and I guess I really like it well enough as I still post quite a bit here.

I feel that if I started this trade when I was really young I would have been very good at it.

But to go 25-30 years in this field without a major injury, IMO, would be very hard.

One of my teachers almost lost an eye when a young tech he was working with decided to charge a frozen battery and it exploded when he was walking by.

This would be a great job in an extremely professional unionized shop.

It is sad that in order for you to make a buck it is a constant corner cutting, dangerous race to the bottom of the barrel.

Keep this trade as a hobby IMO, unless your family owns a dealership and you can safely learn and cherry pick jobs.

 

[Silk]

I've been a mechanic for 45 years, starting my apprenticeship in 1970 as a 16 year old. I have no desire to be anything else, I still enjoy what I do. Tough on the body? I think it keeps me active and supple...although climbing up a ladder today to get onto a truck roof and remove a winch motor, I was nervous about going down the ladder, and came down over the cab.

I don't understand the American system of flat rate, service writers and stuff. I work for an hourly wage, and get paid no matter if there is work or not, if I take too long, do something quickly, it doesn't matter, I just get paid a 40 hour week. I make my own decisions, start and stop my own jobs, order my own parts, talk to my customers...and sometime defer to the boss. When I started in this game it was a reasonably well paid trade, but now I am at the low end of the income bracket.

I fix things, I make things, this is my job, what I've always done and what I'll always want to do. If you want to do it, do it.

 

[Lapham3]

I have a buddy who went to tech school and spent about 10 years at a union dealership before then teaching the last 25 years himself. He says while the dealerships are doing well, the tech guy is continually being squeezed more and more. Now more 'light duty'=lower pay guys in the shops. I recall myself a Pontiac dealer some years ago who had several rather senior techs who did the initial diagnoses and left the parts R+R to the light duty guys. Dealer bill doesn't reflect the cheaper labor tho-and thus higher profit!

 

[ryan2022]

Thanks guys. Yeah, it's given me some things to think about for sure.

I appreciate the help.

Ryan