I retired a year ago. I had been in the industry since 1978, I worked my way up from a technician all the way up the shop foreman. I worked my whole career with Audi, Porsche and 25 years with Mercedes Benz. I am so glad I was able to retire and get out of the automotive industry. The management’s attitude has always been if you need a raise, work harder. There used to be plenty of work, overhauling and repairing components. Now, you have to hook up the diagnostic equipment, read a bulletin and replace a part. And then get paid nothing. Technicians work like dogs and out of an 8 hour day, average out 6 hours on average, mostly because a high percentage of cars coming in to dealers are under warranty. The employer says, oh you are getting paid $36.00 an hour, what more do you want? Well, even if you make that much and don’t have any hours during the day, you end up making half. I remember back in the early 2000s, the recruiters would come to the training centers and lure people saying they would be making $100000.00. Those days are gone.
in 17yrs, I worked 15 shops, and only one service manager respected me. He gave me a raise which I had to keep secret and when I crashed a car into the wall he had my back and didnt yell or threaten me when the customer was upset and laying into me. 1 manager, and he died of a heart attack at 52, that shop killed him. I probably would still be there if he was alive.
I left the industry in the beginning of this year (2021). I was making no hours , not enough guidance in my work environment. It was a terrible experience so, I came back to doing landscape work . Glad I made the jump , a lil disappointed that I couldn’t be successful in the automotive industry.
Jose I have had same problem and many more starting out as a automotive technician. Lack of training, lack of reliable service data, lack of clear expectations or super high or impossible expectations from management and more just to start
I remember being brand new (less than 6 months in) with very little experience working on cars and was handed a can communication fault and told to just figure it out.
How do you go about retaining the burnt out service manager like my self. Through Covid the general population has become nothing but an absolute headache. Everyone expects every service for free practically. Then every other customer has a horrible attitude. I’ve grown to dread every customer that walks in the door
Master auto tech (45 years, retired) for decades all other trades made more than us, a plumber charges more to go to your house than most shops, we're worlds apart in tools & tech, pay needs to be 300-400 an hour & 50% for tech, you think you have a shortage now? Just wait a few years!
Things will never change until it becomes a licensed profession. Imagine a contractor building a house, and having a water heater installed in an area almost impossible to access. Then years later telling a plumber that replacing it pays 1.7 hrs@$35, .8hrs @$35 if it’s still under warranty. That plumber would laugh in his face. We’ve been dealing with the pitfalls of being a subcontractor without any of the benefits. Hence the reason this trade is always compared to being in hvac, plumbing, or electrical in all aspects except the compensation.
I been in automotive all my years, It sucks dog shit... I was shop foreman at a chevrolet dealer, Recently left for a ford dealer that just blew smoke up my ass. Called my previous employer chevrolet to get my job back, They offered me an insulting paycut to come back. father warned me not to get into automotive. He does commercial Hvac, I am working toward leaving automotive for good.
Worked as a tech in a main dealer for over 10 years and just got burnt out working long hours for rollercoaster pay. Many guys don't want to progress beyond the workshop, especially with customers becoming increasingly unreasonable year on year. Just pay your techs a decent, consistent wage and don't work them into the ground 6 days a week and more will stick around. I got out 3 years ago and work in a factory role for more money and less hours. That shouldn't even be possible!!! Why would I spend my days stripping mechatronics units and engines down, with all the stress, hassle, tool bills etc. I couldn't be happier being out of the industry and wouldn't advise anyone to go into it unless things change dramatically.
As a collision tech in NC you are saying some things that ring true. I have actually had the thought maybe I will get in an accident and not have to go to work. I dont know what this weeks work will be so its stressful will I make a check or not.
As a Tech and also as a manager, our service is way under valued. I work at a higher end used car dealership, and can honestly say to be a tech in today's society you have to be elite in so many ways. The demands are so high, that the stress falls on the ones who truly care about reputation, quality of work and affordability. We can all pretend that we are going be salaried like doctors, but let's face it mrs Jones on her fixed income already can't afford to repair her vehicle. With that being said the industry is on a slippery slope where profits are important but customer retention is still more important.
I agree with you! With high end brands you basically need an engineering degree to diagnose and repair these vehicles. Unfortunately top pay in the dealerships is less than $40. Im speaking with 17 years experience who averages 50 hours a week. Top pay should be around $50 especially when the dealership labor rates are $209 per hour
So I have watched both episodes. As of 4/22/2022 I have been in that position where I'm at the point I have invested SO much but got so little back, and I want to leave the business. I have come to a understanding after seen these two videos is that, if guys have been in the business for 30 years and I've been it for the last 15 years IT WILL NOT CHANGE, either there needs to be laws changes on labor laws and business law practices or there will be just talk and no action. What shade tree shop do you know that wants to pay more for labor and charge right for labor? None of them because dealership are so low! If you would take the labor rate of a shop in the year 2000, which labor was at $100hr, in todays adjustment with inflation that same shop should be charging $170hr. If you want to go bit deeper, if a tech was at 30hr in the 2000s in today's market he would be at 51.10hr so to be honest owners have been making either a lot or making very big mistakes on money management. More then likely the greed is what gets all owner. Either way it will take a long time or someone with some money and pull to make things happen first in our policies and laws. We have billionaires who own dealership across the world and have made a killing on cheap labor. Now I have some shop that have priced labor as high as 250hr in miami and techs are making less then 15% of that. Yes we all get it, takes a lot to run a shop but it cost you more when having the wrong team players in place to make that shop successful. Pay your tech to market value and watch how much more money you make. I can go on forever
This is so disappointing man. There are some minor parallels between the issues in the Auto industry and the restaurant industry. In my state, (Florida) Workers are paid a "tip credit" wage, which has ranged from $2 hr to now (2022) $6.98 hr! This crazy low tip credit wage is somehow justifed bc we "are making tips" but the reality is even with tips these are not livable wages. The issues run even deeper, as many restaurants use the small tips you are making to pay other employees even!! This "labor shortage" issue has ALWAYS been a dismissive excuse from business owners for decades, it is and always was greed and lack of care/understanding from the top down. Labor shortage is a complete lie, pay these hard workers what they are worth... its as simple as that. All this revenue/wealth that many of these businesses have (million, billion dollar industries) has literally came to existence through systematically underpaying and undervaluing all of these workers.
This is a good video. But unfortunately nothing is changing. Maybe a small percentage of shops somewhere lol. But I left the auto industry after 20 plus years and I still have plenty of great friends working as techs. They still say the same thing and are leaving. NOTHING is changing and yet shops still complaining there is a lack of auto techs. One day they will realize the truth of how they treated the techs but by then it will be to late.
Tech are leaving the industry due to bad management, shop politics, low pay, not enough work to go around and last but not least warranty. I can earn more in a day doing side work than I can in 2 or 3 days in the shop.
When your a technician that's its. No matter how invested you want be your just the bottom run of the ladder. When there no cars who's at fault? If I'm running the business I want trust and responsibility. I cant make more money for shop because I dont set prices.
The problem is with the car manufacturers. You could make more money if they didn't Purposely make the cars so complicated (and that's by design) they don't want us car owners to work on our cars. You mechanics should find the problems 20 times faster. Which means you could repair more cars in a day and the mechanics make more money. When you do warranty work that's why you only get paid half. They're saying it shouldn't take so long. They might can find the problem at the factory in half the times with their scan tools.. Again it's the corporations fault for Specifying faulty parts so they can Sell cheap parts to the customers. Remember you don't fix anything anymore you're just changing faulty parts that are way over priced. We are over paying for the simplest things. Whoever heard of we have to diagnose on a computer??? That has been the biggest rip-off of the automobile industry Because they have electronics after electronics which Glitch up and cause us to have to go the dealer to get rip-off. Remember after diagnosis if you go a head with the repairs i mean expensive cheap part replacements. the diagnosis was deducted. Not anymore. The scan tools are nothing near the dealer or the manufacturers. A total rip-off.
I retired a year ago. I had been in the industry since 1978, I worked my way up from a technician
all the way up the shop foreman. I worked my whole career with Audi, Porsche and 25 years with
Mercedes Benz.
I am so glad I was able to retire and get out of the automotive industry. The management’s attitude has always been if you need a raise, work harder. There used to be plenty of work,
overhauling and repairing components.
Now, you have to hook up the diagnostic equipment, read a bulletin and replace a part. And then get paid nothing. Technicians work like dogs and out of an 8 hour day, average out 6 hours on average, mostly because a high percentage of cars coming in to dealers are under warranty.
The employer says, oh you are getting paid $36.00 an hour, what more do you want?
Well, even if you make that much and don’t have any hours during the day, you end up making half.
I remember back in the early 2000s, the recruiters would come to the training centers and lure people saying they would be making $100000.00.
Those days are gone.
in 17yrs, I worked 15 shops, and only one service manager respected me. He gave me a raise which I had to keep secret and when I crashed a car into the wall he had my back and didnt yell or threaten me when the customer was upset and laying into me.
1 manager, and he died of a heart attack at 52, that shop killed him. I probably would still be there if he was alive.
I left the industry in the beginning of this year (2021). I was making no hours , not enough guidance in my work environment. It was a terrible experience so, I came back to doing landscape work . Glad I made the jump , a lil disappointed that I couldn’t be successful in the automotive industry.
where are you from?
@@bjsuutton metro Atlanta area
Jose I have had same problem and many more starting out as a automotive technician. Lack of training, lack of reliable service data, lack of clear expectations or super high or impossible expectations from management and more just to start
I remember being brand new (less than 6 months in) with very little experience working on cars and was handed a can communication fault and told to just figure it out.
Thoughts on no pay for diagnosis on cars under warranty and shrinking labor times for jobs?
How do you go about retaining the burnt out service manager like my self. Through Covid the general population has become nothing but an absolute headache. Everyone expects every service for free practically. Then every other customer has a horrible attitude. I’ve grown to dread every customer that walks in the door
Master auto tech (45 years, retired) for decades all other trades made more than us, a plumber charges more to go to your house than most shops, we're worlds apart in tools & tech, pay needs to be 300-400 an hour & 50% for tech, you think you have a shortage now? Just wait a few years!
Things will never change until it becomes a licensed profession. Imagine a contractor building a house, and having a water heater installed in an area almost impossible to access. Then years later telling a plumber that replacing it pays 1.7 hrs@$35, .8hrs @$35 if it’s still under warranty. That plumber would laugh in his face. We’ve been dealing with the pitfalls of being a subcontractor without any of the benefits. Hence the reason this trade is always compared to being in hvac, plumbing, or electrical in all aspects except the compensation.
I been in automotive all my years, It sucks dog shit... I was shop foreman at a chevrolet dealer, Recently left for a ford dealer that just blew smoke up my ass. Called my previous employer chevrolet to get my job back, They offered me an insulting paycut to come back. father warned me not to get into automotive. He does commercial Hvac, I am working toward leaving automotive for good.
22 year Diesel mechanic.
I would not let you come back to my work either.
You leave a shop for a reason. Just find another shop.
Lucas is spot on , we all should agree on shop rates. Stop undercut
Worked as a tech in a main dealer for over 10 years and just got burnt out working long hours for rollercoaster pay. Many guys don't want to progress beyond the workshop, especially with customers becoming increasingly unreasonable year on year. Just pay your techs a decent, consistent wage and don't work them into the ground 6 days a week and more will stick around.
I got out 3 years ago and work in a factory role for more money and less hours. That shouldn't even be possible!!! Why would I spend my days stripping mechatronics units and engines down, with all the stress, hassle, tool bills etc. I couldn't be happier being out of the industry and wouldn't advise anyone to go into it unless things change dramatically.
As a collision tech in NC you are saying some things that ring true. I have actually had the thought maybe I will get in an accident and not have to go to work. I dont know what this weeks work will be so its stressful will I make a check or not.
An electricn spends 500 and I spend 1000 and get the same pay 2 time.more ... what is the point?
Pay technicians a percentage of the bill, not a flag rate. How about 30% of what the dealer charges the customer?
As a Tech and also as a manager, our service is way under valued. I work at a higher end used car dealership, and can honestly say to be a tech in today's society you have to be elite in so many ways. The demands are so high, that the stress falls on the ones who truly care about reputation, quality of work and affordability. We can all pretend that we are going be salaried like doctors, but let's face it mrs Jones on her fixed income already can't afford to repair her vehicle. With that being said the industry is on a slippery slope where profits are important but customer retention is still more important.
I agree with you! With high end brands you basically need an engineering degree to diagnose and repair these vehicles. Unfortunately top pay in the dealerships is less than $40. Im speaking with 17 years experience who averages 50 hours a week. Top pay should be around $50 especially when the dealership labor rates are $209 per hour
Mechanic pay is total trash, what's the point?
So I have watched both episodes. As of 4/22/2022 I have been in that position where I'm at the point I have invested SO much but got so little back, and I want to leave the business. I have come to a understanding after seen these two videos is that, if guys have been in the business for 30 years and I've been it for the last 15 years IT WILL NOT CHANGE, either there needs to be laws changes on labor laws and business law practices or there will be just talk and no action. What shade tree shop do you know that wants to pay more for labor and charge right for labor? None of them because dealership are so low! If you would take the labor rate of a shop in the year 2000, which labor was at $100hr, in todays adjustment with inflation that same shop should be charging $170hr. If you want to go bit deeper, if a tech was at 30hr in the 2000s in today's market he would be at 51.10hr so to be honest owners have been making either a lot or making very big mistakes on money management. More then likely the greed is what gets all owner. Either way it will take a long time or someone with some money and pull to make things happen first in our policies and laws. We have billionaires who own dealership across the world and have made a killing on cheap labor. Now I have some shop that have priced labor as high as 250hr in miami and techs are making less then 15% of that. Yes we all get it, takes a lot to run a shop but it cost you more when having the wrong team players in place to make that shop successful. Pay your tech to market value and watch how much more money you make. I can go on forever
Car company has a bureaucracy called warranty there job is to not pay techs while they get payed good
This is so disappointing man. There are some minor parallels between the issues in the Auto industry and the restaurant industry. In my state, (Florida)
Workers are paid a "tip credit" wage, which has ranged from $2 hr to now (2022) $6.98 hr! This crazy low tip credit wage is somehow justifed bc we "are making tips" but the reality is even with tips these are not livable wages. The issues run even deeper, as many restaurants use the small tips you are making to pay other employees even!!
This "labor shortage" issue has ALWAYS been a dismissive excuse from business owners for decades, it is and always was greed and lack of care/understanding from the top down. Labor shortage is a complete lie, pay these hard workers what they are worth... its as simple as that. All this revenue/wealth that many of these businesses have (million, billion dollar industries) has literally came to existence through systematically underpaying and undervaluing all of these workers.
A customer complained about the cost of auto repair I said ride a horse
Great video
This is a good video. But unfortunately nothing is changing. Maybe a small percentage of shops somewhere lol. But I left the auto industry after 20 plus years and I still have plenty of great friends working as techs. They still say the same thing and are leaving. NOTHING is changing and yet shops still complaining there is a lack of auto techs. One day they will realize the truth of how they treated the techs but by then it will be to late.
Tech are leaving the industry due to bad management, shop politics, low pay, not enough work to go around and last but not least warranty.
I can earn more in a day doing side work than I can in 2 or 3 days in the shop.
When your a technician that's its.
No matter how invested you want be your just the bottom run of the ladder.
When there no cars who's at fault?
If I'm running the business I want trust and responsibility. I cant make more money for shop because I dont set prices.
The problem is with the car manufacturers. You could make more money if they didn't Purposely make the cars so complicated (and that's by design) they don't want us car owners to work on our cars.
You mechanics should find the problems 20 times faster. Which means you could repair more cars in a day and the mechanics make more money.
When you do warranty work that's why you only get paid half. They're saying it shouldn't take so long. They might can find the problem at the factory in half the times with their scan tools.. Again it's the corporations fault for Specifying faulty parts so they can Sell cheap parts to the customers. Remember you don't fix anything anymore you're just changing faulty parts that are way over priced. We are over paying for the simplest things.
Whoever heard of we have to diagnose on a computer??? That has been the biggest rip-off of the automobile industry Because they have electronics after electronics which Glitch up and cause us to have to go the dealer to get rip-off. Remember after diagnosis if you go a head with the repairs i mean expensive cheap part replacements. the diagnosis was deducted. Not anymore. The scan tools are nothing near the dealer or the manufacturers. A total rip-off.
Inconsistent pay and way too much stress to deal with.
Do you send family to your job?
Exactly
Doctor gets paid $200 an hour. A machanic gets paid an 25 an hour. Get a ****
After 18yrs i think i might leave soon.
Amazing that you can get master certified sitting on your couch on internet and still cant fix a car. Training is not all good training.
over time you just get worn down and gives us all attitudes
There is 65 million people on social security sucking two trillion dollars a year out of the business
Grease monkeys. Not technicians.