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hey everyone i would love your advice. im in my first year of automotive school banana: and ill be honest i’m starting to have my doubts since i feel like the automotive industry is dead. i worked at a dealer and a shop. flat rate oil tech at the dealer and hourly at the shop, and as a side note i loved the hourly wage. secure yet you still busted your butt.anyways i was wondering if i could get your advice run away while i can or push threw the gunk thanks everybody for listening to me complain :woohoo:
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Unless you are very passionate about auto repair and hope to one day work for yourself, then go ahead. If you want to work for somebody else whether it be a dealer or indy shop, GET OUT NOW! Take my advice!
If it is something you enjoy doing then push on. It’s not as bad as some would lead you to believe, atleast for me it isn’t. I have been a auto tech for going on 13 years and I still love it. I have had crappy employers, but that probly goes with any career choice. Just dont settle for a crappy employer and low pay.
What makes you think the automotive industry is dead?
YES I 2nd it GET OUT NOW the longer you stay in it the more you will HATE it
Been in it for 40 years now .Used to be fun NOT today .Todays cars and all the B/S that goes with it not enough
money in it any more( Flat Rate is a killer) ALL I got to show for it is way over 70,000 in tools and equipment and a body loaded with arthritis from working in a cold damp shop all day.
I tell every one that I see that is thinking about going in to this FOR GET IT YOU can do better doing something else
If you like working on cars them work on your own car or work on a hobby car
AND OH YES ITS DEAD ALL RIGHT[quote=”stingray66″ post=38381]YES I 2nd it GET OUT NOW the longer you stay in it the more you will HATE it
Been in it for 40 years now .Used to be fun NOT today .Todays cars and all the B/S that goes with it not enough
money in it any more( Flat Rate is a killer) ALL I got to show for it is way over 70,000 in tools and equipment and a body loaded with arthritis from working in a cold damp shop all day.
I tell every one that I see that is thinking about going in to this FOR GET IT YOU can do better doing something else
If you like working on cars them work on your own car or work on a hobby car
AND OH YES ITS DEAD ALL RIGHT[/quote]
When I was young my dad asked me if i loved working on cars, and what i liked to do on cars. He smiled and said “Don’t do something you love for a living, you will end up hating it more and more”
He pointed me into a similar but different direction and i’ve never looked back. If you like turning wrenches, but want to do something better you should look into the many other types of mechanic style jobs out there.This field is fun to work in but can be very frustrating at times usually down to the vehicle your working on or the management.
Once you are done with college and work in the ‘real world’, it will be ALOT different and will be a baptism of fire in most cases. If you can survive the first few months then you will be fine.
This profession is not dead, the issues are with the pay type and the amount of warranty work that is hurting the dealer techs.
I would highly recommend trying to find a job at a independent shop as a General Service Tech and see how you like it after 6 or so months.
[quote=”Superman” post=38402]My Dad is 57 years old. He’s been a mechanic for over 30 years and he still enjoys what he does.[/quote]
My dad is 51, been a mechanic for 33 years, but not an auto mechanic. He worked in an auto shop for 6 months when he was 17 and hated it. This is why he told me this, because he loves working on cars, but not on other peoples cars under pressure.My Dad is the exact opposite. He loves working on cars for a living, but hates working on his own.lol
I think i am the same as my dad, i don’t even like working on my friends cars, just mine. But i love being a mechanic, why i am an HET.
Only a very small minority like working on cars the majority of us old techs hate it
And I stand by how I feal the auto repar is so dead today just this week a big Chrysler just closed thier doors I don’t know one tech that is happy today
And the majority of the small shops around here have been really slow
A lot of people just don’t have the money to fix thier cars
This I will say is I am 100% sure any one that goes in to it today WILL be out of it in 5 years I have seen it a 100 times
Any one that thinks its not dead just does not want to see how it is todayeverybody has a point i just dont know where to go my first dealer job sucked bc i was well to be honest 16 and immature:oops: .i liked the work besdes traverse’s those things are pieces of garbAGE no offense. at this point and time i dont where to go. go in as a tech or just change tires and oil even though i have a much greater poetential.:woohoo: i feel like the auto industry needs a restructutre to save itself :unsure:
Yes it does BUT I don’t see it happening anytime soon
Dealerships seems to just burn techs OUT
With every one fighting for hours because
Of flat rate it’s became very stressfullI actually plan on making an ETCG1 video on this very soon. It seems that there is a lot of concern about the flat rate system and working at dealerships. These are valid concerns to be sure. I just don’t feel like I have enough space to cover the topic here so I’ll post the video to this topic when it’s up, perhaps sometime next week. In the mean time keep this discussion going as I will read it before I shoot the video and perhaps respond to some of your concerns when I shoot it.
There needs to be concessions in flat rate. The dealership needs to to offer a 40 hour guarantee and pay bonus money for hours turned over 40. On the flip side the tech needs to be held accountable for collecting the guarantee when there was plenty of work to make their 40, but knowing how dealerships work, not one car could come through the door and they will still blame the tech for collecting it.
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