Possible Video: Working on other car brands

[George]

Hi Eric,

Was wondering, as a tech for a certain car brand, how do techs view working on other vehicle brands?

This comes because I bought a used Toyota at a Mini dealer. When I first bought the vehicle I saw they had done some maintenance on it, including changing the oil pan gasket due to an oil leak. After a couple of weeks I saw it was leaking oil again. I took it to the Toyota dealer, which immediately said it was the timing chain cover. I took it back to Mini to get the timing chain cover repaired. They split their cost with me, because I did buy the car as is. However, I believe if it was a Toyota dealer they would have caught it. OR… They were waiting for a schmuck to buy it and get stuck with that headache.

When you work on a certain car brand you get used to their quirks and patterns. As a tech, did you ever work on another car brand while at Acura? I’m guessing most that work would be considered warranty work, which I believe does not benefit the tech, right?

Thanks,

George

Topic

[EricTheCarGuy]

I’ve touched on this topic in a couple of ETCG1 videos. Yes, when you work at a dealer you get used to working on a certain brand. You don’t really like working on other brands. Also, if you’ve been following the Mini Series you’ll see that Mini’s are plagued with problems, especially oil leaks. A Toyota technician wouldn’t likely be as familiar with them.

Warranty work never benefits the tech.

Good luck.

[Author]

Replies