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I want to say our current trainee, GS, or whatever his title is, makes around $10 an hour. That’s about the norm for this area. Years and years ago(dang, I’m one of those guys now) I started out at the bottom of the barrel, making $6/hr running parts. Was even less than that at Jiffy Lube. After 6 months or so running parts, I was moved into a trainee position, and within a month I was taking my first two ASE tests. Less than two months later I was on their commission pay system and making $8/hr. Once I got into general auto repair, I started making more money and quickly moved up. Went to every training class I could, and soaked up every bit of info I could to make up for the lack of schooling. That process saved me a butt load in tuition, and let me invest that in myself, in tools. Going to school, you’re saddled with tuition costs, tool expenses, and reduced income for several years. On the flip side, I have seen a lot stuff in my 20+ years. I was involved in what led up to the recall of the Jeep ZJ’s for the shift interlock in the later 90’s. Seen all manor of characters to grace the streets, including one customer who is on death row in Oklahoma right now.
I want to say our current trainee, GS, or whatever his title is, makes around $10 an hour. That’s about the norm for this area. Years and years ago(dang, I’m one of those guys now) I started out at the bottom of the barrel, making $6/hr running parts. Was even less than that at Jiffy Lube. After 6 months or so running parts, I was moved into a trainee position, and within a month I was taking my first two ASE tests. Less than two months later I was on their commission pay system and making $8/hr. Once I got into general auto repair, I started making more money and quickly moved up. Went to every training class I could, and soaked up every bit of info I could to make up for the lack of schooling. That process saved me a butt load in tuition, and let me invest that in myself, in tools. Going to school, you’re saddled with tuition costs, tool expenses, and reduced income for several years. On the flip side, I have seen a lot stuff in my 20+ years. I was involved in what led up to the recall of the Jeep ZJ’s for the shift interlock in the later 90’s. Seen all manor of characters to grace the streets, including one customer who is on death row in Oklahoma right now.
First, welcome to the forums. What’s your physical condition? How are you about getting your hands dirty, dirt under your finger nails, being hot sometimes, being cold other times, and even getting soaked? Auto repair is a physically demanding job, especially starting out. As you do it longer and longer, you learn ways to work smarter, not harder, and do a little less of the physical stuff. I’m 40 and am still capable of cranking out work, outworking the kids in the shop. Now guys in their 50s, they tend to start slowing down. Never saw any tech in his 60s be productive. You’re looking at investing thousands of dollars in tools to get your foot in the first shop. Long term, $30k-50k in tools is a reasonable expectation, and some have double that. I cant really comment on the schools, other than my experience with the people who have attended UTI and Wyotech, and some other local schools. I made it the hard way in the business, starting out after high school in the quick lube industry, and then going to a chain shop as a parts runner, migrating up thru the ranks. The guys who I have seen gone thru those schools have tended to be mediocre, and has left me with a bad taste on tech school grads. It ultimately rests on what you make of it and how you apply yourself. Taking things apart and putting them back together is easy. Learning to think, reason, diagnose and repair a vehicle is the challenge, and few I have seen graduate mastered that. They tend to have this attitude that since they went to school, they are ready to be an A tech within weeks of arriving to a shop. We have one entitlement baby at our shop now, he went thru and got 3 different degrees or whatever he really got at a local tech school for the different programs they had. He actually looks down his nose at others over it, and he’s the lube guy. Little does he know, the only reason he still has his job is no one worthwhile has applied for his spot. The auto repair industry is loaded with BS as well, though different than your world you came from. The guys in the shops are a lot coarser in how they interact with each other vs office life. Just be sure you’re willing to follow thru before you commit yourself.
First, welcome to the forums. What’s your physical condition? How are you about getting your hands dirty, dirt under your finger nails, being hot sometimes, being cold other times, and even getting soaked? Auto repair is a physically demanding job, especially starting out. As you do it longer and longer, you learn ways to work smarter, not harder, and do a little less of the physical stuff. I’m 40 and am still capable of cranking out work, outworking the kids in the shop. Now guys in their 50s, they tend to start slowing down. Never saw any tech in his 60s be productive. You’re looking at investing thousands of dollars in tools to get your foot in the first shop. Long term, $30k-50k in tools is a reasonable expectation, and some have double that. I cant really comment on the schools, other than my experience with the people who have attended UTI and Wyotech, and some other local schools. I made it the hard way in the business, starting out after high school in the quick lube industry, and then going to a chain shop as a parts runner, migrating up thru the ranks. The guys who I have seen gone thru those schools have tended to be mediocre, and has left me with a bad taste on tech school grads. It ultimately rests on what you make of it and how you apply yourself. Taking things apart and putting them back together is easy. Learning to think, reason, diagnose and repair a vehicle is the challenge, and few I have seen graduate mastered that. They tend to have this attitude that since they went to school, they are ready to be an A tech within weeks of arriving to a shop. We have one entitlement baby at our shop now, he went thru and got 3 different degrees or whatever he really got at a local tech school for the different programs they had. He actually looks down his nose at others over it, and he’s the lube guy. Little does he know, the only reason he still has his job is no one worthwhile has applied for his spot. The auto repair industry is loaded with BS as well, though different than your world you came from. The guys in the shops are a lot coarser in how they interact with each other vs office life. Just be sure you’re willing to follow thru before you commit yourself.
If you’re still green, you could choose to go with a big box chain and be indoctrinated. Income potential wise, you’re going to be better off at an independent shop. Avoid the dumpy fly by night shops. If it looks like a dump, it probably is. Talk to the tool guys, they can sometimes be a source of info, as they are the ones who listen to us whining about this job or that job. Stick to the nice operations that don’t settle for being the cheapest in town.
If you’re still green, you could choose to go with a big box chain and be indoctrinated. Income potential wise, you’re going to be better off at an independent shop. Avoid the dumpy fly by night shops. If it looks like a dump, it probably is. Talk to the tool guys, they can sometimes be a source of info, as they are the ones who listen to us whining about this job or that job. Stick to the nice operations that don’t settle for being the cheapest in town.
All shops have slumps in business, especially right now. Some shops slump more than others. People have the post-holiday hangover and empty bank accounts, and a resulting cutback in spending. You want to try and set money back and pay off credit cards before the season so that you can weather the slump. A lot of guys get discouraged right now with the inspections, free lug nut rotations and rolling out the door. Here’s the catch, if you’re doing your job and your service writer is doing theirs, when tax refunds start coming in, you’ll be busy. Lot of people start getting estimates for work, might do the bare essential, and return later with tax money in hand. Late February into march is when you normally see the swing in business from my experience. As far as dealerships vs independents, I’m biased since I have never worked the dealer side of things. You can have good techs at dealerships just as much as indys, but IME you tend to find more resourceful techs and better overall techs outside of the dealership. You tend to see people more interested in repairing their cars, not just bringing them in for warranty stuff that pays sub par rates. If we have a part go bad and we have to warranty it, I get paid the same labor as I did originally. Shops like firestone do a decent business, especially with the tire sales to draw in work. Other chain shops like Midas, etc have struggled to adapt to the changing business and continue to struggle. I nearly doubled by yearly income when I left that world and went to the independent shops. Making $30-$34 an hour at a chain store means nothing, even with the guaranteed min. wage if you’re only bringing in 15-25hrs a week. Why is that? Pumping the shops with oil changes, marketing brake jobs, hammering the customers with work from their inspections, only to stand around for chunks of the day is a losing proposition. Oil changes and brakes, two areas that are requiring less and less frequent services, is not an area you want to market as your business model. Brake work is C tech work in most cases, yet they have everyone doing it, same thing with oil changes. Instead of building relationships with their customers, they try to get everything they can while the vehicle is there, knowing they will likely never see it again. Go figure, lol. All of those things are important in the modern shop, however the successful shops manage it correctly, and have the right staff doing the work. I could go on all night about chain stores, but I’ll move along, lol. Some people do better at independents, while some succeed at dealerships. Sometimes you need to get your feet muddy in both to see what you’re better at. Either way, there are always downturns in business. The good shops have less of them.
All shops have slumps in business, especially right now. Some shops slump more than others. People have the post-holiday hangover and empty bank accounts, and a resulting cutback in spending. You want to try and set money back and pay off credit cards before the season so that you can weather the slump. A lot of guys get discouraged right now with the inspections, free lug nut rotations and rolling out the door. Here’s the catch, if you’re doing your job and your service writer is doing theirs, when tax refunds start coming in, you’ll be busy. Lot of people start getting estimates for work, might do the bare essential, and return later with tax money in hand. Late February into march is when you normally see the swing in business from my experience. As far as dealerships vs independents, I’m biased since I have never worked the dealer side of things. You can have good techs at dealerships just as much as indys, but IME you tend to find more resourceful techs and better overall techs outside of the dealership. You tend to see people more interested in repairing their cars, not just bringing them in for warranty stuff that pays sub par rates. If we have a part go bad and we have to warranty it, I get paid the same labor as I did originally. Shops like firestone do a decent business, especially with the tire sales to draw in work. Other chain shops like Midas, etc have struggled to adapt to the changing business and continue to struggle. I nearly doubled by yearly income when I left that world and went to the independent shops. Making $30-$34 an hour at a chain store means nothing, even with the guaranteed min. wage if you’re only bringing in 15-25hrs a week. Why is that? Pumping the shops with oil changes, marketing brake jobs, hammering the customers with work from their inspections, only to stand around for chunks of the day is a losing proposition. Oil changes and brakes, two areas that are requiring less and less frequent services, is not an area you want to market as your business model. Brake work is C tech work in most cases, yet they have everyone doing it, same thing with oil changes. Instead of building relationships with their customers, they try to get everything they can while the vehicle is there, knowing they will likely never see it again. Go figure, lol. All of those things are important in the modern shop, however the successful shops manage it correctly, and have the right staff doing the work. I could go on all night about chain stores, but I’ll move along, lol. Some people do better at independents, while some succeed at dealerships. Sometimes you need to get your feet muddy in both to see what you’re better at. Either way, there are always downturns in business. The good shops have less of them.
I have seen all sorts of service writers in my 20yrs. I have had some really talented writers, which are few and far between(as hard or harder to find than a good tech), and a mix of average to poor to incompetent to crooks, and even a few drug addicts. The good guys shoot straight with the customers, let them know what we see, and leave it to the customer to decide. They can close a sale effectively with the right amount of labor for the job, and get return work lined up, and get you good quality parts. I have a couple of decent ones where I am at now, thankfully. I have had some who were out right crooks, diagnosing from the counter, and selling stuff not needed, or selling the wrong stuff. I walked out on a shop for that, zero tolerance for that behavior and will not have my name tarnished by them. I have also seen blatant incompetence by service writers, ordering incorrect parts, goofing off, etc. Finally, I have seen service writers who feel the need to underbid work at our expense. This is nothing short of theft as well. If they want to discount stuff, take it out of the shop’s share. If it’s a charity case, consult the tech, and even then, it’s optional. To just reduce labor to get a sale, it undermines the credibility of the other service writers, and hurts our paychecks. You can usually bet it rarely hurts that service writer’s check. When there is what appears a gross error in book time, then a competent writer should consult with the tech and determine what is right. That includes over and under on the labor. It amazes me to hear that there are idiots out there who resort to this. Yep, passed the ASE C1 test years ago, as well. I have played service writer, tech, and management all in the same week at an old job, so I have seen different angles of it. It also lets one know what is expected, and hence I hold a high standard to service writers. If they won’t do their job, 86 them.
I have seen all sorts of service writers in my 20yrs. I have had some really talented writers, which are few and far between(as hard or harder to find than a good tech), and a mix of average to poor to incompetent to crooks, and even a few drug addicts. The good guys shoot straight with the customers, let them know what we see, and leave it to the customer to decide. They can close a sale effectively with the right amount of labor for the job, and get return work lined up, and get you good quality parts. I have a couple of decent ones where I am at now, thankfully. I have had some who were out right crooks, diagnosing from the counter, and selling stuff not needed, or selling the wrong stuff. I walked out on a shop for that, zero tolerance for that behavior and will not have my name tarnished by them. I have also seen blatant incompetence by service writers, ordering incorrect parts, goofing off, etc. Finally, I have seen service writers who feel the need to underbid work at our expense. This is nothing short of theft as well. If they want to discount stuff, take it out of the shop’s share. If it’s a charity case, consult the tech, and even then, it’s optional. To just reduce labor to get a sale, it undermines the credibility of the other service writers, and hurts our paychecks. You can usually bet it rarely hurts that service writer’s check. When there is what appears a gross error in book time, then a competent writer should consult with the tech and determine what is right. That includes over and under on the labor. It amazes me to hear that there are idiots out there who resort to this. Yep, passed the ASE C1 test years ago, as well. I have played service writer, tech, and management all in the same week at an old job, so I have seen different angles of it. It also lets one know what is expected, and hence I hold a high standard to service writers. If they won’t do their job, 86 them.
Seen them before, basically a sprag inside of them IIRC. Can’t remember what tool guys were peddling them now, but I’d question the warranty on them. 2 years from now, will they still be made and able to get a warranty? Matco already burned me once over some tools that had a warranty on them, but are no longer serviced. Guess who I’m not buying from any time soon?
Seen them before, basically a sprag inside of them IIRC. Can’t remember what tool guys were peddling them now, but I’d question the warranty on them. 2 years from now, will they still be made and able to get a warranty? Matco already burned me once over some tools that had a warranty on them, but are no longer serviced. Guess who I’m not buying from any time soon?
Of that, there is only a couple of things I would add to that. I would get 1/4″ drive sockets in metric down to 5mm, including 5.5MM(yep its used more than one thinks), and 6mm, and 7mm. I’d also invest in a good torx bit set. Skip the Lisle stuff for that. I actually have a pretty good set from Cornwell with inverted and tamper proof. Snap-on makes good ones as well. I have had bad luck with Mac personally. Also, look at the oil filter tools for the Toyotas. There are two sizes now, and it makes filter removal much easier. Throw in a cordless screwdriver, maybe even a cordless 1/4″ impact if funds allow. If you do tires, get a 1/2″ torque wrench as well. That will keep you out of the other guy’s box for the vast majority of your time, and let you do all the small jobs that the boss hands off to you.
Of that, there is only a couple of things I would add to that. I would get 1/4″ drive sockets in metric down to 5mm, including 5.5MM(yep its used more than one thinks), and 6mm, and 7mm. I’d also invest in a good torx bit set. Skip the Lisle stuff for that. I actually have a pretty good set from Cornwell with inverted and tamper proof. Snap-on makes good ones as well. I have had bad luck with Mac personally. Also, look at the oil filter tools for the Toyotas. There are two sizes now, and it makes filter removal much easier. Throw in a cordless screwdriver, maybe even a cordless 1/4″ impact if funds allow. If you do tires, get a 1/2″ torque wrench as well. That will keep you out of the other guy’s box for the vast majority of your time, and let you do all the small jobs that the boss hands off to you.
Just thought I’d copy and paste MDK22’s list to here:
Fine tooth Ratchets: 1/4″,3/8″,1/2″ (3/8″ and 1/2″ in Flex if possible Expert, Snap-On, Gearwrench)
Sockets/adapters/Extensions/Universals to Match: 8mm-22mm, 1/4″-1″ (Impact over chrome if you can afford. Rarely will the thinner chrome sockets be needed starting off Grey Pnuematic or “Craftsman USA Made only” for starting out)
Decent Brand Normal Combination Wrenches: 8mm-22mm, 1/4″-1″ (Do not get sets that skip sizes. Gearwrench)
1/2″ Breaker Bar. (Craftsman is normally good and cheap)
1/2″ Impact (A good brand: Ingersol Rand, Air Cat, Snap-On)
Screwdriver Set (with Torx if you can afford. Craftsman)
Oil Filter Wrenches Big and Small Riveted plier style. Harbor Freight (Buy Blue Point FWA62121A if you do a lot of oil changes)
Creeper a cheap one will do to start. (You will need a different one in about 6 months)
A cheap pick set. Harbor Freight or Craftsman if you can afford (Buy a tool truck brand when you can)
A wire brush set. Cheap set is fine. (You’ll need this for batteries)
A cheap valve stem removal tool. I used a slimez brand from pepboys it is cheap.
A cheap dual chuck tire inflator without gauge and a separate tire gauge (Then buy a tool truck one when you can)
A set of decent brand pliers: needle nose, regular, slip joint (Channel Lock, Knipex, Klien)
A good pair of diagonal side cutters (Knipex)
1 pair of Vise Grips 7wr Original with curved jaws
1 chisel of decent quality (Craftsman or better)
A good prybar set. (Craftsman professional driving head or Mayhew driving head available @ Home Depot)
A good brand hammer: Ballpeen or 3lb Black Smith (Suggest hickory handle Vaughan, Estwing, Plumb, Craftsman)
A good engraver or punch set (Put your initials on your tools. It is better/easier to start now)
A place to keep all your tools.