Attending a car school. [should i or shouldn't i]

[Saleen4971]

if your jsut into tinkering with yoru car and fixing your own, then dont get a degree in it. computer related degree's and jobs will probly get you more money, and wont be as physicly demanding in some or most cases.

i love working on cars, and when i coem home from work after a day of fixing cars, or even a day of oil changes and inspections i feel liek ia ccomplished something, and that i learned something. for that reason, i can deal wtih fixing OTHER peoples cars. i dotn plan on being a tech my whole life, but i will work on cars my whole life, and hopefully be in a performance or repair field my whoel life as an owner or manager. so AFTER my 2 years, with an AAS in auto tech, im going to get an automotive management degree, which will help me in my "quest".


sorry for the rant if you want to fix yoru own car, and your friedns/families cars, then jstu take some extra classes and community college. dont waste so mcuh time and money on a degree when you should be doing something else

 

[Superhereaux]

i love working on cars, and when i come home from work after a day of fixing cars, or even a day of oil changes and inspections i feel like i accomplished something, and that i learned something. for that reason, i can deal with fixing OTHER peoples cars.

i feel the same way. i feel like i'm helping these people out and hope that they appreciate it (even though they could probably care less). we're probably 1 in a 100 though, most guys i work with are just in it for the paycheck, i actually care about fixing the car right and making the customer happy

back on topic

i went to UTI in houston, then Volvo SAFE in chicago, now i'm working here in vegas. all the guys i was in SAFE with all have jobs now. there are 4 other SAFE students right now at my dealer

can you make money in this field? yeah, you can. my roomate (another safe grad) is making $19 an hour and flagging an avg. 250hrs a month. not too bad for 3yrs in the field. he's 24

am i making money? sure, more would be nice but the way i see it how many 22yr olds are making $15 an hour? most my age are making $8 or less working at best buy or walmart or somewhere else.
i also don't plan on turning wrenches in 10 yrs but whatever i do it will involve the automotive field (NOT in a business/management aspect) but on the technical side, i figure this hands-on experience will help me out in the future

 

[gtstangau]

I am currently going to Nashville Auto Diesel College, I still have about 8 months left to go. It is so not worth the money I will be paying off loans for the rest of my life it seems. I agree with the other guys that they teach alot of the basic principles of how a car works but you dont get alot of hands on. I just wanted to go so that I could learn how to work on cars. Plus it is a one year school that I can graduate and make some good money quick. If it comes down to it though dont waste your money at one of the big auto schools.

 

[Bolt on 5.0]

Im happy you are asking about this beforhand. Please take this advice do not try to get into the auto field. Its no good, I have been a tech since I was young. Im 24 now and the job is ok somtimes but generally it sucks. Low pay and you have to always beat the clock. When I started all the techs told me to run away, I wish I had listened. Take a class at your college and use it as a hobby, I love cars, just not working on them as a career. I actually am leaving the field, next week is my last as a tech.

 

[Mel96GT]

Any technical job is better than what I see most unskilled 19-year olds doing like pizza delivery, McDonalds, stockboy, oil change, busboy, cashier, etc. Get something good now and figure out the rest later. The years will fly by now that you are out of high school. Whatever you do, DO NOT just live at home and work a "McJob".

 

[XSickXPleasureX]

i am 18 years old girl from arizona and all i want to do is get into the auto field. ive been around cars since i was little but now im actually wanting to learn about the ins and outs of the field. i have little experience working on cars but i am considering going to Wyotech or UTI to get a degree in collision repair and custom. I am fine arts major and i think that i could bring something to painting cars. I am thinking that i could go to one of these schools and learn the **** i want to know and then get a paying job while i apprentice for a tattoo shop. Is this a good idea? do you think i can hack it at a Wyotech or a UTI?

 

[CobraRed_96_GT]

i have a friend that graduated from Wyotech. Mainly took body fab. He isn't doing **** - there's not a growing field of jobs for that industry in America

 

[FoxRod87]

Take a few classes at a local tech college and see if you like it. Then try to go into the Truck field(Semi trucks) Thats what I am doing. You make decent money and you don't get paid flat rate. At least where I work its not flate rate. Or try to stay away from flate rate unless you are really good and there is alot of work.

 

[H What 4.6]

Body work and painting is now mainly being done by low wage non-english speaking laborers. The field is no longer an art like it used to be.... It will be extremely hard to land any type of well paying position in the field because of the cheap laborers.

 

[mustang50v8]

the overall lesson is this, if you enjoy working on your car alot...dont get into the field. you will hate working on your car from then on. after a day of working of everyone else's cars the last thing you want to see is another one...even if it is your own.

my last roommate was a mechanic and this is pretty much how he felt. so all that crap about buying a car that a mechanic used to own because mechanics keep up on matainence is not true because the do as little work to their own vehicles as possible. this includes putting duck tape over the check engine light because its too bright at night. lol

 

[bryan0]

Man I'm glad I read this thread. I'm a commuting sophomore studying finance. I'm doing well but am very very interested in cars. I love working on my car more than any other not-person thing haha. I was considering leaving my current college and going to a tech school, but I've decided I'm just going to stick it out at my college taking finance classes and keep my car interests to a hobby.

 

[XSickXPleasureX]

i am thinking to do the same. My friend just landed a job wrenching trucks down here. he just graduated from Wyotech and hes making 65000 a year at 19 years old. Maybe ill just learn mechanic and leave the painting for something later when ive landed a good job.

 

[suki243]

I am also interested in cars, I love my classic and i'm also 18 years old and in college, but i've decided to keep it as a hobby. I don't see much of a demand for it.

 

[925BayArea2v]

I went to wyo-tech for about 2 months. I already had a job at a private repair shop. I dropped after realizing i learn 10 times more stuff everyday at work then at 10 days in class. IMO UTI and wyo-tech are a waste of money. After working at a shop for a 3 years i got way sick of working on OTHER peoples cars. i have since gone back to college and plan on keeping my automotive knowledge for a hobby purpose only. i work full time for pg&e and go to school at night. someday when im ballin ill have my own lift in my garage to build MY cars in.

 

[the98stang]

People goto school to LEARN bro, so why SHOULDN'T you go? There's no better place to learn about cars than an automotive school.

 

[the98stang]

IMO UTI and wyo-tech are a waste of money.

Not for people that have no prior automotive experience or knowledge.....

 

[XSickXPleasureX]

im pretty inexperienced and im poor as a joke so my FAFSA will cover tuition. i want to learn everything about cars and the shops down here take one look at me and laugh becuase im 5'2 and weigh 100 pounds...being taken seriously is here hard but with backing like Wyotech i think i might be able to challenge some of the techs that are here.

 

[925BayArea2v]

i guess if you have absolutly no auto experience yea school might be ideal. but in my case i found i learned much more at work just wrenchin then sitting in a class room watching some fat guy talk about safety and other BS...also at 5'2" 100 lbs your going to have a hard time working on cars physically...im 5'10 160 and sometimes i wished i had a lil more weight to throw around. but just my opinion again. good luck with wutever u end up doing