Auto techs in here!!!!

[PRO50SC]

How many ppl here are auto techs by trade? Where are you from and how has your work load been this year.

Me, live in Md. and all the shops in the area including the dealers have been slow. My #'s are way down from last year.

Just wanna hear from others in the trade to see what it's like in your area.

Thanks!

 

[5.0's 4 ever]

Tech at lincoln/mercury dealership
Orlando, FL
We actually had this year picking up till right around the beginning of this month. Its starting to get real slow again just like last year. I've spent most of this week watching world cup soccer at work or going home early because there is nothing to do.

 

[90mustangGT]

I live in Georgia, and yes it has been slow. Worked in the Goodyear chains, it got too slow. Work at a independent shop, lots of work but for some reason the pay sucks.

 

[money pit]

I work at a Lexus dealership in Louisiana and i've been making about 10-20 hours less a weak for about the last 3 months. I hear some dealerships are worse than us.

 

[Notchbck93]

Fellow techs, people put off preventative maintenace because just two years ago, gas was half as much as it is now. A lot of different industries are in a slump right now. If gas was to drop back to 1.50 for reg, spending would soar, but don't count on that happening anytime soon.


Hey, old Georgy boy says that we brought this on ourselves, it's our fault that we don't ask exxon CEO's how they are doing and if they are near maximum production capacity, which would cause a spike in fuel prices...


Oh by the way, there may be a possible galactic star cosmosis 5 million years from now and because of that prices are unstable.

I love to read how when production rises, opec backs it off to keep prices stable. I would love to see hydrogen technology take off, something new for me to learn and the hell with opec.

 

[Busted07]

I work at a Lexus dealership in Louisiana and i've been making about 10-20 hours less a weak for about the last 3 months. I hear some dealerships are worse than us.

You wouldnt happen to be in northern LA would ya? i work at a Lincoln / mercury dealership at the Suzuki branch... was a tech for a year, got tired of turnin wrenches, so now im a parts manager... we have been busy but mostly with new cars coming in (40 point inspections) but considering we went without a service manager for a month, we arent doing too bad

 

[90mustangGT]

For one part, new car warranties are greatly increasing, and they will only be getting better. So, us working at independent shops will get increasingly more junk. People who drive older cars, in general, don't have the finances or credit, so they are more stingy about spending. PM really keeps breakdowns at a minimum. I have been thinking about looking into a dealership.

At the job I recently started, the customers are idiots in general. Yesterday, this old man came in, car running like crap. I went through it an discovered the one oxygen sensor wasn't responding, and the MAF was out of range. He didn't want to do the work, but I cleaned the MAF for him and said it might help, because sometimes it does, and he left, and then called back four times upset because his car still ran poorly and he just spent money to have it fixed. He wants me to just "fix" it. These idots come in all the time wanting thier cars "checked out" but don't want to pay anything. I guess the figure that were just put on earth to fix their cars, and that's all we have to do with our time, and/or we don't need to make a living or some crap.

Another idot, I lost my ass fixing the exaust leaks. When I fixed the one leak, then you could hear the rest. Nothing like doing exaust manifolds on a GM mini-van, especially the one in the back. Now, she keeps calling because now she's hearing every rattle her old 11 year old van makes, now that the exaust sound is gone, she can hear it, so of course she expects us to fix it.

 

[money pit]

You wouldnt happen to be in northern LA would ya? i work at a Lincoln / mercury dealership at the Suzuki branch... was a tech for a year, got tired of turnin wrenches, so now im a parts manager... we have been busy but mostly with new cars coming in (40 point inspections) but considering we went without a service manager for a month, we arent doing too bad

yea, Bossier City. I've turning wrenches for about 2.5 years now. Its not as enjoyable as it was when i first started. It looks like it might start to speed up but its to soon to tell.

 

[QUICK91LX]

For one part, new car warranties are greatly increasing, and they will only be getting better. So, us working at independent shops will get increasingly more junk. People who drive older cars, in general, don't have the finances or credit, so they are more stingy about spending. PM really keeps breakdowns at a minimum. I have been thinking about looking into a dealership.

At the job I recently started, the customers are idiots in general. Yesterday, this old man came in, car running like crap. I went through it an discovered the one oxygen sensor wasn't responding, and the MAF was out of range. He didn't want to do the work, but I cleaned the MAF for him and said it might help, because sometimes it does, and he left, and then called back four times upset because his car still ran poorly and he just spent money to have it fixed. He wants me to just "fix" it. These idots come in all the time wanting thier cars "checked out" but don't want to pay anything. I guess the figure that were just put on earth to fix their cars, and that's all we have to do with our time, and/or we don't need to make a living or some crap.

Another idot, I lost my ass fixing the exaust leaks. When I fixed the one leak, then you could hear the rest. Nothing like doing exaust manifolds on a GM mini-van, especially the one in the back. Now, she keeps calling because now she's hearing every rattle her old 11 year old van makes, now that the exaust sound is gone, she can hear it, so of course she expects us to fix it.

yep, we get that ALL the time at the toyota dealership where i work. granted the majority of the work is just maintenance but we had a regular customer (known for hard driving) expect us to warranty brake pads and rotors on his 02 50,000 mile camry because they wore out in less than 20,000 miles. he was actually violently argumentative with the writers and had to be asked to leave. the biggest problem with my dealership is that they will often goodwill labor costs just to make an unhappy customer a little happier. for no apparent reason...or provide a rental car at no charge...or give them a free courtesy service wash...i understand making customer satisfaction a high priority but when a customer is being unreasonable, someone has to put their foot down at some point...

my dealership is in northern NJ and we were slow off and on for about two months this year. just within the last couple of weeks has it picked up again. for some reason toyota owners are sticklers for keeping their cars maintained...for example...$459.95 60,000 mile maintenance service = LOF, rotate, brake inspection, change t-fluid, change coolant, replace pcv, replace air filter, change spark plugs, add BG kit, and all the other inspections that are done with every service...but people come in like clockwork to have it all done and rarely give the price a second thought...and oftentimes when the car is in need of other things such as tires, etc...it kinda impresses me how easy it is to upsell things, even when they are already spending almost 500 bucks

then of course there is the customer that prints out the service special ad from our website but has never been to us for service before...wants us to check out all these things on his car...and ends up getting nothing more than the basic oil change...oh well...the customer is always right...right??

 

[woodyy24]

currently in training at Joliet Junior College, this will be my second year in the fall. im doing so well they gave me a $500 scholarship. the ceremony is tonight at the oval track in Joliet

edit: http://www.mikegracefest.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=28

 

[Notchbck93]

currently in training at Joliet Junior College, this will be my second year in the fall. im doing so well they gave me a $500 scholarship. the ceremony is tonight at the oval track in Joliet

edit: http://www.mikegracefest.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=28

How's Airney, Graf and Chris? I graduated from there in 2000. Best times were had at JJC in the auto program.

The one picture on the site shows some guys from my class with Rau, Ted Schultz and Steve Skirha. http://www.jjc.edu/Dept/Tech/AST/

I also won the Mike Guglielmucci Sr. Award when I was a student there.

 

[woodyy24]

How's Airney, Graf and Chris? I graduated from there in 2000. Best times were had at JJC in the auto program.

The one picture on the site shows some guys from my class with Rau, Ted Schultz and Steve Skirha. http://www.jjc.edu/Dept/Tech/AST/

I also won the Mike Guglielmucci Sr. Award when I was a student there.

pretty good, chris is racing those datsuns he has, mr. airney...LOL. mr. graff is about to retire, and the new teacher jim coleman knows EVERYTHING there is to know about cars, he has
A.A.S. Joliet Junior College
A.S.E. Master Automobile Technician
A.S.E. Advanced Level Specialist
yea... you dont argue with this guy. hes a great teacher too, i learned a lot from his classes.

Mr. Rau is retired but he was in one of my monday shop classes pulling a 350 from a POS van for a street rod.

they redid the shop floor this summer with some non slip easy clean up stuff and those yellow things for the exhaust are gone, the new ones look the same but there flat the wall by the coolant flushing bay is gone, and i think were getting a/c in the shop now

 

[Busted07]

yea, Bossier City. I've turning wrenches for about 2.5 years now. Its not as enjoyable as it was when i first started. It looks like it might start to speed up but its to soon to tell.

Check your PMs

 

[Notchbck93]

pretty good, chris is racing those datsuns he has, mr. airney...LOL. mr. graff is about to retire, and the new teacher jim coleman knows EVERYTHING there is to know about cars, he has
A.A.S. Joliet Junior College
A.S.E. Master Automobile Technician
A.S.E. Advanced Level Specialist
yea... you dont argue with this guy. hes a great teacher too, i learned a lot from his classes.

Mr. Rau is retired but he was in one of my monday shop classes pulling a 350 from a POS van for a street rod.

they redid the shop floor this summer with some non slip easy clean up stuff and those yellow things for the exhaust are gone, the new ones look the same but there flat the wall by the coolant flushing bay is gone, and i think were getting a/c in the shop now

I need to apply for Graf's position.

A.A.S JJC automotive
B.S Tech Management
IM240 phase 1&2
Valvoline Cert
ASE Master Cert
ASE L1 pending
ASE Recyc & Recov card-- buy R12
Ford/GMC/International/DC Fleet tech 5 years
There's some other certs in there somewhere, but that's what I can recall for now.

Thanks for the update on the shop, hopefully one day I will be out there and be able to check it out for myself.

I went through the program with Graf's son Josh.

 

[Mike97gt]

eastern,ma ford dealership here... we have been pretty busy

 

[woodyy24]

I need to apply for Graf's position.

A.A.S JJC automotive
B.S Tech Management
IM240 phase 1&2
Valvoline Cert
ASE Master Cert
ASE L1 pending
ASE Recyc & Recov card-- buy R12
Ford/GMC/International/DC Fleet tech 5 years
There's some other certs in there somewhere, but that's what I can recall for now.

Thanks for the update on the shop, hopefully one day I will be out there and be able to check it out for myself.

I went through the program with Graf's son Josh.

give it a try, i think hes done within the next 2-3 years.
josh was there a few months ago, hes doing really well with mitsubishi. like close to six digit good.
his other son A.J. is in it right now.

EDIT: what did you get with your scholarship?

 

[Notchbck93]

I PM-ed you; didn't want to thread jack.

 

[mustangnick]

I'M A MAZDA PARTS MANAGER AND MY SERVICE DEPARTMENT HAS BEEN REAL SLOW. OUR ONLY SAVING GRACE WAS THAT OUR NEAREST MAZDA DEALER WENT OUT OF BUSINESS FEBRUARY 1. WHOLESALE HAS BEEN DOING VERY GOOD.

 

[drag79stang]

Honest to gawd, it's been slow (IMHO), ever since 911. Every month/year since then has been slower than before that all happened. Coincidence?...

As far as lately?...........PIcked up a little in the beginning of the month, but it's steadily slowing down again.
Ford dealership w/3 REAL techs and 2 not so real techs. End up sending at least one tech home either first thing in the am, or by noon all the time.
It sucks.................

 

[bigcat]

i am in the bodyshop, but business is WAY down all across the region. you cant just go to another shop, because if they are busy, the employess aint leaving!