Dealer tech life hasn't been bad for me. Great owner great management they all take care of their employees and plenty of work for everyone...I guess you just have to find the right shop.
I worked at 4 dealerships (Porsche, Volvo, Audi, VW) for 27 years, now retired. This is a GREAT vid. Everything said is spot on! Every young person thinking of becoming a mechanic should see this. When I started, it was a good profession to get into. Not now! More complicated cars with a higher percentage of warranty work. Which means YOU WORK FOR FREE!! You can't pay the bills or raise a family when you work 8-10 hours and only get paid for 4! This happens a LOT, and the stealership does't give a damn. Drama, favoritism, incompetent management, and an owner who inherited the stealership from their daddy and doesn't have a clue what he's doing! One thing not mentioned ( because 'Flat Rate Master' is still young) is the physical damage your body endures year after year. Arthritis, carpal tunnel, back problems, cuts and bruises, and who knows how many chemicals your body will absorb! I could go on and on. DON'T BE AN AUTO MECHANIC. You will regret it!!!
@@chevyguy2063 Let's keep in mind that I retired in 2000. Cars have changed a lot since then. They're much more complex. Of the 4 brands I worked on my favorite was Volvo. The best were the 140's and the 240's (None Turbo). They were simple, rugged, built to last and easy to work on. Very little warranty work because they were engineered right. If you took care of them they were a 300k car. I don't trust the newer Volvo's. Just to complicated. Some of the worst vehicles on the road are made in Germany. These cars only sell because of the old myth of 'German Engineering'. I saw, and had to repair, some of the worst, overcomplicated, poorly designed systems you could imagine! Exploding heater cores, fuse panel melt downs, numerous oil leaks. VW's diesel gate is just the tip of the iceberg. And don't expect to get paid for any of this warranty work. Your family will starve before VW pays the mechanic to fix any of their engineers mistakes! I've said enough. BTW: My daily driver is a 16yr old Lexus with 190k miles and ZERO problems. My sunny day only toy is a 03 Mustang GT slightly modified : )
@@suzintru1 Why do you dislike the new Volvos? I think they are one of the most reliable in the field/industries along with Lexus. (I see this is 3 yrs old per say), I do inspection work and examine all the warranty items for many shops.
@JosephGoeke they don't like aftermarket parts and have very interesting (not necessarily bad) engineering. Volvo's are very reliable when newer and well maintained but a 10 year old one with a few questionable repairs and high mileage can be just as bad as any Audi out there.
Every few months I get a message from a friend or past co-workers that work at a new car dealer asking if I want a job because they know I’m a good wrench. Once in s while I go talk to the service manager. They tell me well I can pay you $15 less an hour until you get trained and certified. So I say you guys obviously need a good tech or you wouldn’t have people messaging me on Facebook and if you want to offer more money and more vacation time maybe I will think about working here and I will work flat rate but after I’m certified so I need salary pay like I am currently getting so I have time to adjust to the new cars. They say they can’t do anything like that. I said well I can’t call my mortgage company and tell them i will pay them when my work decides to train me and shake his hand, tell him if anything changes then call me. A few months go by, I get contacted again by the same dealer “hey we can we talk again”? So I say you know what I need to make if you can’t pay me more than that from day one then I’m not interested. They don’t understand that not everyone is 20 years old and can afford a huge pay cut. I work at a European repair shop as a foreman, I don’t work weekends, no late nights, I make 70k per year with healthcare paid for by the owner and no dealership politics. Why would I go to a new car dealer to make less money for how ever long, work late nights, weekends, and deal with bullshit. The last dealer was about 10 more hours per week. Yeah in a few years I might make 100k but I work less hours now so I have more free time to sell cars to make extra money and I don’t have to bust my ass as hard as you do at a new car dealership and I get a good paycheck that never changes. I loved working at a new car dealer but with all the training, going out of town and extra hours it’s a lifestyle change and I would have to be guaranteed to make over 100k per year and no dealerships are going to offer that. I refuse to go back to the bottom when I’m 33 years old. Also when you get to be a really good Independent tech you get smarter at diagnostics, using a lab scope so you learn how to work around not having every factory scan tool.
I have been a master tech at my dealership for 30 year's and you are spot on ! And one of the negatives for new people in the dealership world is punch time. If you forget to punch on and off, you don't get paid for it....
Flat rate is the way to go Put the parts on car not in garbage Recalls bring in work Look the vechiles over Drive them before you bring in it Drive them when you finish Stay busy Use more LED lights Up selling and Maintenance is important God bless Us all
The other hilarious aspect of flat rate shops is they expect you to stand around when there isn't any work. The law where I am says that the minimum requirement for compensation is minimum wage if you are being forced to stay in the workplace. Once work comes in, the regular rate then applies. Dealers and independent shops under flat rate hates people that know the law. They then try and play games such as voting to see who goes home.. Etc. Such a joke. I asked, "Anything scheduled in?" The answer no, "See you later then." Shops will try and take advantage of techs any way they can. The industry needs to be completely reformed.
100% agree, I get a good hourly wage, theres none of this nonsense about standing around, if theres no job youre expected to do maintenance and clean the shop.
Been doing Diesel Fleet maintenance for 20 years. When I wanted to be a mechanic I would visit auto shops and ask to be a apprentice. I had one shop owner tell me to go fleet maintenance and not flat rate. I took his advice. Best thing I ever did.
Working as a dealer tech basically scared me out of the industry. The dealer is now out of business, but they were every bit of the stereotype that surrounds a scummy stealership. Absolute filth, and I took my tools with me to deep sea diving and then what I do now. Real glad I went to trade school and learned how to fix cars though. Saves a ton of money from paying someone else to fix my old crap.
Good job on the video! I did 10 years learning the trade then 20 on my own. Going solo is a whole different level. You get all the responsibility but you also get all the money. Nice.
You nailed the dealer environment scenarios.. I thought years at a GM dealer was drama, went to a Benz dealer, premadonnas is a understatement. Keep up the great videos.
I loved it the video, I have been a mechanic for over 25 years I never worked flat rate, flat rate always scared me because they try to pay as little as possible but this video is very encouraging, it always takes me more time then Mitchel gives, I worked in a regular repair shop most of my life not dealer only one time I did and I was paid hourly, older cars always need more attention things are rusty dirty hoses are dry won't come off etc.
Thanks a lot bro. I've worked as a mechanic most of my life at independent shops. But that changes starting this morning. I start at a dealership that is so big it is a Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler dealership on one side of the highway and a GM dealership on the other. I dropped my tool box off Saturday so I got to meet a few of the mechanics. They seem quite young so I'm thinking I may already have more experience than they. Two of them were doing an oil pan gasket change it looked like and the other was just changing tires. I used to be head mechanic and the trans rebuild guy at one shop I worked at in the early 2000s. Thanks again, I'll definitely subscribe and like.
You seem to always have some tidbit that I can apply to my work. As a technician at a power sports dealership, I sometimes have to tweak it, but it's still all good,keep up the good work.
I found a good way to swap the BMW X3 and X5 passenger airbags without removing the whole dash. I was the only one at the dealership who could do it due to needing smaller hands. BMW ended up cutting the time so I was barely making any time off of it and other techs were losing hours doing it so they would only give them to me.
I was talking to a tech once and he said he essentially did a transmission for free since he forgot to put the trans cooler line flush code in the story.
I did a trans rebuild for free twice in a row. It was a 4T80E transaxle out of 90s model Cadillac. I rebuilt it, took it for a test drive, within one mile the trans started slipping and got smoked. My boss said, "Well, you'll have to rebuild it again." I rebuilt it the second time, paying even far more attention to every single detail as I went (I had been rebuilding transmissions for years already, so experienced was not the issue.) So, second time finished, test drive, BOOM.... within one mile trans gets smoked again. Then Boss says, "okay, we're going to rebuild it one more time but this time I'll be right there helping." 3rd rebuild, he test drives, ahem.... one mile - trans gets smoked. He ate all the cost but did pay me for one rebuild. I lost out on the other two. In all my life rebuilding transmissions/transaxles,, that's the only one I ever had fail on me. He told the customer they would have to take it to a dealership and he charged them ZERO dollars.
Great video, subbed! I've been at a BMW dealership for over 5 years now and I'm really greatful for being able to work for this dealership and the near 30 techs working. Service department managers and foremen are great, and healthy work environment overall.
I used to work at a Hyundai dealer and man did those things have recalls. The great thing was we had a bunch of them to get us through the slow season. They would come in for the recall and we would up sell any work it needed.
THANK you so much , great video . I’m in between trying to decide if I wanna Work for Toyota or go to another independent. This really helped me get a better idea on what to do .
I work for an ag machinery dealer. Like you mentioned ,the access to information and company help is priceless. Independent dudes don't have that for the most part. It's hard with the help so my cap is off to y'all.
I am a Volkswagen and Infinti tech and everything you mentioned is spot on there is always drama and it is always every man for himself and correct again about favorites in the shop!
Worked at a mom and pop shop for about 11 months and just got let off and I’m exploring my options, this video helped me put my foot down and start looking into some dealership jobs, so I just wanted to say thank you for putting out this informational video
It's not that bad, and works itself out, pay wise. If you want to do it, don't be put off. You just have to adapt to the fact that the way you get paid is a little different.
Do you think it is a scam if you are constantly beating book time for regular work! For instance my brother-in-law works at a Toyota dealership he works about 50 hours a week but he is consistently paid for almost double that! Between being buddy's with his service writer, and being the top Tech at his dealer! Is that a scam? You take the good with the bad and stop being a crybaby! Or maybe you are just too slow!
@@matthannah4621 it shouldn't have to balance out. The manufacturer is the one to blame. The technician didn't make the vehicle, so why is he being penalized for the cost to fix it? That's the point. The law needs to change.
Great video, thanks for the insight! I'm a car guy with years of experience working on my own cars. I just got my first technician job with a Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealer, very excited!
Good stuff...I do want to point out for any entry level techs the chances of being overwhelmed is way higher vs middle career techs who already went through all the stressors and are able to look beyond those obstacles & focus on what do they want to accomplish...its important to compare between new techs & pros! I'm sure you have something to share about that sir
Great vid. I should be starting out as a express lane tech soon, doing simple stuff like tire rotations, oil changes, etc. But, it's good to know this when I actually get my foot all the way in the door and experience what it's actually like out there as a real tech.
@@yushanchen4193 So far so good dude! Started at Mercedes and I was there for about 4-5 months before leaving and working on used cars at Mitsubishi, closer to home and they're paying more!
All cons are exit totally agree with you on stupid complaint my feeling sometimes on those customers just want visit here for no reason but all worth it I learned more than everywhere I worked before I like dealership may be I am still learning. I watch’s alot of your video always helps me .
Fantastic advice can’t argue with anything you said. I have 43 years experience in the dealership world with BMW in the UK. It’s a horrible environment as it’s dog eat dog. In the UK it is possible to make more bonus being a poor tech as the controller will give them easy work. Also as you said some are loved that are useless but can’t do anything wrong in Management eyes despite everyone else seeing how they are cheating and lazy. I love fixing cars but the biggest thing is training. I get around 15 paid days a year as well as unlimited on-line training. There are pros and cons but basically you need a thick skin. Nice video👍
Yea I’ve worked for a ford dealership for 2 years now the main shop guys are really helpful and we always look out for each other just our management is shitty
I'm a Ford technician at a small dealership in Western New York that has been around for 36 years, and I can relate to the pros and cons of working as a dealer tech. We had an issue where there are "more chiefs than there are indians", and had issues with not getting used cars finished or special order parts for a diagnosed vehicle whether it's service customer pay or warranty jobs, because we've let our buy one get one free oil changes get out of hand with non-Ford customers that don't buy our maintenance items when we try to sell them work, and the history is repeating with "oil change, tire rotation, multi-point check over" and "obd2inspection" and no history of other work, because if they needed brakes for inspection, they would decline the work since they only wanted their free oil change and we've had to fail their inspection. Now, we are currently discontinuing our buy one get one free oil change to only customers that have not bought a vehicle from the dealership, and we've been able to get different jobs done and earn more money.
Great video. Just somethings i have delt with when it comes to “pros” 15 mechanics. 3 scanners always have to wait for some one to finish programming or updating to use the scanner. Special tools are never there. Like u mentioned.
I was a ASE Master Technician along with almost being a Chrysler Master Technician. I loved working at that dealership. I only got out of the industry due to my shoulder pain. I now am in building maintenance thru USPS. Still work on vehicles on the side but don’t regret being a tech! Some days I miss diagnosing vehicles!
I worked at palm Peterbilt and liked it. Even though I had experience I was still middle of pack. Did a lot of warranty work. And brakes and PMs. My wife a Dr moved so did I.
Yeah. At Lexus in mtg al, were all a team. Only had 9 comebacks in 2017 we are a family. And we do the best work. No excetion. Took us a while to weed out the hacks.
You are bang on. Worked at a dealership fire 25 years as a tech. It's like a prison always watch your back or you'll get shived. Biggest prob is they have enough work for ten guys but fifteen stalls they hire fifteen cause it doesn't cost then anymore cause everyone is on pierce work basically so everyone is competing against each other for work.
You hit most of the points! One thing you didn't mention is PDI's are awesome during slow periods. Lately I keep hearing the "we don't pay diag time until the vehicle is fixed".... So being the electrical guy, sometimes I have many many hours of diag waiting on backordered parts. Getting small pay cheques through no fault of my own, hoping the vehicle comes back and hoping the backordered part is the fix. One more thing to add, Chrysler is absolutely brutal with service information about wiring. I came from Nissan where you could look at a description of how something was supposed to work, you could then read about expected circuit voltages and functions. With Chrysler no one knows how it's supposed to work and you have to try and figure out why and how it's supposed to function by guessing and then try and fix it.
You hit the nail on the head about the cons. I am not a technician but have worked as service advisor/writer for almost a decade. Long story short- I am getting burnt out by the dealership mentality & especially being the very "last call." Knowing that a customer did all that they could to avoid the cost of the repairs and then dealing with that person who wants to "SaVE mONeY" ends up being that very customer that wastes tons of my time and the technicians' time and energy. I go home feeling empty and over-worked and stressed...
Haha the recall part.. the air bags in our 2000s truck on the passenger side I can do those with my eyes close, also being at a dealer doing accessories on the unsold vehicle is so tedious
Manufacturers adjust warranty times to accommodate their brand. For instance, when General Motors was suffering from diminished sales. They cut their warranty times in half. Which were already half of the normal flat rate hour. So in essence the technician has to take a 75% cut in pay at the whim of General Motors. Cons to working in the dealership number 2. Subjective loss of pay at the whim of the manufacturer.
You are exactly right about the dog eat dog vibe at a dealer. Lots of drama, many days I would see almost fights break out. That was only between the techs. Then you have the service writers who think they are techs, etc. This would make the real techs resentful, and again almost start fights. We had a guy who his whole job was a "quality control manager" and the dude would walk around in a lab coat and pre-diagnose vehicles in the service drive. This man had never turned a wrench in his life and was a huge push-over. He would plant phantom noises and symptoms in the customers mind, then it would get turned over to the real techs. Then the tower guy would pick favorites and give all the gravy work to a few. Then the sales people thought the techs worked for them and would rush the techs around. Then the service manager would be a huge condescending jerk for the most part. I saw work so sparse before that guys would have to cut the dealership a check to cover their benefits because they didn't turn any hours. I worked at a GMC/Oldsmobile dealer from 96-2000 before I went to an independent. Then I got out of the business all together in 2002 and I am glad I did.
100% on point. 10+ years dealer audi tech. Been to several dealers and 1 indi. Management/dispatcher favoritism of 2 or 3 people ruin it for the bunch. If You want to have co workers steal all the good work and you get stuck with whats left....this is the industry for you.
Happened to me at Rover, one guy was very egotistical, always the favorite, and got all the work and I figured out that this place wasn’t it. Work at lucid now and I’ve made more money and went hourly, best decision I made
A lot of the cons he mentions happen at times. However, at least at my dealership that i work for, It's not every man for themselves. Everyone is willing to help eachother out. Warranty time can suck but its not nearly as bad as he makes it out to be. Probably also depends on how good your warranty clerk is. As long as you write a decent story describing how you came to a conclusion about a warranty part replacement, you have no issues. Recalls are just that. Sometimes you get decent times, other recalls totally suck. Most of the recalls I currently see are ebcm, power steering module and ecm reprogramming. I came from the independent/chain/tire shops. Thats what I did for 13 years. I went to the dealership and I'll never go back to a chain/tire shop again. But everyone's experience is different. It also helps that the dealership I work for is not a mega chain dealer . We are family owned and they only own 1 dealership and the owners still work everyday for the dealership. Also, as far as saturdays go, techs work 1 saturday every 7 weeks. So its not bad at all.
@@-I-Use-Punctuation yes back when I wrote this I was very vague lol. I work for a caterpillar dealer in the power systems department working on mostly generators.
Only watching this because I'm a lube tech and really dislike the management and management style. Lots of favoritism... Need a change. Fleet repair sounds up my alley. One location, everyone working on roughly same vehicle types, just need a change, unhappy 😭
The best dealership I ever worked at was a Subaru (as far as customers buying jobs). Service writers are horrible no matter where you go. The drama starts at the service writers and then it trickle down.
As much as I hate warranty most times, I think its fair to mention one advantage to it is that if something is broken on the car under warranty, you don't have to upsell it or wait for customer approval. You just fix it and get paid so no wasted time there. That is of course if the failure is covered.
Yup, that's a good point. And when doing your vehicle check, if you come across an issue, you can have a job line added onto the RO to do even more work. If the customer happens to need the vehicle back, the advisor can re-book for another appointment and make it so that you get the job when the customer returns.
\like the diesel for Ford, it was actually Galpin Ford (the main shop from Pimp My Ride) found out how to cut basically a full day from the repair when it initally came out back in the day and then Ford caught on and neutered the pay
My dealership (chrysler) has the warranty forever program on new and used cars. 2 things you must do to keep the warranty is ALL factory required maintenance at appropriate intervals and the vehicle must be serviced at the purchasing dealership. $$$$$$ for the techs.
what I see at the dealer level is service advisor and sometimes manager giving away free work because they want to protect CSI and kisses the customers ass. and doing what we call "lane diagnosing"
Flatrate Master I mean I understand online reviews are here to stay, its the way of the world. but its at the point now were people are expecting to come in and get stuff for free. they know the game. and that shit ain't cool dude
Yeah the survey shit sucks. It does lead to us doing free work. We do a free mpi with every ro. And now we have to run every car through a car wash which takes 5 minutes and if it tears something off the car its on us to fix it free. Getting diag time is like pulling teeth. I feel like i need a psychiatrist to follow me so i can stay sane
Great points...it does gets boring because you see the same vehicles over and over again...if someone is new I would recommended to go into independent shops because you'll see a lot of variety of vehicles where as a dealer tech you see same type of vehicles over and over again but on other hand as a dealer tech you'll know common problems and tricks with only that brand of vehicles...team system sucks, it looks good on paper and it sounds great but in teams there is always someone that slacks or does a piss poor job of doing their job
I work at a caterpillar heavy equipment dealer. The training is the best part of the working there. There is 3 websites that I have access to. also there are 2 guys that go between the engineers and techs. Plus the scan tool is great heavy equipment doesn’t really have aftermarket scan tools.
I worked at a place that did HD stuff with aftermarket software and the HD guys hated it, I didn't work on that stuff but huge advantage to have the OE software working on HD trucks
Did a short tour of 2 honda dealers in my area. Biggest thorn was the scamer the the GM knew about and let go cus they made $ for shop. Cars are fun to work in but it made my gut turn everyday.....so back to motorcycle dealer it was. More fun and customers weren't late for soccer practice. Plus boss it old pro racer so he likes stuff done right and pushes scamers out. You vids are nice. Shop stories always funny to remember though.
Lots of tech love working at dealers, but you are right every shop is different in every kind of shop, indy, dealer, chain or fleet, gotta find the right one for you!
Pretty much agree with most of this. I have been in a fleet shop for four years, it's not terrible, garbage trucks bluh. Pretty fast past paced most of the time, bad mechanic to truck ratio. Trash trucks have a bad tendency to breakdown, bunch of moving parts and hydraulics and electrical, it gets old. Overall not a bad place to learn about things though, a lot of different types work.
BTDT, I worked on rear loaders back in my younger days, brakes and tires were lucky to last 3 months, hoses blowing out with a load, road calls for blown out brake chambers, fun with maggots dropping on you. Very cool you enjoy it!
I work for a dealer but i work on all the used cars and i love it most of the time because its something different each day. But what gets me is the guy next to me always gets the newest cars with no problems amd i get all the big headache ass jobs
Currently work for the biggest used car dealer and soooo glad I don’t deal with any of these issue, also kinda bummed that we have to rely on our own knowledge and other techs to helps us get out of a bind. However we don’t get stiffed on pay, and never have to worry about warranty pay, also just got a 32% raise
Thank god for unions. No free lane work, no BS from service writers trying to keep their CSI up, we usually beat our guarantee (35/h a week), but it’s great for the slow weeks. I might just have gotten lucky with the shop I’m at, but we look out for each other and make sure everyone is fed.
I was a dealer tech for 15 years or so. warranty pay and recall pay has went down every year. it's horrendous. plus I think it took longer to develop diag skills due to becoming complacent with common issues
I though about mentioning that, as I have seen, 20 plus years dealer techs that could tell you what was wrong, by code or symptom,on any car in that line, but couldn't diagnose a simple issue, on a different brand because they didn't know the pattern failure, but I have met some great techs that just happened to work for a dealer
You said how ''if its at the dealer, you gotta fix it'' we had a Chevy Cruze come, just for a weird missfire on miltuple cylinders, kinda weird. Long story short, turbo was going out and after the second time it was in the shop, it let go. Oil feed line was clogged, poor oil changes. Needs a turbo now after it grenaded. It was sent to an independant right from the chevy dealer.
depends on the area. if they work in an area that is upper middle class and better than there is a great chance that a dealer tech can make a lot of money. obviously depends on how many cars the dealer sells as well. great question to ask service manager during an interview
Speaking of noise complaints a late friend of mine was a mechanic in the 70s. A customer complained about a rattling noise from the rear of their brand new Pontiac. After numerous test drives my buddy finally decided to pull the interior panels and found that some smartass at the factory had dropped a crab in between the wheel well and the quarter panel.
The charge backs can be bad if your not meticulous, eg if doing warranty or TSB r n r engine and they say to replace with new these specific fasteners and you forgot one or two they say no to getting the pay.
Drama at the dealership what you've heard is 100% correct I work at a dealership for 21 years and all it is is drama I have friends that work independent and it's not even close great video by the way
I worked aftermarket for 15 years I was tired of being handicapped and thank God I found a dealership that's not a shark tank a good dealer you should have a team leader with every guy has his an hour of objective and when he gets a bad job he get some gravy keeps the shop running smoothly and Volkswagen warranty pays well so if you ever move to Pennsylvania look me up
Glad you found a great place to work for! I am not handicapped here, we have great equipment, info and several OE tools, plus I am very well paid! I have been offered a few Dealer jobs, last was for MB, Thanks for the offer!
I currently work at a dealership so let me add a few things: I have worked with lots of hacks in independent shops but we get rid of them immediately at the dealership, I like putting out quality repairs with OEM parts not aftermarket garbage that will not last, I enjoy factory training and knowing how to properly service the vehicle or a component, even warranty time is extremely generous in nearly all cases if you are worth a darn as a wrench and there is only a handful of things that make take as much as 50% of the time required as most can be completed in 1/3rd of the time as we do them so often etc.. etc.. I have weekends off and work on other makes (meaning not the make dealer I work for) at buddy's shops where I do all the diagnostics they can't do with their tools that only they think they need dealer equipment to do but somehow it is just poor training or skills on their parts. There are good mechanics at independent shops, unfortunately they are a small percentage per my experience
I have been a master tech for Ford for 20 years and I have been one of the more productive techs everywhere I worked . I have rarely felt or heard any other techs say that warranty pay is extremely generous . just saying . I have flagged between 100-150 hours a two pay period and have found it harder and harder to continue with that production . anyway just strange to hear someone say what you said . I have made good money over the years but seems to be trending down . also all my experience is with ford and I can tell you nearly everyday there is a programming issue that exceeds warranty time pay . or pulling a dash when you do one a year on whatever vehicle not too easy to beat the time on the first one you do . then the next one comes a year later . I dunno maybe you are the best and I have never seen anyone like you lol .
I had a really stupid one when I worked at the chevy dealer. Back in 2012, had a 2012 corvette, customer complained of a exhaust vibration 6th gear to 5th downshift at 200km/hr. I was unable to duplicate it because I was not willing to break the law to duplicate it. Speed limit was 110. Service sales manager (head service advisor) duplicated it, but there was nothing we could do.More than once had field engineers come out to look things over, but they wouldn't get dirty, they just told us what to do.
Gotta love customers that expect you to break the law to duplicated their issue, we get a few of those, trust me around the shop we are lucky if we can hit 70 mph on the highway, traffic:(, let alone 90-100 MPH
The pay is a disadvantage at times.My dad worked at a Chrysler dealership for a few years,this was 1979 to 1981 I believe.He did find what was causing problems the other techs could not find.One was a 1977 Chrysler with a complaint of a rattle.Other techs could not find it and my dad found it.Removed the driver's side door panel and found an empty beer can inside the front driver's door.The older cars,assembly line workers were known for throwing things in cars going down the assembly line.This is what happened with this empty beer can.He got out because of the pay,was not paid enough.My dad still has the OEM Chrysler factory specialty tools for setting up the 9.25 rear ends.One is the long tool to turn the adjusters to set back lash.
I can be a good system, if everyone works together, it will even out, someone gets a car that kicks them in the teeth, the rest pull him through, but people will abuse the system :(
There will always be techs that hump the jobs and the others that just cruise and get the creampuff jobs. Ive been doing this 35 years. Nothing changes!
Seems like thats why shops cant hold onto techs is we have this lazy ass babyboomer kids and their kids running things now so when you have the hard workers it really eats them up, and shops will do team pay just to keep the pay scale down.
And it all depends on the company you work for. I work for a truck dealership but it's pretty much all the same. Depending on the manufacturer also depends on how much you get for warranty pay. Cummins warranty you can pretty much forget about beating time with on almost any repair. Volvo warranty is the best I've seen yet with pay. Example ; Diag. hard to start with fuel system tests and R&R 6 injectors and injector cups pays around 10 hours for warranty. You can do the job start to finish in 5-6 hrs. And Volvo doesn't care about documenting every single bolt turn you made either. They just want to know what you found wrong and how you fixed it.
the best "stupid complaint" i have ever had was at a lexus dealer. customer said windows would not go up/down. come to find out the lock was on. that happened on average about 3-4 times/month.
I work at a dealer now.. been at a dealer for bout 5 years. high turnover rates, upper management not giving a crap about you, owners not caring about you at all, the warranty work, the CSE survey system. It's pretty stressful. our service manager left without a due notice, and we only have one service advisor/service manager who can't do certifications and warranty tickets. contemplation of leaving has been pretty frequent in my mind.
i am 5 yrs in at buick gmc dealership. i wouldnt say we are big but 10 techs, 2 apprentices ( me and another guy ) and 6 lube techs we are skill grouped not bumper to bumper. its divided front end, trim, ac, diesel , heavy line and trans , drive ability. i am the apprentice to drive ability. we have rotating saturdays. every 3rd saturday and its a short day. 8-3 when mon-fri is 7-5. i am nearly 100% in all my GM training. saturdays so far this year is a wasted day... its been slow... it hasnt got hot yet , when the heat goes up so does the paychecks. this last week was pretty bad had 4 wiring nightmares jobs and 3 of the 4 was warranty. spend 7 hours to get paid for 2 lol . problem we have right now is when trim is behind the shop slows to a crawl. no one wants to bring their cars /trucks in for other stuff if they cant get that noise or knob/button fixed. we have to have over 75 appointments a day to be considered busy. we have over 100 service loaner vehicles. we can go from no waiters to 20+ in the shop in a matter of minuets. what i do like about my dealership is they find ways to get you to earn more money. GM requires us to fill out multipoint inspections for every one filled out we get $1. paid weekly as cash spiff. if we upsell something on a ticket that isnt part of the original write up that is an hour or more in labor we get a tally that the service manager keeps a track of. at the end of every quarter we get "spins" on a wheel with different dollar amounts $1-$10 and for every hour you upsold is 1 spin... that is a cash spiff. and we have a supplier for fluids and service machines if we sale their services we get $2 per service ontop of the spin. also we get yearly bonus as well. it starts at 20cents and tops off at $2 i believe going up 20 cents per yer. you get that rate per hour flagged at the end of the year the week before Xmas as a bonus. so right now im at $1 per hour flagged. so if i flagged 50 hrs i get $50 towards my bonus for that week. we also get 2 weeks paid vacation. no joke as a lube tech getting paid flag hour i made $33k+ making $15 per hour flagged. right now as an apprentice my rate is $22 an hour and as soon as i get my GM training to 100% ( part of that is having ASEs) and get on my own ( very soon) it will likely go up closer to $30 an hour. alot of the techs i work with make 6 figures a year at that shop.
we are one of the only gm certified elite service departments. meaning we dont have to have GM sign off on warranty work for major claims... we can self authorize. GM dont make it easy to have the elite status. we have had it all 5 yrs i have been there minus a 6 month period that was due to our accounting office. it has been a good job. for a tech who was starting out and learning their way through i have been very lucky to be where im at. cuz as you know the new guys always find a way to f@&K something up. i have made my share ... but my goal is to get to GM certified world class. it requires all ASEs, 100% in all of GM training and to pass all GM hands on certifications. so I started out in tech school, go hired at sears auto for lube and tires. go hired at the dealer im at now, was lube/maintenance tech, state inspector for about 3 yrs and now apprentice to drive ability. the guy im learning from is 30+ yrs GM drive ability. he knows his shit. i been under him just shy a year n half. i was told it would take about 24-30months before i would be on my own
Good vid man. I gave up on dealers a long time ago. I charge what I think is fair for what I do. If you do not like it, the door is only 180 degrees from where you stand. I do better work than the dealer can ever do. I will take anything in my bay and fix a ton of them. The name of the the game in the aftermarket world is specialization. Keeping up on scanners, general everyday tool payments, information you need to do it. Not to mention the wear and tear on your body. It adds up. Find the make you like and stick with it. I try to stick with Ford and prefer diesel. Getting around special tools now is hit and miss at best. Dealers are not into the fixing car biz. They are in the "trade that in" biz. The aftermarket is full of idiots who expect everything at the drop of a hat. I kind of blame RUclips for this. It ain't easy. I just spent 10 hours doing something I could watch in a 7 minute video.
Авто/Мото
Dealer tech life hasn't been bad for me. Great owner great management they all take care of their employees and plenty of work for everyone...I guess you just have to find the right shop.
I worked at 4 dealerships (Porsche, Volvo, Audi, VW) for 27 years, now retired. This is a GREAT vid. Everything said is spot on! Every young person thinking of becoming a mechanic should see this. When I started, it was a good profession to get into. Not now! More complicated cars with a higher percentage of warranty work. Which means YOU WORK FOR FREE!! You can't pay the bills or raise a family when you work 8-10 hours and only get paid for 4! This happens a LOT, and the stealership does't give a damn. Drama, favoritism, incompetent management, and an owner who inherited the stealership from their daddy and doesn't have a clue what he's doing! One thing not mentioned ( because 'Flat Rate Master' is still young) is the physical damage your body endures year after year. Arthritis, carpal tunnel, back problems, cuts and bruises, and who knows how many chemicals your body will absorb! I could go on and on. DON'T BE AN AUTO MECHANIC. You will regret it!!!
Paul Mark wow what a resume. Which one of those brands was your favorite?
@@chevyguy2063 Let's keep in mind that I retired in 2000. Cars have changed a lot since then. They're much more complex. Of the 4 brands I worked on my favorite was Volvo. The best were the 140's and the 240's (None Turbo). They were simple, rugged, built to last and easy to work on. Very little warranty work because they were engineered right. If you took care of them they were a 300k car. I don't trust the newer Volvo's. Just to complicated. Some of the worst vehicles on the road are made in Germany. These cars only sell because of the old myth of 'German Engineering'. I saw, and had to repair, some of the worst, overcomplicated, poorly designed systems you could imagine! Exploding heater cores, fuse panel melt downs, numerous oil leaks. VW's diesel gate is just the tip of the iceberg. And don't expect to get paid for any of this warranty work. Your family will starve before VW pays the mechanic to fix any of their engineers mistakes! I've said enough. BTW: My daily driver is a 16yr old Lexus with 190k miles and ZERO problems. My sunny day only toy is a 03 Mustang GT slightly modified : )
@@chevyguy2063 lol
@@suzintru1 Why do you dislike the new Volvos? I think they are one of the most reliable in the field/industries along with Lexus. (I see this is 3 yrs old per say), I do inspection work and examine all the warranty items for many shops.
@JosephGoeke they don't like aftermarket parts and have very interesting (not necessarily bad) engineering. Volvo's are very reliable when newer and well maintained but a 10 year old one with a few questionable repairs and high mileage can be just as bad as any Audi out there.
Drama, favoritism and noise complaints... god you hit that nail on the head.
wind noises and water leaks too
Every few months I get a message from a friend or past co-workers that work at a new car dealer asking if I want a job because they know I’m a good wrench. Once in s while I go talk to the service manager. They tell me well I can pay you $15 less an hour until you get trained and certified. So I say you guys obviously need a good tech or you wouldn’t have people messaging me on Facebook and if you want to offer more money and more vacation time maybe I will think about working here and I will work flat rate but after I’m certified so I need salary pay like I am currently getting so I have time to adjust to the new cars. They say they can’t do anything like that. I said well I can’t call my mortgage company and tell them i will pay them when my work decides to train me and shake his hand, tell him if anything changes then call me. A few months go by, I get contacted again by the same dealer “hey we can we talk again”? So I say you know what I need to make if you can’t pay me more than that from day one then I’m not interested. They don’t understand that not everyone is 20 years old and can afford a huge pay cut. I work at a European repair shop as a foreman, I don’t work weekends, no late nights, I make 70k per year with healthcare paid for by the owner and no dealership politics. Why would I go to a new car dealer to make less money for how ever long, work late nights, weekends, and deal with bullshit. The last dealer was about 10 more hours per week. Yeah in a few years I might make 100k but I work less hours now so I have more free time to sell cars to make extra money and I don’t have to bust my ass as hard as you do at a new car dealership and I get a good paycheck that never changes. I loved working at a new car dealer but with all the training, going out of town and extra hours it’s a lifestyle change and I would have to be guaranteed to make over 100k per year and no dealerships are going to offer that. I refuse to go back to the bottom when I’m 33 years old. Also when you get to be a really good Independent tech you get smarter at diagnostics, using a lab scope so you learn how to work around not having every factory scan tool.
I have been a master tech at my dealership for 30 year's and you are spot on ! And one of the negatives for new people in the dealership world is punch time. If you forget to punch on and off, you don't get paid for it....
If that is the worst you have to worry about.......
Flat rate is the way to go
Put the parts on car not in garbage
Recalls bring in work
Look the vechiles over
Drive them before you bring in it
Drive them when you finish
Stay busy
Use more LED lights
Up selling and Maintenance is important
God bless Us all
The other hilarious aspect of flat rate shops is they expect you to stand around when there isn't any work. The law where I am says that the minimum requirement for compensation is minimum wage if you are being forced to stay in the workplace. Once work comes in, the regular rate then applies. Dealers and independent shops under flat rate hates people that know the law. They then try and play games such as voting to see who goes home.. Etc. Such a joke. I asked, "Anything scheduled in?" The answer no, "See you later then." Shops will try and take advantage of techs any way they can. The industry needs to be completely reformed.
100% agree, I get a good hourly wage, theres none of this nonsense about standing around, if theres no job youre expected to do maintenance and clean the shop.
Been doing Diesel Fleet maintenance for 20 years. When I wanted to be a mechanic I would visit auto shops and ask to be a apprentice. I had one shop owner tell me to go fleet maintenance and not flat rate. I took his advice. Best thing I ever did.
Can u elaborate about fleet maintenance advantages please and thanks
Salary?
@@selenalopez7967 gotta work long days saturdays are a must
I've worked for Subaru and I'm currently at Toyota.
Honestly, I love the dealership life, but I understand it isn't for everyone.
There’s always drama at the dealerships it’s kinda funny it reminds me of high school
its because of the environment, it's always the service advisors at my dealer
🤣🤣🤣 my husband quit because exactly what you saying wow 🤦🏻
The dealership i work for doest have much drama. Really everyone blazes. Life's good
It’s by design
Try working for a union...
best things about Automotive machanic is need for our skills .. "Any where in the world " you can always fine a jobs .. great video
Very true, I can always find another shop to park my tool boxes
The customers need YOU, YOUR skills, YOUR tools, NOT the building.
Working as a dealer tech basically scared me out of the industry. The dealer is now out of business, but they were every bit of the stereotype that surrounds a scummy stealership. Absolute filth, and I took my tools with me to deep sea diving and then what I do now. Real glad I went to trade school and learned how to fix cars though. Saves a ton of money from paying someone else to fix my old crap.
must have been all these sales people wrecking the dealership.
favoritism happens in almost every job.
Good job on the video! I did 10 years learning the trade then 20 on my own. Going solo is a whole different level. You get all the responsibility but you also get all the money. Nice.
You nailed the dealer environment scenarios.. I thought years at a GM dealer was drama, went to a Benz dealer, premadonnas is a understatement. Keep up the great videos.
Thank You! and I will!
Hate to break it, but there is drama EVERYWHERE. Trust me.
Very informative for a new tech starting in the field.
I loved it the video, I have been a mechanic for over 25 years I never worked flat rate, flat rate always scared me because they try to pay as little as possible but this video is very encouraging, it always takes me more time then Mitchel gives, I worked in a regular repair shop most of my life not dealer only one time I did and I was paid hourly, older cars always need more attention things are rusty dirty hoses are dry won't come off etc.
im a tech at a chevrolet dealer and i love it. been there 3 years with no problems. but thats just me i understand everywhere is different. good vid!
Thanks a lot bro. I've worked as a mechanic most of my life at independent shops. But that changes starting this morning. I start at a dealership that is so big it is a Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler dealership on one side of the highway and a GM dealership on the other. I dropped my tool box off Saturday so I got to meet a few of the mechanics. They seem quite young so I'm thinking I may already have more experience than they. Two of them were doing an oil pan gasket change it looked like and the other was just changing tires. I used to be head mechanic and the trans rebuild guy at one shop I worked at in the early 2000s. Thanks again, I'll definitely subscribe and like.
I work at a dealership One pro is most of the cars you work on are newer. So they are cleaner. Less nastiness
But the drive ability complaints are the dumbest type of work
You seem to always have some tidbit that I can apply to my work.
As a technician at a power sports dealership, I sometimes have to tweak it, but it's still all good,keep up the good work.
Thank you for making this awesome video. This is the single most helpful video I've found to help me decide whether to become an auto tech.
I am glad I went into computers, I believe working as a auto tech might put me in the crazy house.
My brother does IT, thanks I will stick to cars:)
I found a good way to swap the BMW X3 and X5 passenger airbags without removing the whole dash. I was the only one at the dealership who could do it due to needing smaller hands. BMW ended up cutting the time so I was barely making any time off of it and other techs were losing hours doing it so they would only give them to me.
I was talking to a tech once and he said he essentially did a transmission for free since he forgot to put the trans cooler line flush code in the story.
I did a trans rebuild for free twice in a row. It was a 4T80E transaxle out of 90s model Cadillac. I rebuilt it, took it for a test drive, within one mile the trans started slipping and got smoked. My boss said, "Well, you'll have to rebuild it again." I rebuilt it the second time, paying even far more attention to every single detail as I went (I had been rebuilding transmissions for years already, so experienced was not the issue.) So, second time finished, test drive, BOOM.... within one mile trans gets smoked again. Then Boss says, "okay, we're going to rebuild it one more time but this time I'll be right there helping." 3rd rebuild, he test drives, ahem.... one mile - trans gets smoked. He ate all the cost but did pay me for one rebuild. I lost out on the other two. In all my life rebuilding transmissions/transaxles,, that's the only one I ever had fail on me. He told the customer they would have to take it to a dealership and he charged them ZERO dollars.
Plain Talk - You nailed it. You know the Automotive Repair World.
Great video, subbed! I've been at a BMW dealership for over 5 years now and I'm really greatful for being able to work for this dealership and the near 30 techs working. Service department managers and foremen are great, and healthy work environment overall.
I used to work at a Hyundai dealer and man did those things have recalls. The great thing was we had a bunch of them to get us through the slow season. They would come in for the recall and we would up sell any work it needed.
My Mother in Law owns a Sonata she likes it, but yes tons of recalls!
I'm about to start working in a dealership, coming from a chain store so this video was very informative! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you glad you enjoyed the video!
nickthornton2296 how you doing now?
THANK you so much , great video . I’m in between trying to decide if I wanna Work for Toyota or go to another independent. This really helped me get a better idea on what to do .
Toyota is absolutely wonderful to work for.
My dealership is extremely small 5 techs including myself 3 bays 1 OEM scanner and 1 off make
We are generally pretty good for helping each other.
I work for an ag machinery dealer. Like you mentioned ,the access to information and company help is priceless. Independent dudes don't have that for the most part. It's hard with the help so my cap is off to y'all.
Excellent points Mike thank you.
Great video as always and some valid points here.
Thank you!
I am a Volkswagen and Infinti tech and everything you mentioned is spot on there is always drama and it is always every man for himself and correct again about favorites in the shop!
Thank you!
Worked at a mom and pop shop for about 11 months and just got let off and I’m exploring my options, this video helped me put my foot down and start looking into some dealership jobs, so I just wanted to say thank you for putting out this informational video
The trade is dying. Warranty time is a scam an needs to be made illegal.
Lol and I've heard this plenty which is another reason I'm put off.
It's not that bad, and works itself out, pay wise. If you want to do it, don't be put off. You just have to adapt to the fact that the way you get paid is a little different.
Do you think it is a scam if you are constantly beating book time for regular work! For instance my brother-in-law works at a Toyota dealership he works about 50 hours a week but he is consistently paid for almost double that! Between being buddy's with his service writer, and being the top Tech at his dealer! Is that a scam? You take the good with the bad and stop being a crybaby! Or maybe you are just too slow!
Warranty work may pay horribly... but it's the customer pay tickets that covers that.
@@matthannah4621 it shouldn't have to balance out. The manufacturer is the one to blame. The technician didn't make the vehicle, so why is he being penalized for the cost to fix it? That's the point. The law needs to change.
Great video, thanks for the insight! I'm a car guy with years of experience working on my own cars. I just got my first technician job with a Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealer, very excited!
How are you doing now bud?
21 years at a dealer and ready for a total change of career. Flat rate at a dealer is total BS!!
I have a BS to pay ratio, the higher the BS the higher my pay better be! and if not I am out!
Yep dealership flat rate is a joke
I’m 20 in. Any career change ideas cause I’m so sick of it
@@joesmith482 machinist
Good stuff...I do want to point out for any entry level techs the chances of being overwhelmed is way higher vs middle career techs who already went through all the stressors and are able to look beyond those obstacles & focus on what do they want to accomplish...its important to compare between new techs & pros! I'm sure you have something to share about that sir
Great vid. I should be starting out as a express lane tech soon, doing simple stuff like tire rotations, oil changes, etc. But, it's good to know this when I actually get my foot all the way in the door and experience what it's actually like out there as a real tech.
How's it been?
@@yushanchen4193 So far so good dude! Started at Mercedes and I was there for about 4-5 months before leaving and working on used cars at Mitsubishi, closer to home and they're paying more!
Wow!!! This guy really knows his shit!!!! Thanks for helping me make an informed decision!!!!!!
A year into this trade, I found this very helpful!
All cons are exit totally agree with you on stupid complaint my feeling sometimes on those customers just want visit here for no reason but all worth it I learned more than everywhere I worked before I like dealership may be I am still learning. I watch’s alot of your video always helps me .
Fantastic advice can’t argue with anything you said. I have 43 years experience in the dealership world with BMW in the UK. It’s a horrible environment as it’s dog eat dog. In the UK it is possible to make more bonus being a poor tech as the controller will give them easy work. Also as you said some are loved that are useless but can’t do anything wrong in Management eyes despite everyone else seeing how they are cheating and lazy. I love fixing cars but the biggest thing is training. I get around 15 paid days a year as well as unlimited on-line training. There are pros and cons but basically you need a thick skin. Nice video👍
Yea I’ve worked for a ford dealership for 2 years now the main shop guys are really helpful and we always look out for each other just our management is shitty
I'm a Ford technician at a small dealership in Western New York that has been around for 36 years, and I can relate to the pros and cons of working as a dealer tech. We had an issue where there are "more chiefs than there are indians", and had issues with not getting used cars finished or special order parts for a diagnosed vehicle whether it's service customer pay or warranty jobs, because we've let our buy one get one free oil changes get out of hand with non-Ford customers that don't buy our maintenance items when we try to sell them work, and the history is repeating with "oil change, tire rotation, multi-point check over" and "obd2inspection" and no history of other work, because if they needed brakes for inspection, they would decline the work since they only wanted their free oil change and we've had to fail their inspection. Now, we are currently discontinuing our buy one get one free oil change to only customers that have not bought a vehicle from the dealership, and we've been able to get different jobs done and earn more money.
Great video. Just somethings i have delt with when it comes to “pros”
15 mechanics. 3 scanners always have to wait for some one to finish programming or updating to use the scanner.
Special tools are never there. Like u mentioned.
luke cartwright thats why i always bought my own
Man, seeing this older video pop up in my timeline, funny. The audio and lighting and tool box have gotten much better. Haha
I was a ASE Master Technician along with almost being a Chrysler Master Technician. I loved working at that dealership. I only got out of the industry due to my shoulder pain. I now am in building maintenance thru USPS. Still work on vehicles on the side but don’t regret being a tech! Some days I miss diagnosing vehicles!
I worked at palm Peterbilt and liked it. Even though I had experience I was still middle of pack. Did a lot of warranty work. And brakes and PMs. My wife a Dr moved so did I.
I think you hit all the right spots on this. Luckily I work at a dealer where we all get along and we stay busy and we all make our hours easily.
Very Nice!
Yeah. At Lexus in mtg al, were all a team. Only had 9 comebacks in 2017 we are a family. And we do the best work. No excetion. Took us a while to weed out the hacks.
You are bang on. Worked at a dealership fire 25 years as a tech. It's like a prison always watch your back or you'll get shived. Biggest prob is they have enough work for ten guys but fifteen stalls they hire fifteen cause it doesn't cost then anymore cause everyone is on pierce work basically so everyone is competing against each other for work.
You hit most of the points! One thing you didn't mention is PDI's are awesome during slow periods. Lately I keep hearing the "we don't pay diag time until the vehicle is fixed".... So being the electrical guy, sometimes I have many many hours of diag waiting on backordered parts. Getting small pay cheques through no fault of my own, hoping the vehicle comes back and hoping the backordered part is the fix. One more thing to add, Chrysler is absolutely brutal with service information about wiring. I came from Nissan where you could look at a description of how something was supposed to work, you could then read about expected circuit voltages and functions. With Chrysler no one knows how it's supposed to work and you have to try and figure out why and how it's supposed to function by guessing and then try and fix it.
I thought about it but it was a long video, so I cut that part. I am cussing Jeep engineers tonight horrible location for an EGR on a Jeep 3.8:(
You hit the nail on the head about the cons. I am not a technician but have worked as service advisor/writer for almost a decade. Long story short- I am getting burnt out by the dealership mentality & especially being the very "last call." Knowing that a customer did all that they could to avoid the cost of the repairs and then dealing with that person who wants to "SaVE mONeY" ends up being that very customer that wastes tons of my time and the technicians' time and energy. I go home feeling empty and over-worked and stressed...
Haha the recall part.. the air bags in our 2000s truck on the passenger side I can do those with my eyes close, also being at a dealer doing accessories on the unsold vehicle is so tedious
Manufacturers adjust warranty times to accommodate their brand. For instance, when General Motors was suffering from diminished sales. They cut their warranty times in half. Which were already half of the normal flat rate hour. So in essence the technician has to take a 75% cut in pay at the whim of General Motors. Cons to working in the dealership number 2. Subjective loss of pay at the whim of the manufacturer.
You make really cool videos man
You are exactly right about the dog eat dog vibe at a dealer. Lots of drama, many days I would see almost fights break out. That was only between the techs. Then you have the service writers who think they are techs, etc. This would make the real techs resentful, and again almost start fights. We had a guy who his whole job was a "quality control manager" and the dude would walk around in a lab coat and pre-diagnose vehicles in the service drive. This man had never turned a wrench in his life and was a huge push-over. He would plant phantom noises and symptoms in the customers mind, then it would get turned over to the real techs. Then the tower guy would pick favorites and give all the gravy work to a few. Then the sales people thought the techs worked for them and would rush the techs around. Then the service manager would be a huge condescending jerk for the most part. I saw work so sparse before that guys would have to cut the dealership a check to cover their benefits because they didn't turn any hours. I worked at a GMC/Oldsmobile dealer from 96-2000 before I went to an independent. Then I got out of the business all together in 2002 and I am glad I did.
Im about to start working at a dodge dealership in 3 days, hope this vid helps me with how things gonna go
100% on point. 10+ years dealer audi tech. Been to several dealers and 1 indi. Management/dispatcher favoritism of 2 or 3 people ruin it for the bunch. If You want to have co workers steal all the good work and you get stuck with whats left....this is the industry for you.
not in arizona
Happened to me at Rover, one guy was very egotistical, always the favorite, and got all the work and I figured out that this place wasn’t it. Work at lucid now and I’ve made more money and went hourly, best decision I made
A lot of the cons he mentions happen at times. However, at least at my dealership that i work for, It's not every man for themselves. Everyone is willing to help eachother out. Warranty time can suck but its not nearly as bad as he makes it out to be. Probably also depends on how good your warranty clerk is. As long as you write a decent story describing how you came to a conclusion about a warranty part replacement, you have no issues. Recalls are just that. Sometimes you get decent times, other recalls totally suck. Most of the recalls I currently see are ebcm, power steering module and ecm reprogramming. I came from the independent/chain/tire shops. Thats what I did for 13 years. I went to the dealership and I'll never go back to a chain/tire shop again. But everyone's experience is different. It also helps that the dealership I work for is not a mega chain dealer . We are family owned and they only own 1 dealership and the owners still work everyday for the dealership. Also, as far as saturdays go, techs work 1 saturday every 7 weeks. So its not bad at all.
Thank you for the positive comment. I think these lifetime dealer guys never had another job. Once they do maybe they won't hate their job so much.
Might be going from the current independent shop I'm at now for a dealership position thanks for the insight
Being a field technician for an equipment dealer is where it's at. Something new every day and I get to drive a company truck home!
When you say equipment dealer, do you mean dump trucks, frontend loaders, etc... Or what
@@-I-Use-Punctuation yes back when I wrote this I was very vague lol. I work for a caterpillar dealer in the power systems department working on mostly generators.
Only watching this because I'm a lube tech and really dislike the management and management style. Lots of favoritism... Need a change. Fleet repair sounds up my alley. One location, everyone working on roughly same vehicle types, just need a change, unhappy 😭
@@-I-Use-Punctuation look into your local cat dealer. I can't speak for all dealers, but mine is great.
@@jeffsmith8066 👍
The best dealership I ever worked at was a Subaru (as far as customers buying jobs). Service writers are horrible no matter where you go. The drama starts at the service writers and then it trickle down.
As much as I hate warranty most times, I think its fair to mention one advantage to it is that if something is broken on the car under warranty, you don't have to upsell it or wait for customer approval. You just fix it and get paid so no wasted time there. That is of course if the failure is covered.
Very good point!
Yup, that's a good point. And when doing your vehicle check, if you come across an issue, you can have a job line added onto the RO to do even more work. If the customer happens to need the vehicle back, the advisor can re-book for another appointment and make it so that you get the job when the customer returns.
A lot of what you’re saying just relates to a crappy dealer vs a good one. And a crappy independent shop vs a good independent shop.
\like the diesel for Ford, it was actually Galpin Ford (the main shop from Pimp My Ride) found out how to cut basically a full day from the repair when it initally came out back in the day and then Ford caught on and neutered the pay
That is normally how it works:(
My dealership (chrysler) has the warranty forever program on new and used cars. 2 things you must do to keep the warranty is ALL factory required maintenance at appropriate intervals and the vehicle must be serviced at the purchasing dealership. $$$$$$ for the techs.
Educational for any future Tech
what I see at the dealer level is service advisor and sometimes manager giving away free work because they want to protect CSI and kisses the customers ass. and doing what we call "lane diagnosing"
That is starting to happen in the aftermarket too, to scared of a bad online review:(
Flatrate Master yup and its ridiculous.
Flatrate Master I mean I understand online reviews are here to stay, its the way of the world. but its at the point now were people are expecting to come in and get stuff for free. they know the game. and that shit ain't cool dude
Yeah the survey shit sucks. It does lead to us doing free work. We do a free mpi with every ro. And now we have to run every car through a car wash which takes 5 minutes and if it tears something off the car its on us to fix it free. Getting diag time is like pulling teeth. I feel like i need a psychiatrist to follow me so i can stay sane
Kevin Nunnery yea man. today is definitely the world of the troll. we had one complaining about the selection of magazines and bombed us. smfh
Great points...it does gets boring because you see the same vehicles over and over again...if someone is new I would recommended to go into independent shops because you'll see a lot of variety of vehicles where as a dealer tech you see same type of vehicles over and over again but on other hand as a dealer tech you'll know common problems and tricks with only that brand of vehicles...team system sucks, it looks good on paper and it sounds great but in teams there is always someone that slacks or does a piss poor job of doing their job
I work at a caterpillar heavy equipment dealer. The training is the best part of the working there. There is 3 websites that I have access to. also there are 2 guys that go between the engineers and techs. Plus the scan tool is great heavy equipment doesn’t really have aftermarket scan tools.
I worked at a place that did HD stuff with aftermarket software and the HD guys hated it, I didn't work on that stuff but huge advantage to have the OE software working on HD trucks
Did a short tour of 2 honda dealers in my area. Biggest thorn was the scamer the the GM knew about and let go cus they made $ for shop. Cars are fun to work in but it made my gut turn everyday.....so back to motorcycle dealer it was. More fun and customers weren't late for soccer practice. Plus boss it old pro racer so he likes stuff done right and pushes scamers out. You vids are nice. Shop stories always funny to remember though.
+bill smith lol I have a couple videos coming up next week on this subject😉
It's gotta be the right dealer. But there's is usually drama but the severity differs. I love working at a dealer been at dealers for 18yrs.
Lots of tech love working at dealers, but you are right every shop is different in every kind of shop, indy, dealer, chain or fleet, gotta find the right one for you!
Pretty much agree with most of this. I have been in a fleet shop for four years, it's not terrible, garbage trucks bluh. Pretty fast past paced most of the time, bad mechanic to truck ratio. Trash trucks have a bad tendency to breakdown, bunch of moving parts and hydraulics and electrical, it gets old. Overall not a bad place to learn about things though, a lot of different types work.
BTDT, I worked on rear loaders back in my younger days, brakes and tires were lucky to last 3 months, hoses blowing out with a load, road calls for blown out brake chambers, fun with maggots dropping on you. Very cool you enjoy it!
I work for a dealer but i work on all the used cars and i love it most of the time because its something different each day. But what gets me is the guy next to me always gets the newest cars with no problems amd i get all the big headache ass jobs
We have to run clock time on a warranty ticket of at least 70% for Toyota, if you don't it increases the chances of an audit.
What happens when bolts are seized or round/snap or other complications ?
Good information, thanks.
Thanks for watching!
Worked for a dealership for 33 years- started my own shop- never looked back- only regret was should have done it a lot sooner!
Currently work for the biggest used car dealer and soooo glad I don’t deal with any of these issue, also kinda bummed that we have to rely on our own knowledge and other techs to helps us get out of a bind. However we don’t get stiffed on pay, and never have to worry about warranty pay, also just got a 32% raise
Wow 32% that's incredible 👏
Thank god for unions. No free lane work, no BS from service writers trying to keep their CSI up, we usually beat our guarantee (35/h a week), but it’s great for the slow weeks. I might just have gotten lucky with the shop I’m at, but we look out for each other and make sure everyone is fed.
Draves couldn’t agree more.
I was a dealer tech for 15 years or so. warranty pay and recall pay has went down every year. it's horrendous. plus I think it took longer to develop diag skills due to becoming complacent with common issues
I though about mentioning that, as I have seen, 20 plus years dealer techs that could tell you what was wrong, by code or symptom,on any car in that line, but couldn't diagnose a simple issue, on a different brand because they didn't know the pattern failure, but I have met some great techs that just happened to work for a dealer
I had a technician come from Honda to the Toyota dealer I work at. He could do heavy line but couldn’t diag because he only knew common failures.
Gera Grabovich fuel trims
You said how ''if its at the dealer, you gotta fix it'' we had a Chevy Cruze come, just for a weird missfire on miltuple cylinders, kinda weird. Long story short, turbo was going out and after the second time it was in the shop, it let go. Oil feed line was clogged, poor oil changes. Needs a turbo now after it grenaded. It was sent to an independant right from the chevy dealer.
Idk how it is for dealer techs but all my friends that are dealers techs are making well over $100k a year but then again they work for BMW and Audi
depends on the area. if they work in an area that is upper middle class and better than there is a great chance that a dealer tech can make a lot of money. obviously depends on how many cars the dealer sells as well. great question to ask service manager during an interview
Speaking of noise complaints a late friend of mine was a mechanic in the 70s. A customer complained about a rattling noise from the rear of their brand new Pontiac. After numerous test drives my buddy finally decided to pull the interior panels and found that some smartass at the factory had dropped a crab in between the wheel well and the quarter panel.
thank you for this info
Two days into working at a dealer vs tire shops and I noticed just how many grumpy people their was. And always so much drama.
The charge backs can be bad if your not meticulous, eg if doing warranty or TSB r n r engine and they say to replace with new these specific fasteners and you forgot one or two they say no to getting the pay.
Drama at the dealership what you've heard is 100% correct I work at a dealership for 21 years and all it is is drama I have friends that work independent and it's not even close great video by the way
I worked aftermarket for 15 years I was tired of being handicapped and thank God I found a dealership that's not a shark tank a good dealer you should have a team leader with every guy has his an hour of objective and when he gets a bad job he get some gravy keeps the shop running smoothly and Volkswagen warranty pays well so if you ever move to Pennsylvania look me up
Glad you found a great place to work for! I am not handicapped here, we have great equipment, info and several OE tools, plus I am very well paid! I have been offered a few Dealer jobs, last was for MB, Thanks for the offer!
I currently work at a dealership so let me add a few things: I have worked with lots of hacks in independent shops but we get rid of them immediately at the dealership, I like putting out quality repairs with OEM parts not aftermarket garbage that will not last, I enjoy factory training and knowing how to properly service the vehicle or a component, even warranty time is extremely generous in nearly all cases if you are worth a darn as a wrench and there is only a handful of things that make take as much as 50% of the time required as most can be completed in 1/3rd of the time as we do them so often etc.. etc.. I have weekends off and work on other makes (meaning not the make dealer I work for) at buddy's shops where I do all the diagnostics they can't do with their tools that only they think they need dealer equipment to do but somehow it is just poor training or skills on their parts. There are good mechanics at independent shops, unfortunately they are a small percentage per my experience
I have been a master tech for Ford for 20 years and I have been one of the more productive techs everywhere I worked . I have rarely felt or heard any other techs say that warranty pay is extremely generous . just saying . I have flagged between 100-150 hours a two pay period and have found it harder and harder to continue with that production . anyway just strange to hear someone say what you said . I have made good money over the years but seems to be trending down . also all my experience is with ford and I can tell you nearly everyday there is a programming issue that exceeds warranty time pay . or pulling a dash when you do one a year on whatever vehicle not too easy to beat the time on the first one you do . then the next one comes a year later . I dunno maybe you are the best and I have never seen anyone like you lol .
I had a really stupid one when I worked at the chevy dealer. Back in 2012, had a 2012 corvette, customer complained of a exhaust vibration 6th gear to 5th downshift at 200km/hr. I was unable to duplicate it because I was not willing to break the law to duplicate it. Speed limit was 110. Service sales manager (head service advisor) duplicated it, but there was nothing we could do.More than once had field engineers come out to look things over, but they wouldn't get dirty, they just told us what to do.
Gotta love customers that expect you to break the law to duplicated their issue, we get a few of those, trust me around the shop we are lucky if we can hit 70 mph on the highway, traffic:(, let alone 90-100 MPH
The pay is a disadvantage at times.My dad worked at a Chrysler dealership for a few years,this was 1979 to 1981 I believe.He did find what was causing problems the other techs could not find.One was a 1977 Chrysler with a complaint of a rattle.Other techs could not find it and my dad found it.Removed the driver's side door panel and found an empty beer can inside the front driver's door.The older cars,assembly line workers were known for throwing things in cars going down the assembly line.This is what happened with this empty beer can.He got out because of the pay,was not paid enough.My dad still has the OEM Chrysler factory specialty tools for setting up the 9.25 rear ends.One is the long tool to turn the adjusters to set back lash.
I know all about the assembly line workers pulling that BS
Was not aware of Team pay systems... that for sure can be bad if someone is not pulling his weight!
I can be a good system, if everyone works together, it will even out, someone gets a car that kicks them in the teeth, the rest pull him through, but people will abuse the system :(
There will always be techs that hump the jobs and the others that just cruise and get the creampuff jobs. Ive been doing this 35 years. Nothing changes!
Seems like thats why shops cant hold onto techs is we have this lazy ass babyboomer kids and their kids running things now so when you have the hard workers it really eats them up, and shops will do team pay just to keep the pay scale down.
And it all depends on the company you work for. I work for a truck dealership but it's pretty much all the same. Depending on the manufacturer also depends on how much you get for warranty pay. Cummins warranty you can pretty much forget about beating time with on almost any repair. Volvo warranty is the best I've seen yet with pay. Example ; Diag. hard to start with fuel system tests and R&R 6 injectors and injector cups pays around 10 hours for warranty. You can do the job start to finish in 5-6 hrs. And Volvo doesn't care about documenting every single bolt turn you made either. They just want to know what you found wrong and how you fixed it.
Very true, But getting into warranty times may wind up its own video:)
the best "stupid complaint" i have ever had was at a lexus dealer. customer said windows would not go up/down. come to find out the lock was on. that happened on average about 3-4 times/month.
I work at a dealer now.. been at a dealer for bout 5 years. high turnover rates, upper management not giving a crap about you, owners not caring about you at all, the warranty work, the CSE survey system. It's pretty stressful. our service manager left without a due notice, and we only have one service advisor/service manager who can't do certifications and warranty tickets. contemplation of leaving has been pretty frequent in my mind.
That sucks, Good luck and hope it gets better!
i am 5 yrs in at buick gmc dealership.
i wouldnt say we are big but 10 techs, 2 apprentices ( me and another guy ) and 6 lube techs we are skill grouped not bumper to bumper. its divided front end, trim, ac, diesel , heavy line and trans , drive ability. i am the apprentice to drive ability. we have rotating saturdays. every 3rd saturday and its a short day. 8-3 when mon-fri is 7-5. i am nearly 100% in all my GM training.
saturdays so far this year is a wasted day... its been slow... it hasnt got hot yet , when the heat goes up so does the paychecks. this last week was pretty bad had 4 wiring nightmares jobs and 3 of the 4 was warranty. spend 7 hours to get paid for 2 lol . problem we have right now is when trim is behind the shop slows to a crawl. no one wants to bring their cars /trucks in for other stuff if they cant get that noise or knob/button fixed.
we have to have over 75 appointments a day to be considered busy. we have over 100 service loaner vehicles. we can go from no waiters to 20+ in the shop in a matter of minuets. what i do like about my dealership is they find ways to get you to earn more money. GM requires us to fill out multipoint inspections for every one filled out we get $1. paid weekly as cash spiff. if we upsell something on a ticket that isnt part of the original write up that is an hour or more in labor we get a tally that the service manager keeps a track of. at the end of every quarter we get "spins" on a wheel with different dollar amounts $1-$10 and for every hour you upsold is 1 spin... that is a cash spiff. and we have a supplier for fluids and service machines if we sale their services we get $2 per service ontop of the spin. also we get yearly bonus as well. it starts at 20cents and tops off at $2 i believe going up 20 cents per yer. you get that rate per hour flagged at the end of the year the week before Xmas as a bonus. so right now im at $1 per hour flagged. so if i flagged 50 hrs i get $50 towards my bonus for that week. we also get 2 weeks paid vacation.
no joke as a lube tech getting paid flag hour i made $33k+ making $15 per hour flagged. right now as an apprentice my rate is $22 an hour and as soon as i get my GM training to 100% ( part of that is having ASEs) and get on my own ( very soon) it will likely go up closer to $30 an hour. alot of the techs i work with make 6 figures a year at that shop.
Sound like you work at a very well run dealer!
we are one of the only gm certified elite service departments. meaning we dont have to have GM sign off on warranty work for major claims... we can self authorize. GM dont make it easy to have the elite status. we have had it all 5 yrs i have been there minus a 6 month period that was due to our accounting office. it has been a good job. for a tech who was starting out and learning their way through i have been very lucky to be where im at. cuz as you know the new guys always find a way to f@&K something up. i have made my share ... but my goal is to get to GM certified world class. it requires all ASEs, 100% in all of GM training and to pass all GM hands on certifications. so I started out in tech school, go hired at sears auto for lube and tires. go hired at the dealer im at now, was lube/maintenance tech, state inspector for about 3 yrs and now apprentice to drive ability. the guy im learning from is 30+ yrs GM drive ability. he knows his shit. i been under him just shy a year n half. i was told it would take about 24-30months before i would be on my own
GM World class is a hefty goal! I love to see that kind of passion in young techs! good luck and I know you will do it!
jay webb good info jay keep up the work ethic. That dealership should be proud having people like you work for them
Good vid man. I gave up on dealers a long time ago. I charge what I think is fair for what I do. If you do not like it, the door is only 180 degrees from where you stand. I do better work than the dealer can ever do. I will take anything in my bay and fix a ton of them.
The name of the the game in the aftermarket world is specialization. Keeping up on scanners, general everyday tool payments, information you need to do it. Not to mention the wear and tear on your body. It adds up. Find the make you like and stick with it. I try to stick with Ford and prefer diesel. Getting around special tools now is hit and miss at best.
Dealers are not into the fixing car biz. They are in the "trade that in" biz. The aftermarket is full of idiots who expect everything at the drop of a hat. I kind of blame RUclips for this. It ain't easy. I just spent 10 hours doing something I could watch in a 7 minute video.
Thank you, specialization is where many shops need to head if they want to survive and thrive in this world