PSA, always check the work done by mechanics

[mtbtim]

As a union luxury auto tech, yes we work on flat rate. Never once have I botched a job only to save time. If I quote 2hrs to replace something, and it takes me 3hrs to get it done right, it's taking me 3hrs and I lose. I know people pay a lot of money for me to work on their cars, and with that should come a high level of skill and attention to detail.

Sounds like you're a competent honest Auto Tech. What kills me is shops that charge exactly by what the book/computer says. They know a job will only take an experienced technician 1 hour, but since the service book says the job is rated for 2 hours, they charge you 2 hours. And, when that's at a dealership which charges $150/hr, that's a big difference.

It's also criminal how shops continue to take advantage of people, usually women, trying to up-sell them on work that is not needed or severely overpriced.

Like [MENTION=114765]AZ4Running[/MENTION] said, if you find a shop that's good and doesn't try to butt rape you every chance they get, stick with them. There are good shops out there but you're still usually going to spend some serious duckets because labor rates are high. In my part of California (Bay Area), the average hourly rate is around $120/hr.

Because of how expensive it can be to get your vehicle worked on at a shop, I'll continue to encourage people on this forum to take up the challenge and do their own maintenance and repairs.

 

[TXLX1]

Really good technicians are hard to find. But most are decent in my experience. There's really no excuse for failing to simple remove and replace parts though. I'd consider myself an average home mechanic and even I know how to count parts and get them all back on the vehicle.

 

[TXLX1]

Sounds like you're a competent honest Auto Tech. What kills me is shops that charge exactly by what the book/computer says. They know a job will only take an experienced technician 1 hour, but since the service book says the job is rated for 2 hours, they charge you 2 hours. And, when that's at a dealership which charges $150/hr, that's a big difference.

It's also criminal how shops continue to take advantage of people, usually women, trying to up-sell them on work that is not needed or severely overpriced.

Like [MENTION=114765]AZ4Running[/MENTION] said, if you find a shop that's good and doesn't try to butt rape you every chance they get, stick with them. There are good shops out there but you're still usually going to spend some serious duckets because labor rates are high. In my part of California (Bay Area), the average hourly rate is around $120/hr.

Because of how expensive it can be to get your vehicle worked on at a shop, I'll continue to encourage people on this forum to take up the challenge and do their own maintenance and repairs.

A lot of dealer techs also lose their butt on book time.... They have to go find car, pull it in, stand at part counter, and swap a part for .2 if that's the book time for a job. Plus declining maint schedules, cars are at the dealer less. These guys aren't getting rich unless they are working sunup to sundown. I'd recommend finding an trust worthy independent shop that specializes in brands. Think I pay around $75 / hr at the shop I use.

 

[mtbtim]

A lot of dealer techs also lose their butt on book time.... They have to go find car, pull it in, stand at part counter, and swap a part for .2 if that's the book time for a job. Plus declining maint schedules, cars are at the dealer less. These guys aren't getting rich unless they are working sunup to sundown. I'd recommend finding an trust worthy independent shop that specializes in brands. Think I pay around $75 / hr at the shop I use.

Sounds like the automotive industry would be better for all, except the dealership owners, if they paid their technicians a fair hourly wage for their work. This way the technicians don't get boned on a job that takes longer than the service writer wrote it up for and they also won't be in a rush to get to the next repair so hopefully they'll do a better job on the vehicles they're working on. Radical concept huh?

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[BlackCat914]

Sounds like the automotive industry would be better for all, except the dealership owners, if they paid their technicians a fair hourly wage for their work. This way the technicians don't get boned on a job that takes longer than the service writer wrote it up for and they also won't be in a rush to get to the next repair so hopefully they'll do a better job on the vehicles they're working on. Radical concept huh?

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Most of th Ferrari and Lambo guys are hourly. You don't want a tech trying to do a $30,000 45k service in half the time it pays, and scratch everything to hell.

 

[BlackCat914]

Sounds like the automotive industry would be better for all, except the dealership owners, if they paid their technicians a fair hourly wage for their work. This way the technicians don't get boned on a job that takes longer than the service writer wrote it up for and they also won't be in a rush to get to the next repair so hopefully they'll do a better job on the vehicles they're working on. Radical concept huh?

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I see the argument on both sides, but you can't punish the guys that can properly do work in less than the time allotted. It takes experience, skill, and brand knowledge to do a lot of stuff. Working at a dealer, I can honestly say it's probably a wash as far as making money on CP work and losing your ass on warranty work. For example, I can typically get a brake job done in a little less than an hour, and it pays me 2hrs. I get paid 10.2hrs to replace the timing chains on our QX56's/QX80's/and M56's, and it takes me about 16hrs to do it. I lose 4hrs worth of pay to properly do that job. It takes some of the guys here 20-24hrs to do one.
A lot of dealers also have guys that specialize in certain things. You have one guy that does all the trans work, one guy who does alignments, one or two guys who work on the diesels, and so on. So those guys get really good at what they do and make good time on stuff. Hell, I have to put an evaporator core in a BMW next week for 16hrs. I've never pulled an entire BMW dash all the way down to the firewall. I'm going to lose my ass on that.
Another thing to consider is that on large, time consuming jobs, it's not like you're left alone to work on them start to finish. I can't tell you how many times I've been in the middle of hanging timing chains, and keep in mind that if they're so much as a single tooth off, you'll grenade the motor, that the dispatcher came over and pulled me off it to do like an oil change/rotate. Try having a $20,000 motor apart and having to walk away and focus on something else and come back to pick up where you left off.

 

[TheDurk]

I see the argument on both sides, but you can't punish the guys that can properly do work in less than the time allotted. It takes experience, skill, and brand knowledge to do a lot of stuff. Working at a dealer, I can honestly say it's probably a wash as far as making money on CP work and losing your ass on warranty work. For example, I can typically get a brake job done in a little less than an hour, and it pays me 2hrs. I get paid 10.2hrs to replace the timing chains on our QX56's/QX80's/and M56's, and it takes me about 16hrs to do it. I lose 4hrs worth of pay to properly do that job. It takes some of the guys here 20-24hrs to do one.
A lot of dealers also have guys that specialize in certain things. You have one guy that does all the trans work, one guy who does alignments, one or two guys who work on the diesels, and so on. So those guys get really good at what they do and make good time on stuff. Hell, I have to put an evaporator core in a BMW next week for 16hrs. I've never pulled an entire BMW dash all the way down to the firewall. I'm going to lose my ass on that.
Another thing to consider is that on large, time consuming jobs, it's not like you're left alone to work on them start to finish. I can't tell you how many times I've been in the middle of hanging timing chains, and keep in mind that if they're so much as a single tooth off, you'll grenade the motor, that the dispatcher came over and pulled me off it to do like an oil change/rotate. Try having a $20,000 motor apart and having to walk away and focus on something else and come back to pick up where you left off.

At least you don't have to worry about your wife telling you it's time to start the barbecue.

I never take my truck to a mechanic except alignments and wheel balances. The GF, poor girl, drives an Audi that breaks all the time and it's been more than I can keep up with so she had to take it a series of mechanics, both dealer and indies. They were all incompetent, thieves, or both. We finally found a good one. I went in with her to pick it up after a recent job and he recognized me. "You have the green 4Runner--I used to do your alignments down at Frank's before I bought this place." Me: "How did you remember that?" He says: "I drive a green '98 Limited."

That's my kind of mechanic.

 

[mtbtim]

I see the argument on both sides, but you can't punish the guys that can properly do work in less than the time allotted. It takes experience, skill, and brand knowledge to do a lot of stuff. Working at a dealer, I can honestly say it's probably a wash as far as making money on CP work and losing your ass on warranty work. For example, I can typically get a brake job done in a little less than an hour, and it pays me 2hrs. I get paid 10.2hrs to replace the timing chains on our QX56's/QX80's/and M56's, and it takes me about 16hrs to do it. I lose 4hrs worth of pay to properly do that job. It takes some of the guys here 20-24hrs to do one.
A lot of dealers also have guys that specialize in certain things. You have one guy that does all the trans work, one guy who does alignments, one or two guys who work on the diesels, and so on. So those guys get really good at what they do and make good time on stuff. Hell, I have to put an evaporator core in a BMW next week for 16hrs. I've never pulled an entire BMW dash all the way down to the firewall. I'm going to lose my ass on that.
Another thing to consider is that on large, time consuming jobs, it's not like you're left alone to work on them start to finish. I can't tell you how many times I've been in the middle of hanging timing chains, and keep in mind that if they're so much as a single tooth off, you'll grenade the motor, that the dispatcher came over and pulled me off it to do like an oil change/rotate. Try having a $20,000 motor apart and having to walk away and focus on something else and come back to pick up where you left off.

It's pretty easy to see the dealerships put themselves in a winning situation with their service departments. The customers are always going to pay through the nose for work there, sometimes the mechanics will be in a position to make some good money on the repairs they're doing, but the dealership is always going to get their high dollar rates for labor and parts.

Every time I stop by my local Toyota dealership for some parts I want right now and don't want to wait for shipping, the service department is slammed with cars. That dealership must be making a fortune.

 

[shahsmerdis]

It's pretty easy to see the dealerships put themselves in a winning situation with their service departments. The customers are always going to pay through the nose for work there, sometimes the mechanics will be in a position to make some good money on the repairs they're doing, but the dealership is always going to get their high dollar rates for labor and parts.

Every time I stop by my local Toyota dealership for some parts I want right now and don't want to wait for shipping, the service department is slammed with cars. That dealership must be making a fortune.

I am going to make a post about this, but shop with discover (Or any card with price protection), and then price match it with online vender, so you get bottom line price at dealer parts even at the last min.

 

[Rwhockey29]

Sounds like the automotive industry would be better for all, except the dealership owners, if they paid their technicians a fair hourly wage for their work. This way the technicians don't get boned on a job that takes longer than the service writer wrote it up for and they also won't be in a rush to get to the next repair so hopefully they'll do a better job on the vehicles they're working on. Radical concept huh?

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I work for a fairly large car auction(we have 14,000 cars in inventory at any time). Our mechanics work as teams of usually 3 sometimes 4. They get paid probably 30% more compared to dealership mechanics. Most of them actually came to work for use from dealerships. If you're on a team, you can all 3 work separate repairs, and you split the money at the end.

 

[StreetCreeper]

I work for a fairly large car auction(we have 14,000 cars in inventory at any time). Our mechanics work as teams of usually 3 sometimes 4. They get paid probably 30% more compared to dealership mechanics. Most of them actually came to work for use from dealerships. If you're on a team, you can all 3 work separate repairs, and you split the money at the end.

Maybe it's just me, but the thought of ever driving a vehicle that was last repaired/serviced by auction-yard mechanics — is an unsavory one.

Just kidding.....I'm sure they are good guys doing a tough job.......but still...

 

[rossgoldie]

Never had a problem returning sockets, ratchets or wrenches. It shows you just how little it costs HD to get them from the factory to the store.

But as said before, if buying a Rigid power tool, don't lose the receipt.

Went in to Home Depot today to try to get the warranty for the socket. The lady at customer service said that the warranty would only be honored by Husky. I called the Husky line on their website and it led to a home depot phone service line, which was closed. Was the customer service rep wrong or am I missing something?

 

[Kbuch1]

I agree with this. I have little to no mechanical skill, but I'm very proud of the fact that I've done all the work on my current 4runner. its horribly intimidating when you attempt to put a lift on, or a trans cooler and gauge, a radiator..... but the feeling you get when you accomplish it is great. and with this forum and youtube, hell it's almost easy. plus, it gives an excuse to buy tools

Spot on comment. My thoughts exactly.

 

[ralatkins]

Thanks! lol


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[LittleCaesar]

Went in to Home Depot today to try to get the warranty for the socket. The lady at customer service said that the warranty would only be honored by Husky. I called the Husky line on their website and it led to a home depot phone service line, which was closed. Was the customer service rep wrong or am I missing something?

They used to honor it right at the customer return desk, no questions asked. One could just get the newer socket. Granted the last time I went to warranty a Husky hand tool was in 2006 or 2007. Next time I won't open my fat mouth...:repuke:

Well it looks as if it is store dependent, where some stores can be total a#$holes and others are just fine with returns (my local one was fine with such):
Husky Home Depot Warranty Questions - The Garage Journal Board

I'd be on the phone again today, be the a*&hole and ask them why it is such a f^&kin PITA to return tools that are guaranteed for life:
http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/pdfImages/00/00d61783-2227-4948-bb55-e288f622cb4c.pdf

 

[4jey7]

TLDR; Make sure your mechanic isn't an idiot and knows how to swap a steering rack.

/rant

Even for an oil change. If you get someone to do it for you, better make sure they didn't overfill else you can blow the seals out of your motor.

You gotta check and know before you go !

 

[rossgoldie]

They used to honor it right at the customer return desk, no questions asked. One could just get the newer socket. Granted the last time I went to warranty a Husky hand tool was in 2006 or 2007. Next time I won't open my fat mouth...:repuke:

Well it looks as if it is store dependent, where some stores can be total a#$holes and others are just fine with returns (my local one was fine with such):
Husky Home Depot Warranty Questions - The Garage Journal Board

I'd be on the phone again today, be the a*&hole and ask them why it is such a f^&kin PITA to return tools that are guaranteed for life:
http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/pdfImages/00/00d61783-2227-4948-bb55-e288f622cb4c.pdf

Called Husky today, looks like the lady at the Customer Service desk didnt know her shit and/or was just an a$shole. Going back tomorrow to get my warranty fulfilled. Going to talk to a manager this time.