Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums  

As a mechanic I can sum up what is puppiesg the trade in two words: FLAT RATE. When you pay your techs flat rate you are encouraging them to be dishonest. They will miss repairs that a car obviously needs because the job doesn't pay well, and they will exaggerate repairs that might not be too crucial (or make them up entirely) if they pay well. Brainy techs who are good at electrical diagnosis (modesty aside, this would be me) are penalized because diagnosis does not pay well (in the case of Chrysler it does not pay at all) while less technically skilled guys make a killing on brakes & suspension. For example, when I was at Saturn, if I was chasing an electrical issue for four hours I MIGHT have gotten paid that four hours, plus an extra half hour for actually making the repair (say, soldering a broken wire). Meanwhile buddy in the next bay has spent his four hours doing three brake jobs and a control arm bushing, and takes home 8 hours. And as mentioned above, Chrysler is even worse. They wouldn't have paid those 4 hours diagnostic time, they'd have paid just the half hour to make the actual repair. For this reason techs are forced to either guess or starve. And it gets worse still - carmakers, especially certain ones that went bankrupt (or came very close to it) are looking to cut warranty costs. When a part fails it must be repaired or replaced, and there's nothing the manufacturer can do about that. So where do they cut costs? By cutting the flat rate times, of course. A job that used to pay 16 hours (such as replacing the swirl valves in a Mercedes 3.0 CDI) now pays 6.

This has the result of techs being reluctant to do warranty repairs and half-ass them when they do. What isn't warranty is retail, and manufacturers don't dictate retail flat rate times, so you can imagine the tech's preference.

Of course the tech isn't the only crook in the dealership service dept. Service advisors get paid a very low base salary plus a bonus based on retail work (warranty stuff does not count). The service manager gets a bonus based on the retail numbers. And of course the dealership owner makes more on retail than he does on flat rate. shiznit normally flows downhill, but in this case it's spraying everywhere. Unfortunately most of it lands on the mechanic, who has absolutely no say in the labour rate, flat rate time or parts markup but has to endure such stupidity as this thread, which places the blame on his back for everything he has no control over, including the vehicle owner's ignorance toward cars.

Let there be no doubt, customers share some blame in the whole mess that is the mechanic/customer relationship (such as this ridiculously titled thread). If you tell a customer a job will take three hours he expects to pay for three hours. If it takes four (broken bolt threw the job into the shiznitter) he will cry bloody murder if you try to charge him four. If it takes two he will expect you to reduce his quote to two. Flat rate is supposed to eliminate this problem, but as mentioned above, paying the tech flat rate and giving the service writer bonuses based on his sales opens it up to abuse. Menu pricing helps somewhat (brakes for $129.99 installed, most vehicles) but until techs start getting paid honestly they will be tempted to upsell/oversell.

For all the reasons posted above I got out of a flat rate shop and into one that pays a salary. I could probably make 30% more flat rate but I'm tired of the bullshiznit. And since everyone in the shop is paid the same I don't feel bad chasing an electrical gremlin while the dumb guy makes a killing on the alignment hoist. And I'm not alone. Large dealerships are losing their best techs to small shops because of the politics and flat rate reductions. They're all begging for techs but can't get anyone with any experience. As soon as young guys see the bullshiznit they leave. Some leave for smaller, straight time shops. Some leave for foreign dealerships that usually pay much better. Many leave the trade entirely. It's going to be interesting to see where this all ends up...

Yeah, he's not so bad

But then again i have not seen drums on cars for a long time since rear discs have replaced them years ago. just on the cheaper models and our old rides.

believe it or not my heavy ass 07 Raider actually has drums in the back

tom said cars, not trucks lol a lot of trucks from the past few years still do their stopping with drums in the rear

Actually it is a ridiculous thread title because you're blaming the mechanics for the practices of the shop (parts markup, labour rate, etc). Not only that but you're lumping all mechanics together like we're all crooks based on your experience with one shop. This would be like saying "Sorry a** Jews" because you paid too much for legal services, or "sorry ass ni**ers" because you know somebody that got robbed by a black guy. Stereotypes are bad, M'Kay? And perpetuating them out of ignorance is worse.

Remember, the mechanic does not set the door rate.
He does not set the flat rate time.
He does not set the parts markup.
He does not decide the "menu pricing" items such as maintenance.
And he doesn't buy/install Chinese Autozone white-box $20 rotors that will only last a few months because he knows he has to guarantee his work.

He merely turns his wrenches and puts up with a lot of bullshiznit like this...

yeah but I also forgot to mention my wife's 08 civic has them as well. Although I tend to blame that simply on it's being a civic...