2 of my techs have been here since 1995. The third has been here for 5 years and came from another Subaru dealer where he worked there for 10 years. We don't use lube techs, but we do mostly big service work and repairs w/ little oil changes. These guys take pride in their work as the customers know them as well being 95% of the customer solely use us and are on their 2nd or 3rd car with us.

 

Nice. Good to know that there's still decent folks out there in a service industry. Now if only I drove a Subaru, lol.

 

I hate working on cars. I've only been doing it for 3 years and there's still a lot more I need to learn. I'm one of those guys who gets pissed off and starts cussing and throwing tools. I have very little patience and I blow up easily. I even come to work pissed off because I know what is in store for me. It's not that I suck at my job, I just get pissed off easily over stupid shit. Give me a alignment with a car that has frozen lock nuts and you better stay away from me haha

 

You should try working on a 46, they are 60's era airframes. Now when I say that , your thinking yea so its an old design, Thats not what I mean the youngest plane we had in the squadron was delivered to the marines in 1969. So you can imagine that I have been through every type of jacked up a fastener can get.

 

you are in the wrong business then.


do you dabble in recreational pharmaceuticals? that may help your patience and temper lol

 

All the techs at work hate their job. Mostly the guys who have been there for a while.

 

if you are not happy doing what you do, then you do not need to be there doing it. everyone is gonna have a pissy day on occasion, but if you despise what you do, you are in the wrong field.

i can honestly say that i love going to work every day (till i have an employee or customer piss me off, but i get over it quickly),

 

To be a mechanic takes allot of time and patience. When you first start out its very frustrating trying to catch up with the technology. If your employer is good he or she will provide training to keep you up to date. also the shop you work at could be a hit or miss deal. I worked at shops where the management system was crap and others were great. Depending on what you like to do you could work on specific cars (dealers) or work on cars in general (independent shops) you just need to know how your getting paid flat rate, commission, hourly etc. Either way you could get screwed. The hardest thing for me was learning to write the cars up to make more money. The more you write the more money your going to make. You need to have a great understanding of electronics, scan tools and bidirectional controls to diagnose cars these days. As you can see this job also takes a substantial investment in tools. If this job was easy, everybody would be doing it.

 

One wek it's your favorite job you've ever had making 1,000+ dollars a week. The next, your ready to go postal.

I'd recommend a good dealer to start out with honestly. Dealers usually have a lot of the high dollar tools already available to you. Going to and independent shop, unless you luck out and find one with very friendly people, your gonna need a lot of tools. Unless you like to sign your soul over to the Snap-on/matco/mac man. Plus, if you get a good dealer, they'll send you to manufacturer training classes.

The downside? Warranty, gah. Rattles, squeaks, moans, and groans. These can eat your lunch easy. Then you will always have at least 1, if not more guys getting fed on a regular basis, which just pisses you off more. It's a fun career. I get no sick days, 10 days vacation a year. Health/dental of course.

Definately not for the lazy, slow, or inept.

 

did any of you guys got to a tech school like UTI or something like that? if so was that some thing you would recomend?