The shops I worked at had occasional meetings with techs. They'd ask "What can we do to make you guys happy?" We'd tell them: Stop shorting our pay, cancel the condescending attitude, stop telling us how 'lucky' we are to have a job, cut the 'playful name-calling' you f*ckers do to us, keep your noses out of our personal lives, quit giving the brown-nosers all the gravy and get us some decent equipment for the shop. They would wrinkle their nose at us and nothing would be done about what we told them. Instead, they'd design some elaborate system of bonuses and monthly giveaways that were a joke. Some genius in the office would act so proud of the program they'd put together and expect us to be super happy about it. The problem is simple to address, but no one wants to do any of it. They think techs are too stupid to know what's going on, and it's beyond insulting.

Mechanics/Techs don’t get paid well….the profession is looked down upon more than just about anything….it takes a highly skilled/smart person to diagnose todays vehicles, but we’re portrayed as idiots….warranty work pays terrible….and the list goes on and on. Best thing I ever did was leave the auto industry. I will never recommend becoming a mechanic to anyone, worst career decision you can make.

There's no shortage of techs......There's a shortage of technicians willing to work for your bullshit wages. Life long technician speaking.

We are skilled people, we can adapt in any other types of industries and adapt very quickly.

Interview the mechanics to find out their concerns and answers to this dilemma

I can not remember the video, but it is not a shortage of techs it is a shortage of quality shops or too many shops run by garbage owners. After 18 years in this trade, I agree.

if ur a large chain dealership pay 80k to ur line techs. and 40k to ur lube techs. don't like it? then have ur 200k a year + bonus service manager deal with the cars.

This labor shortage is a competitive advantage for the DIY mechanic. He or she can buy older cars at around 100k miles and negotiate a large discount because the timing belt/water pump is due for replacement. Here in Oakland, CA the independent shop charges ~$2000 for this job on a 2006 Toyota Highlander Hybrid, but I simply watched videos and paid ~$150 for the AISIN kit on Amazon plus $26 / gallon for Toyota SLL coolant and DIYed in my driveway. Shop rate in Oakland is $155/hour for independent, $200 / hour at the Toyota dealer, and $165/hour at the Vespa scooter shop. This also drives up the cost of living for office workers in the SF Bay Area because most employees commute to work in their personal car and expensive car maintenance indirectly drives office salaries up. I personally feel that a good auto tech should easily be a six-figure salary + paid health insurance + 2 weeks paid vacation + paid sick days.

Something to think about too is, who is buying the tools and equipment used on a daily basis. I’ve been a technician 23 years and 90% of the tools and equipment I use I purchased myself. So really who should benefit the most? The dealership I work at is getting a hell of a deal for what I have to offer. The repairs are getting more ridiculous and adding the parts shortage with all the bureaucratic paperwork involved to make sure warranty claims aren’t kicked by the manufacturer. It’s tough to make a living on flat rate. Also we get about 90-95% warranty work where I’m at. Someone is making money. Just not the right ones

The pay structure needs to be revised. The manufacturers keep cutting the labor times and the dealers keep looking for ways to keep more $ for upper management. I am attempting leaving this industry after 25 years because i just cant make more and more every year. Some years I even make less than others. This is bad when cost of living goes up and your pay does not. Techs were making the same money 20 years ago. I know people in other industries making nearly double what I am and frankly, I am sick of it.

There's so many problems in this industry, but it all boils down to pay and benefits. Pay your people well and appreciate them and you won't have any problems keeping techs. When the shop charges $150 an hour and the tech doesn't even see a 1/4 of that were does all the profit go?

These news and media that do these videos are such crap. If you notice they never talk to the Techs. Always managers and owners. They know if they talk to Techs the real stories of why not to be a Tech will come out and dealerships will hate that.

Trash wage ,trash benefits... no wonder why we are leaving the industry... f the greedy owners.

Maybe if manufactures don’t kill us on warranty time, there wouldn’t be a shortage. If service managers weren’t greedy, there wouldn’t be a shortage. Us technicians are the bread winners for dealerships. We’re are the ones who make the money for them. That’s why they stay afloat.

Competitive salary by who's metric?

It's not a shortage of qualified techs, it's a shortage of employers that pay a fair wage. My dealer gets 200 per hour and pays top techs, 15% of that. Techs supplies the labor, knowledge and most tools. Other than a building with a lift and leaking roof the dealer provides nothing, maybe some whiny cheap skate customers.

Had a talk with the gm and sm on Friday. Laid it all out and told them I'm looking for a job in another industry. There is nothing these shop managers can do about an industry that keeps our wages down. I was around in the early 2000's when consulting companies went around to thousands of dealerships and robbed all of us techs and advisors of our pay and benefits. This was 2 decades ago and nothing has gotten better for us since. If you ever see that you shop hired a company to help them streamline or improve operations, just know that your raises and benefits are going to the owner.

Here’s the fucking problem this is why nobody wants to get back into this industry. It’s also the reason I’m trying to get out of it. Vehicles are getting more complex by the day and harder to work on and diagnos but it seems as though technicians are starting to make less money because labor rates are going down. The whole system is fucked up. That’s why no one wants to do it anymore. I advise any young person reading this to find another career if you were thinking of getting into automotive.

No money in it. Techs make more working at home. No warranty pay crap.

Most of these places are outright stealing from technicians by not paying them double minimum wage for providing their own tools. They say they supply tools (one tool box with half the tools missing) and if you use their tools you’ll flag nearly no hours. It’s wild.

Competitive pay that sentence was a joke. I’m fourth generation technician family has always owned body shops and mechanical shops, uncles grandfathers great grandfather, cousins brothers . I want to say we can say for sure with today’s cars are sold electronically advanced and software. It’s technician isn’t bringing home $160,000 $200,000 it’s not worth it. . . The owners of the companies in the last generation her to the majority are technically inept completely incompetent . The service managers, the service riders the general managers have a clue what it takes to repair the modern cars. The technicians do not need to shop they don’t need the owner. They don’t need the managers. The technicians are the ones who are generating the money they could do that at home they could do it in a small shop medium shop. They could do it anywhere and make them self money. Are you young technicians? Need to get smart and learned that you can fire your boss All the ones who are incompetent and can’t work on cars were owners don’t need to be in this business anymore don’t tolerate them . All the incompetent owners in automotive business need to be eliminated from this trade . And I owned my own business the last 30 years . I fired all my past automotive boss. I would never again work for a idiot manager, or owner of a company who cannot do the work. He’s asking me to do that he can’t do for himself.. . Running a automotive business is so easy if you know what you are doing.

I wonder if part of the reason for the shortage of young auto mechanics today is the OBD II cars just don't have the same allure as older mechanical cars. Before cars went digital tuning the engine was hands on, turning screws to adjust the idle, pulling wires one at a time chasing a misfire. It was much more rewarding than plugging in a code reader and changing out a sensor. Cars just aren't as seductive as they once were, fewer people entering the industry. Shitty pay and lousy working conditions explains the lack of retention

Dog walking pays more than repairing vehicles

'If you like working with your hands and computers this is the job for you' Brother I got in this industry cuz I hate computers and love working with my hands dingus

Hard to find a Fool that will line your pockets in Today’s World. And you won’t.

despite "competitive salaries". yea, the same low salaries that are causing the shortage. there is no competition for labor.

If I was a mechanic i say Half of the shop rate is my price...

A fair pay should be 50% commission or flag of $40 an hour for mechanic, if the shop charges $80 for labor, tech should get$40. It’s 50%comm.. plus mechanic should get paid daily, cash if possible, to avoid getting ripped off by these thief managers.these cashier crooks will hide your flagged hours and repair invoices and steal your money you work hard for. They can pocket as much over $1000 daily on busy days when customers pay in tempting 100s of bills. For techs don’t trust managers, keep an eye on your flagged hours daily and at every time you finish that car you just fixed. For techs, make sure your customer is paying properly and it goes thru invoice repairs, watch those cashiers and manager’s hand as they collect from customers, one good example, an addicted gambler in mmidas shop last vegas

I made over 100k as a tech. My secret? Dealership training in a specialty that i liked and others wouldnt touch. I did gas and diesel drivabilty. Transmission both manual and auto. And driveline differantials and transfer case. I didn't get stuck doing brakes tires suspension tires all the easy low pay stuff. 30 years at GM retired 10 years early.

U may have to higher up your volume when u talk. The videos r good but when u talk its really low n i got my volume all the way up.

Not paying for diag and warranty time is the true killer

My workplace (dealership) charges 179.98/hour. We have unusual pay: $25 regular hourly. And we have a terrible shortage of techs. I agree the hourly rate is high but there is still weeks worth of work piled up.

Because we invest 10s of thousands for tools, education, training, and we're paid like garbage. A master mechanic like myself should be able to live comfortably, yet we dont. We're sick of it

On point.

The pay sucks and there is no growth in the career path. No benefits and it’s hard on your body. It’s no wonder nobody wants to do it. There is also a lot of favoritism and some techs have a hard time getting the jobs they can actually make money on. The dealers also f you on warranty work.

It's pay. Also mechanics need to pay for their own tools. This is going to end bad for the industries. Dealers in my town have been putting ad's up begging for new techs. I'm about to pull 60k this year and I'm not a tech. lol

Clericals aka desk jockeys always taking advantage of skilled trade people. It will never end. Everything you said at the beginning 100 and theres way more! Ive worked at 5 different dealerships (ford, chevy, toyota, kia/mitsu) 2 indies pepboys, tuffy. Many things and more of what the first comment said are 100 💯. Some people know but most dont know the truth from REAL MECHANICS like myself.

If you want to be paid what you're worth, open your own shop. I do all my own wrenching but outsource machining to my bro who builds race engines at his home shop and does general automotive machining. His commute is about twenty feet and he's happy which he was not working for someone else.

Mechanics have to deal with shit pay and on top have to purchase expensive tools and asshole bosses and crappy environments

Hey Joad! We do not have enough people to pick 🍊 oranges! They refuse to pay people because there are already too many mechanics! Do not borrow to go to school. Do not answer the call. Guys fall back! I am very serious.

Doesnt help the fact that some these places cant even afford to pay there techs because they are always pissing off customers, and they never come back

All the same stuff applies to collision work. Not to mention, if you don't follow the repair guidelines that can change from month to month and don't document what you did, you can be sued if the person gets into an accident and gets hurt.

Look at the buildings these dealerships are in. All built off the backs of techs. I hate the trade but i dont know what else to do

Dont forget warranty work. For instance a job calls normally for 5hrs flat rate, if its under warranty you get paid 1.5 instead of the 5. Theyve manage to funnel all the money out of the really skillfull peoples pockets back to the top of the companies.

I wish I could hear this video

"Competitive salary" means bottom of the barrel

I like making money, just like anyone else pursuing a career. The whole “if you like working with your hands, if you like solving problems, if you like working with computers” idea is bullshit, like the work itself is the reward for being allowed to do it. Auto mechanics are on par with HVAC techs, electricians, plumbers and welders. If you don’t want to pay up go watch a KZfaq video and fix it yourself. It’s so easy, right?

Slight correction to your statement... Engineers design but techs construct/build, maintain and demolish/recycle - in every industry not job automotive. Techs create the entire physical form life cycle. Put that in your pipe and smoke it! lol

Aviation Maintenance is no different

To all my fellow techs what are you leaving to do?

This is just one field that was destroyed by capitalist greed protecting only the corporations and not the workers. There are countless jobs that Regans trickledown effect caused real hardship like being a waitress/waiter and the list goes on and on. With the free trade agreement, all the lifetime jobs left the country so if you could find a job it would be minimum wage. This made millionaires into billionaires at the expense of the working class, and little has changed since. The independents warned us laborers would no longer be needed and the government would leave us behind and that is what happened. Congress was given the best healthcare and retirement in the world and social security has been underfunded ever since. Now America is a third world uninsured shithole and this is why.;

your better off buying 2 older reliable vehicles than a newer one.its cheaper & your rarely ever without a car.today's vehicles arent very reliable, & extremely expensive to repair.where older vehicles arent.

It's going to get worse! MUCH WORSE!

Quit interviewing shop owners and start interviewing the mechanics. This guy hides behind half truths. I'm SO happy I got out of this industry. I'd never recommend it to anyone.

Auto mechanics are not appreciated at all unfortunately. Wouldn’t recommend it to anyone

Flat rate and non-union are killing the trade.

VOTE TRUMP ;ALE 20224//WINNERS

1:32 lmfao. This guy is lying btw.