Why Mechanics Are QUITTING

2004 Silverado is the easiest truck to work on .

When I was a kid out of high school in the late 70s, hardly any shops wanted to hire an apprentice. Everyone seemed to want at least 10 years of experience. It was brutal. Now that I'm retired there is a glut of positions. Things have done a total 180 degrees because society has brainwashed young people into thinking that they need to go to university to get a good job. Trades work has also been looked down upon. One my most hated terms is 'grease monkey'. Grease monkeys died out decades ago when automobiles started to go electronic. You need to be smart to be a good auto mechanic nowadays.

My young brothers, do not become a mechanic.

I start in the automotive industry In a couple of weeks as an apprentice at a local shop in my area. Something I always wanted to do… and I can say most of these comments are making me think about that decision

10 to 20 dollars per hour and 35 to 40 dollars per hour for a good 1… While the Dealership charges 150 per hour and gets it. Hey that sounds fair to me where do I sign up?

Todays ‘mechanic’ is actually a plumber, electrician, HVAC specialist, electronics troubleshooter, software programmer, welder, fabricator, engineer, parts person, etc. All that for sub $40/hr plus you gotta buy your own tools! Wonder why nobody wants to do it!

In 1975, I started to work in auto mechanics and diesel. I worked on everything from small gas engine lawn mowers to cars, trucks, buses, heavy construction equipment and diesel cogeneraton sets. After 25 years of experience in the field, I became an auto and diesel technology instructor for 15 years. I am now retired after 40 years of automotive trade experience. The amount of study required to even attempt to master such the broad, constantly changing field of vehicle maintenance knowledge is truly vast. The pay structure is RIDICULOUSLY LOW! Qualified Master Technicians should be making $100 an hour or better to justify the tremendous investment in study and tools.

Mechanics, very rarely have the green light, to fix everything on a car.

As someone who's worked as both a diesel and auto mechanic in a professional shop environment, a good preparation for the mental pain and anguish of working on import cars is to spend a weekend slamming your junk in a screen door repeatedly. No lie. They're aggravatingly tight to work on.

Lack of pay and respect. This generation looks down on mechanics and therefore wants to pay them less (employer). Everyone else just followed suit and expected to pay less including the customers. As a result, a lot of mechanics faze out of the field and find better opportunities.

I completely disagree with you. You need to specialize in one brand and know them inside out.

lol he said auto tech schools not that expensive.. 60-80k yeah thats pocket change bro… youll be paying that for 20+ years

I've been commenting on this subject for the last couple years on various videos all across YouTube on why mechanics or Automotive technicians whatever you want to call us, are leaving. And not just leaving where they work to find another job but leaving the field all together and I have boiled it all down to one thing, which is low pay. The discussion always goes off in a different direction, tackling all sorts of different pay structures and incentives, but it all boils down to one thing…. the pay isn't nearly enough. People in this field should be getting paid around $60 an hour to $70 an hour. It's not even half of the door rate. Door rate, shop rate, hourly charge etcetera. And it used to be that a good technician made about half of the hourly rate that the customer is charged all the way up through the early nineties. Not everywhere, but most places. No, very competent technicians are getting paid about $35 an hour if they're lucky, many are at $30 an hour and as low as 25.00 an hour. And we are talking competent people who are master technicians. You can go work for yourself and charge people $150 per flat rate hour, and you will beat the crap out of any shop around and you get to make it all. Start working from home and getting customers, they drop the vehicle off and you can make a good 400.00 or $500 per vehicle, doing all the regular stuff like replacing one suspension parts and Brake jobs, and many technicians are turning about 10 hours per day based off of 8 hours of actual time at work, at 35.00 an hour is $350 before taxes. You can easily make working for yourself, off two or three vehicles. Some Vehicles it's a big job so you're taking out a transmission and rebuilding it and putting it back in and there goes about 2200 of Labor with another $800 to $1,000 of parts, so they end up getting a completely rebuilt transmission for 3200 where the dealership will do it for $8,000 or $10,000 on the same vehicle. And honestly you can do all that in one day

And then people leave the field altogether because other fields are less extensive in what you need to be proficient woth in knowledge and pure brain power. Plumbing, electrical, mechanical, I will still working on internal combustion engines, and the ability to problem solve very toughproblems sometimes. It should be the field that pays the most, but when it comes to all these skilled trades that pays the least. I know the dealership I used to work at until 2009 a Lexus dealership, was charging $105 per hour back then, they are now at $200 per hour. Starting technicians May 1200 an hour back then right out of school, now they are making $15 an hour. Certainly not tracking with their hourly rate. And the top guy was making 35 bucks an hour back then, and now that same person who still works there, is the top paid guy at $50 an hour. And that's verified because I've kept in contact all these years. They used to do Matrix pricing which meant after a customer is there for three flat rate hours, the 4th and 5th and 6th and 7th are all at reduced rates, but now it's backwards and they charged you even more after the 3rd hour which I think is ridiculous.

no pay to keep up with inflation
you get more money working at Macdonald's.