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I Hate Auto Shops


Onion

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Really. They're all terrible, no matter how good they are. I've taken my car in to get the carb tuned twice. Both times, there were small improvements, but nothing significant. I've been getting 11 mpg on average. Today I bought a vacuum gauge, did my own tune on it, and it already runs so much better... No more top end misfire, no more hesitation when going from no gas to WOT, no more stumbling when going from a stop into first. This was with a rough tune, too, I didn't even do the float yet. I'm starting to get sick so I just went back inside. 

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Yeah, they want you to give them money for minimum effort and for you to come back for more problems. My dad swore up and down that our old mechanic was sabotaging our old van to make sure we came back to get it fixed.  :lol:

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Our local Chevy dealership is like that. I know 2 mechanics that quit because they couldn't do the "dishonesty" part anymore as they were getting a bad rep. They were taught how to UPSELL certain repairs when a vehicle didn't need it and they would double bill hours labor on certain repairs like they tried with me and I busted them. To do ball joints is a 4-5 hour job for 4 of them and then they tries to do another 3 hours for a new hub. Ummm..... The HUB is already OFF when you're doing the ball joints? They tried to act all dumb and I had to get a service manager involved and then a GM. My vehicle will never go back there.

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What you have to realize is that they go by book man hours not the actual time it takes to do the repair. The way most commission mechanics work is that they get their cut of the bill based on man hours. If they complete the job in less than the man hours say the shop still charges for the man hours and the mechanic can do more jobs and make more money.

 

Tech has 3 jobs that span 8 man hours. He completes all 3 in 5 hours but bills for the 8  "Book" hours and picks up another job that pays 5 Book hours and does it in 3.  He gets paid off the 13 billable book hours and only worked a total of 8 hours. Thats how it works supposedly.  

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Tech has 3 jobs that span 8 man hours. He completes all 3 in 5 hours but bills for the 8  "Book" hours and picks up another job that pays 5 Book hours and does it in 3.  He gets paid off the 13 billable book hours and only worked a total of 8 hours. Thats how it works supposedly.  

Yeah that's true and that's how a good mechanic can make good money vs a slow mechanic.  Because it works the other way too, when the guy spends four hours doing a 3 hour job, he only gets to bill the 3 hours.   

 

But, like what Rokkaholik was saying, if you already have the transmission out for a clutch replacement you don't charge the labor hours for swapping out the axle with a new one.  The clutch job already has the hours built into it for that.

 

BTW, good job Onion.  Why do you want to replace the float anyway?  Sticks intermittently?

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What you have to realize is that they go by book man hours not the actual time it takes to do the repair. The way most commission mechanics work is that they get their cut of the bill based on man hours. If they complete the job in less than the man hours say the shop still charges for the man hours and the mechanic can do more jobs and make more money.

 

Tech has 3 jobs that span 8 man hours. He completes all 3 in 5 hours but bills for the 8  "Book" hours and picks up another job that pays 5 Book hours and does it in 3.  He gets paid off the 13 billable book hours and only worked a total of 8 hours. Thats how it works supposedly.

Good for techs, bad for everyone else lol. That is exactly how it works though, my friend works at a VW stealership and previously worked for a Toyota and a Chevy stealership. They're all evil.

 

Sure they have to make their money but they won't make a dime from me :lol:

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I am so glad that we have a trustworthy mechanic now, he has fixed all the issues the old mechanic caused. In fact a few services ago it showed up that my old mechanic changed over only a single front break pad because that was good enough and that pad wasn't properly lined up either. Then there was the matter of it never been mentioned to me that the head was cracked and I had a very slow leak of water into the cylinders. Its not worth getting fixed because its a 18 year old car which is technically already written off due to storm damage. My mechanic now is just draining it and keeping on top of the small amount of water that makes its way in when he services it. However one day it'll just seize up.

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The best thing to do is to find a small time mechanic that you can learn to trust.

They charge you less due to no corporate overhead and will just get your shit fixed on your time (assuming they aren't busy obviously).

 

If over the past 5 years I had to go to the local GM dealership instead of my mechanic I'd most likely be out of house and home.

Edited by Andrewr05

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The best thing to do is to find a small time mechanic that you can learn to trust.

They charge you less due to no corporate overhead and will just get your shit fixed on your time (assuming they aren't bussy obviously).

 

If over the past 5 years I had to go to the local GM dealership instead of my mechanic I'd most likely be out of house and home.

Yeah... a bus mechanic might not be too helpful lol

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Tech has 3 jobs that span 8 man hours. He completes all 3 in 5 hours but bills for the 8  "Book" hours and picks up another job that pays 5 Book hours and does it in 3.  He gets paid off the 13 billable book hours and only worked a total of 8 hours. Thats how it works supposedly.  

Yeah that's true and that's how a good mechanic can make good money vs a slow mechanic.  Because it works the other way too, when the guy spends four hours doing a 3 hour job, he only gets to bill the 3 hours.   

 

But, like what Rokkaholik was saying, if you already have the transmission out for a clutch replacement you don't charge the labor hours for swapping out the axle with a new one.  The clutch job already has the hours built into it for that.

 

BTW, good job Onion.  Why do you want to replace the float anyway?  Sticks intermittently?

 

 

I'm not replacing it, I just need to adjust the float levels. When I was doing the idle mixture adjustment, I unscrewed the float screw and it started puking fuel, so I know the float level is way off.

 

i'm surprised any a yous youngsta gangstas even know what a vacuum gauge is, much less how to use it :thumbsup: , i be trippin...

 

Owning a 40 year old car is fun, all the older people have all this hidden knowledge from when they were kids and were toying with their cars. It's a really cool feeling having a complete stranger come up to you and pour out his life story to you and how it revolved around his car. They tell you about their prom, first dates, endless hours of tuning, etc. Good stuff. 

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