Wait till you need your boat worked on, & I'm not just talking about the engine but the running gear & electronics, water & septic systems too. At our boat yard we could use 4 all-around mechanics & a few fiberglass/ paint guys.
Buddy of mine bought a boat needed work, not a lot. Before he was done painting the hull he had 4 other boats to do. Not what he had in mind for retirement, but he said, what the heck.
The shortage of mechanics is also exacerbated by the fact a very large portion of those starting the trade have not only a poor work ethic, also and even worse set of mental skills for proper thought and rationale processes. We have a generation who have played video games from a very young age, and while on the surface it may appear to provide an advantage over the "old guard," they learned first: you install the game; second: look up the cheat codes - this is why so many of today's techs are simply throwing parts at a problem, rather than completing the correct diagnostic process. One particular engine manufacturer, sent out a bulletin remarking that almost 80% of a particular sensor returned through the parts core program were found to be in perfect working order, and the cause of this was determined to be a failure of the tech to competently follow the diagnostic flow chart. This means 80% of owners paying for this repair were throwing good money out the door.
Govt and design engineers - let's keep adding stuff under the hood until mechanics need training in more things than you can shake a stick at. That'll make things more interesting.
Going labor rate at the local dealers is $199/hr. I told them that they should be paying the mechanics $100 an hour then and was kinda laughed at. This will balance out as wages rise and the formerly at college flood to tech school to increase supply and drive wages down. It will take a while so in the interim fix your own damn car.
Licensed and experienced aviation (Airframe and Powerplant) mechanics are lucky to make what auto techs earn and auto techs don't have to buy expensive liability insurance. The neighbor puts select vo-tech kids on the shop floor while they're still in HS. Try that in the airplane business.
Local formerly family owned tire & service shop "merged" with some out-of-the South tire discount outfit. What was a group of skilled youngish mechanics has become a few brownish guys named Jose. Things take a lot longer. Today, they told me I'd have to leave my wife's car all day for an oil change. I used to wait an hour. So I called the Toyota dealer. Same thing but I have more confidence in the dealer (God, I hate to say that) and I'll have to fend off all that shit they want me to have done. I think some of the damage was done during the Covid shutdown, but the merger didn't help. One of the negative commenters on the web site said they needed to find another family owned shop. I know of one which may get to work on my classic Durango but I'll probably let the immigrants change the oil.
70 million Boomers plugged the trades from Gen X for the last 40 years while the latter had to drive truck or forklift and 'make do'. Now that the Boomers are retired, I hope every oil change takes four hours, and a muffler job a day or two. Alternators, starters and brake jobs I hope take at least a week. For water pumps and AC compressors, a month. With rental vehicle expenditures.
The youngsters, I've noticed, are doing all this work themselves with the aid of YouTube tutorials. Good on 'em.
I'm gonna call bs on the boomer crap. I am a late stage boomer, 1959, there was no plugging the system that I ever saw. You wanna work, suit up. You don't wanna work, keep walking
So, the boomers “clogged” the system by working? Got it! This “boomer” is still working as an R.N. since 1977 and worked 25 years as a firefighter part-time on the side. Maybe ability or initiative might be the issue-not boomers.
Back in the late 80's the auto industry had the same problem after they started putting the then new computer control systems in their cars. I went back to school at age 29, went to local college in their automotive program and after a year got an offer to join an exclusive Ford Motor Co. sponsored program that only opened up every two years. You went to school with a heavy load of classes for 3 months and then rotated out to a dealer that had sponsored you and worked at the dealer for 3 months, getting paid and college credit. Graduated with honors after doing 3 years in a two year college and went to work full time at a Lincoln/Mercury dealership. They said at the time the average career lifespan for a mechanic was 10 years. I made it 9. The dealership was charging $125 an hour and I was making $18 when I quit and it was all piece work. By the job and not by the hour. Two years before I quit, Ford announced they were going to save 1 Billion dollars on their warranty repair costs. That 1 Billion dollars came straight out of the back pocket of the repair techs. They slashed their warranty repair payout by slashing what they would pay for doing certain jibs. When I left in 1999, a Lincoln Continental main engine wiring harness has 104 wires in it. The vehicle had 11 computers in it and they all talked back and for to themselves at once through one Communication wire. They called it Multi Plexing. The ABS computer could throw a code for the damn transmission and vice versa. That was in 1999, twenty four years ago. Look at the shit they have now, entertainment systems, self driving cars, it's fucking insane what they expect a mechanic to be able to fix now. I was constantly having to do training and almost had as much as a fucking nurse by the time I was done. On top of all of that, I had to buy $50,000 worth of tools out of my own pocket. Fuck those fucking automotive manufacturers AND the fucking Dealers. I would very strongly tell any youngster I met to run the hell away from that career. BTW, the newest vehicle I own is 30 years old. You couldn't give me one of these newer fucking nightmares.
I do the general maintenance myself. For something past a brake job or oil change I do have a mechanic. He is old school but streams his troubleshooting and repairs in a daily pod cast. He is an independent and he is not cheap.
Trust me, just because I know how to do something doesn't mean I won't pay somebody to do it for me. I don't even do my own oil changes any more, but that's only because I have no garage and a gravel driveway.
My Dad could fix damn near anything. Framing, finish carpentry, plumbing, concrete and roofing. Appliance repair, motorcycles, auto repairs, even bodywork. He was meticulous and systematic- when he lit into a job, it was done and done right. Our garage was the only one I ever heard of that had spotless wall-to-wall carpet. (Used to be in the front room.)
I'm no mechanic, I don't have his patience. But I've done a fair bit of wrenching since I got my first truck in 1973. Motor swaps, clutch jobs, brakes, tune ups etc. Me and a buddy had to work out on the street. (Dad knew we would mess up the carpet.) End wrenches, a socket set, pliers and screwdrivers were about all we had. And about all we needed. I still have my old timing light and dwell meter.
This is the direct result of 50 years of pushing kids away from the trades into college. "Any degree is a good degree". 50 years of putting down the trades as somehow a lesser career hoisted upon the less intelligent and capable, combined with a willingness of colleges to take basically everyone - after all, the check does cash.
For those of us who made the choice to go into the trades, our pay has been artificially capped by illegal immigration and day laborers paid in cash.mostly by new money boomers. It just is. We also had to tolerate boomer "journeyman" who flat out refused to teach us anything. "If I teach you that, they don't need me anymore", said the boomer tradesman. More than once
I spent years eating shit before I finally worked my way into the office, all the whole pleading with the owner to please let us train new guys on how to actually do the job. For years. But, nope, it costs too much for apprentices to be on a job site. Then Wuhan flu happened. The city burned, and we made our contribution to herd immunity. Made good money though. Over the years, I grew tired of working for a country that hates me. I will not forget that major parts of this country, to include a few folks here, wanted to take my job, my kids, and my freedom over a experimental drug. Or "Orangeman Bad". Or LGBTQIA+ (The plus stands for pedifile).
About two months ago I sold my place, moved to a less cost place I paid cash for and left the city to it's own devices. Now the college kids pay me way more to work remote, because they refused to train replacement guys.
Dumb kids nowadays would rather major in shit like "gender studies" than enroll in a trade school and make bank afterwards
ReplyDeleteNowadays? It's been happening for generations.
Delete"Getting hot, sweaty and dirty is icky."
Wait till you need your boat worked on, & I'm not just talking about the engine but the running gear & electronics, water & septic systems too. At our boat yard we could use 4 all-around mechanics & a few fiberglass/ paint guys.
ReplyDeleteBuddy of mine bought a boat needed work, not a lot. Before he was done painting the hull he had 4 other boats to do.
DeleteNot what he had in mind for retirement, but he said, what the heck.
Yet more evidence of the Competence Crisis.
ReplyDeletehttps://ogdaa.blogspot.com/2023/06/complex-systems-wont-survive-competence.html
The shortage of mechanics is also exacerbated by the fact a very large portion of those starting the trade have not only a poor work ethic, also and even worse set of mental skills for proper thought and rationale processes. We have a generation who have played video games from a very young age, and while on the surface it may appear to provide an advantage over the "old guard," they learned first: you install the game; second: look up the cheat codes - this is why so many of today's techs are simply throwing parts at a problem, rather than completing the correct diagnostic process. One particular engine manufacturer, sent out a bulletin remarking that almost 80% of a particular sensor returned through the parts core program were found to be in perfect working order, and the cause of this was determined to be a failure of the tech to competently follow the diagnostic flow chart.
ReplyDeleteThis means 80% of owners paying for this repair were throwing good money out the door.
Should have imported less quantum physicists and neurosurgeons....just a hint.
ReplyDeleteStefan v.
There is not a shortage of trained mechanics, the shops are reluctant to pay adequate wages....
ReplyDeleteI think the first criteria for working as a dealership auto mechanic is that your day job is landscape maintenance.
ReplyDeleteGovt and design engineers - let's keep adding stuff under the hood until mechanics need training in more things than you can shake a stick at. That'll make things more interesting.
ReplyDeleteGoing labor rate at the local dealers is $199/hr. I told them that they should be paying the mechanics $100 an hour then and was kinda laughed at. This will balance out as wages rise and the formerly at college flood to tech school to increase supply and drive wages down. It will take a while so in the interim fix your own damn car.
ReplyDeleteSpin Drift
Licensed and experienced aviation (Airframe and Powerplant) mechanics are lucky to make what auto techs earn and auto techs don't have to buy expensive liability insurance. The neighbor puts select vo-tech kids on the shop floor while they're still in HS. Try that in the airplane business.
ReplyDeleteLocal formerly family owned tire & service shop "merged" with some out-of-the South tire discount outfit. What was a group of skilled youngish mechanics has become a few brownish guys named Jose. Things take a lot longer. Today, they told me I'd have to leave my wife's car all day for an oil change. I used to wait an hour. So I called the Toyota dealer. Same thing but I have more confidence in the dealer (God, I hate to say that) and I'll have to fend off all that shit they want me to have done. I think some of the damage was done during the Covid shutdown, but the merger didn't help. One of the negative commenters on the web site said they needed to find another family owned shop. I know of one which may get to work on my classic Durango but I'll probably let the immigrants change the oil.
ReplyDelete70 million Boomers plugged the trades from Gen X for the last 40 years while the latter had to drive truck or forklift and 'make do'. Now that the Boomers are retired, I hope every oil change takes four hours, and a muffler job a day or two. Alternators, starters and brake jobs I hope take at least a week. For water pumps and AC compressors, a month. With rental vehicle expenditures.
ReplyDeleteThe youngsters, I've noticed, are doing all this work themselves with the aid of YouTube tutorials. Good on 'em.
It's not going to hurt the Boomers. We know how to do that shit ourselves, or know somebody that can.
DeleteYou would be the rare exception. But you are the rare exception on so very many things. That's why you and your blog are so loved. Peace.
DeleteThat's the polite way of saying weird, odd or 'touched', huh?
DeleteI'm gonna call bs on the boomer crap. I am a late stage boomer, 1959, there was no plugging the system that I ever saw. You wanna work, suit up. You don't wanna work, keep walking
DeleteAnon @6:55PM - I'm a bit later in the Boomer generation ('62) and it was the same for me.
DeleteSo, the boomers “clogged” the system by working? Got it! This “boomer” is still working as an R.N. since 1977 and worked 25 years as a firefighter part-time on the side. Maybe ability or initiative might be the issue-not boomers.
DeleteBack in the late 80's the auto industry had the same problem after they started putting the then new computer control systems in their cars.
ReplyDeleteI went back to school at age 29, went to local college in their automotive program and after a year got an offer to join an exclusive Ford Motor Co. sponsored program that only opened up every two years. You went to school with a heavy load of classes for 3 months and then rotated out to a dealer that had sponsored you and worked at the dealer for 3 months, getting paid and college credit. Graduated with honors after doing 3 years in a two year college and went to work full time at a Lincoln/Mercury dealership.
They said at the time the average career lifespan for a mechanic was 10 years. I made it 9.
The dealership was charging $125 an hour and I was making $18 when I quit and it was all piece work. By the job and not by the hour. Two years before I quit, Ford announced they were going to save 1 Billion dollars on their warranty repair costs. That 1 Billion dollars came straight out of the back pocket of the repair techs. They slashed their warranty repair payout by slashing what they would pay for doing certain jibs.
When I left in 1999, a Lincoln Continental main engine wiring harness has 104 wires in it.
The vehicle had 11 computers in it and they all talked back and for to themselves at once through one Communication wire. They called it Multi Plexing. The ABS computer could throw a code for the damn transmission and vice versa.
That was in 1999, twenty four years ago. Look at the shit they have now, entertainment systems, self driving cars, it's fucking insane what they expect a mechanic to be able to fix now.
I was constantly having to do training and almost had as much as a fucking nurse by the time I was done.
On top of all of that, I had to buy $50,000 worth of tools out of my own pocket.
Fuck those fucking automotive manufacturers AND the fucking Dealers.
I would very strongly tell any youngster I met to run the hell away from that career.
BTW, the newest vehicle I own is 30 years old. You couldn't give me one of these newer fucking nightmares.
I do the general maintenance myself. For something past a brake job or oil change I do have a mechanic. He is old school but streams his troubleshooting and repairs in a daily pod cast. He is an independent and he is not cheap.
ReplyDeleteTrust me, just because I know how to do something doesn't mean I won't pay somebody to do it for me. I don't even do my own oil changes any more, but that's only because I have no garage and a gravel driveway.
DeleteMy Dad could fix damn near anything. Framing, finish carpentry, plumbing, concrete and roofing. Appliance repair, motorcycles, auto repairs, even bodywork. He was meticulous and systematic- when he lit into a job, it was done and done right.
ReplyDeleteOur garage was the only one I ever heard of that had spotless wall-to-wall carpet. (Used to be in the front room.)
I'm no mechanic, I don't have his patience. But I've done a fair bit of wrenching since I got my first truck in 1973. Motor swaps, clutch jobs, brakes, tune ups etc.
Me and a buddy had to work out on the street. (Dad knew we would mess up the carpet.) End wrenches, a socket set, pliers and screwdrivers were about all we had. And about all we needed. I still have my old timing light and dwell meter.
Not as much call for them these days...
If you're a kid just starting out, why would you bet your career on ICE when everyone is pushing EV?
ReplyDeleteKind of the same with truck drivers. Would you bet you'd get a 30 year career out of truck driving with everyone pushing sel driving?
Edison Motors in Canada.
ReplyDeleteThose folks are building new heavy-haulers.
No engineers work there.
Every part of the vehicle is designed by mechanics.
Never heard of them.
Delete*looks up website
Those are awesome!!!
This is the direct result of 50 years of pushing kids away from the trades into college. "Any degree is a good degree". 50 years of putting down the trades as somehow a lesser career hoisted upon the less intelligent and capable, combined with a willingness of colleges to take basically everyone - after all, the check does cash.
ReplyDeleteFor those of us who made the choice to go into the trades, our pay has been artificially capped by illegal immigration and day laborers paid in cash.mostly by new money boomers. It just is. We also had to tolerate boomer "journeyman" who flat out refused to teach us anything. "If I teach you that, they don't need me anymore", said the boomer tradesman. More than once
I spent years eating shit before I finally worked my way into the office, all the whole pleading with the owner to please let us train new guys on how to actually do the job. For years. But, nope, it costs too much for apprentices to be on a job site. Then Wuhan flu happened. The city burned, and we made our contribution to herd immunity. Made good money though. Over the years, I grew tired of working for a country that hates me. I will not forget that major parts of this country, to include a few folks here, wanted to take my job, my kids, and my freedom over a experimental drug. Or "Orangeman Bad". Or LGBTQIA+ (The plus stands for pedifile).
About two months ago I sold my place, moved to a less cost place I paid cash for and left the city to it's own devices. Now the college kids pay me way more to work remote, because they refused to train replacement guys.
Good luck America, your going to need it.