Any mechanics looking for work at a dealer?

[JC316]

I might be interested if it wasn't so damn far. Plus its likely flag hours and I can't afford to stand around after driving 60 miles.

[stephen4785]

Ill never work for an automotive dealership again. You have to understand that dealership mechanics are paid by the job. The manufacture comes out with a standard that a dealership can charge for labor for a particular job. There's a customer pay labor rate then there's warranty. Warranty time is usually somewhere around 50-60% of customer pay. On top of that if the vehicle comes back in for anything you're doing it for free unless you can make up some sort of bull shit about how something else was broke. There's always underhanded deals going on where some techs get the high paying/low amount of work(known as gravy) before the others. Some times it's deals with service writers, shop foreman, or the tech themselves.
Here's something the they did at VW when I was there. Some techs would do a water pump job and keep the old water pump in their tool box. A water pump job paid about 4hrs. They would get a car in that is in warranty and had a coolant leak. They'd fix the 5 cent o-ring leak and say that the water pump was leaking. Then they'd take that old water pump and turn it in as the warrantied part. They'd get a bran new VW/Audi water pump and keep it. They'd flag the car and get paid 4hr's for 10mins worth of work. They'd either use that new water pump for a side job and charge full price or post it on Ebay. It was a pretty crooked way to make money but on the other hand the dealer/manufacture does things to screw over the tech also.
My other issue is that dealers do not reward thorough diagnostics for anything. You get an hour to diagnose and thats it. On some rare occasions you can get additional diagnostic time but from what I saw it's extremely rare. The dealer grooms techs to sell parts. Not figure out why something broke. Im sure that they're some guys who loved working at a dealer and did great. I didnt like it at all.

[D3R3K]

I'll never work at another dealer if I don't have to. 15 years was enough for me to say fuck this. It is a mentally and physically exhausting job. It wasn't the pay that was the problem, I was one of the top paid guys the last 5 years. I started to realize that the new up and coming young guys didn't give a shit if they hurt their back much like I didn't all those years ago. So I did the smart thing and opened my own shop and never looked back.

[DON SVO]

I made it just shy of 4 years. I got fired by the service mgr to save their shop foreman's ass. A couple other guys on this board worked there, too. They ended up losing over half their techs in less than a year and shut the place down.

[red89notch]

I don't think my job is the greatest in the world but I believe if I ever leave my dealership I will never work for another again. I don't believe it can get better than my dealer so why bother. That said it still sucks a lot of the time. We get fucked over by warranty, by clients, and by advisors on a daily basis. I love the guys I work with and I have pride in the brand. I hear stories of other brands and other dealerships and know I have it pretty good compared to them. It is very tough to be successful at a dealership but it can be done honestly.

[Baron Von Crowder]

I didn't do too bad, but a changed compensation rate that favored asc's and didn't give anything for factory training killed it, and really hurt the import dealer's techs. I went from a decent check to lube tech wage, and there wasn't anything my shop foreman or service manager could do long term. They offered a move to parts, and I took it.

[appelingogt]

Im somewhat blessed Im foreman at a 3 man dealer...it works waaaay better than 23 tech dealer in Lewisville...

[gearjammer351]

I really enjoy working on cars, but the reasons for not doing it professionally are numerous. Others have already touched on them in this thread: pay hassles/fighting over jobs/warranty pay/etc.

I had one good job in the field, and I left it for a stupid reason. I'm doing better now, but I sometimes miss being in a 'blue collar' environment.

[orphan Shelby]

We will take you back Kevyn but don't expect to go to training.

I never got to. Scheduled to go twice and was cancelled both times. Ironically after I left there I moved/worked in Spring not far from the training center. All in all that was still a good place to work. Even a lot of warranty time was fair imo. Things may have changed but don't regret working there. Bad ass shop environment if some gravy grabbers were under control. Hang in there man

[SC457A]

Dealership work is different. Played in both.