Dealer Tech Fluffy Mexicanik Talks Shop Culture and Burnout
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Term
reman units
Reman units are car parts that have been fixed up and made to work like new again. They can be cheaper than buying brand new parts and usually come with a guarantee.
Term
labor costs
Labor costs are the money you pay for the work that mechanics do on your car. This can change depending on how complicated the repair is and what the shop charges.
Term
CVT
A CVT is a special kind of automatic transmission that helps cars change gears smoothly without the usual steps you feel in regular transmissions. It can help save fuel and make driving feel smoother.
Term
door rate
The door rate is how much a shop charges per hour for repairs. It includes the costs of running the business and the services they offer to customers.
Term
mass airflow sensor
A mass airflow sensor is a part that helps your car's engine know how much air is coming in. This helps it mix the right amount of fuel with the air for better performance.
Company
All Data Pro
All Data Pro is a tool that repair shops use to find information on how to fix cars. It provides guides and details about repairs.
Company
Identifix
Identifix is a service that helps mechanics find solutions to car problems. It gives them access to helpful information and tips for fixing cars.
Term
labor time
Labor time is how long a mechanic thinks it will take to fix something on your car. It's important for figuring out how much you will pay for repairs.
Car
Nissan Pathfinder
The Nissan Pathfinder is a type of vehicle called an SUV, which is larger and can carry more people and cargo. It's designed for both everyday driving and off-road adventures.
Part
front motor mount
A front motor mount is a part that holds the engine in place in a car. It helps reduce shaking and keeps everything aligned properly while you drive.
Car
Nissan Murano
The Nissan Murano is another type of SUV that is known for being comfortable and stylish. It's great for families and has a lot of modern features.
Car
Nissan Versa
The Nissan Versa is a small, affordable car that many people use for everyday driving. It's known for being practical and easy to park.
Part
struts
Struts are parts of a car's suspension system that help keep the ride smooth and stable by absorbing bumps from the road.
Term
fuel pump
The fuel pump is a part that moves gasoline from the tank to the engine so the car can run. If it doesn't work, the car won't start or run properly.
Car
Nissan Rogue
The Nissan Rogue is a small SUV that many people use for everyday driving. It's known for being reliable and having a lot of space for passengers and their stuff.
Term
engine
An engine is the part of a car that makes it go. It turns fuel into power to move the vehicle.
Car
Chevrolet Suburban
The Chevrolet Suburban is a big family vehicle that can carry a lot of people and their stuff. It's popular because it's roomy and can pull heavy things like trailers. Sometimes, it has safety recalls, which means the company needs to fix something to keep it safe.
Term
flat rate
Flat rate means mechanics get paid a fixed amount for each job, no matter how long it takes them. It can make them work faster, but sometimes they might miss details because they're trying to finish quickly.
Car
Titan
The Nissan Titan is a big truck that can carry heavy loads and tow trailers. It's designed for people who need a strong vehicle for work or outdoor activities.
Term
dealer tech
A dealer tech is a mechanic who works at a car dealership. They are trained to fix and maintain the specific brands of cars that the dealership sells.
Term
independent shops
Independent shops are car repair places that are not connected to any car brand. They can fix many types of cars and might charge less than dealerships.
Term
wheel speed sensor
A wheel speed sensor helps the car know how fast each wheel is turning. This information is important for safety features like anti-lock brakes.
Term
ABS
ABS is a system in cars that helps prevent the wheels from locking up when you brake hard. This helps you keep control of the car while stopping quickly.
Term
Uconnect
Uconnect is a system in some Chrysler cars that helps you use your phone and listen to music through the car's screen. It can also help with navigation and other features.
Car
Durango
The Durango is a type of SUV made by Chrysler. It's big enough for families and has a lot of space inside, plus it comes with technology to help you drive and stay connected.
Term
starter
The starter is a part of the car that helps the engine start when you turn the key. If it breaks, the car won't start at all.
Car
Nissan Leaf
The Nissan Leaf is a car that runs on electricity instead of gas, which makes it better for the environment. It's a popular choice for people who want to save money on fuel and reduce pollution. It’s important to know how far it can go on a single charge before needing to recharge.
Term
battery degradation
Battery degradation means that the battery can hold less charge as it gets older, which means the car won't be able to drive as far on a single charge.
Term
extended warranty
An extended warranty is like extra insurance for your car that helps pay for repairs after the regular warranty ends. It can help save money if something goes wrong.
Term
EV (Electric Vehicle)
EV means Electric Vehicle, which is a car that runs on electricity instead of gas. These cars are better for the environment and can save money on fuel.
Car
Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang is a sporty car that many people love for its speed and cool looks. It's been around for a long time and is famous for being fun to drive. There are new versions coming out that use electricity instead of gas, but many still prefer the traditional gas models.
Car
Nissan Sentra
The Nissan Sentra is a small car that is easy to drive and good on gas, making it a popular choice for people who want to save money. It's a practical vehicle for getting around town and is often seen as a reliable option for daily use. It’s not too fancy, but it gets the job done.
Term
V8
A V8 is a type of car engine that has eight cylinders arranged in a V shape. It's known for being powerful and is commonly used in larger vehicles like trucks and sports cars.
Car
Toyota Tundra
The Toyota Tundra is a big truck that can carry heavy loads and go off-road. It's known for being tough and lasting a long time, making it a good option for people who need a reliable vehicle for work or outdoor activities. It's also comfortable for passengers.
LIVE
You want to see where the shop is before you say yes. So is everybody's numbers, you know, about the same or satisfied? And, you know, is it not just one person? Is it.
Yeah.
Throughout the whole shop.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another exciting episode of the Jada Mechanic podcast. We're into the just beginnings of 2026 here, and I told you all in 2025 that I was gonna, you know, have a core group of people that I wanted to keep checking in with and bring them back because the guests love them and I love them and, and they've got a lot to, you know, a lot to offer, and sometimes they make. They make changes that really become relevant to certain conversations. So one of my most popular guests out on the big interwebs is Mr. Fluffy the mechanics Mexicanic. So how are you, Fluff?
I'm doing all right, brother. How about yourself?
Oh, man, I'm. I got a. I got a shoulder that's pretty much just about frozen. I can't lift it higher than that, so that sucks being, you know, it makes you got to do some interesting things to get some repairs done. You would normally reach up with your left hand and figure how you can do it with the right. But I mean, you know, it is what it is. I'm 30 years of doing this, right. Like it's gonna happen.
Oh, yeah, I'm right there with you. I got. I got a shoulder issue also, man. And yeah, things interesting. Get in a certain position and like, it feels like a burning pain.
And everybody, you know, like, mechanics, we. You all hear the things, right? Well, it's bad back, some bad knees and bad hips and, and all that kind of stuff. But I mean, I know so many mechanics with like, bad wrists, bad, bad fingers, bad hand, everything. But I have so many mechanics in the last 10 years with like really bad. And upper backs and shoulders and I don't know, like, it's not the. I'm strong to lift, but it's like you said, it's those awkward, contorted positions where you're holding, you know, a eight pound starter in your hand and trying to jam it in a hole and twist your wrist. That's what screws you up, man. It's just that little thing, right? It's not.
It's not the lifting the tires all day long. Like, that's if you learn the technique, you're good. But it's that weird position, man. So. Yeah. How did you hurt yours?
Just moving, actually moving when I was, well, moving into this house about five, six Years ago.
Yeah.
Overreached on a heavy box and I just felt a snap and I was like, oh, no. Well, yeah, I don't like going to the doctor, so I just ran with it.
Yeah.
Lately it's. It's been. It's been given some issues.
Yeah. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not crazy about doctors up here. You know, everybody talks about Canadian healthcare and I think it's. Oh, it's free. It's great. There's such a shortage of doctors that, like, I can't even see one.
I can't find one. Everyone you call, they're not taking any new patients. And it's just, you know, if you can go down to the hospital and go to Emerge, they're just going to shoot you up with drugs and probably give you a cortisone shot and send you home. That's not going to do anything. Right. So. Right, I need surgery. So it's trying to find a specialist that'll get me prepped for surgery.
And then the wait list is probably a year for surgery, just about any elective surgery. So, you know, you just gotta have to.
I don't know.
Okay. I get really comfortable with ice packs and hot water bottles. Right. That's my. That's my thing. But so you said. You said moving, and you kind of. You made a change recently.
Since we last talked, you kind of moved. Moved dealerships, didn't you?
I did. I did. I left a dealership that I was with for a long time. Just. I was a week shy of 13 years being there.
Yeah, bro.
And so, you know, things. Things came to a point where I was dreading going to work. You know, the. The constant daily life of being there was just. I. I had enough. And luckily I had a couple buddies at a different Nissan dealer that were like, you know, so. And so just, you know, they're.
They're not here no more. So we got a job opening. You're like, you know, come talk to the manager. I'm like, ah, you know, I'm being resistant because I was already at the point where I was giving myself to the end of 2025 if things didn't change, I was already gonna leave.
Yeah.
Whether that was go to a different shop or go on my own, you know, try to figure it out. And they're like, nah, come over here, come over here. And I'm like, you know what? I'm going on vacation. I'm gonna be out of state for the Fourth of July weekend. I'll talk to him when I get back. So I went and talked to him, you know, asked my questions. He showed me numbers, you know, numbers from the guys, my buddies that are there.
Yeah.
Numbers from the guy that left, you know, so you want to see where the shop is before you say yes. So is everybody's numbers, you know, about the same or satisfied? And, you know, is it not just one person? Is it. Yeah, throughout the whole shop. And I like the numbers. I did, you know, he couldn't meet my pay, but that's understandable. So, you know, we had gone through pay raises to try to keep us satisfied. Yeah. And, you know, it's not always about the pay.
Nope, it is not always about the pay. You can make a hundred dollars an hour and make 10 hours. You can make $50 an hour and make 40 hours.
Yeah.
You know, so I. I bit the bullet. I hate change. I do not like it. But this was something I had to do not only for myself, but for my family, because it was. It was getting to the point where I was just unhappy every day. Whether I was at work, whether I was at home, around family, out trying to have a good time. It was just.
Yeah, that point.
I. I know that feeling because that was. That's me. A lot of the time when I worked at a dealership, it didn't really matter. Right. It's just that vibe. And some. Some people flourish in that kind of environment, and some of us don't.
And I'm one of them that just doesn't. Like, I can money, I can make hours. But, man, I just dread going in and you and I would talk and it was like, you know, you talked about what your. What they were paying you. And then I was like. But when you were kind of filling me in on how many hours were actually getting sold, you know, I was like, shoot, man, that sucks. Like, it was low. And I see that a lot a fluff when it's like they keep pumping the hour rate up what they're gonna pay an hour.
But like I've said it. God, it's. I'm gonna get a T shirt that says, you know, 100 an hour times zero hours. Zero.
It.
It doesn't really matter. It's all about the production side of how many hours the. The front can sell. And I find that that's just a stop gap when they don't want to fix the front. They just keep pumping that hour up in the back. And it's. It's just to entice the guys to stay. And girl, excuse me, you know, and I think it's, it's just, just shitty.
It's just shitty.
So yeah, I don't, I don't know what it is with, with you know, being, being able to sell on the front. I mean we have that issue here. You know, it's a mixture of can the customer afford it.
Yep.
But also at the same time, is the advisor understanding what he's trying to sell or is he approaching it the right way? You know, there's, there's programs out there. I don't know if it's for every dealer, but they have like app not after pay, but it's kind of like financing your repair to try to make it affordable because dealerships and repair facilities understand that it is, it is getting pricey to repair vehicles.
Well, sure, it's. Brandon Sloan just put up a video and he was talking about fixing transmissions and it's almost like he said it's like a thousand dollars of speed, you know, so you got an eight speed tranny that you're overhauling, rebuilding, eight grand out the door. And people are like, oh my God. I can remember when, you know, Turbo 300 was. 300 bucks were built. Sure. Yeah, it came out in 15 minutes. And you know, there was no very little electronics to look at at the engine side to see if it was causing the transmission issue.
Right. It was like there was so much more you could do with just your visual, you know, that, that covered it. And he said, and even then, back then we were having, you know, we'd have reman units on the, on the shelf ready to go. So they weren't paying necessarily a bunch of, you know, labor like they were in to the cost of that unit. But it wasn't like they, every transmission shop I ever talked to, they were building cores up in this fair time, right. When they don't have a customer unit there, they're building a core over the corner and then it's going on the shelf and it's going in with a warranty, the whole thing. And he said that saves the customer some money versus like hey, we've never done one of these before. It's you know, 10 hours to overhaul it, yank it out and put it back in.
Like that's. There's a grand just in labor, you know what I mean? And so yeah, the prices are ridiculous. And that's the thing, like I see it a lot of times in the aftermarket now, people are going to financing options within the shop, you know, getting a third party financer to come in and I think the dealers need to be thinking about that the same way, you know, because it's like, we always think, oh, you know, people got a credit card that's already maxed out now. I mean, it's as sad as it is. It's already maxed out and, you know, they might be able to put a thousand bucks on it. They can't put ten grand on it, they can't put six grand, and they can't buy a CVT on their. On their credit card.
You know, what's nice about these financing options is, I believe, like some bit offers, six to 12 months.
No.
No interest. If you pay it in, pay it off within that time frame. Yeah, that's pretty neat.
Yeah, I think it's definitely something that more people need to be open to because it's. It's, you know, you see that. Comments. The same thing. Fluff. Everybody's whining about the technologies in these cars, and they hate to, you know, every word. We're crooks. We're trying to charge them what we charge to fix them.
And it's like, bro, we don't set the rates right. Like, it's an unfortunate thing that the cost of living for everybody is high. You know, you need to eat, you need to pay your mortgage, your rent, you need a car payment. Like, all of us are living the same life here. Oh, yeah. And. And yet they. They just hate on the technician because of the.
The door rate. And it's. We've had so many good conversations in the last little while about what that door rate actually entails. And people, you know, compare. Well, this little shop's $120 and the dealership's 200 bucks. Yep, I get it. But that. That $200 is covering so many more employees and options and payroll and, you know, amenities that are offered to the customer that the customer appreciates, customer wants, customer expects, but yet it should all be for free.
And I just shake my head. It's like, no, man, that. That shuttle service, that's a driver, that's a vehicle, that's insurance, that's fuel, that's just one amenity that's offered, you know, warranty that you get at a dealership or a good shop versus, you know, somebody goes down to O'Reilly's and grabs something and throws in a car. Mass airflow, as an example. And there's no warranty on the part. No, like, no warranty on the labor. Well, that has to cost more. It has to come from somewhere.
And everybody's just like, Fluffy and Jeff are ripping people off. Like, we're not ripping people off, man. We're just trying to fix your darn.
Car, you know, and, and believe me, if it, the service managers I've been with, if they feel like you are overcharging a customer, they will correct it.
Yeah.
Oh, and they will, they will have a talk with the technician and be like, can't do that. Yeah, you cannot. You know, we, we go by a standard called All Data Pro, I think. Pro, man. Right, Mitchell.
Yeah.
Identifix is another one, I believe.
Yeah.
So we have a, a standard now. I don't always agree with that. I don't agree with, with all of them because, you know, if you try to get an extra hour or two out of it because, you know, it's a pain in the butt to deal with, you know, what the job takes. But yet it's always follow All Data. Well, all that is a baseline.
Yeah.
It's a guide. It's not a rule. But if, if you want to be honest, those times are dropping. Those manufacturers are going back into All Data, these labor guides, and they're correcting. They're dropping the labor times on customer pay.
Yeah.
As well as, you know, we, we complain about the warranty times that they're not CP times, but the CP times are dropping as well. And we've had a conversation on that on my stream and you know where I'm gonna call out a, a front motor mount on a vehicle. Right. A V6 Pathfinder. I'm gonna just throw it out there. You know, we get paid 4.7. I believe in two years we might see that drop down to three and a half.
Yeah.
And we're like, I know. I remember this being higher. I mean, I, I had that happen to me on a Murano. A Murano paid like three and a half. I quoted one the other day. It was 1.7. I was like, wait, hold on. I called my buddy over here.
I'm like, dude, I know this used to pay more.
Yeah.
He looks at it. Oh, what? Yeah, so we're noticing a decrease in labor time. I mean, that is going to help the customer out though.
Well, where I first saw that bluff was one on struts and a lot of the Nissan stuff. Like I can remember, you know, it was like three hours to a pair of struts and most of the Nissan front wheel drive stuff. Right. And if you had to do that Versa coil spring recall, you probably remember like you didn't get your three hours for that. It Was already slashed. And now I'm seeing the labor times in the books are like, they're one hour to do a strut and everybody goes, well, you're bolting in a complete unit anyway. I understand that I am sometimes. But lately with the quality of like Monroe and we'll name some other names of, of units, you know, complete bolted struts, a lot of guys are not.
They're rebuilding the, they're. They're putting in the whole thing. Strut mount, you know, boot, the whole spring, the whole bit. Well, that's, that's your labor right there. Not getting into the damn car. That's nothing.
Yep.
All these times now have been slashed and everybody's going like, you know, what's happening here? Well, what's happening here is I think that they're going and they're seeing so many warranty times getting turned in now. I think they're doing research studies and they're slashing the pro demand. All data Mitchell and everybody else is slashing the labor times and going, well, the warranty time is what the guys were all used to doing it in, and they got it done in that. So that's what the labor time for retail is going to be. Which brings me to shops that are not running a matrix, A labor matrix. So for every year after, say five years, three years, whatever rust condition you want to talk about, if you're not adding labor to that job, you're missing out. You're leaving it on the table, and there's where you can go down. A whole other thing about, you know, should you mark up parts, should you run a matrix? Well, I'm here to tell you that yes, you should for two reasons, and that's that profit's not a dirty word.
And that's how you build up your. That's how you build that surplus. So when something does go wrong, the part has a defect and the part source says, f you, you can still do the right thing for the customer because you've been charging those two things, a matrix and a parts mark up. If you don't, then either you go in the hole, which we know a lot of shops, some do, but a lot go to the customer go, I, I just can't help you out, Mrs. Smith. Sorry. And then Mrs. Smith drives off with a really sour taste in her mouth about the whole industry because somebody trying to be cheap couldn't offer Mrs.
Smith the same thing that Fluffy the dealer offers with one year, you know, labor on one year warranty. Excuse me, on labor and part you know, it's. It's. We've got to get away from that. Like you said, it's just a labor guide. It's not a labor bible. You know, and it's. Words always punish me is because I didn't do a lot of re and re.
I did a ton of diag. So it wasn't like I could just necessarily go. I know how long it's going to take me to get to this. I knew how long it maybe took me to diagnose the fuel pump. But, you know, if it's a can problem or an intermittent, I have no idea. You know, here's two hours. Oh, gee, great. Thanks.
Yeah. But when it comes to, let's say, that fuel pump issue, you have to know. Okay, you know what? I know I'm not getting fuel.
Yeah, right.
I'm not. I know I'm not getting spark. You have to be able to find your way, get to a point where you know which path to take.
Yeah.
And that right there takes a little bit of time, depending on how you're. How you're approaching it. Are you pulling a coil and checking if it has spark or you pull in a fuel line, putting a fuel pressure gauge on there? You know that right there is time. So.
Yeah. What. What was the reaction when you gave your notice at the dealer to leave after 13 years?
I walked in and I was like, you know, Mr. Service Manager, I. I have to give you this. He already knew.
Okay.
Because I. Okay. So in April, we had lost our service manager of 15, 16 years.
Wow.
Right. So there was a lot of stuff going on that led up to that. So shortly after that, I told this guy because, you know, he's trying to get to know everybody. And, you know, there was a big three that he really wanted to focus on, which was me, the other master, and then one of my apprentices that was really, you know, outperforming.
Yeah.
So I told him. I'm like, look, I told so and so that I'm giving it till the end of the year. I told him this in February. I'm giving it to the end of the year. If not, I'm jumping ship. He goes, well, nobody jumps ship on me.
Right.
So this was when. When he's getting to know me. So when I go in to his office to give him the paper, he's like, no, you're not leaving me. I'm like, what do you mean? I'm giving you a paper.
I'm.
I'm giving you till the end of July, beginning of August.
Yeah.
He goes, but you said you'd give me. You gave. You gave. What's the name? Till the end of 25. You haven't even gave me six months. I'm all, yeah, but I just. I can't. And then, you know, he's like, well, just sit on it for the weekend and give it to me Monday if you still feel the same.
Like, all right, I already knew. I'm a type of guy. I do not like change. So if I've already made up my decision, if I made up my mind, that's it. I'm done with it. You try to convince me otherwise, it starts to irritate me. It starts to piss me off.
Yep.
Right? He doesn't know me like that. So, you know, Monday comes around, and I. I give him the paper, and he's like, there's no way you want to leave. You've been here so long and this and that, you know. He goes. He goes, what do you need? I'm like, look, the hours ain't here. I've struggled. I've already gotten my car repossessed once.
I'm on. I'm not. I'm not gonna let it happen again. I need to go where there's hours, and there's just no hours here. There's too many texts to. To fight with.
Yeah.
It's just. I'm done. He goes, well, what are you making now? And he tells me, and then. Or I tell him, and then he goes, well, what do you need to make every week? I tell him, and then he's like, okay, I'm gonna see what I could do. I'm like, it's not gonna work. It's not gonna work. He goes, let me just try. All right.
The. The clock's already running because I've. I've done turned in my. My two weeks notice at this point. So a couple days later, he calls me back in. I'm like, come on. So I go in there, what's going on? Oh, well, we can meet you at this. This, this guaranteed.
It was a hundred and four thousand dollars a year is what it averaged out to. And I'm just thinking to myself, like, now, now, I told you this, this, this 725 guaranteed on the clock. Ain't nothing. It's embarrassing.
Yeah.
Now something wants to be done. I can't do it. I can't do it. Well, let me try to try it. Let me try to figure something out. I was like, I mean, you could try, but I'm pretty set on.
On on it.
So I end up in the office three or four more times after that. And then finally I'm like, you know what? I'm like, look, I just can't.
All right?
It's getting to the point where you're interfering with me trying to get stuff done before I leave here. And it's starting to piss me off. Like, yeah, I, I just can't do it. So he's like, all right, well you know, I appreciate you trying. I appreciate you letting me try. So at the end of the day, I left on a good note. So, you know, sucks, it really does.
But it's, it's frustrating always to me when I hear this story, you know, that somebody says they finally then reach into their pockets and pay, you know, or come up with this number. That is really what probably should have been there all along. Right. But they're holding it tight to their chest. That to me has always been a very fu. Kind of thing to the idea of what I'm truly worth. Right. Like you're.
And worth is a funny thing, you know, and our own value and all that kind of stuff we talk about all the time. But I mean it's like they know that you're struggling for to make hours. They know that the hours are not there. You know, I take it offensive when they say, well what are we paying you now? Like you don't know. Like you should, the manager should know what every tech is getting paid 100%. You're in charge of these people. You should know. You should be looking at their, their hours of production and then you should know what they're getting paid.
And you should be able to do the friggin math to understand that. Whoa. They're not taking home much money every week. Maybe that's why they're the way they are. Maybe that's the way why things are going the way it is. Maybe that's why they're hustling through jobs. Maybe that's why their quality control sucks because they're trying to get more done, you know. Oh yeah.
And I can't, I can't blame this guy all together because I only knew him for four months.
Yeah, he's coming into it.
Yeah, he, he had a lot on his plate and I told him, I'm sorry, you know, I'm sorry you're losing a master. For a service manager to lose a master tech is the worst thing they can go through. Yeah, yeah.
It don't look good on him being a brand new hire there to lose one of the Two masters, only two. That's the other thing. Right. Like when it's different, when fluff is there and they've got five other master techs on a team of 15, say. Right. One third are master certified. When only two.
Yeah.
And he had to know coming in that this was going to be a possibility, that he was going to have somebody leave. Because you can't look back at 13 years of poor performance or 15 years, whatever the number is that you're replacing and not going expecting that. People are going to be right on the edge, going to be a little worked up, a little frustrated, a little lackadaisical, lacking motivation, whatever you want to call it. If you don't expect that going in, you probably aren't even a leader, let alone a manager. And this industry, you know, the buzzword is leadership, leadership, leadership. You need to be a leader. Well, I can tell you that most of the time, the shop leader is not the manager. But when it comes down to being able to keep somebody there, the leader in a lot of shops can't do that.
And it's oftentimes I've seen it's the leaders that get fed up and leave, you know, because they're, they're just, they're, they've done that extra to, you know, mentor this young person like you did, you know, or, or keep trying to hit that thing that they need to hit. Well, they're, they're giving it, you know, and yet people are like, just sitting back going, gee, these numbers don't look very good. That's not a leader. A leader is somebody that's going around going, what's going on? How do I help this? How do I fix this? That's what a leader does, you know, gets to know other people. I get it, he's new. But that's what a true leader in this industry should be about. And I see a lot of guys, a lot of content creators talking about leadership, and in the next breath, they're talking about the culture in a lot of these dealerships that's toxic. And they're talking about.
And they all know the reason why it is. And they all just talk around the topic and say, oh, it can work. Flat rate can work. Yeah, it can. It certainly can. 100%. I've worked it. You worked it well.
But the flat rate don't work when it's not long, no longer working, when the work is not coming in and you're paying your guys that way, you're just punishing them for your inability to run the Business effectively. And that's what it boils down to me is that's, that's why guys are like, oh, Jeff, you hate flat rate. I don't hate flat rate. Nope, nope. I hate how it's used. I hate how you can be a owner and a manager and because you run a flat rate pay system, it covers up a lot of mistakes that you're making in the business. I hate that. But there's lots of jobs, you know, if I didn't have to do diag heavy like I've always done, that'd pick flat rate every time.
Lots of those jobs I could get done within the time I'd be wanting to. But somebody has to solve the problems and somebody has to solve the difficult shit. And that's where flat rate don't work. And if you have underperforming people on the front counter that can't sell, won't sell, don't know how you're punishing everybody in the back because of your choice to keep them people up there. And that's the other thing. A lot of these guys, your service manager, he probably might never have been even a service writer. So how is he going to lead them to become better at their job? Just tell them to sell more. That's not.
Yeah, you know, there's, there's, there's a. I feel like every service manager should have been a porter, should have been a technician. Been an advisor. Yeah. Not for one year.
No.
Multiple years in. Multiple years as being a tech, multiple years as being a advisor. And then they qualify to be a service manager.
Yeah, but I mean, I, I worked with a, with an advisor who didn't want to make too much money because he ended up paying too much in alimony. So, you know, he didn't always want to sell that that hard.
The, the shitty part is too. And, and you know, I was, they would give me a lot of. Because I was, I had a lot of insight with my previous service manager, the one that I was with for a long time.
Yeah.
You know, he would talk about the business with me and for a long time, you know, we blamed a lot of stuff on him. Then I was in the office, at one point, he receives a phone call. He's trying to make something happen for us. He gets a phone call and then he just, he loses it. He's like, I can't do this. You know, these guys are going to be upset. And then, right then and there I was like, oh yeah, he has to answer to somebody as well. Yeah, he, the Service managers do not call all the shots.
Nope.
And so, you know, we, we put a lot of blame on them, but they have their hands tied too.
Sure.
Management.
Yep.
And I had to understand that, you know, I, it takes maturing to understand that. And it's not always, it's not always the service managers.
No, it's not. And, and I've seen, I've seen advisors that were poor performing last a long, long, long time because people think they're the face of the, of the department. You know what I mean? All these people have been coming here forever. They come in and they expect to see so and so. Yeah, well, let's look at the numbers. So and so is like telling them when the car needs a big ticket repair that, you know, would make some people some money or, you know, he's telling them to go trade the car in. That's a liability. That's somebody that's not.
How do I say that? They're advocating for the customer. Sure, I get that. But they're almost like at a conflict of interest within their own department. And not absolutely. I was never good with ever. Right. Like, you know, if you've got a person that can just, hey, Fluffy, condemned your CVT and your, you know, five year old Nissan Rogue, okay. You know, you got this Nissan Rogue paid off and then you know it's going to be three grand to put a CVT in it.
Just round numbers and they can afford the three grand but if you send them over to the sales department to see about a trade in, and I was your service manager and you were my service writer, when that customer leaves, we're going to have a conversation because you know, you're expected to do something and it's work in my department, not work for the sales department. You know, and sales might give you a big handshake or whatever, a hundred dollar bill or bottle of booze, I don't know. But you just now, you know, really hurt somebody in the backs pay and you really hurt your own, you know, and I never understood that thinking why they would do something like that. Then I realized that like a lot of times that that advisor is liked by upper management. That's how they become the face of the department. And I think because upper management looks and goes like, look at, they keep, you know, that's advocating for the customer. They bought five Nissans from this. I don't care if you buy 10 Nissans from me if I'm in the back and everything you do is only warranty and you never fix anything.
And you just trade and buy another one. You're not my customer.
Yeah, I, I see, I see the frustration with that. I, I have the same frustration, but I also see why they allow it. Right. Because the way the way dealerships run is the number of new vehicles they have on the road.
Yeah.
Right. For every new vehicle. Creates an opportunity to make more money.
Yeah.
That's how they see it. So whether it's warranty or customer pay after they run out of warranty, I, I don't understand it. It makes the sales department money. It makes the advisor money when they, you know, refer them. Does nothing for the tech.
No.
Really. Oh, you, you know, they're in a brand new vehicle, it keeps them here at the dealership longer because now we got them under warranty. Yeah, but you just lost all that CP work.
Yeah. Or even if you get to do that transmission, say they decide, okay, fluff, you're going to put that training in that one and we're going to put it back on the lot and sell it. You're not going to get your full retail. I don't care what anybody says. They don't pay full retail for you to do it. When they know how fast you can do it under warranty, they're going to want to pay just the warranty labor to get that training done. And a lot of texts will go, yeah, it's better than nothing. It's better than not getting it all.
That's the thing that always just yanks me about the time idea altogether. Jobs just have a certain value. It's not about the time. The time is what determines, sure, what it can get paid, but some jobs just have a certain value. And is some work better than no work? Sure. But if I followed the rules and the thing made it out of warranty and now it's broke and it should pay me eight hours to do it under warranty. Getting only four is, is, is a very, it's another one of them big fus again. Right.
Like it's, you know, you did it in four, you didn't go over but frig. Like you didn't get that four extra hours of pay that you're really entitled to get. And that's where, you know this mindset of technicians always whining, technicians always complaining. That's where that comes from. Right. Is you, you. When we become efficient, you punish us. When we're inefficient, you punish us.
It never made sense to me.
You know, it's just the stuff that we deal with that I Mean, we get used to it too.
Yeah. 100. We.
We get used to the. To the toxicity of the industry.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's. So what's the new shop? What's it like? More people like you said you have. I know you had some friends there, guys that you had worked with in the past that were there.
Correct.
So what's that been like to come back and see them?
Good, good. The gm, I used to work with him. He, you know, he used to run the store I was at before, so I'm very familiar with him. I'm very familiar with 90% of the sales department because they're now his. His old crew.
Yeah.
The service manager is kind of young, but he. He's a lot for the technicians. You know, he. He's there for the technicians a lot. So, you know, it's only three. Three technicians in the. In the main shop, three masters. And so we all feed off of each other.
But see, to have that three masters in your shop you left only had two, you know, but everybody in your shop is a master.
Correct.
Right. Now that's saying something about immediately about the culture. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, is one of the young men that you're working with, did he used to be an apprentice with you at the other previous store?
No.
No. Okay.
So one of the. One of the. One of the guys that I'm with right now, me and him were in Express at about the same time. We came up together.
Right on.
So he's. He's a couple years younger than me. He came into the industry about a year and a half after I did, but we worked in Express together.
Yeah.
We got moved up to main shop around the same time. We became a master a week within each other.
Sweet.
And so we just. During COVID and some of the hard times, we just. We brought each other up.
Yeah.
You know, and we had this friendly competition all the time when we were younger, so, you know, being back with him. And then another guy that came into our shop and 22, he was with us for about a year and a half, but we just built that relationship.
Yeah.
And so now I'm working with both of them. And it's. It's been good. It's been good. I've been making videos with them and.
Yeah, well, that's what, that's what a team's truly about. Right. Is like when you. When you guys all click, it becomes very easy. I don't see, you know, because I talked about me like I had guys. I really, really Liked. And then I had people on the team that I didn't really care for. Right.
The people that I really, really liked, like, we just clicked. You know, I would help them and they would help me. And it was just a. We were kind of always knew what each other was going through at work and at home and. And we're always kind of giving perspective, giving insight, giving, you know, reminding them. No, remember that one that you had that was doing the same thing like three years ago? Yeah. What did you look there yet? That's kind of how you raise each other up, you know, if you got everybody that's like so at each other's throat for competition, for, you know, the last bone, like that. That don't build team, that builds lone wolf, you know, and, and that's not, it's not good.
It's not good. So what, so since you've been there, the shops going up production wise?
Well, no, not really. So when I got, when I got there, just so happened to be start of school. School started. And that just, that affects us tremendously here.
Huge.
And then we had the government shut down. So it's like, you know, they were up in the summer and then they fell off. And then it's been like, it's been slow, steady.
Yeah.
But that's where having only three technicians becomes very important because the work is still spread just between 3, not between 8.
Yeah.
Or 10, or however many we had at the, at the previous shot. So we're still able to kind of make a comfortable living, you know.
Yeah.
And it just, a lot of it just comes down to luck of their draw as well. You know, I could have a bad week, one week, and then the other guys are flourishing, and then the next week I got all these hours and they're down in the dumps. And, you know, it's just, it's when they would ask me, the, the current manager and the general manager, they would ask me, oh, so how do you like it here? It's still a dealership. Don't get me wrong. The environment here is, is better. You know, I'm not as pissed off, but it's still a dealership. We're still working with a manufacturer and having to follow their rules and do their warranty.
Yeah.
So, you know, you just got to take the good with the bad. I just, I'm. I'm happier there is what matters. I'm happier there.
Yeah. And I think that that's, at the end of the day, what they're worried about. Right. Or focused on or should be focused 100% they should be focused on that. And I mean, and you make a good point because it's like sometimes it doesn't even matter about the hours. It just matters sometimes about the processes and the procedures that you've got to follow based on, you know, what the OE sets down. And I mean it's, I go back to like the battery test thing, like that whole idea in the industry that like just frustrates that frig out of me because it's like, okay, so that car sat on that lot for nine months. Right.
And didn't move, didn't sell. We know no matter what Midtronic says, that battery's pooched. Like it sat there, you know. You know it's supposed to have the radio fuse pulled out of it so that it doesn't suck on the battery. But we know that the salesman can't remember which fuse to install. So they don't want to go out on a road test with a radio. It doesn't work. And so the fuse stays in, drains the battery.
The, the bs, they make you go through that just to charge the battery up to get three failed slips before they'll let you put a battery in it. They'll pay hardly any time to put in is nonsense to me.
Yep.
You know, and it's, it's, that's just one example of process and procedures being set down by the OEs that really frustrate the tax. It's not just about the time. I mean the time sucks. I can do it within the time, but it sucks. It's that instead of just coming forward and being honest and going, listen, I, I know because who's really responsible is it? Well, it's the lot person's responsibility to keep them gassed up, start them up, let them run. I mean up here like we get such friggin freezing cold winters that like our stuff, the battery will go drain down in no time. And then we're out there constantly boosting cars and then they let them run for all of five minutes and then they shut them off and next week they go and boost them again because they didn't let them run enough to charge anything, you know, because they haven't filled them with fuel because we don't want to fill them with fuel until the customer's paid for that. Like it's just little things like that, little nuances that, that stress people out because it's, it's set down by the OE or set down by the boss.
That's the Stuff that when they're not listening to the text going, this is what really frustrates me. When they're not listening to that. You're, you're not gonna make it better. You know, I mean, yeah, we can as a, as a collective sometimes we can be found, can become very negative and just dwell on all the rotten stuff. Complain constantly. But it's that little of just like, you know, you need three failed slips before you can put that battery and get, get bent. Like, I mean, you know, just leave it out there. Then I don't care what you do with it.
Like go boost it and give it to somebody else, have them tow it in. I don't care. You know, like, there goes your csi. Like it's not, it's not great. But people don't understand where that attitude eventually trickles down is because it's the same thing of you saying like, you know, hey, this really sucks. Well, that's just the way it is. That's just the way it is is an answer that I never have been able in all my career to, to really stomach. You know, and when we talk about now this leadership buzz, you know, culture, it's, it's a word, it's a, it's a phrase you're not even supposed to use.
So why are we still using it? You know?
Yep.
So what? Go ahead, go ahead.
And I, I feel like. So, you know that whole thing with Jim Farley and talking about Ford and stuff like that, I think, I think that trickled down to some, some manufacturers and they're starting to realize like, okay, you know what? Maybe we do have an issue.
Yeah.
Because I, I know it. I probably shouldn't talk about this, but Nissan held a whole like seminar type deal with us to get our input. And you know, we now have the ability to. Where if we feel like something is underpaid, we can build a case with them as a technician. And once they get enough cases built, they'll look into it.
Yeah.
And, and adjust, Adjust time accordingly. The only issue with, with warranty is being a technician being flat rate. You're not supposed to break even.
Yeah.
You're supposed to come out on top. So doing the job faster, doing a, let's say doing a engine for 15 hours, you're moving and scooting, you're scooting and booting. Like you. No time to, to take a, you know, for the smokers, if. Take a cigarette break or go into the restroom or something to slow you down. Right. You really have to be on that thing Constantly. That creates some mistakes.
So when you're getting paid warranty and you're only getting paid 10 hours versus 15, you're trying to hustle even faster and creating more problems for getting clamps.
Forgetting bolts, forgetting to plug something in, pinching the wire because you know, you didn't like you're, you're booting and scooting to get that engine slung in there, right? And there's that harness and all of a sudden it just winds up behind between the transmission and the bell housing, right? Like you're, you just did that. You know, it's how we break off, you know, an AC line or something like that. Like it's all little stuff like that that happens. Because why we're just hammering it, man. And I mean, I've heard one of the. Another guy with a podcast, he was talking about how his wife, Suburban with a 6:2 is in that GM for the recall in the engine. And they got it back and it was just thrown together just a mess, you know, rad fan shroud wasn't even close to being right. You know, loose bolts in the exhaust, engine mount stuff, all this kind of stuff.
Harness routed wr. And everybody goes, well that mechanic just doesn't friggin care. I'm so tired of hearing people that have never done what we do assuming that something has, is not done properly because we don't care. And I understand there's a responsibility to care, but if they saw the culture that we're expected to work in, the things that we're expected to do for the time that we're given, for the money that we're given. I think more people on the Internet that come after you and come after me and come after all of us, maybe you'd understand why stuff gets like missed because you're just like you're expected that. You know, if they say it takes 12 hours to change that engine in that Titan truck, you're expected to get it done before 12 hours is up, you know, because otherwise they're like, well look at your production, it sucks. Okay, can anybody else in the building do it in 1012? Not yet. Okay, well then shut up.
You know, if I do it in 14 and he does it in 12, go lift the hoods on them, go compare them. Whose looks better? Whose looks like it was never touched? Oh, that guy that went 14, maybe the real time then should be 14, you know, and this is where I people when they, they get on me about, you're always talking about flat rate. No, I talking about I'm talking about an incentivized pay period, you know, because it's like if part of that bonuses me up, then I want every hour I can get on the freaking job that I need to do the best possible way. And I don't want to be punished if the, if it just takes longer because of situations that are beyond my control. I don't want to be punished if it's an unrealistic time, you know, I don't want to be punished, period. And that's when incentivize the flat rate does. Yes. When you're a line guy and you've done three or four like your cvt, we've done forever.
Yeah, no problem. But man, I remember watching them do the first couple of Titan short blocks and I was watching the guys just like, you know, there'd be four days on it, you know, and to be perfect, when I left it, they didn't get paid. Four days pay.
Yep. They're. They can, they can be a pain in the ass.
Right. And it's like. So then we had what I always thought fluff was we had a bunch of guys in the shop and one would come in and they'd say, no fall found. I don't hear no engine knock or they go, I don't care.
I hear it.
I ain't doing it. You can fire me, you can starve me, I ain't doing it. And people call that insubordination. Technicians call it survival. And you know, I'm not necessarily advocating that that's what you do. But I have told more than one technician that at the time just doesn't seem fair. Then you got to have a talk about it, you know, and maybe it's a better job then for somebody that's still on an hourly pay and, and they get a chance to do something big like that and learn than punishing your flat rate guy with a job that's going to suck. Yeah, that's just.
And you know, again, as like you, right, as I talked to some of the other people that have been in business, I understand sometimes why it's that way, why they can't always do what the, you know, pay you more for it. But I also remind everybody when they say Jim Farley has never told the dealerships to pay the technicians flat rate. It's not sent down by the, you know, the powers that be in the OEs that they have to pay you that way. That's just how the dealers choose to pay you because they have a labor guide that says it should Only take this long to do and you know, so we want you to only do it within that time. That's fine, no problem. But nowhere does it say that like when there's no work coming in or it's a lot of crap work at once that you're only supposed to get paid. The jobs that you produce, that's the difference. Right.
And people in the industry talk about, well, there's other, other blue collar trades pay that way too. No, not, not the way we do. You know, a lot of them get a, get bonused on the production. Sure. But I, I've been in a dealer where, you know, no cars came in that day. I paid, I got paid zero. I lost money to drive to work. Yeah.
You know.
To go to work and to eat. Yeah, definitely been there.
Yeah. So I mean, it's. When I remind people the OEs are not forcing you to work flat rate, your dealer owner or your management at your dealer is forcing you to work flat. Right. So if it works for you, work it for sure. But we have to get a lot better too at helping our people out when we know we're coming up on the lean times, you know, maybe talk to them about like kind of keep some hours away, you know, stay saved up. And I've talked to different guys and it's like, you know, some of the dealers, they, they get them up to 50 and then any hours after that they allow them to bank them and take them on lean weeks. You ever had that opportunity, Fluff?
No, I haven't.
Yeah, I think there might be something there for some of the guys, you know, to. Because I know like January always was lean, September was always lean, you know, trying to think of one else.
But see that at the same time, that's. So if you, if you bank those hours right, you've already completed the work. What is that doing? What, what, what's the dealership doing for you besides holding on to it? It's still your pay that you're not getting paid when it's done.
Yep.
So it's, it's only more of a savings. It's not them, I'm gonna say helping you out.
No, it's your money.
They're not paying you. It's your money.
Yeah.
So it, that's a hard conversation between flat rate salary, hourly, because when you're flat rate, you know, you control your check to a point. When you're hourly, you're not expected to lean on your box, be on your phone, etc. Etc. Ultimately, if there's no Work coming in and you're hourly, they're not going to want to pay you on the clock while you're there.
That's right.
They're gonna. You know what? Shop is clean. You know what? Go. Hold it. Go ahead and go home at 1.
Yeah. What?
Sir, I. I gotta be here. Nah, we can't justify paying you if there ain't nothing coming in. Same thing with salary. Your salary. You're. You're going to be expected to do something. Go click, go scrub a toilet, go do this, go do that.
Outside of what your job description is.
Sure.
So, you know, it's. It's always a hard conversation when it comes to hourly flat rate or salary.
Yeah, I used to. I remember I was at an hourly shop in the wintertime. January, February, it was a tire shop, all things. And we still, we. We'd already just killed it for tires. In November and December, I'd shovel the parking lot. And I mean, I shoveled like it was, it was a big lot. I just was out there with a shovel.
You know, Canadian kids did. And, you know, and why would I do that? Because I could. I could put my headphones on, you know, I could be of my thoughts. I was out of the spotlight, you know what I mean? Not in the rifle sites of like, is he being busy? You know, are we going to send him home? And there were so many days that I'd shovel, and then the next day they'd still send me home because it didn't snow.
Yeah.
You know, and I'm like that little guy over there. Like, he never gets sent home. Yeah. Never gets sent home. So that was the other thing with like. And I've talked about that hourly. I'm pretty good now where it's like, especially if it's summertime, if there's no work, I don't want to be there. There don't matter.
You could pay me. I just would rather not be there. But I do know a lot of guys that they bank on being at the shop 44 hours, getting paid 44 hours worth of pay. That's how they figure out their. That they're going to make their payments, you know, at the month.
Yeah.
You start sending those guys home, you got to really look at, like, how effective are you and your business on getting work into the shop and, you know, capitalizing on the work that's there. That's why I keep. I sound like a broken record, but I keep coming back to people that want to do something for free, stick that wiper blade on or Stick that headlight bulb in or stick that air filter and we all get so militant about it. Go f you. I'm not doing it for free. That's why, you know, because every little bit of those jobs that we could do in charge, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, whatever, give away an hour diag or something like that, that can all go into the pot to cover those lean days.
Yep.
But if you're just using it as your marketing to get this reputation. Oh, they really look, they're, they're fair. You know, I hate that word, they're fair. They put that bulb in and you know, like I watched him do it and only took him 10 minutes and he scratched his hand up really good. But he got it done from an in charge me. You charge him half an hour for that, still scratch his hand but you'd have money to cover that next morning. Then where nothing came in, one appointment got cancelled, something like that. We all know that that happens, eh, Fluff? You look at your route sheet and you're like, we got 20 appointments tomorrow, 10 show up.
You know, I'm so fortunate right now, my boss will tell me, yeah, there's this Kia coming in tomorrow that, remember we looked at it. Yep, I remember that one. Yeah. Misfire. And yeah, you know, oil consumption. Yep, I remember that one. And then it don't show up the next day. I don't get upset.
Whereas the old me would be like, call that woman up, get her in here, you know, I need that hour.
Yeah.
It'S crazy, man.
It is, it is. And you know, what are we gonna do about it? What do we do about it?
Well, so I kind of wanted to talk to you about something here because I've seen you a couple weeks ago, I kind of saw some of your, your, you know, your content and it was leaning very much towards like you were kind of patting yourself on the, on the back about what some of the dealer guys do when it comes to diag or knowing the product. Right. And he kind of made some bold statements and I'm like, that's my boy. Because I've been guilty of that before too. Right. I have said on more than one occasion, you know, if back in my day, God, I sound old. If you brought a Chrysler in from 96 to 2006, there wasn't too many people in the city that I worked in the new that product better than me. I would argue that to the day I was done because it was just, it was like drinking from a fire hose.
You just Got exposed to all of it. You had no choice. And I saw you and you were talking the same thing. And you know, it's always, you know, these cars fluff really well. You know that product line, you're a master. What do you think about that when you see people like. Because you handle it better. Me? But you, you see, people talk about dealer techs all the time.
What do you, what do you like? You're proud to be a dealer tech. I am, yeah.
And that is because, you know, I know the work I put out, so I am prideful of the work I put out. Right. And that goes back to what you were talking about with, you know, leaving harnesses and bolts and this and that. You know, mistakes are gonna happen. Sure, mistakes are gonna happen and that's going to come back to the individual. But, but several mistakes on a single vehicle is when you're like, okay, you know what, what's going on here? Yeah, lack of, lack of pride, lack of responsibility. But when, when people talk about dealer techs. Look, not all dealers are the same.
No, not all dealers are the same. And you know, not all independent shops are the same either. There's independent shops that will follow manufacturers to a T. Yeah, to a T. And I, I respect those. But then at the same time, it's not always the shop, it's the individual. You could have a bad ass technician at an independent shop, you could have a badass technician at a dealer, but then at the same time you can get. Have a horrible tech at either one.
So you were just talking about. It comes down to the individual. The technician in the bay.
Yes.
People heard me say that all the time. What? What? Determine what? Without looking for the easy answers, what determines for you whether you have a good day or a social day?
I mean, the easy answer would say making hours but not struggling on a vehicle that is, you know, a problem child. Or, you know, sometimes the manufacturers are right there learning about the vehicle with you when it's under warranty, when it's a new product. Yeah, you know, I have, I have, for instance, I have one I've had for about three months. Will, speed sensor issue. You know, this code it's giving me is an open short. What? It's got a code for an open. It's got a code for a short. Yeah, I checked the harness.
Harness is good. Low. Tested it. It's good. I'm like, you know, is this an internal ABS issue? I questioned them, you know, because that's what I was leaning towards. Oh, no. And let me Tell you this, it's, it's reading, let me see, 665 kilometers per hour is what it's giving me at all times. Yeah.
So I'm like, yeah, do we have an ABS issue? And. No, put it, put a wheel speed sensor in it. What? Okay. Put a wheel speed, contact them. Code's still there. Check pin, drag, pin fit, whatever you.
Want to call it.
I checked everything. I had a, another guy come out. Okay, you know what? Put an ABS module in it. Put an ABS module in it. Same thing is going on. So now I'm out of stats and I'm stuck. I don't even want to deal with this vehicle anymore.
Sure. Yeah.
Because I wasted so much time, you know, when it's under warranty. And it's weird, issues like that. We do not like to throw modules at vehicles.
No.
Right. So before we condemn a module, we are going through it, going through it again, Going through it again. And that's where we lose time, because if that module doesn't fix it and another part has to be thrown on it, let's say a more simple part, a fuse. It ends up being a fuse or pin fit. The manufacturer is not going to want to pay for that module because it wasn't, it wasn't a defected part.
That's right.
That caused the issue.
Yeah.
So we have to be very sure that we are hitting the nail on the head, crossing our T's, dotting our eyes and, you know, dealing with weird issues is when you have a bad day, a good day is quick diagnosis, accurate diagnosis, and ultimately getting, getting stuff sold. I don't care if it's an air filter, a brake flush, power steering flush, you know, just getting stuff sold.
Yeah. And it's the same. You know, I say that too. It's, it's the nightmare cars that make me such a detractor for Flat Rate, you know, and I. And here's the thing. It works. Flat Rate works on a lot of shops that I talk to, but there's always a dedicated guy in the shop that deals with the problem cars and he just lets the rest of the guys turn the work that, you know, needs to get done. And they all make on Flat Rate.
They, they're killing it. You know, they're 150 effective and, you know, proficient and all that kind of jazz. And then these nightmare cars are getting handled by somebody that, let's just be real, like, like your problem with that ABS or something. It's just going to take time. It's just going to eat Your lunch, it's just going to suck. You're going to get through it, you're going to solve it and you know, like, you're going to fix the car. But like when we punish everybody equally with these problem cars, it keeps it fair. But you end up with four guys, five guys, 10 guys in a shop that hate the process.
Yeah. And that's where I'm at with it is because it's like every tech I know that back in the day that I worked with, like they've almost all, except for two, have gone on to and you know, hourly, they won't work flat rate anymore because at one point or another we all got jobs that just sucked. And you'll see it online, guys like, well, it's just the way it is. It's just, you know, blah, blah, blah. Sure. And if it's dispatched fairly and every. But like you and I know there's some guys in the shop that pick and choose. Don't go right up, no fault found.
Don't go after the hard stuff, don't care. Don't take pride in being able to solve anything. And they just continuously look good. Management sometimes thinks that's how that's supposed to. We're all supposed to look like that.
Yeah.
We all can't do that. Right, Fluffy? And that's not realistic. And that's the downfall of the system. So I say like for people, either take your dedicated foreman or whatever, your leader, that's who tackles the, the complicated cars, the, the science projects, the ass kickers, pay them a good wage, you know, so that they can figure this stuff out, so that they can teach people when they finally find it. Wow, this really kicked my can. Look at how I changed my process to solve this kind of problem next time. That's what builds learning. That's what builds skill.
If everybody is just dodging bullets to not get those certain cars, you, you hold back everybody collectively.
And let me say this, if you're gonna have a foreman, have a working foreman.
Yes.
Not a desk foreman. Yeah. A glorified dispatcher, if you will.
Yeah.
I'm gonna be honest, that's one of the reasons why I left where I left.
Really?
Yeah.
So what was his day to day routine? What was his responsibilities?
Making sure we were doing something.
Making sure we were busy. Yeah.
Making sure we, we, you know, that that was the thing too because we had a lot of inexperienced texts that were, you know, learning and trying to come up and. Oh, fluff. So and so. Can't handle this, can you do It, Dude, I want to make some money, too. Yeah, you're the foreman. Go figure it out. Oh, I don't get paid enough for that. That's not my problem.
That is a problem for you to take up with our service director, our service manager.
Why'd you agree?
Go deal with that. Yeah, I don't want to turn riches no more. You're the foreman. You are the four men.
Yeah.
You know, the guy's cool. He's cool to talk to. He's cool to, you know, BS with. But when it came down to that, that was one of the. The. The issues I was having, like, you know, and it seemed like they. He was giving me more and more off brands that came through the shop. Right.
A dealer tech doesn't want to work on something that he knows he's going to lose. Lose his ass on.
Yeah.
I told them, keep feeding me these. These different cars, and y' all are gonna regret it. I'm gonna get comfortable working on other. And I' ma jump.
Yeah.
Because I've built experience.
I found a lot of foreman, too, at dealerships. What they end up being is the go between. Between the advisor and the technician. And a lot of the time, the. The foreman got tasked with doing the job that really the advisor should have been doing. Right. Sometimes people think it's nuts. Sometimes that advisor needs to get in the car and ride with the customer and hear the noise or feel what they're feeling, or.
Here's the other thing. Go ride around with them. And I said it before, and if a ride's just like the same five rogues that you've driven in the last three days, there ain't nothing wrong with it.
Right.
And tell the customer that before you ever open a damn work order and send it to the shop and make a warranty claim and get a CSI score tabulated and written out, all go do your flipping job and actually, you know, advocate for your customers. See if there's actually anything really broke or not.
Yeah.
And if there ain't, don't waste everybody else's time. But that's what they would have these foremen doing, driving around. Driving around with a customer. Listen to this. Listen to that. Oh, it's been back two times. You know, she does say it's intermittent and it's not always there, but go drive with her again, man. At some point, we need to have the conversation that, like, he's got other stuff he needs to be doing.
Yeah.
I hate intermittent issues. If it's. If it's that intermittent, you Know, I tell my advisors, look, they still have warranty for 30, 000 miles.
That's right.
If it's so. If the intermittent is so spread out, wait till it's a little more frequent before bringing it in. Yeah. You know, make sure that the customer can actually duplicate it.
Yeah. And, you know, you say 30, 000 miles. Some of them, it's like, you got warranty for two more years, three more years. Like, the car is two months old. What's the big flipping rush? Like, I get it. If it. If you got to tow it in because it won't start and it's intermittent. Yeah.
That frustrating.
Yep.
But if you're like, every time you drive it down the highway at this certain speed, going the crosswind at this and the. You know, sometimes you get a noise, a window wind noise, like F off of that, man, roll your radio up. Turn your radio up. It's. You know, you're asking us to try and, you know, you're asking us to really try and pull the rabbit out of the hat. And, I mean, we're good, but we're not magicians. Like, we can't just snap our fingers and make this go away, you know.
Dude, you know, we see so many issues with radios now. Yeah, with radios. Bluetooth, CarPlay, Apple. What is it? Android Auto. Oh, it's not working. And I need to be able to see my map. And.
Yeah.
And we hook it up and we're like, we can't duplicate it. I spent an hour with the lady one time trying to figure this stuff out. Could not figure it out. It worked with everybody's phone in the shop. With her phone, it wouldn't. What does that tell you? It's your phone.
That's right. But it can't.
But she was a phone. They were adamant that it was happening with hers and her husband's. And, you know, we. Yes, it was happening with her phone. We've seen it.
Right.
And I was gonna build a case with Nissan. I already knew what Nissan was gonna say.
Yeah.
Then we call her in, and they wanted us to connect her phone to another vehicle and make sure that it was happening on that vehicle. And ultimately. Right. It would be her phone.
Yeah.
She goes, oh, no. I factory reset the radio and factory reset my phone, and it fixed, You know, how much time I spent. Not only. And advisors are all the same. Well, can you. Can you try it again in a couple. In an hour? In 30 minutes? Yeah, try it again. Try it again.
Try it again. No, I'm not gonna try it again. I already wasted some time on it. I'm not gonna try it again. Oh, well, can you bring the customer back here? Oh, man.
Yeah. I remember watching them tear apart a Pathfinder because she said that, like, she couldn't get all. It was either three or four of the phones in the car to pair to the WI fi at the same time she gets. Trying to get the fourth one because again, she's got her phone and three kids in the back of two kids. I can't remember the exact number, but it was a lot. Couldn't all get hooked into the hotspot at the same time. That was just too frustrating. Me, I'm like, oh, there's so many more things to be upset about with a.
Driving a Pathfinder than that. Yes, things. Right. But like, but. And I get it. It's their complaint, it's their concern that whatever they used to drive didn't do it. Or it was what they were told that would be able to be done by this. I, I understand all that.
I, I wish when it comes to multimedia or not multimedia, infotainment and, you know, accessories that these are, I wish that it's gonna sound bad. I wish manufacturer would say there will be issues. Yeah, glitches. But it's a convenience thing. It's not gonna make or break your vehicle.
No.
Yeah, but they won't do that. No.
Because then it's like. Because you know what's going to happen. Fluff. The first brand out there that says ours operate flawlessly, we're not going to say that we've. We've got it all figured out. They'll run to them to buy their cars. Which is absurd to me now, but that people are more concerned with the infotainment system in the vehicle than the powertrain of it. They don't give a.
No.
We can tell them that this transmission, every one of them, is going to fall out within 60,000 miles. Everyone. I don't care.
I don't care. It got a big 15 inch display.
And my Uconnect always works. You know, my, my good friend Dan, God love him, he's got a Durango, has all kinds of infotainment issues in it. Right. It's not constantly. Uconnect is kicking him out and then he has to go back in and then it works. And he's, you know, he's got cases built with, with Chrysler on it or Stellantis now. And yeah, he's been back to deal three or four times and frustrates Helen, but he's like, even he laughs because he's, he's an old tech himself and he goes, it's just really first world problems, you know what I mean? Otherwise like the car. Yeah, he had that time when it wouldn't start and they put a starter in it, but otherwise it's been, you know, a pretty reliable car for him.
And I'm sitting here thinking like I don't even, I don't even link my phone to my, my Jeep, you know, I listen to the satellite radio and like I change the stations and I drive hair that my, my Spotify playlist doesn't come up on my big friggin whoop.
You know, but like, you know, you're texting to drive anyways. Look at your phone.
That's right.
Yeah. You know, I'm not saying that you should, but they do it and they, when it comes to, to an issue with their radio, they're like, I can't take my, my eyes off the road. You're doing it to look at the screen on your vehicle.
Yeah.
Anyways.
What, what's some of the common repairs you're seeing coming in right now that you really don't want to see?
It's just all over the place right now.
Still a lot of dirty throttle bodies and mass airflows.
Yeah, yeah, the, the 15 turbo engines. Oh yeah, those are, I mean we're not seeing a bunch of them, but they have their issues. The kicks have their issues. I mean every vehicle is going to have their issues. What about the, It's a spotty, it's a spotty conversation right there.
What about the Leafs? Are you, do you touch a lot of them?
No, my dealership is not, not EV certified right now.
Oh, right on.
So we are, the technicians are. But the dealership itself is missing a couple things that is required to be able to service them.
Right. Yeah.
So I'm like.
We just had a, we sold a customer like a 9 year old leaf a few months ago and you know, at the lot that I work at and she bought it, didn't do any research on it. She's had it a few months and she's like, I'm not getting the range that I'm supposed to get. And so she takes them to the dealership because first she contact us and we're like, listen, we're not set up like we sell these, but we're not set up to service anything or we don't have any of the ability to do the test on the EV side of the battery and all that jazz like you're gonna have to go to the dealer. So she goes to the dealer and the dealer, of course looks at it and says, yeah, battery's degraded. You know, it's at about 65 capacity. It won't charge up past that. You need a battery. Battery costs more than the car's worth.
$15,000.
That's what I said. Yeah. So she only paid 10 for the car up here. And she says, well, I have an extended warranty and it covers the EV side. I made sure to ask that when I bought it. Yes, you're right, ma', am, it does. Unfortunately, it only covers up to five grand of the eevee side.
Oh my God. I mean, that's not funny. It's just.
But it kind of is funny because.
Like, it's one of those awkward, like you feel bad for them but at the same time, like it's expected.
I mean, that's the reason the damn thing was probably traded and went to an auction where it then came to us, you know, and listen, I'm not, I'm not laughing at her. I'm laughing at the situation of like it goes back to. People don't do their research. Now, Nissan EV doesn't, Nissan Leaf doesn't have great glowing results on the old Google interwebs about quality or being a very well built ev. It's not, it's a cheap ev.
You know, I haven't seen a lot of issues with them, to be honest.
We saw a ton.
Aside from the, it might be because y' all get a little cold up there and they didn't have like the climate, battery warmers and the stuff like that yet, which they do now. So I mean, aside from, you know, the battery issue. Yeah, that was the only issue they really had.
But let's be real fluff. That's kind of the big issue.
That is a big issue. It is a big issue. But like, you're not seeing motor issues, you're not seeing, you know, the cars falling apart. That's what I mean by that.
Yeah, but I mean, I was, I was talking with a guy on the, on the Facebook page for Jade Mechanic Today and I'm like, he's like, well, this is going to be the future. And I'm like, so that lady had a Versa and it was 10 years old. We could change her transmission and her engine for the price of that battery repair.
Yeah.
And then think about what you've got after that. You got yourself a brand new Versa, which is still a Versa. But let's be real, you're not like, you know, and people get so cranked up and I mean, I feel bad for her, but again, at the same time, it's like you could have done some research. And I hate to say it, but the EV thing is for people that have the income to do the EV thing. If you don't have the income to do the EV thing, you should just stick to the ice thing, Mustang, because they are right now still a lot of money to, you know, dabble in that, Stick your foot in that pool as per se, you know, Tesla or wonderful car. But there's a huge difference in a Tesla and a Leaf. Like, completely different customer, completely different type of car, completely different type of car company. That's what people need to realize on that.
I feel sorry for her, but at the same time, I don't think they're the type of people that are like struggling for money. Like this is going to completely break them. I just think that they're not going to live out their EV dreams the way they wanted to. Yeah. This particular car, and that's okay. We'll probably buy back from them and send it to auction and, you know, it'll get crushed into, I don't know, new Leafs or something. Who knows? You know.
Hopefully not.
So what, the 15 turbo, what's happening with that? Everything.
They're. They're saying bearing issues.
Okay.
Bearing issues causing knocking.
Yeah.
So we're getting those replaced. I don't know what they've done to improve it, but.
Right. You do a short block or a long block on that.
Long block.
That's nice.
Long block with their turbo.
Oh. See what they normally get in and out in the bottom. Drop it out, swap her out, stick her back in. Nice.
It's a lot. It's a lot of work. There's a lot of. There's a lot of parts on that engine.
Yeah.
Like, holy crap. Like under Warranty, it pays 15 hours. So it's a. It's a hefty warranty time. Right. And I. Hell, I did one under CP the other day and it paid like 23 hours for a. For a long block.
Almost.
Short block times.
Yeah.
So it's a lot of. It's a small engine, but it's got a lot of stuff on it.
Well, transmissions are getting better.
Yeah. I don't see really transmission issues unless it's unlike the older Ultimas.
Yeah.
The older kicks, the older Centrals and versus.
Yeah.
I don't know. I don't know what they've done different, but I Did notice. Okay, so you know how Nissan has the. The NV vans, right? The cargo vans.
Yeah.
And There's a. The MV200, which uses the Sentra powertrain. And that thing has a big old trans cooler on the front of it. I rarely ever see those go out.
Yeah.
I'm wondering if. If that's. That's what causes them, is. Well, I know the heating issue is what causes them overheating. Yeah, but why didn't they put coolers on these things? Why didn't they put proper coolers?
Yeah, especially, like. And you don't see it because I'm way up here in Canada. But I mean, like, I never worked for a company that had so many heating complaints. Like, Nissan's up here just don't get hot. Like, you. If you look over into. Somebody's got their scarf around their neck inside the car, they're driving Nissan because it just. They don't make great heat, and they never did.
And when I got up here and started working on first of the Time, they're like, you're getting what from the vent? And I'm like, oh, it's not very good. Oh, that's perfectly normal. That's as hot as they get. And I'm like. And then you would see all this latent air sitting around the front rad, the way they designed them. And then you'd see them like. But there's no. There's no rad cooler.
There's no transmission cooler. Like, maybe if we just stuck a big old tranny cooler in front of it, we'd have kept the transmission alive a bit longer and helped a little bit hotter. And maybe we'd have fixed two, you know, two birds, one stone. But that's the thing that always, like, I just couldn't understand. And I know. I remember we had a. I think it was a Sentra, and it had poor heat, and we flushed that core like, three or four times. And then we finally said, like, it ain't.
You know, and they went and put an aftermarket heater core in it because it was out of warranty, but it was some extended warranty that they sold with the car at the car lot at the dealer that I worked at. So instead of buying the OE cool heater core and putting it in, they put the aftermarket one in. Well, that sucker was colder than the OE one.
Oh.
Right. So there. You really look like a dumbass to the customer. So finally they took. We had one that was sitting out back that was getting ready to go to Auction just flog it. And they grabbed the heater box right out of that one and just stuffed it in that fixed the car, gave back to customer and said, here, don't, don't bring this back. And they're like, yeah, we're not, we're getting rid of it, you know. And I just laughed because I'm thinking I could remember we had for the Versus, we had updated little coolers that we would put in to get the transmission cooler.
Well, not the cooler, but it would help the engine coolant actually get a little hotter in the cold weather up here because otherwise you drive around, there'd be 100 and I'll use my Fahrenheit thing. Like, they'd be 180 and that's as hot as they get. And then that's like, not in the middle of winter. That's not making a whole lot of heat for your heater core. Right? And you'd see them come in, they all had like what we call up here a bra across the front of them and guys were trying everything they could put in cardboard in front of the rad trying to heat. And it's like, you know, Nissan had this little thing where they made this separate cooler and that was supposed to help the. It was a bypass to keep the coolant out of the transmission for a while to get more heat in the winter time. And I'm just thinking this car just sounds like it's just not designed for Canada.
You know, I found the service information really hard. That was the biggest obstacle for me, the way they, they. And I know you're like, for you, it's, you know, second nature, but the layout of it, how they did it just still frustrates me to this day. It's still so stupid. Like, you know.
Yeah, I've had conversations with the guys that work about that and they're like, dude, it's so easy. Like, yeah. We look at other brands and we're like, what? What?
Yeah, but I remember that was. Remember I contacted about the Murano I had that had no memory functions. And I said, I. I think it's the, the memory module. Yeah, I remember talking to you about like, you know, service information was so vague on what was supposed to be going in and out of that stupid thing, what it was actually supposed to look like, and how would I, like, it was so dumb. I'm just like. And I sent it over. The dealer second opinion said, yeah, put a memory module in it.
So we put a memory module and of course fixed the car. I Was right all along. But like trying to navigate that, it.
Just makes you question yourself so bad.
Because it can't tell me this is what a signal coming in or out should look like or this is what it should be. None of that was listed. It's just here's the function, here's the operation and all that kind of stuff. And I remember I messaged you. I'm like fluffy could tell me something like this. And you checked your. You know, I forget what they call it now. But you checked for any other known cases.
I think you said you found two on the Murano that had a memory module changed and it fixed both of them. Like that's good enough for me. Then let's try that. It's like 250 module. Wasn't expensive, no program required. Plugged it in every single Seats, mirrors and everything started working right away. Good. You know but that's frustrating when all you want is a power mirror to work and you can't get a power mirror to work because there's a module for memory.
That's dumb. That's. Yeah. You know, that's. Or seat. Same thing. Seat wouldn't work. You know, couldn't move the same seat around.
Like that's. That's not well engineered. Sorry. I should be able to unplug that module. Leave it alone. And my seats should go back to working as they should. Power, no memory. That's how.
If it was engineered right, that's how it should work. What about Titans? Are they still building the Frontier?
Frontier's still being built.
Yeah.
You see a lot of those Frontier? Not really.
No way.
No. Unless it's a recall.
I like that little truck.
And well I'm talking about like the newer ones. The newer Frontiers.
Yeah.
Recalls and maintenance. Really?
Yeah. And no more. Is there Titan left?
No.
No way. It's all done. Yep. Is Cummins responsible for that?
I. I do not know that one. I do not know. I mean we can have our hunches but I. I honestly don't know.
They were. They were terrible trucks.
I don't know if the. The smaller mid sized trucks are doing better than the full size or it could be the whole V8 issue.
I have no idea. Yeah. That. That engine for what that truck cost and it's 5.6. It was junk. Like.
Well what I mean is like everybody's getting rid of the V8s. Yeah.
But then Stellantis announced that they're going to bring the Hemi back. Hallelujah.
For now. For now.
I think that's Inevitable. I think it's, I think they're going to be here to stay. It doesn't matter. And again, I could, you could make the argument that maybe they should because if you look at the six, two in the, in the GM right now, there's, there's, you can make the argument that, yeah, that thing's a turd. But let's be real. It's a turd because of what they're trying to do with the oil to make it get some kind of emissions rating. It isn't like the GM knows how to build an engine still. It's just the way we're forcing them to run on this water for oil.
Well, see this, this goes down to fuel consumption. You know, these emission control devices, vvt that require smaller, thinner oil.
Yeah.
Right. So we're trying to get all this power out of us out of an engine and we're having to put all these devices on to control emissions and it's just ruining them. So, you know, you, you're running vvt, you got to run a smaller weight oil.
Yep.
Smaller weight oil. Can't handle the bang that's going on on the rods or the lifters or, you know, the, the just doesn't, it doesn't work. So I think that's where we have. Our issue is, is with the emissions. Emissions is hurting the, the engines. You know, we got that 15 that we're getting over 200 horsepower out of it.
Yeah.
A 1 5, three cylinder engine. Of course you're gonna have issues. You're trying to force every horsepower you can out of it.
Yeah.
Not only is it a three cylinder engine, it's turboed.
Yeah.
So you're forcing more air in, getting higher pressures. It's.
We used to put bigger engines and riding lawnmowers and now we're under the hood of cars. You know what I mean? It's just like, then we wonder why, gee, it won't last. Well, we're making it work so hard.
We're stressing them so, so much. Yeah.
Now you talked to me the other day something about, and we didn't really get into the conversation about, but should technicians kind of go and start their own thing and you kind of just touched on it, but we didn't really delve into that. Kind of open that up to me. For me, what you were thinking about when you brought that topic up, I.
Think it's because I see a lot of people doing it now.
Yeah.
You know, there's a lot of. We see on the on the Internet, a lot of technicians are leaving dealership. It's mainly dealer techs that I see.
Yeah.
That are leaving and doing their own thing. And I don't know if that's good or bad, like, you know, because I feel like there's going to be a point where we're over saturating while you.
Could make the argument that we're already oversaturated. Yeah, there's a lot of technicians out there. That's the thing. We're not at a shortage of technicians. We're at a shortage of a certain level of technician. I'm going to say that I think it's pretty easy to find guys that can get tires put on or brakes put on. Although, you know, you'll. You will talk to the guys in the, in the, in the circles that I run versus what you run, they're a little different.
And, you know, guys will say, listen, I hired him to do a brake job and he couldn't even get that done inside of four hours. I get it. Okay. But I mean, when you look at the chain stores, like, they always seem to be able to be filling spots for guys to get tires done, alignments done, and brakes done. Now, I'm not saying they're all done, you know, perfect. No, I'm not even going to entertain that as a. That's a pipe dream. But what we need that we don't have is the guys that can do that one five engine job in.
In 15 hours or that guy that can go in and solve that, or gal that solve that network problem in these cars, you know, and get it knocked out in a day. We don't have enough of those technicians. And, and I see the guys that are really smart in the circles we run on the content creator side, and they're leaving the dealers and they're going off and doing their own thing. And that's cool. I get why they do it. I've been there. But what they need to understand is it's not. It's not how well you fix the car.
As soon as you walk out, it's still important that you fix the car. And you're good at fixing cars. But, man, they go out of there with no idea how this business is actually supposed to go. Right. So they get in there and all of a sudden it's like, okay, I'm brand new. It's just me. Door rates around me, or $150 an hour, I'm going to be 110. And all of a sudden they are booked out.
Yep. And they got all these. And then they get into these, you know, and. And again, because they're starting out, they don't say no to anything. So they get these science project cars, these cars that have been to the dealer that have been to. That they claim have been all these places, and they can't get fixed. And he goes, I'm trying to build my reputation, and so I'm going to take that on. You just shot yourself right in the foot from your efficiency standpoint for that week or that month with those kind of cars.
And that's the thing that I try to get through. All these people that are leaving and they're saying yes to so much is it's like there's a time to say yes, and it's when you've got some help, you know, when you don't have help yet. And how you get to where you can get help is a whole other conversation. But don't be the hero. I had Steady Eddie.
You know, I had made a statement like that the other night on. On my live stream. Like, you know, know what you can handle.
Yeah.
Know what you can handle. Whether it's one car a day or two cars a day, you know, and it all depends on what the vehicles need.
Yeah.
You know, maybe if it's a heavy diet issue, where it's a. A no start and it's been to a lot of shops, maybe you just don't want that vehicle.
Right.
Yeah, it. It comes into a pride thing, too, like.
Oh, for sure.
Oh, you know, it's been all these other shops, and like you saw in my video, like, nobody can look at a Nissan better than me.
That's right.
You want to fix the vehicle and be like, I did that. I did that. It went to all these. Call out all these other shops, dealerships, independent. I fixed it.
Yeah.
And it was just this. Well, how long did it take you to actually figure that out?
I. I go back to. To Chuck's check engine, Chuck's Tundra that he had there. That truck that, like, had been bounced around and kicked his tail for, like, three months. Finally, him and Ryan get to the bottom of it and it's fixed. And that's good. And. And.
But see, Chuck was, I don't want to say lucky, but that works from a mobile standpoint in the sense that that truck's sitting somewhere at a lot and they're trying to get it reliable to be sold. Right. So nobody doesn't own that yet, except for the person owns a lot. It's not like he got Mrs. Smith screaming going, it's been another friggin week. My truck's still not right. Do you know what you're doing? He's able to go back and forth and he's able to spend a lot of time and he's able to, you know, track this thing down. And, and yes, he told me from, from the standpoint of hours involved versus what it paid out, it was not, not worth doing.
Oh, absolutely not. But huge learning opportunity for himself, Ryan. Huge pride factor, you know, will be worth a lot of money return for his image to that person that owns that truck. Right. That, that lot. But that's a different situation. That's a guy that can, you know, go and do other jobs, other mobile repairs and then come back to that and work on it. When you're a one man, two bay, three bay, whatever, you cannot tie up a bay on a science project like that.
Just for pride, you cannot do. Doesn't make sense. Business wise, I don't believe you can focus on it at all when you're trying to get two other base. You know, one day you got, you're running three oil changes are coming in that day and then you got a brake job and then, you know, you found a broken coil spring on that one. So you got to book that back in and drive it. That car is sitting there waiting for you. When you have a minute. Well, when you're by yourself, let's think about this.
Do you ever really have a minute? No.
No.
You know, so I wish that the guys, and I'm not gals that are jumping off and going into their own thing. I'm not sitting here saying don't do it. That's not what I'm saying at all. But pay attention to the, the conversations that are happening online in the ASA group and the changing industry where they talk about your business, you know, and, and follow my friend Becky Witt and follow Cecil and Rick White and all these guys that do coaching that are putting out these little nuggets. On my podcast, everybody else's podcast, they'll tell you how to set this stuff up so that you can survive and you can grow and you can profit. My good friend Chris Enright and Enright Auto, part of his success is that he stays in his lane, you know what I mean? Like he knows he's a Honda specialty shop. That's not to say that he doesn't work on just Hondas. He has some friends that when he gets some off brand stuff in there, he can reach out to us.
And we help him, but, like, you're never gonna see him say, yeah, I'm gonna go and get, like, all the Volkswagens that I can in my area, or I'm gonna figure out this, you know. You know, Chevy trucks are eating camshafts, so I'm gonna put my price at a certain really great price and start doing camshaft jobs. It's the same as the diesel thing is even worse. The. The diesel guys that I talked to, there's this race going on in the diesel side where they're trying to do the. The CP3 and 4 conversions and DCRs and all this kind of stuff for as cheap as possible. And they think that, like, doing them as cheap as possible will keep them busy. The reality is, is that that is the fastest way that you can get to the bottom of the toilet as you've ever seen in your life, because it just attracts the wrong type of customer.
And here's the thing. You can sit there and say, there's a thousand trucks in my neighborhood that have that need that repair. That doesn't mean every 1,000 are going to get the repair. Doesn't mean that all them that need it, because you're the cheapest are still going to wind up at your place. You're smarter to go about this and go, what's the. What's the profit I need to make on the job? And then you price it that way and you build it that way, and you offer. What do I offer that somebody else doesn't? Better warranty. Maybe the better part, you know, better service.
That's the big thing. That's where a lot of it we. We are too scared to charge. So the dealer says, oh, I got a shuttle van, and I. I pick up the customer. I drop the customer off, or I go and get their car and they bring it back. That's all stuff that in the aftermarket. We don't even think that we ever get to a point where we can offer that because we're too busy trying to be so cheap.
Whereas maybe if we try to be a little bit more expensive, we can offer some of the services that our competition offers. You know, we can have somebody that, you know, when the five appointments that we have for the day drop in at 8 in the morning, we're able to take them wherever they need to go.
Yeah.
You know, pick them up at the end of the day or pick them up in two days when their car's done, something like that. We're able to offer them a loaner car if we're too friggin scared because it's just me. Just me and my little three bay shop. I'm too scared to charge. I can never compete because I'm not competing. I'm not offering the same thing. I'm offering a fixed car. But there's more to it than offering a fixed car, right? Oh, yes, more to this.
You know, what do you find when the customers come in? What are those that really. I mean, yeah, they want their car fixed, but what's the reason, Fluff that you see a lot of people coming back to the dealer.
Warranty.
Okay. Once the warranty is gone, they don't come in.
That's when they start to phase out. Yep.
Yeah.
And that squeak and rattle, that radio issue, they don't care about it no more.
Uhhuh. Now, I had a. I've seen an interesting conversation, Fluffy, and this is. I was going to ask you about this. They talk about labor times and they talk about like, because the aftermarket, there's so many places you can get your brakes done or your alignment done or your tires done. Right. And the guy made a point, he's like, you know, say this Audi takes. Supposed to pay 2.2 for front pads and rotors on this Audi.
And he knows the guys in the dealer, they'll wap, you know, they wrap them out in 1.2. So he says, I put all the labor time down to1.5 because it was easier to compete with the local chain shops and aftermarket stops and stuff like that. Because he said, you know, we did our numbers and. And they managed to get two more a week. So they actually made more money.
Yeah.
What do you think about that when they're cutting labor to sell the job?
Yeah, I don't think it's right.
Yeah. Because I don't believe, Fluffy, that when they come in and they ask why is it so much more money? Is the customer even asking what's the labor time? Like, what's the labor, you know, like in terms of how many hours is that? They're just looking at it going, frank, you guys are a thousand bucks. And you know, the guy in the alley will slap the pads on for 250. You know, why does it cost so much? And I mean, that customer that only wants to pay 250, you never had them anyway. You were never going to get them.
Yeah. When they're shopping around.
Yeah. But I think it's a situation that we have to get away from the idea of selling hours of labor and start selling jobs and say, my Job costs more because I'm using an OE part. My OE part has this for a warranty on my oe. My technician is, you know, factory trained. Trained, you know, ase certified. If it's out of the shop, you know, out of the dealership, that's what we should be selling to our customer, explaining to our customer why it costs what it costs. Not it's, oh, the books. Because as soon as we say, the book says it's 2.2, and the customer says, you know, well, I.
I watched him. I stood there and watched in the. In the corner of the shop there, and. And he had it done at 1.2. I don't want to pay 2.2. As soon as what? You can only. Our only argument to say that should be 2.2 is because that's what a book says. They stop listening to us.
Here's the thing, though. You go to a doctor, get knee surgery.
Yeah.
Right. Knee surgery costs this much. 15,000. Right.
Right.
You have one doctor that could get it done in two hours, charges 15. 15,000.
Right.
Get a doctor that takes five hours to do it. Who's doing it right, though?
Yeah.
It should. Should the one that's charging or the one that's taking four hours charge more or should the one that's charged, taking two hours charge less?
Yeah.
It's still the same job.
Yeah.
And people don't look, People don't realize that.
Yeah. And we're like doctors.
We're just working on cars.
Yeah.
But the doctor, they're so. They're so okay with it.
Oh, yeah. Because. And again, with health plan now being so common with people anymore. Right. You're not really paying the full value. Right. And we all talk about that where it's like you pay this much, but what. They actually build a plan.
Right. The healthcare provider is 10 times that amount.
Right.
So it's like an insurance deductible. You're just paying the deductible, and then they go in and they fix your knee for freezies. It's not really freezies. You paid fifteen hundred dollars to get your knee fixed, but then the health plan kicked in the rest. Cool. Cool beans. When we're talking in cars, you know a brake job, you can sit there and you can go, well, my guys have a blast cabinet, and they take the caliper brackets over, and this is gonna. Oh, my God.
People are. Or, you know, you never want to discuss how to do a brake job because everybody has an opinion, and none of them line up and you say, well my guys, this is how we do it. It goes over to the blast cabinet, it gets bead blasted, it's clean, they shoot a layer of paint on it and then you know, the pads fit perfect because they're OE pads. They put them in, everything gets torqued with loctite, all this kind of stuff, it goes out the door. And then you got your guy that you know like smashes the old pads out, smashes the new pads on, you know, his brake job is 250 bucks. That brake job is a thousand. Now that comes back to that individual technician's choice or that individual service providers process of what their choice is to how it's expected to be done. Oh, but I mean, you know, I think that that's sometimes when I say when I worked in the dealer, I watched a lot of guys do a really, a lot of crappy brake jobs because they just wanted to get 10 done that day, right.
That was 15 hours. If they got 10 done, it was an hour and a half.
So.
And then I watched other guys that were like, it took them the full 1.5 to do it, you know. And those guys, they didn't have comebacks, you know. So I think that's where we got to get away from hours and we got to get away from price. We got to start actually bragging about our people, our service writers and our people that are selling need to be bragging on a lot more about what actually the customer is getting expertise and attention to detail and professionalism. If you got people that aren't that well, that's on you. Why do you have them? But they're getting into the numbers thing all the time. We're always constantly, why does it cost this? Why does it cost that? We need to be selling the professionalism, the expertise because. And every customer is not going to be your customer.
You know, the, the guy that only wants to spend or gal that only wants to spend 250 on breaks, you shouldn't, you don't want that customer anyway. Right. If they only got 250, that's going to be hard to. And I mean, I know that's an unrealistic number now because we're paying almost 200 bucks for an oil change for a lot of cars, a lot of places. Yeah, but when I see people talk about like I still did my own brakes for 500 bucks, front and rear, you know, on my truck. Okay, cool. You know, I probably the way they would do it, I would not want them working for me doing it the way they would do it for 500 bucks or putting those parts on, if it works for them, cool. Yeah, whatever.
That's what I always tell people. You might do it a certain way on your own vehicle, but when you're at a professional establishment, it got to be done a certain way.
It's. It's the same as, like, you know, tire rotations. I want to think that most of the industry now has adopted the idea of using a torque wrench, but I know that it's not. You know, a guy on TikTok I saw last week, he sat outside of a Porsche dealer, or, sorry, sat outside of another tire shop and filmed the guy doing new tires on a Porsche. And he walks them over to the Road Force balancer, and he puts the thing on the balancer, and he spins it up, and he never drops the head down for the road force. So there he's making his whole platform. But see that? See that? That's why I do better. Because, like, that would never happen in my shop.
And I'm thinking, okay, you got a point there. Maybe it would never happen in your shop. But, like, you know, why does that. I'm more interested in the why that guy doesn't bother to use the Road Force on the machine.
I can say why.
Yeah, I know it costs more.
It takes more time.
Yeah. Because you and I know, depending on the tire on that rim, if he's putting on some not so great rubber, you can spin all four when you've all got all four mounted. See, this is the. This is the thing. I didn't want to have this. Might as well have it. If you take four, I don't know, good years and put them on some rims off some cars. And I'm not saying all good years are bad.
Just an example. And you've finished cleaning all the rims, you put all the tires on. You know, you don't break any of the sensors. You walk them over to the tire balancer. Because the way I've worked in a lot of dealers is like, one guy was using the balancer, one guy was using the machine to change the tires. So you didn't get to take it off, go to the balancer, then come back and you had to get your four done and then go to the bouncer, you could very well out of your four. When you go to Road Force, you could come up and they say, excessive spin it. Now you're taking maybe four back to the machine.
You're doing four over again.
Yep.
Does that still pay the Same time. Really, by rights it shouldn't. Right, because we used to get one. Say just. We used to get 1.2 before there was ever TPMS. We used to get 4.1.2 before there was ever a rim bigger than 17. We used to get 1. 2 before there was ever an alloy rim.
Now we are up to 24s and we're up to alloys and we're up to TPMS and we're up to road force. We still want them all done in 1.2. When you go over to the machine and the machine says, hey, you gotta, you know, swap mismatch, Correct. Four tires, you're doing the job over again. I don't care what anybody says, you're doing it twice. And that's not fair to make the guy do it twice for the same amount of pain. That's probably why in that video that guy didn't bother to drop the roller down because he knows that it's going to fail it. And I worked in a shop where we didn't roadforce it unless we were trying to fix a vibration in the car.
So a lot of tires went out without road force because he knew that the rubber that he was putting on that Hunter machine was smart enough to fail for out around a lot of the rubber that we were putting on. Now again you're gonna say, well, you're putting cheap tires on. Yeah, we were. Not by my choice, by the customer in the shop's choice. So it doesn't mean that I'm a bad person because I didn't hold for some. It meant I was doing what I had to do to get those four tires done in the time that they wanted them done because we had 10 more outside to do. That's why sometimes people do things that doesn't seem to make sense to the layman that's looking on. I'll say it that way.
The Internet expert doesn't understand why Fluffy and I do think some certain way, you know, so why don't you, why don't you pre fill an oil filter before you put it on? You know, everybody on the Internet that's an expert that's been changing oil since 1952 tells you that's the right way to do. Ain't the experts tell you you shouldn't be doing that, you know, contaminate the new filter. Oh, that's crazy.
Yeah, because they're pre filling them wrong.
Yeah, right. So when I talked to you last, you. You kind of didn't think you'd ever really go out on your own. Has that changed for you now or still. Are you still, still on the fence?
On the fence, yeah, I'm still on the fence. Of course, with social media and how everything's been going, you know, it's still always a possibility. Yeah, I, I had this goal for myself when I was younger that, you know, by the time I was 35, I wanted to be on my own. I still might, I don't know, give it a, a few more years. I'm 33 right now, so that 35 is right around the corner. I don't know. I mean, it, it. I don't want to work for somebody my whole life, but at the same time, you know, do I want that stress?
It's a lot. Yeah.
Yeah.
And I can tell you that as a guy that just turned 50 in the fall at 35, I was considering going on my own, and I didn't. And then by the time I hit 40, I was already talking myself out of ever thinking about it because I just kept telling myself I didn't have enough time at 50. I'm pretty sure there's definitely not enough time. Although other people I talk to say, oh, no, that's just, there's always, there's always time. So I can tell you that fluff that, like, probably don't, you know, if you want to make a go of it, don't leave it too long. It's like, that's what I'm trying to tell you, buddy. Yeah.
You know, I, I understand. There's never going to be the right time.
Yep, that's true, too. That's 100. This move for you has been good, though.
Yeah, so far.
Awesome. That's what I wanted to hear. So I, I won't take up any more of your time. I appreciate you coming on and I, you know, thank you. It's, it's always a pleasure. I, I, I cheered when I saw you leave. I cheered. I 100 did, because you, you shared some things with me when, when we weren't recording about how, what it was like.
And I said to you, man, I respect you for, for hanging in there, you know.
Oh, man, that was, that was what, a month after the, the whole.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that being said, you know, I'm glad to see you're here, and I'm glad to see that, you know, you're, you're not having to stress as much about is your car gonna get repoed or something like that, Because, I mean, that's just, to me, the idea that A master tech, as good a tech as you are has to worry about. That really screams at the dysfunction of this industry still and how we have to really, you know, really think about what we're saying when we talk to some texts that are that. That competent, not skilled, and that's a worry of them is that their car is going to get repossessed. You know, it's not a good look for the industry. So. So I'm proud of you, buddy. I really am.
You know, I'm a big. I love watching your stuff and I cheer for you all the time because I just. Not just because it's a Nissan thing and I hate that brand and I have so much respect for somebody that's good at it, but because it's just your genuine guy and you know, you. You conduct yourself like a professional and you, you know, you stand up for the dealership guys. And that's important to me too, because I'm trying to be neutral here. But that's a big, big part of my. Who I am and why I am the way I am is because I came from that.
Yeah.
And I'll always defend the guys and the girls that are in that spot. I'll never stop because they, like, until you've done it, you don't know what it's like. You don't know to be at that level sometimes of skill and be treated the way a lot of them are. And that's a. Listen, that's a problem with throughout the whole industry, not just the dealerships, but it's. It's something that the dealers are sitting there twiddling their thumbs, you know, getting coaches and, and subscribing to different education platforms that are telling them how to fix their culture and they know what the problem is and they don't want to do a damn thing about it. And I am happy to see people that leave one and go to a better one because that, that's what it ultimately is going to take all of us doing. So if you're listening to this guys and girls, and you're in a place, doesn't matter.
You're in a place that you don't feel like you're being valued. Have the conversation with your people and tell them, listen, I. This, this doesn't feel good and it doesn't feel right and I don't feel valued. And if they look at you and shrug your shoulders and say, there's nothing I can do about it, then build your own self, build your skills. But by God, man, shop yourself around. You Know, like. Like Fluff said at the beginning when he sat down and looked at this job that was offered to him. He looked at their numbers, he looked at their hours.
He looked at the guy that he was replacing, what he was doing for production. You're going to go on an interview, but they're not interviewing you. You already have the damn job. You need to be interviewing them. And I'll continue to try and teach people that, what it means to do it and how to do it, because that's. Ultimately. The shortage is so big right now. They just need you really freaking bad.
But you got to realize you have to interview them, and you have to fight for what you're worth. Bring your value. Don't oversell. If you're not as competent as you think you are, don't blow their. Don't blow a bunch of smoke up their butt. Be truthful. Be honest. Say, I hate this kind of work.
I'm awesome at this. I hate this kind of work, though. Don't even give it to me. If you go in there and say, I do it all, I'm awesome. And then you get in there and it's like swinging a miss. You know, you don't get to strike out too many times before they're probably going to put you on the bench.
Yeah.
Coffee. Any closing words, buddy?
No, sir. I think that's about it. That's about it.
Yeah. Well, I want to pray. I want to thank you for being on, man. I really appreciate you.
Appreciate you having me on.
Yeah. We'll have you on again. I want to keep up. And the next time you go live like that, try to go a little earlier.
Yeah.
And try to. Try to get. Try to give me some notice, you know, reach out to me and say, I'm thinking about going on live tonight, and I'll have a little nap and then I'll come on.
Yeah.
Because it looks like a lot of fun.
It is. It is. We. We get a diverse people.
Same thing. When I get one of our if I Can get stamped for one of our shenanigans nights, I'll try and get you on for that, too, so.
Okay.
All right, brother. We'll be talking to you.
Yes, sir.
Thank you, man. Hey, if you could do me a favor real quick and, like, comment on and share this episode, I'd really appreciate it. And please, most importantly, set the podcast to automatically download every Tuesday morning. As always, I'd like to thank our amazing guests for their perspectives and expertise, and I hope that you'll please join us again next week on this journey of change. Thank you to my partners in the AESAW group and to the Changing the Industry podcast. Remember what I always say, in this industry, you get what you pay for. Here's hoping everyone finds their missing 10 millimeter, and we'll see you all again next time.
About this episode
Fluffy the Mexicanik joins the Jaded Mechanic Podcast to discuss the challenges of shop culture, including burnout and the impact of dealership dynamics on technicians. He shares his personal journey of leaving a long-term dealership due to dissatisfaction and the importance of a supportive work environment. The conversation dives into the realities of repair costs, the need for transparent communication between technicians and customers, and the evolving landscape of automotive repair financing options. Fluffy emphasizes the need for understanding the true costs behind service rates and the importance of technician well-being.
Original notes
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In this episode, Jeff welcomes back Fluffy Mexicanik. They discuss the realities of working as a dealership technician. Fluffy shares his reasons for leaving a dealership after nearly 13 years, stressing the importance of shop culture and the challenges of flat rate. Together, they talk about how labor times are set and the impact of dealership processes on technician efficiency.
Timestamps:
00:00 Efficient Transmission Repair Practices
15:01 Slashed Labor Times Impact Profit
30:38 "Service vs. Sales Priorities"
40:57 "Frustrations with Inefficient Procedures"
46:50 "Incentivized Pay vs. Flat Rate"
56:22 Reflecting on Expertise and Humility
01:12:39 "Uconnect Reliability vs. Durango Issues"
01:24:02 "Car Not Designed for Winter"
01:35:36 "Chuck's Truck Troubles Explained"
01:45:48 "Brake Jobs: Quality vs. Speed"
01:57:02 Defending Industry Workers’ Rights
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The Jaded Mechanic Podcast
Jeff Compton
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122:43