Why Low Shop Rates Hurt Everyone in Auto Repair | Bryan Bueckert
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I get it. Like some places will say, like, oh well, you know, we don't charge diet because they do the job depends on what the job is though. Like if you're chasing, you got say like cam timing codes and whatnot, you're chasing things around for like an hour. Like you still gotta, you know, charge something for your time.
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another exciting episode, almost a Canada Day episode of the Jaded Mechanic podcast. Yeah, I know I, I blow my horn about that all the time. It's a pretty big deal. So if you don't like it, you know, hey, this is what you got. You got a Canadian doing this. Somebody had to do it. And sometimes we step up first. So it's hard for me to say with a straight face.
I'm sitting here with a relatively new friend of mine that reached out to me with a phone call first wanting to talk about where he was in his career and his employment and some of the frustrations. And we thought it was going to be a good opportunity to have a discussion about because it's unfortunately not all that far removed from the kind of shops that I've worked in in the past. And you know, what we're about is we're trying to change that so that people work in better places. But Brian Bukert is here with me today. So Brian, how are you man?
Not too bad. You?
Yeah, very good. It's not as it started out this morning, like I was supposed to go fishing and the weather sucked so I didn't go and it was kind of cool and it was, it was blowing really hard so I did lawn, you know, laundry, mowed the lawn, pissed around in the garage, that kind of stuff. And then it turned like a couple hours ago, it turned really friggin hot and the wind died down and everything. And I'm like this weather because the other day like I was shutting my AC off. Right. So yeah, weird. But that's Canada. So.
Yeah, yeah.
Whereabouts are you in, in Ontario?
We're in Chatham, Ontario. So that's, we're basically an hour between Windsor and London.
Yes. Yeah, yeah. So I was telling you, I haven't been to Windsor in a very, very, very long time. Like I was a little kid the last time I was in Windsor. And Windsor is like pretty much directly across the river from, you know, Michigan, Detroit, that kind of thing. So that's what I remember is being able to look over and see Detroit, you know, so that's pretty cool. How long you been attack?
So I started, I started back in 2017 at the age of 30. So I'm a little bit of a late bloomer. I was, I was working as a basically like call center jobs for 11 years.
Yeah.
And you know, it's. At the time I had a family provide for and I'm just, just like, okay, whatever brings in the bill, whatever pays the bills, I don't care. But after 11 years, I got, you know, sick and tired of it. I'm like, no, I want to do something that's, you know, fulfilling. I want to do, I want to feel like I'm contributing to something. And I've always been interested in cars. I've had, I always had a basic, very basic knowledge of cars, but nothing like too intricate. So I'm like, you know what, let's, let's go for it.
Let's do it. And my, my wife was fully supportive. Like my kids were where we're like, yeah, you can do it. So. Yeah, so, so about eight, eight years now.
So right now did you, did you go to like and take a college program to kind of get your foot into the apprenticeship thing or did you just find a shop that would hire you?
Oh, I just, I send out a bunch of resumes. Like, I remember I applied to all the dealers in the area and like, I was like, I, I'm, I'm a huge, I'm a huge Subaru fan. Like, you know, ask my wife and kids. I, I love these cars. Ever since I had one years ago, I was like, these are great. So it was, none of the dealers were hiring in the area, so I applied to the Subaru dealer in Sarnia. Okay, so which at the time where we were living, it was about 45 minute drive. They were the ones that were like, you know what, yeah, let's, we'll take you on.
So, yeah, and I was there for, for four years and then I jumped. I had some unfortunate, some, some really crappy family stuff happen, so I had to kind of be closer to home. So I jumped to Honda for about seven months. And the only reason I left, I was there very short was because that was during that whole chip shortage.
Yeah.
So like, you know, me being the, at the time, I was the second level apprentice, you know, they were like, you know, we got to give all the work the flat rate guys, which, you know, I'm fine, you know, whatever, I'll do whatever. But. And then a friend of mine said, hey, this, you know, independent hiring in the area. So I jumped there. And that's where I'm still At right now.
Yeah. So when you were on your, at your Honda dealer, you were just an hourly kind of apprentice, right?
Yep.
Yeah.
Yeah. Even at like, Subaru. So like when I was at. So like when I was. So the company. I don't know if you've heard of them, but I work for Tech Savvy. It's an Internet provider. So when I worked for them, like, I was making like 40 grand, 50 grand, almost 50 grand a year, like doing call center work.
And I just to pursue my trade, I took a huge pay cut. Like, I went down to $16 an hour. And I was like, you know, because I was that committed, I'm like, you know what? Whatever, I will make it work. I will make whatever cuts I need to. Yeah. So.
And that's crazy when you think of it that like we, we in this industry, an introductory level job, which is what we all have to start at the bottom, pays less than what you can make in a call center like that. So we're talking a skilled trade versus I'm not trying. Don't anybody in the call centers that listen to this. I'm not disrespect you. I'm just saying that, you know, the outlay for tools and, and the, the skill and all that kind of stuff is very different from the, the customer service side of what is, you know, tech support. So, yeah, again, the industry, we need to, Everything needs to come up, everything needs to bring up because you shouldn't have to already, you know, make such a sacrifice with an established family and all that kind of stuff just to start out on a career that, you know, is ultimately got a better future for you and is already in such a dire need of people. Like, it drives me nuts how we're in such a need for young people to get in this industry, but we all sit there in a circle and we point the finger at the guy sitting next to us and go, well, this is why. And this is why none of us are getting, you know, nobody's again throwing money at the problem and going, well, we just all have to bring the prices way up to get the young people enticed into doing this, you know.
So, yeah, good on you for making that commitment to yourself for your future. But I understand how tough it is, for sure.
Yeah, like, like I said, like, because I had like a, I had a basic knowledge. So like, you know, I had to start. Like, I had some basic tools, whatnot, Like I, you know, basic socket said and whatnot at home that I just brought with me. But Then like I had, you know, I had to buy an impact gun and all this. Like, I borrowed a lot of tools from like a lot of friends and family. Like, not even just borrowing from the other techs. I was borrowing like my dad, my dad was raised Mennonite, so like he had a ton of tools like he collected from yard sales and everything.
Yeah.
You know, so I borrowed a lot, you know, until like I remember like the snap on, I think it was the composite, like half inch air impact gun was my first snap on purchase I ever made. And I was like, I was so proud of it. I was like, this is so cool. And, and then, and then it becomes like a drug. It's like, oh, oh, I got a problem.
Yeah.
But like my wife was supportive.
Like, yeah, and it does. And unfortunately, like, that's the, the, the, the I want to say almost like the anchor around us when we're, when we're, as we're advancing. It's so cool. You get new challenges and like the first time you ever get to pull an engine out or first time you ever get to yank a train or you know, any of that kind of stuff. But it's always such a, oh, shoot, I'm gonna need this type of tool, you know, this type of socket or this type of extension or just to be able to get this job done efficiently.
It's.
Yeah. If you're lucky, you can work with a lot of people that are, that'll help you out and guide you and all that kind of stuff. But man, I can remember I talked so many days, like when I was working as a, as a straight time apprentice making $10 an hour back in 2002, there was a lot of times you'd walk out to the tool truck and you'd buy something and it would cost more than you were gonna earn that day. Yeah, like, and, and you know, everybody goes, oh, well, you have that for life. You're right. That stud remover that I bought for that one job, I have it still. It's a snap on piece. And it was $80 then and it's more money now.
But I didn't make enough money in that day to cover that tool. So if I'd have stayed home that day, I'd have been up. That's just what we in this industry need to recognize is the actual reality of that, you know, and good on. There's other options now. Right. I'm happy to see the young people have more places to spend their money that they can get good quality that you And I used to not be able to get like, you got a Princess Auto probably near you?
Yeah, there's like one in, well, one in Sarnia, Windsor and London. So, like, within an hour drive, I can go to any Princess Auto. So. Yeah, and yeah, and I've utilized them, you know, quite a few times. Like, I think, like my big, my big channel lock pliers, I still have them eight years ago when I first bought it at Princess Auto. You know, work fine, you know, doesn't need to be snap on, so.
No, they don't. So when you left the Honda dealership, what was that? And you decided to go independent, what did you feel about making that switch from a dealer to an independent?
I didn't know. So, like, I knew. So, like, let me prep, Let me backtrack a little bit. So, like, before I got into the trade like this, this current shop, like, it was always where I took my cars to get worked on. Like, a friend of mine was working there, he was working there for years, so I kind of already had an inside source or whatnot. So, like, I kind of knew a little bit of what they worked on, but I didn't know, like, what the environment was like.
Right.
So, you know, I got thrown in, like, the first day I started, they were like, hey, like, you know, here's a, here's a journey needs to tune up. Okay. Yeah, I, I, at that point, like, I only done, like, I did maybe spark plugs on three or four vehicles at that point because, like, it was all just, you know, maintenance jobs. Whereas this one was like, oh, it's got an active misfire. Okay, okay. So it's like, okay, now I gotta actually, like, you know, verify and whatnot. And we checked and sure enough, like, you know, plugs are completely fouled. Like, it's got like 280k, you know, so on, like, original plug.
So it's like, oh, there. Well, there you go. Yeah.
Is that one of the pentastars of 3 6?
Yeah, it was one of the. Because I had never worked on it on, like, I'm trying to think the. No, I never did spark plugs when I was at Honda, so I never really had the experience of doing it on the V6. It was always. I did on the Subarus, which. On which are boxers. Yeah, so that was like, like, oh, you gotta take the intake off. Like, what? Like, you gotta take the intake off.
Like, I like, oh, yeah. Like, there's brackets, the bot. There's bol nuts at the bottom where the brackets. Hold on. You Got to take those off. Take that off to get to the, you know, rear bank. I'm like, oh, okay, that's, they're like, oh, you better ask for intake gaskets too. I'm like, okay.
Completely thrown into this. Like, I wasn't, I didn't know I had to ask for stuff. I was used to just like, hey, this is what, this is the job we're doing. Here's your parts. Go. Okay.
Yeah, yeah.
But, yeah, it's, you know, like, we, like, we've worked on like, you know, various makes and models. Like, we do everything. We've had Audis come in. We've had, you know, Volkswagens, you know, Mercedes, BMW.
And you, you like the, the variety, right? I think you're the kind of guy.
That, yeah, I appreciate the variety because then it's, I, I, I like the idea of a dealer, of being a dealer tech because you're, you're specialized. Like my journeyman there, his name is John. He was, he's a great guy. He's retired now. He's a great, great teacher. But like, he was like the go to guy in like, the Sarnia area for Subarus. Like, if you knew, if you had any problem that was like, weird about, about those cars, he. So I appreciated like, you being like that, that expert in that brand, but at the same time, like, you know, I appreciate like, where I'm at now.
Like, I appreciate like, learning about like, BMWs and the Mercedes because as funky and weird as they are, like, I'm glad to have that knowledge. That way I can be like, oh, I can kind of, you know, even if it's just like, you know, the basics or whatever, like, oh, like how to finally play in the strut rods. Right. I had working at Subaru. You never had strut. We didn't have strut rods. It's all McPherson struts.
Yep.
So, but yeah, so it was, it's, I appreciate that. It's good knowledge to have. As someone starting out, I find the.
The European cars, like, even the little victories, like how to start to navigate the system. So even to get to where you're in it. And it's gonna sound kooky where you can get the maintenance reminders reset, you know what I mean? Where you know how to navigate through the cluster and do it all really efficiently. Because, man, you know, when you don't know, when you haven't learned sometimes that's the, like I've joked and it's, it's the truth. I, I've had ones Way back in my career where it took me longer. I can remember Volkswagen touring that an old employer had, and it would always take me longer to navigate through the system and reset the oil life to do the oil change. Now everybody's going, just grab a scan tool. Dum dum.
Yeah.
At that shop, we didn't have one that was equipped that high up yet that could go in and do it. Right. So you had to do it. So thank God for YouTube. Like we, we can talk about YouTube is. To this industry and it really is because it's, you know, there's Google, but like, sure, you can get the steps. But then, man, I'm, I'm a very visual learner. So when I watch somebody do it right on the screen in front of me in the exact same dash, I'm like, man, I feel suddenly so smart again, you know, it's little.
Little licorice.
Yeah, yeah, that's like. So actually, the speaking about that, like, was it the Land Rover? I remember I. I was doing, there's an oil change on a Land Rover. It was like a Newer One, like 14 or 15, and it's like, you know, you have to like, have the hood open, the driver's door open, and then like hold like one button on the stock and then like hold the brake and it's like, what, just to reset the oil life. Yeah, it's just ridiculous.
Kooky, right? Like, it always has been. And I don't know, you know, if you could talk to the European engineers one time, if they kind of do it with a wink and a nod, like, watch the. Screw these guys up, you know? Or is it like. Because I want to think that most of the guys at the dealer, like, they just grab their tablet and they plug it in and they do it, you know, I don't think they always have to go through the processes that we do because it's. You see it on, on the certain brands. It's not like a Detour and a Jetta do it the same. You know what I mean? Like, it's different. So can you possibly memorize it all? I suppose, but.
Or I just grabbed my tablet that was oe, you know, compatible and plug it in and click, click, done, you know, and onto the next one. That has to be something like that because there's the only way I could see it being efficient. But yeah, it's. It's frustrated me more than once. And that's the thing, you know, you don't want to change the oil in the customer's car. And put a sticker in there and then have them come back with a light on. Like, that drives sideways, right? Because it's like. And the old B would be like, what the f.
Like, throw that minder away and, you know, follow the sticker. Then the new me realizes that it's like, you know, what they don't in their little narrow way of thinking, if there's no light on, everything's peachy keen, you know?
Yeah.
So one light on, even if they know what it means, starts to stress them out. And I just. I appreciate it, but I, you know, thank God we have stickers.
Yeah.
So when you got in there, how was he? Like, did you kind of surprise him with what you could do, maybe, versus what he expected? Or did you feel like you just kind of. I don't know how to say it. You just kind of filled a role?
I mean, he was. I think he was like, they were like. They were surprised on what I could do and whatnot. To. To a degree or whatnot. Like, especially, like, you know, if. Like. Like, if a Subaru.
If we had, like, you know, customer coming in with a Subaru, I could be like, okay, look for this, look for that. Like, I could pinpoint, you know, you know, things to check and whatnot, you know, or if they, like, oh, like, we had this, you know, actually a couple months ago, we had someone come in with a turbo Outback. Like, oh, we got cam position codes. And I'm like. And I'm like. And it was like, yeah. So my first thought was, okay. I'm like, check the oil.
You know, if the cam sensor seems okay, it's pro. Like, probably that belt is stretched and it's gonna have to get replaced. Like, without even, like, diagnosis diagnosing the car. Like, I knew, like, first couple things, like, okay, there's like, three things to check. After that, it's like, okay, now you're gonna spend. So in that aspect, I think they were surprised, you know, and. But, like, when it came to, like, other cars, like, you know, I was. For the most part, I was just filling a role.
Like, I was just kind of doing, like, basic. Like, oh, like, you know, I had clock. I had, you know, right front clunk on a Grand Caravan or.
Yeah, your friend that had already worked there. You guys kind of like, how was that to come in and work with somebody? It's always. I want to think sometimes that's an advantage, right? When you already have a friend that works there, they can kind of, you know, you have something to bounce ideas off of. And.
Yeah, yeah. And like he's like, he's younger than me, but like he's like right out of high school, he went into the trade whatnot. So, you know, he's. I think he's 31 now. He's a couple. Quite a few years younger than me. But like, he's really, really smart. Like, really smart guy.
But no, like, we got along. Like, we, like we were having fun at the shop. Like, we were like joke. We, you know, there'd be jokes and whatnot. You know, play pranks on each other or whatnot. You know, so it was, but it was, it was good. Like he. Since now like moved off, he started his own shop, you know, which has been open two years, I want to say.
Okay.
Very highly successful. Like very successful.
So that's good.
And he's happy. Like he's, he loves it.
Yeah. Would you ever think about going to work for him?
So we, when he left, we were talking about that originally. And then. So like the shop he's at is just a little too bay shop.
Right.
So nothing, nothing big and whatnot. But it was the only, like, space to be rented, I think within his, his budget. But so I was, we were already kind of talking that maybe I would go work for him. But I was in. I think I was in school for. Or I was coming up, coming up to my third level of schooling to finish up and he had to hire someone because like at the time it was just him running the show and like his wife working at the desk and he needed a licensed technician. So. Yeah, so it, it sucks.
I. But I understand from a business perspective, like, you know, if he's got to take off, he's also a volunteer firefighter. So if he's gonna take off, you know, on a fire call, like he needs someone to run the shop.
Yeah.
Someone licensed. Right. So. So I get it. And like, we've, we've had talks, so we're, you know, we're still good. You know, if one day he goes to a bigger shop, I'd like to think that, you know, I'd go work for him.
Yeah. And that's, it's. It's tough though, with only two bays. Right. Because you kind of always. We've seen that play out so many times that like it's a two bay. Often the shop owner gets an apprentice or, you know, shop owner gets one other license tech and then that's it. Like there's no, you know, and that can be tough because if you get the license tech at the license tech wages.
But you're only running two bays and you're booking just, you know, a lot of routine oils and tires. Your profits suck on that by the time you pay that license tack. Right. So you know it almost two bays are really hard. Two bays are kind of like, you kind of should really just try to float the two yourself and then if you, you know, manage it properly, you can do it. But again, someone, some of these guys, I think when they do two bays, they. One becomes a project vehicle. Like it's like a, it seems simple but like, oh, I'm going to chuck an engine or a transmission in that one, you know, and then I'm going to keep this other.
Well then you're immediately your other base. Just like waiter, oil change, waiter, tire plug and that project bay, you know, just start to slow you down and slow you down. So guys that are listening, like I, I've seen several little two and three bays and they struggle with that. And it's like you can't take on those big projects when you're limited for space. You've got to keep it, turn and burn, you know, keep the, the, the stuff that you can do profitably and quickly turn it around, get it out because. But yeah, you know, you want that though sometimes the high dollar tickets are very, you know, convincing. Oh, I can, you know, $6,000 engine job, right? Like yeah, but what's your profit on it? And you know what could you made that easier, you know, so. But what do I know? I'm not a shop owner, so.
So are you the senior guy at your shop now, would you say?
No. So there's like, there's two actually. Well, pretty much there's one, two, I count my head. So 1, 2, 3, 5. There's, there's five of us plus the owner. And then. So three of the guys have been there longer than me. The, the next one, like I'm.
There's two guys there that are newer than me. The oldest one there, I think he's been there since like 2002 when the shop first opened.
Wow.
He's an older guy. So he's been there since like he's, I think, I think he's in his 60s now. I can't, I can't recall. But. So he's getting up there.
Yeah.
But yeah, the other couple guys have been there for at least 10 plus years.
Yeah. And what's your boss like? Like you and I kind of talked about it like you said, started the shop 2002, immigrant, came from Where?
Lebanon.
Lebanon, that's right. Yeah. And, and runs, you know, I'll say probably successful business in terms of like been in business for, you know, since 2000.
Oh yeah, we're busy.
Yeah, busy. But the, the pay in your area is not very good, is it?
Not really. Like, I'm like our door rate, I'm pretty sure at, at this time I think it's a hundred or I don't know if he dumped it used to be he would jump it up like five bucks in every year. But I believe, yeah, it's, I believe it's only 100. 100 at this moment.
Yeah. So you know, people were like, yeah, but it's not all that low for your area, is it?
No, I don't. Like I know my buddy's shop. Like I think he charges, I think he's only at 95, I think he's only $5 less. But like he's got a good influx of customers. So it's, I don't think it really, it really hurts him that much.
Right.
But yeah, like I know when I work well, when I left the Subaru dealer I, I think they were 120 when I left and that was in 20, 21 that I left. So. And they were like. And when I started on my current place, I think we were at 90 at the time.
Yeah.
When I started that was three years. I was about three years ago.
So people that are listening and people that are in the groups and what always talk about, you know, like they, they don't know of a shop that's under a hundred bucks. There's a reality right there that there's still. And you know, Ontario has a big influctuation of prices. Like it goes up and down Toronto area. There's lots of door rates above $200. You know, you're, you know, not near Toronto, but Windsor is not the size of Toronto but you're still getting closer to a bigger city again and you're an hour away and it's a hundred bucks. Like it's. So when we talk about how hard it is at $100 to, you know, do the business the way it really should be done when you want to alter offer that alternative to the dealers, 100 bucks isn't going to cut it.
It's not going to pay for the kind of services that the customer needs, what they expect and it's not going to hire the talent that's going to, and cultivate the talent to add a hundred bucks. It just doesn't work. Anymore. But I understand where your boss is, why he's that way. You know, the kind of that immigrant mentality. I worked for a Portuguese guy. And again, this is no kind of. But very much within the community people, it's, it's, how do I say, it's like an advantage, right.
If you are in the community and you're, you know of that they know you and they trust you immediately. And then it's like, so you're very busy. But sometimes what brings that culture with it is they're very like stingy with their money, right? They, they, and let's be real, they're not always wealthy. So it's like they have to watch every dollar. But it's very hard sometimes to sell value to those people on the basis of keeping the car safe and reliable and all that kind of stuff. Because they are very much their, their culture from where they might have came from is that cars are not seen the way we are. We see them in this market. They're very, just temporary things, you know, it's like, you know, fix only what's broken because I don't know what is going to happen next, you know.
And that's where I struggle with. Because like the, the gentleman I worked for, you would see other glaring, obvious things with these cars. And it's just like I'm, I can remember we had a BMW and he put three used radiators in the BMW because supposedly the customer couldn't afford a new radiator.
Yeah.
And another, it was an older 3 series and it had other cooling issues in it like they all did. And like it would keep, you know, keep blowing the rad. And it was just like I'm shaking my head going, this is friggin stupid. Because like in my area we knew who the, the kid. I say kid, he was a young 20 something. We knew what family was, they had the money. It was a hand me down BMW and it was like they had the money to fix it properly. They just didn't see the value in, in, you know, always can you put a used one in? So it was just, it was a joke.
It became a funny situation. Well, when that escalates to where there's more and more customers like that sharing your, sharing your phone number, sharing your shop address sharing that kind of stuff, you can get under a, a, you're gonna get under a pile really quick. That's hard to get out from underneath, right? Yeah, yeah. Was that what's kind of going on with you, you think the shop.
Yeah, like so like everyone knows like my, my, like my, my, my boss, the owner, he like everyone knows him. Like you, like, you know, you talk to people like, oh, where do you get your car at? Or like where you get your car serviced at? You, you know, say our name. That was like, like, oh yeah, yeah. Like, you know, he's such a good guy and whatnot. And like in the eyes of a customer. Yeah, like we're, you know, because you know, you're getting, you know, for example, like, you know you're getting a Volkswagen oil change for a hundred dollars. You go to Audi, you know, for like how much they gonna charge you for oil filter, whatnot? We're charging like, you know, 100 to $130. Yeah, that's, that's low.
Like you got a high end like you know, SQ5 or something and you're getting it, you know, an oil change for less than 150.
Yeah.
And that's where people sit like, oh, it's, he's great. Yeah, we're, you know, we're, you know, for the customer, sure. But it's, I don't agree with it. That's.
Yeah, if you price out a decent, like a man filter and proper euro spec oil for that, you know, just because it says 540, you'd put in, you know, cash, Pennsylvan 540 that you buy a Canadian tire, it's not the same. It's not the right oil. And if the customers, like, if that's what they truly want. Hey, you know, but I mean I'm, we have, I'm always to hear me say it all the time. Right? We have to advocate for these, for these cars and for these customers because like that's a car that might be, you know, being traded in for two years and it's like gonna have all these sludging issues and all this other crap that the next buyer is gonna buy. And I get it, buyer beware, used car, whatever. Right? But I mean still, are we really doing the right thing for the industry when we go, go, oh yeah, I can do an oil change for 100 bucks on a euro. No, we're not, let's cut this shit.
We're not doing the right thing for the industry or for the car. If we all again put our foot down and said, no, unfortunately, this is what you drive and you can't do it for that. And I don't care that you see oil and Canadian tire flyer every week for 50 bucks. Like, that's not the oil that your car needs. And like, you know, it's. Do you get customers showing up? I think I asked you this in our phone call. You have, like, you know, some customers show up with their oil and filter, right?
Oh, yeah, we've had it quite a few times. Like, oh, I brought my own oil and filter, whatnot. Like, we have one guy shows up with his Costco oil and I'm like, you know what? It. That's your choice. Like, you, as a customer, you want to make that choice, that's fine. Like, yeah, you know, I'm a big advocate for, like, you know, I like to give the customer all the information. Like, hey, like, if this, if A, B and C are wrong with your car and you choose not to fix A, B and C, that's your choice. But at least I, I'm always the one that will say, like, hey, like, these are upcoming issues we should be aware of, right? These, like, these are going to come up, you know, in the next 3, 6, 12, 18 months, you know, and I have no problem, like, and like, I've done work for, like, my buddy, like, for a couple friends of mine who got, you know, no money.
No, no money to piss in.
Yeah.
And. Or, sorry, no pot to piss in. That's the case. But, you know, and they're, but, you know, they'll help me out. They'll, like, when I need a hand, they'll help me out or like, if I need someone, like, hey, can you watch my kids for an hour? Or whatever. Yeah, sure. You know, and. But then I'll tell them the same thing.
Like, hey, these are, you know, these are things we should look out for on your car. And they're like, okay, yeah, whatever. Like, you know, we'll, you know, tackle whatever we. Whenever we came. Like, yeah, that's fine. Yeah, I'm not, you know, as long as they can make that decision. That's what matters to me. Like, you know, that pride.
Like, hey, I'm taking prideful pride in my work. You know, you brought your car in because it's happening. It's, you know, doing this well, you know, if, if it's bad news, you got to give sometimes something. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes get bad news.
Oh, that's. That's the biggest, that's the biggest obstacle. I think so many people in the service advisor role don't really, It's. We don't, we don't make it aware like that. That's actually what you're going to do all day long is give a lot of people a lot of bad news and it's not necessarily bad news, but it's bad news in the sense that like, you came in for your, you know, quarterly oil change, entire rotation, whatever, right? And you knew that something maybe wasn't quite right because you said, hey, have us look at this squeak or rattle or clunk or whatever or, you know, this flashing light. Once in a while you're not expecting a thousand dollar bill, you know. You know, so I mean, it's, it is the, it's the tough conversations, unfortunately, we have to have and it has to become normalized that that's just what we're doing and you know, stop emotionally investing and saying, I can't, I can't tell them the bad news because I don't want to have them upset. I don't want to have them yelling at me.
First of all, they shouldn't be yelling. Yelling is an immediate, like, I'm gonna get the door for you and let you out and don't come back because like, you know, if, if somebody selling a $50 coffee at Tim Hortons can have a sign saying we will not tolerate abuse, then if I'm selling a thousand dollar repair, I can certainly be able to tell anybody that is coming as abusive to my staff to hit the road and don't come back. And like, you're not welcome here. But we have to have the, the, the tough conversation say no, unfortunately, like your car is really broke and you know, maybe you want to go on vacation in six months. You might want to rethink that because like, you're, you're at a tipping point now where we either fix this so you can get to work or you go to something else. And I always believe that, you know, when people say they can't afford it, well, they can. It just means that it's not their priority on what they want to spend the money on. And I get it.
I understand. I'm not sitting here with buckets of cash that if my jeep all of a sudden needed a transmission, I'd just be able to write a check for it. Like, I would be, like, I'd be going in a hole to do it. I could get it done. But that's what we. At the end of the day, the priority still falls on keeping the wheels turning on that thing so I can get to the work to continue to pay that debt down. These people, we've too long have been financing their, all the other that they'd rather do because we sacrifice our, our industry for what we charge and how we approach it, and that's we have to stop doing that because we're going to be stuck in a hundred dollar door rates forever. You know, the customers all have the money, especially when they're driving.
Listen, if you drive an Audi or a Euro anything and you want to start talking to me about can't afford, I'm just gonna chuckle at you because like it's not a, we're not talking about a Cavalier or Cobalt or Cruise. We're talking about an Audi. Like you've obviously bought it. They're not cheap to buy. You should know what you're getting if you don't. Again, that ain't on me. It doesn't change the reality what the car is going to cost to fix it properly. And you know, if you're stuck, I feel for you, but this is life.
This is how you learn lessons, right? Don't buy something you don't have the budget for. So most people have the budget. We just have to unfortunately like work a little harder at getting them to see the value.
So yeah, like, yeah, I remember we had, we had one, we had a customer come in with, I think it was like a 2018 or 20, maybe the 2019, I can't remember, it was a Mercedes. So less than 10, we'll just say less than 10 years old.
Yeah.
And they needed, I think after we diagnosed it, we, they needed injectors.
Okay.
So. And it was obviously direct injection. So like those ones, like we had to replace, I think the services manual said you had to replace all of them. Whatever. Because you had to pull the whole rail off.
Yeah.
And they were like, oh, we have no money. Like, no, no, no, no. Like if you've seen some of the cars that come through our shop, like we've had like, you know, some like we, I, I remember we had a 90. You had 95 Cavalier come through. Like, I was like, I, I was shocked. I was like, there's still one on the road.
Right?
2.8 V6. Like, holy crap. Or maybe it's. No, it's a 95. So it was a 3.1, but I was like, there's, there's one. Like, no, no, don't, don't tell me you don't have money.
Yeah, exactly. Right. Like, and that's the thing. Like, I remember I put a sliding door latch in a, an older Sienna van. Like I want to say like an old 405 and of course a new latch heart. We had to wait for it to come in like you or new. And I remember, like it had, it needed an Oil change. It had crap tires.
Like you could, you could tell this customer couldn't afford the rest of it. But like at this point, you know, with the sliding door not being able to shut, the battery is going dead all the time. That's a real problem. Right. She duct taped the door shut so made it made a big mess and made it worse. But it still didn't fix the problem. You know, that person truly couldn't afford the repairs.
Yeah.
If you're driving a 10 year old Mercedes like F that you can afford.
Yeah.
You know, injections, you just don't want to. And that's fine. That's. That is totally fine. Here's your bill for the diagnosis. Sign here. See you later. You know, and.
And away you go. We have to stop trying to. What can I do to get the repair? We need to see the true value in telling the customer what's wrong and be able to operate and be financially successful without having to get the repair. Right. Like we've got to see it as two different things. And we should be and a lot of us do. But oh, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta like whittle down because I've got the repair now. I've told them what they need.
I've got the repair. I got to get the repair. The diagonal inspection should start to pay enough money now that if we don't repair the thing, we can make the nut on just that labor soul. Right. You understand what I'm saying? Because the oil change places. That's exactly what they do. Exactly what they do. They've set that service so that nothing else ever gets sold.
They're still lucrative, they're still financially viable. We can do the same thing. We just haven't figured out how to do it yet because we're too scared. We're still thinking car count. I've got to be cheap, get the car and find the repair. No, we have to realize especially you and I talked about this. The way we're building stuff now, it's not meant to last 10 years. It really is.
Not like you look at a. Oh, I don't know, let's talk. Some of these engines look at like the 6, 2 that they're having the recall on the oil problem with and all. Like they're not building a truck now with the intent of it lasting 10 years. I don't give a crap when anybody says nobody. Well, you can't tell me that a Hyundai and a Kia in Canada sold were ever meant to last 10 years. There's lots of them. Around.
But we're also like at my place, we're condemning a ton of them because when you put them up on the, on the rack, they're, you can't resell them because they're too rusted, too corroded, too perforated to whatever you want to. So they're not. But people are like, you have a 10 year old car, I can't afford to fix it. Cool. Go get yourself another, you know, five year old car and drive five more years. Here's the Pay me for what I inspected. Got it. We got to change our thinking.
Oh, 100 agree. Like yeah, yeah. The 10 year. We used to, we used to call the, the old Cavaliers and the Sunfires. You know those at that time, Those were the 10 year throwaway cars and you bought, you know, he bought them, you know, they, they were cheap, cheap to maintain, cheap on insurance and everything else, cheap on parts, even labor for the most part. Like everything was actually pretty to mix on those.
Yeah.
But yeah, now it's like you said, like now it's like the Hyundai's Kias. Like I remember when Honda Civic, when the Honda Civics used to be like 10 year throwaway cars. Now they're like what, 30,000 like for a new Civic, like for a base model. Like, wow.
Like, yeah, so what, like what other options are around you? Because I know we kind of talked about how like where you are financially is really difficult for you and you're thinking about like wanting to make a change for, for a better, better career. Like I don't want to say better career but you know, better pay, you kind of have to travel a bit. Right. If you're going to start to find better door rates and better pay.
Yeah. Like I remember like when I was at my, I think it was when I was at level, when I was at my final level of school, like I think it was like the first day or whatever. We were kind of like all the apprentices where we went around the class and we're saying like, oh, where we work and whatnot. And one of the things that saying like, oh, what, what's your, what's your door rate? And like I kept hearing like, oh, like oh. And this is in win. Like I went to school in Windsor.
Yep.
You know, so I'm hearing like 120, 150. I heard 190. I'm like, like, whoa. And then it gets to me and I'm like 95. They're like, everyone looked like what? Like yeah, yeah, 95. So like because of that, like. Yeah, like, we're, you know. You know, I'm.
I'm now licensed. Like, I got my license this year. I wrote, I wrote the cfq. Got it. And like, you know, from where I'm sitting, I'm sitting. Thanks. You know, I'm very like, like, underpaid or whatnot. So like.
And like, the opportunities around here, like, I've looked at. And like, even in the immediate, like my immediate area without traveling, like even half an hour, you know, they're like, not much difference. Like maybe $2 an hour more for like a dealer. Dealer, tech job. And I'm like, well, you know, that's gonna be flat rate.
Yeah.
When I was at Subaru, like the, the. I think, like, even though at the time, like before I left, like it was 120 an hour, like, most of the techs, like, they were, they were on flat rate, but I'm pretty sure they were paid at least like 35 minimum. Yes. Because I remember like one of my now good friends, whatnot that I met while I was working there, you know, he was pulling in, you know, like, he would tell me, he's like, oh, yeah, I'm pulling in like 95 grand this year. Oh, that's actually not bad. That's pretty good. It is like my journeyman was pulling at least like, like, like 180. So I'm like, you know, I'm thinking over the year, okay, if I kind of do just, you know, basic crude math, I'm like, okay, it's about 35, 36.
Like, that's not like, I wouldn't complain with that.
Yeah.
You know, but yeah, like, so, like, if I were to try to find somewhere around here, it's like, like.
Yeah.
Windsor. Yeah. London. Yeah. You know, there's quite a few. But then that's now two hours out of my day, driving back and forth.
Yeah. I think your area, when we were talking is very similar to mine where it's like the dealerships have some. A decent door rate.
Yeah.
And then like paid pretty decent. Now again, the flat rate thing is always like it. You can pay a hundred dollars an hour and if there's not enough work coming in or the right kind of work or the culture sucks, it's still zero hours because I ain't gonna be there or there's just nothing.
Yeah.
But I find every independent shop around me is trying to be 50, 40, $30 less than the dealer. And it's just like, but. And then they, they complain because, like, us technicians aren't dumb. We look at what the dealer is going to pay. 35. Let's say 35 an hour, you know, hourly, or 35 an hour flagged flat rate hour. And we go, okay, I'm going to come to your shop and I expect 35 an hour, right? Because that's what the local people. Now, it's a very different thing.
Like, we know that, right? You're working flat rate, and some days you don't get eight hours, and other days you might get 12, 14, 20. You know, it can happen. But then the independents go, well, I can't afford to pay you 35 because my door rate's only 110 and they're 150. Why doesn't your door rate come up like. And you can't sell me on the idea that the customers. Well, because I'll lose my customers. Most of your customers don't even know the door rate of your competition. They only are there for you because of whatever rapport you have, a reputation, whether it be cheap, good, you know, reliable, fair, whatever.
Those words, they're. They're looking for a price of a repair, right? So they don't. Most customers don't break it down. Oh, Your dirt rate's 150, and his is 200, and the repair is. You know, because we're. We're playing so many games in this. In this industry now where we're. We're padding the labor, we're running a matrix, we're, you know, rolling the diag into it that people are just like, what's the repair gonna cost me? 850 bucks.
Okay? @ the dealer, it's a thousand. You go ahead and do it. We have to get away from that because ultimately the door rate is what starts the whole. What do I. What am I able to pay my staff? And that's where it needs to. Everybody listen. It needs to come up everywhere. Everywhere.
I don't care. Most shops, I don't think, are, like, greedy and holding on to a lot of the money and not paying their tax. I used to think that. Now I know that it's like they're. I'll say it, that some of them are stupid and they're not charging enough, and then they can't pay their tax, and they can't pay themselves either. That's the reality. Like, you know, your boss has probably done well for himself, but I don't think he's taking home a ton of money every year. I really don't think so.
At that. At that rate, you know.
I don't know, I mean yeah, he did just buy, oh, what was it he, so he bought a 24. 20, 24. I think it was a Grand Highlander. So just a couple, not just like less than a year ago. So that's where I'm pretty sure they would go for over 100. Pretty sure, yeah, yeah, no, I mean he did have a good trade in, but yeah, yeah.
And he bought a used one, didn't buy brand new.
Yeah, but yeah, like I, I, I'm a big advocate as well for like you know, charging diagnosis. Now I found out one of the other from a really good, a really good friend of mine, the shop that he goes to now sometimes, depending on what the issue is, sometimes they'll charge like a half hour diet.
Yeah.
You know, just to kind of save, you know, save some people some money, whatever. Like if it only legitimately took you like half an hour, whatever they charged just a half half hour. And I'm like okay, you know what, like if that's, that's not a bad way to do things, like I wouldn't do that all the time but you know, that's not a bad thing to do. Whereas like I don't think in the three years I've been where I'm at, like I don't think, I think we maybe charged diag once.
Yeah.
And it's like, you know, I, I get it. Like some places will say like oh well, you know, we don't charge diabetes. If they do the job, that's fine. Like if they do the job, you know, but you know, depends on what the job is though. Like if you're chasing, you know, you got say like cam timing codes and whatnot. You're chasing things around for like an hour like making sure, okay, it's not sensors, not ecm, not oil related or whatever. Like you still gotta, you know, charge something for your time.
Well and yeah, especially the cam timing kind of things. Right. Because we've all probably seen like a, an equinox come in or you know, any of that. Right. And you know where I'm going with this. And it's like, yeah, they come in and it's like, it's got a cam timing, you know, customer states check engine light on, you scan it, it's got a cam timing fault. Well how many times you look and it's like overdue for an oil change and down in oil. Well the first step is we have to do the oil change and put friggin oil in it and then we have to go road test this and start to actually look.
That's not a 10 minute process and it's not just a, an oil change labor process. There's more to it. So it's like why throw that away? Like it just. I talk about all the time. I had a RAM that had a MDS fault and again overdue for an oil change down on engine oil level by 2 liters to try to get that customer understand that there was no point in diagnosing the car further until I had a friggin oil change. And try not only trying to convince the customer but trying to convince the person that I worked with at the time was like trying to pull teeth. And I'm sitting here going it's overdue for an oil change. It's down on oil.
Like why am I chasing an mds, you know, oil activation kind of problem when we don't have good oil in the engine? That's just stupid. That'd be like saying, you know, the car has an alignment problem but it's got a donut on it and they don't want to buy a tire. Would we ever do that? No. But why do we treat it like the same?
We.
We don't. It starts right at the counter with educating the customer. Okay. Okay. So do you want to do the maintenance that your car should have already had before you brought it in? Like do. Are people scared to sell that because it may fix the car and then they don't get it? Like that's stupid to me because I'm not billing that. It's just a regular oil change. If it fixes it.
I'm sorry, I'm not. I'm billing you an hour diag and then I'm selling you an oil change. That's the way it should be done. That's how the customer learns. Oh, I better get my oil change on time because otherwise this could happen. Yes. With all this crap that we drive now that burns oil leaks, oil has, has all these issues. Yeah.
You should be doing your oil changes religiously. And the people that devalue it, like your boss, it makes it so much harder for, for the rest of the industry to, to educate the customer on why we have to do it the way we should be doing it. And I'm not trying to make accusations about him. I'm just saying if we didn't do free diag, even at a hundred dollars an hour door rate, you could make more money.
You know what I mean?
Because we're billing more hours. Right. That's what it's about. It's. It's door rate, but it's also billing hours. If we're not billing hours and our door rate sucks, we're not making money.
Yeah, simple. Yeah, same with like. And like, I lumped the like with. I remember, like, when I was at school, like, there were. I was talking with a couple other guys there and like, they were saying, like, oh, do you guys charge, like, you know, shop supplies? Like, shop supplies? Like what? Like, like, no, there's no. Like, oh, yeah. Like, you know, like our shop charges like 2% on all orders. And I'm thinking myself, like, you know, if he had even like $5, make it an even nice number.
$5 on every bill. Like, you know, if I do, you know, six tickets a day. Joey does like 10 tickets. Like, you can easily pull in an extra like 2, 300 bucks. You know, we got five, six guys. We could easily pull an extra like 500 a day, you know, just from charging $5, you know, and it's like, you know, just to. Because I get it. Like, there's.
There's always business costs, there's always this taxes, whatever, you know, but, you know, charges what we're worth. Yeah, right. Like, we're. We're providing us, you know, a service and you know, like. Like it's been said time and time again, like, we're like, you know, we have to do H Vac, we have to do electrical. We have. So, like, we're, you know, some of the lowest paid and most highest demanding, you know, and it's. It's again, like, not my.
It's not my business, but it's like, you know, like I've tried suggesting before time, time for like, hey, let's do things like back like shortly after I first started because I. I could see the potential to grow, right, and make it more profitable, make it better. But it was just like, no, no, I know how to run it. Okay.
Just. At your shop, is there a service advisor and your boss or does he fill that role too?
No, he does. He's the service advisor. He's the owner. He's the. He's also licensed mechanic. So a lot of times you'll see him in the shop doing, you know, working on stuff as well, like in the. In the aisle way or whatnot that leads to like, our bays, right? So like, like we have. There's the Wayne aisle way, so it goes.
And then there's like 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 bays. And then the alignment bay is off to the side with its own driveway. So, like there's room to work on like six vehicles at a time and he'll pull something in on the, in the laneway and just like, you know, do a quick tire repair or you know, check quick, you know. Yeah. So like he does it all and it's like, you know, our parking lot's getting full because, you know, like, because he's juggling three jobs. You know, customers aren't getting called, like, I'll, I'll finish, say a brake job. Customer will have to call at 4:00 clock and say, hey, is my car done? Like, oh yeah, yeah, it's done. Pick it up.
Yeah, like they were clogging up our parking lot. There's. You have no idea how many times like I've thought like, show up at 8 in the morning and like I see if it's really full already and there's like no parking spot for me. How many times I just pretend to like, you know what, just keep driving past, like, nope, not today.
I've been there, man. I have. Really, Honestly. So he's not running with a service advisor. He's wearing, you know, like you said, he does almost all the diag in the shop readers. A lot of it right where he kind of signs off on the repair. What's going to be done. Handle it.
Like you're not doing, you're not doing NPIs, you're not doing, you know, DVIs, you're not doing the 300% rule. Like we kind of all talked about that. Like, and that's, I want to say, the traditional way of running a shop and I'm not trying to run it down because it has its pluses and there are advocates still out there for that. But like he needs a, he needs a service writer or somebody that you know is at least. Because customers don't like that when they drop the car off at 8 and they say, you know, I have a brake problem and sometimes I know how those shops work. We don't even call them with an estimate right there. Such a long term customer. We just go and put front pads and rotors on it and we, and they call at 4 in the afternoon.
They're like, they haven't heard anything and they're like, is my car ready? Oh yeah, it's done. Come pick it up. Like that's not what they're, that's not how, yeah, it should be done. It's not right. It's not, you know, it's not professional. I don't know why people still think that the excuse of like I'm able to offer a cheaper price to people because I don't have somebody answering those kind of questions for a customer. It's stupid. Like they want to know, they want to be informed, you know, they want to be part of the process.
Yeah.
Go ahead.
He has his wife work in the office. Makes. No, but like, she'll come in at like, you know, nine, ten o' clock in the morning, you know, and then like sometimes, well, lately she's been staying till 5, but before, like, you know, she would let take off at like 4.
Yeah.
So it's like, you know, and we know like the busiest times of the day are eight, between eight and nine and between four and five. Yeah, it's like, you know, between eight and nine people are dropping off the cars. Like, you know, like, so like when she is there, like, you know, she'll, she'll write down like, okay, like we're booking it for this day or whatever. But like there's no questions, you know, asked or anything like that. It's, you know, the work orders I'll get are like, break problem, you know, Humming noise. That's great. What kind of humming noise?
What speed?
Yeah, yeah, right. Like, it's, it's frustrating, but it's, it's. And I think what frustrates me a lot is I see the potential that, you know, we can make this a really good shop. Like, we could. Like, especially since we already have a little bit of that, you know, credibility. Like you said, like, everyone knows him around the area.
Right.
You know, you know, I, I bought a new barbecue and I came in work with my work shirt on because I just left work and went go bought a new barbecue. And the place I bought it at, they're like, oh, you work at so and so I'm like, yeah, like, oh, I'll give you an extra 50 bucks off.
Oh, no. Okay, cool.
Like, that's cool. Like, thank you. So it's like we already have that reputation. It's like we just, we need to be, it needs to be better. Like, and the potential is there. Just we have to embrace the change and like, you know, not so much worry about like, oh, we're gonna, you know, you know, we're charging customers too much if they're driving. High end stuff. Yeah, they can afford it, like you said, you know, or like the customers that we do get with, like, you know, a 2000 Honda Accord, like, we can give that little guy a break, you know, here and there, whatever.
Right? Like, yeah, you know, but the other thing is like, you know, don't sacrifice like quality over quantity. And that's one frustration I've had. It's like, you know, he thinks it's the more cars that comes in, the better it is.
Yeah, no, that's not.
Yeah, I mean, sure it is, but it's like, okay, like, you know, we should be doing a good job on every car. I don't care if it's a rotted out piece of crap. If the customer loves it, they want to fix it. Do the same kind of job as we would do on that as a newer Mercedes. Yeah, don't pick and choose.
We do that all the time. Especially on the parts side of things where we, we look at it like, you know, my. I've had bosses in the past that were terrible for that. They would look at the condition of the car and immediately assume the best part to put on that car was the cheapest one. Yeah, a lot of time it is. Because up in Canada, like you said, it, it could already have some rust and we don't know. But you and I see some really rusted crap still going every day. And it's like five years from when, say you put that starter in and you put that cheap starter in, you now warranty that starter out twice and five years later they're still driving down the road where if you'd have put the good one in five years ago, you wouldn't have had to warranty it three times.
They're still driving a piece of rusted crap. But you didn't have to warranty that part three times and you didn't have to hurt your reputation by putting in the cheaper part. That makes them question, did you really ever need a starter or do you know, like, is there something else in there going on? Like, you and I know it's a starter, the part quality. So crap. They're wondering, is there some intermittent thing? And it's just like, you know, is it gonna leap? They don't have faith that it's a reliable car, is what I'm trying to say. You know, even though you and I know it's not reliable because the next minute the suspension member could break right off. But like, they just, well, I turned the key and it starts every time. Like that's what we should be going for and we need to stop looking at that as the condition of the car is going to dictate the, the quality of repair.
It shouldn't. It should not. Right. The best repair is the best repair. If it isn't worth putting in the Car. You have the conversation with the customer that says like, hey, are you sure you want to like? And if they say yes, Cecil board. I remember like two years ago, first time I ever met him. Sunk that into my head.
It does not matter. You, you table the repair. The best repair every time, regardless what condition of the car is, because you don't know what it means to them, right? Could be sentimental judgment and that's it. And you give them the best part. You don't put on the third ranked starter. You know, rolling electrical for me is just like, I'm so over it, done with it. Like it pisses me off how many failures it has. You just like, you quote the OE one and you give it to them and that's.
It doesn't matter if it's a rusted. It doesn't matter if you can see through the rockers. I don't care. That's the estimate that it gets. Because otherwise I, I talk about that Ford truck. We had it chewed up the flywheel when they took a transmission out to fix a flywheel because a cheap, cheap starter that we put in within a year chewed the flywheel up and then in our possession the transmission ended up having a failure and we had to buy a transmission and put it in the car or the truck. Excuse me, an F154X4. So we lost crazy on that job.
All because, right, we're. We're putting in. Instead of putting in the top starter that Napa sells, we're putting their third ranked in because our door rate is so high, we have to be competitively priced. So I better put junk parts in like, and, and what's the matter? I get a warranty on it anyway. Well, here's what matters. Our door rate's 150 an hour. Napa for warranty pays us 50 bucks. Why do I want to give them the chance to.
To screw me and you go, well, 50 bucks is better than nothing. It isn't better than nothing. I could be making money at 150 an hour, not 50 an hour. Yeah, right. Yeah, sorry.
Like that's. Yeah, we've had that. I will say that we're. We're not. We don't discriminate in that sense. We throw cheap at everything. Even if it's a Mercedes, we throw cheap at everything. If we can get a part on Amazon, we will get a part on Amazon.
And I'm like, like, oh, I found. And like, don't get it wrong. Like, what was it? The one ex. The one exception that I found that I was like, okay. And. But it was the oil coolers for the Pen Star Three sixes.
Yep.
You can get the Dorman one, which is the aluminum body one, you know, on Amazon. And I'm like, okay, but that's at least a Dorman one, right? Like, it's like, okay, at least you're buying, you know, but the problem is, again, you know, Amazon's not gonna pay your labor. Like, if you. Like, let's just say if it wasn't that, if it was something else, like, you know, and. You got a warranty yet? Sure. They make. They may actually warranty the part, but they're not gonna warranty the labor.
No.
And I've had had conversations with some of my friends about that. Like, you know, explain, like, how, like. Because they, like, you know, they're not in the industry. They don't know, so they're like, oh, what's the big deal? If I. Like, a buddy of mine, like, they said, he's got no pot to piss him, but, like, he needed a starter for his 07 grand caravan. And I was like, he's like, okay, I ordered one. I'm like, okay. You know, but this is the guy.
He's the ride or die. Like, I'll like, yeah, whatever. If that's all he can afford. That's all he can afford. I get it. I'll do the work for him. Right. He'll give me a beer after.
Or a couple beers. We're good. He showed up and he's like, oh, I got it. And it was just this brown box. It had no name, no nothing on. It just said starter. And it had a picture of a starter on. I got it on my phone.
It's. I had to laugh. I'm like, well, that's, you know, accurate advertising. Yep. It's a starter.
Yeah. No idea what it used to be, what core it came off of. Like, no.
Yeah.
What rebuild I, like, put in it. Yeah.
And, like, one of the arguments I got into my boss because. And he. I remember the one time he. He told one of the other guys who end up telling me that he was that. Like, he was saying, like, oh, like, you know. You know, Brian came from a dealer. Like, you know, he thinks like, you know, dealer stuff is always better. And I'm like, no.
Like, I'm not saying we should. Like, if you, like, you know, give options for pricing, first of all, like, some people can't afford, like, OEM pricing. Sure. Then you say, okay, here's what you know. If you're buying brakes. Here's premium, mid grade, whatever and economy cheapos. You know, I was like, you can do that. I was like, or let's say if you know, like if you know, like where a certain brand, like gets their parts, you know, from.
Yes.
You can buy it directly from them. And I gave the example. I'm like, so like with my Subarus, I put Eisen timing belt kits in it because Eisen makes all the parts for Subaru. Like, the belt comes from Subaru. The bearings are ntk, which they sell directly to Subaru. I'm getting the OEM ones at half the price or a quarter of the price. Yeah, you know, like if you have that knowledge, you know, if you know, then, hey, you can do that, you know, because it we're talking about. Oh.
I was changing the CVT fluid in my. In my wife's Outback. So it's a 2011 Outback. It now has 390,000k.
Wow.
Runs like a top. Like, the last thing I had to do, I had to replace the subframe. But I mean, it was only like the suffering was a thousand dollars brand new. So I was like, well, for that price, like, you know, the car doesn't owe me a dime, so.
That's right. Yeah.
But I was changing this fluid in the CVT because I was always big on, like, especially on CVT transmissions. I was always kind of like told, like, you know, change early. Like, especially when you get up to higher mileage because you're, you're burning through stuff like that's way prolonged longevity of it. Right? And I bought a, a pail of, you know, Subaru CVT fluid. Cost me like 500 bucks. But I was like, okay, it'll give me two, three changes out of it. And we had one of our customers who had a similar. He had the same Outback as mine and he needed his change.
And I said, hey, I'm like, I can sell you the rest of my jug. Like, you know, just pay me like a third of the cost, whatever it is. And he's like, oh, no, no, I'll just throw the casual stuff in it over, sprouting it. And my first. My boss is like, oh. He thinks like, you know, oem, you know, the manufacturer stuff is better. I'm like, I'm not better. I'm just saying, like, you know, I'm.
When it comes to certain things, I don't screw around.
That's right.
Like, if I knew that, hey, Castro made, you know, my CVT fluid, I'd Buy from. I'd buy the Castro one.
Right.
But you're buying the Castro Universal that says good for all this. And I'm like, I mean, that's your choice. But, you know, I choose not my.
My own Jeep, right? Like, it's a 15 Wrangler. I'll still go to the dealer and buy the fluid for my transmission. When I go to service it, I still go to the dealer and buy my oil filters for it to service it. And, like, everybody just kind of looks at me like, well, you do a 100 oil changes a week, Use an aftermarket filter. Sure I do.
Yep.
You're right. And maybe it's fine. But I know for sure because I'm not a guy that wants to spec out and geek out on this. I know what oil I'm supposed to run in it. I buy Penzie Ultra Platinum 520. That's the factory fill oil on that Jeep 100%. I buy that. I know that I'm getting the specs that I'm supposed to get, and I'm not trusting some salesman to tell me, oh, it works.
You know, nothing drove me crazier. And that's the thing. Your boss is. He's misleading the customers. Are there some aftermarket parts that are better? Yeah, the. The dormant oil cooler for a Pentastar is better than the factory part 100. Now, I know people are like, listen, I put one in and it leaked. Okay, cool.
The OE1 leak.
Yeah.
So, you know, happens. But the fluid thing, especially for me, is, like, I watched so many heater cores get gummed up. I watched so many transmissions that, like, didn't shift right until we dumped the. The, you know, Valvoline oil changers fast flush out and put in whatever was supposed to be in.
Then I'm.
You're never going to sell me on the idea that I should be putting in Castrol or Valvoline. Whatever my sales rep tells me is supposed to go in there. Like, if it's. If I'm dealing with their transmission, it could cost $10,000 to replace. You mean to tell me I can't sell them 500 worth of fluid? Like, it has to be 250. Shake our heads when we start doing the math on this, Folks that are listening. It doesn't make any sense. And it's.
It's simple conversations to have, like, yes, they have an idea. Why does it cost so much? Everything costs more than it did five years ago. There's the first reality. Second reality is to fix it. If your cheap Choice screws up is going to cost more than you even want to think about. So just trust me that, like, the way to do this is to phone up the dealer, have it sent over and put in. I understand some of the stuff's 80 bucks a liter. Now for some of these specialty.
What do you want to do? Do you want to not do the service? No, I want to do the service. Do you want to get rid of the car? No, I want to keep the car. Okay, then if you were at the dealer, it would be this person. I. Listen, I know there's some dealers that do the thing where they do the BG thing and they put in the BG fluid and they service the transmission and. But that's because if it F's up after the fact, BG fixes it, right? That's the deal that goes down. That's how it's always been, right? Now you got to fight with them to get it. But, like, because I know some Chrysler dealers, when they're doing a transmission service, like, I know locally, that's how it used to be, they weren't putting trans Chrysler transmission fluid.
They were putting in bg. BG said that it worked. It was flushing and it was done. Did I say that, like, see them all come back after? No, but, I mean, that's not good enough for my car. Right. Because I don't have the warranty behind me. Right. I just have to know that, like, if it's supposed to have Chrysler ATF4 in it, it's getting Chrysler ATF4.
Not something that Valvoline says is the same.
Yeah, yeah, it's. Yeah. And like, I remember, like, we had a. We had a 20. We had like a. I think it was a 20, 20 or newer CRV come in. And it's like, oh, the customer wanted all their chain, all their fluids change. And like, you know, I've been that.
I worked at Honda for seven months, so I kind of knew, like, okay, like, you know, there's the different ATFs. But then, like, you know, the rear diffused, DPF fluid, dual pump fluid. And then like, the inner diffuse, it was like, almost like a hypoid gear. Almost like a hypoid gear oil, not like a standard gear oil. So I'm like, hey, like, we gotta source this out. Get it. Get it from dealer. He's like, oh, like, can we just use, like, this stuff? I'm like, not if you, like, do you really want this thing coming back again? Because we put, like, some, like, some crap oil in it.
You Know, like just like the transfer case takes a liter, like one liter. It's not going to cost you that much for one liter. Yeah, like, you know, just. And like that level of cheapness, it's just it, it sometimes just drives us nuts. Like we had a perfect example. We had an Audi come in not to like a couple weeks ago, the belt had burnt off apparently. So we put, and then I was told we put a harmonic balancer, belts and I. And like all the idlers on it.
Well, the harmonic balancer separated. It was six months old. And he's like, oh, I don't know. Like, like, well, did you get, as we call it, did you get the Chinese one? Like the OEM one? Like, because you know, if you got the one, you got the Chinese you one, then yeah, it's. What do you expect? Yeah, like I'm surprised it lasted this long. Like, oh, it's supposed to be like, no, just because. And like we've had, all of us have tried saying it before. Like parts like people aren't created always equally like, you know, Brian, what's the.
Difference in the price between, you know, between that balancer and the OE one?
Oh, it's got to be at least 100 bucks. Because I'm like, usually if it's 100 bucks or if it's like less than 100 bucks difference, then usually you can kind of come convince them to call the dealer by like if you tell him to call the dealer, it's like pulling teeth. He's like, oh, I don't need, like I'll, I'll call part source. I'll call, you know, I'll see if, or like, oh, I'll see if Ultron Ultrams are big. Yeah, we, we get a lot like, oh, we can, we need, we need links for a BMW. Oh, we got, they got six dollar links. Like, oh my God. Okay, whatever.
Yeah. Is there any training, is there any training available locally to you and your boss that he could get and then the next would be that he. Would he take it?
No, no, no, no. So any training that he does, like, because like, I know, like sometimes he'll say like. Or at least you know, he says he did. He'll say like, oh, I did some training through APC and whatnot. Because I know sometimes APC will kind of like host like little event, like little like online seminars or whatever. He doesn't share any of that knowledge with us. He'll do it himself and then he gatekeeps all the knowledge like his tpms Sentence. I remember we had.
So he was, he had to take off one day. So our, our like our alignment tech, whatever. Like he's usually he'll step in like he, he can bill out and he can, like he can run the office. So when he takes over, he just runs the office as it should. Like he sticks his ass in the office, you know, man's the phone, whatnot. I remember we had a customer come in, they needed to sensors and we had never been shown how to use any of his machines. Like I could probably we figured it out. But it was like that, that gatekeeping of knowledge.
Like, oh, only I know how to do it. Or like, you know, we have a, we have a key cutter, only he uses it. It's like, why, why are we gatekeeping all your texts like available to do everything.
I'll tell you why he's doing it. Because. Or I can speculate, speculate why can't tell you speculate. Why is because he doesn't want you learn a bunch more stuff which is going to then demand more pay. You know what I mean? Like, and here's the thing that, that key cutting stuff and, and, and TPMS thing, he's probably doing that for almost peanuts. For what he charges the customer. Because he's doing it right. He's probably looking at the books going, well, I don't have to charge him a ton of labor because I did it.
Such a stupid way of thinking, you know, it's so dumb. There's something very wrong when your shop is running a hundred dollars an hour and they have a key cutting and key programming. Like it's so stupid to me. Like you're, you're up basic stuff.
Yep. You don't like how many customers will get like, oh, like already ordered. I had to get a new key. Like, oh, we ordered one off. And our go to is we ordered one off Amazon. There you go. We'll cut, we'll cut it and program it for you. There you go.
Yeah, but again that's, you know, we don't do that. He'll do that and he'll go out in the parking lot that way. Not tying up a hoist or tying up a bay, you know, to do that. Right.
And I know lots of guys buy some of the keys online, but they're not buying them on Amazon. Right. There are online key suppliers. Because my boss, my former boss, he started to get into it as I was leaving and some of them looked like identical. Like I have two that he cut and programmed for my Jeep to look identical to the oekis. But I never bothered to even call up the dealer and go, what's two key blanks for a 15 wrangler cost? Like, didn't even bother to check it. Just I said, here, you want to learn how to do it? How much you want to charge me? He tells me. I'm like, yeah, sure, two more keys.
I can use two spare keys. If you guarantee they'll work, I'll pay for them. And. But it's like, there'd be no way that when somebody came in and said, like, I want a key cut. And it's like, let me see what I can get delivered here from Amazon tomorrow. And then let's try and get your key. Because, like, it all works until it's like Brian Pollock says that, you know, programming keys is easy until it's not. And it's that one time where it's like you get an Amazon key and you spend how much time trying to program it and it doesn't work or you have to go into recovery mode because, you know, some cars say it clears all the old keys and you're sitting there with old dead keys and your new keys don't work.
The car sitting here, you push it out, like, crawl underneath and shifted in neutral. Like, all this stupid stuff that we end up having to do. I. I can't. I can't wrap my head around why shop owners are still doing it. Like, let's think about it for a minute. If the local dealer could buy keys off Amazon and they worked, we know what a lot of dealer owners are. Like, they'd be buying them off.
Yeah, Zoe. Right? They don't. Because it doesn't work.
Yep.
You know, I ran into a Nissan one time. Guy came in with a knee bakey that tried to program, didn't work. Like, pissed off, he's leaving. Tech has to be paid an hour to f around. Customer left. No, we never charged him. That's stupid. That's policy breakdown.
So he won't take training?
No, no. And like, I've.
He won't be on the asog, you know, changing industry Facebook groups, I'd assume. No, no, no. That's too bad. It really is. What, so going forward, what, what, what do we do for you? Like, how do we. What's your kind of. Because I feel like we've kind of talked. You know, you need to.
You need to advance yourself. You need to, to, you know, get into someplace that's a different type of environment and a different type of way of doing Things but you talked about like, you're. You're scared to jump off and go to a dealer because it's going to be flat rate, Right?
Yeah, like, it's. Yeah. I'm not that I'm like, you know, like, I'm not that I'm afraid because it's like I've worked at a dealer before or whatnot.
Right.
I was at super four years. But again, like, at that time, like, I was hourly, right. So, like, you know, if I took, you know, for the most part, like, I would keep track of my hours, you know, and I knew, like, what jobs paid, what. So like, you know, for the most part I was, you know, pretty on point, you know, minus, like, you know, some of the warranty jobs. But I mean, like, that's been. We've all talked about that time and time again, like how like some of the warranty times are just garbage.
Yeah.
Right. I'll give you a perfect example. Like, when I was at Subaru, the. We had a catalytic converter recall because the bellows would crack and so you had to take the converter off, which is underneath, you know, and then swap over all the shielding.
Yeah.
Which may or may not be rotted, you know, and you had to do it in 0.7. And I remember, like, I remember John like being like our fastest, like, most efficient tech, and he's like, I can't do. He had one come in with like 20,000k, you know, garage capped. So this thing was clean. Every bolt, every nut and bolt for those, for those shielding came off like butter. And it still took him an hour. He's like, I can't. You can't beat 0.7.
Yeah, like, you can't beat an hour or whatever. You can't. Like, you know, but then they would have like one recall, one airbag recall. Actually, for my brand of Outback, they have. We were doing the Takata recalls. They've charged four hours for those.
Yeah.
For my, for my, for like, for the Outback. And I'm like, we would get them done in an hour. Like, you could bang out three or four a day and you'd be set for almost a whole week.
I remember the, the Nissan versus when they started, really, when we finally got inventory in to do the Takata Reba calls. We do the passenger and the drivers, and it paid like 1.3 to do the pair of them. And we were down rocking them out in like point, you know, 16 minutes was, I think, the fastest I ever did it. Really good. And we Had a guy actually got a bunch. So that was a cool recall, because when they. When they. It was like an ordered park.
Like, park the car, don't drive it. So we had a lot of all these verses sitting there waiting for them to come in, and all of a sudden they came in. The one guy, he had nothing to do that day, and we were all swamped. And they gave him, I don't know, 50 airbags. And he got in a car, drove over to the lot because it wasn't on our lot, it was another lot, and he knocked out 50 of them. And I bet you like four hours. And we kind of came back and we're like, wow, like, that was pretty cool. Now we, you know, they kind of had to switch that up again, where they weren't gonna allow one guy do that many.
But, I mean, when you think about it, think about efficiency is. Is. That's. That's efficiency. I have the five tools that I need in my pocket, and I go to the car and I go to the next car and the next car and the next car, the next car. That's how one flat rate actually works really well.
Yeah, right.
When we. When we. I was talking to a guest just last week, and he says the same thing. He says the reason he got me so efficient is he knew the next tool, what he was gonna need before he even got to it. Like, he'd done that repair so many times, times then 20 different repairs. Well, that's how you're hitting 200% efficiency to try and hold people to that standard. When we're not in a high turnaround of, like, you know, like, I. I keep going back to the steering rack in the Caravan.
I can do them with my eyes shut because I did so many right. I. The six tools that I needed went right on the cart. The cart went under the car. I didn't come out. I didn't come out from underneath the car. And until it was to put it down to take the bolt out of the coupler, that was it. There wasn't.
You know, when we're trying to remember and go, okay, I need this next. And this. That's where we all slow down and everybody goes, well, like. But you didn't the job before. Yeah, a year ago. Yeah, I remember like a year later, what all sockets I'm gonna need and stuff like that. Like, it just. It doesn't work that way, you know.
And like, you know, even, like, as. So as me, like, you know, like, going from, like, working on independent where we're working on like a bunch of different stuff. Like, I've gotten better. Like, so, like, you know, because I was used to, like, when I was at Subaru, it was, you know, 10, 12, 14, 17, 19, 21s.
Yeah.
And then same same with Honda. Honda and Subaru, pretty much like they were the same, but then went to, you know, an independent where now it's like, you know, I kind of knew, like, okay, Fords were like 13, 15, 10, you know, 10, 13, 15, 18. The same with Chrysler. But then, you know, then it's like, oh, now you got BMW. Oh, now you got, you know, they got triple squares. Yeah. You know, E torques and like, I had never seen any torques until three years ago. And I'm like, what, what is that? What am I supposed to.
I know.
You know, so it's like.
First time I ever saw a triple square was to do a brake job on the back of a Volkswagen. I'm like, what the F is that? That's not. I don't have a Torx to fix. Fits that. Because it ain't a Torx. Okay, let's call up the parts store and see if we can get, you know, a triple square to take these bolts. Like, that's what was so stupid about that particular thing. It was like, you know, ever.
And everybody thinks, well, it's just a brake job. Sure it is. But if like you first time that, that new. I can still remember the first Volkswagen over God, 12 years ago that had electronic parking brakes. Way back then there was no. Nobody had a scan tool in the shop that would back them up, put them in service mode. There wasn't a way to do it without the scan tool. Nobody at the time had the balls to, you know, just jump power and ground to it.
Now, have I done it since then? Yeah, on. Not on a euro, though. I still don't do it on a girl. I'll do it on domestic, but I still don't do it on euros because it works until it doesn't. And then what do you do? Right. So I remember like me going, I don't know how to do this. So my shop for him at the time came over and like disassembled the caliper. Well, he it royally, both of them.
Like, it was. We ended up having to buy two calipers, which was fine. We sold as a customer anyway. Like, that was. That was their thinking. But I'm like, this is such so stupid. Like, you know, we're sitting here trying to be the dealer alternative for the Customer and we're causing them damage to their car and charging them more than the dealer would to do a routine job. Because we don't have.
At the time, we didn't have a launch tool that would have done that. Like, I remember talking to the Mac guy came around, he was selling launch stuff, and he's like, oh, yeah, launch will do it. Snap on. Wouldn't do it way back then. They probably do now. Yeah, we're talking over 10 years ago. They wouldn't do it. So I'm sitting here going, why do we do this? Why? Because what we wanted.
We wanted to be cheaper for the customer than, like, the brake job at the dealer. Like, we're not the dealer alternative at that point. We're not to. To. For your boss to tell people that he's the dealer alternative. He's not. He's kidding himself. He's.
And he's lying to them. You know, he's. He's a. Alternative, an alternative, but he's not the right. He's not the. He's not giving them the same. He's giving them cheaper. And that's where people are not seeing.
We're not always talking apples to apples here. You know, we're talking watermelons to bananas.
Like.
Thing.
Like, I'm, Like, I'm looking. I wouldn't mind going back to a dealer, but it's just. It's kind of. I'd have to go back to somewhere, like, small. Like a small. Like. Because I don't. I don't think, like, I.
I did well at Subaru, so I, like, I don't. I don't know if I would do well at, like, a GM store or something like that. Just because you have, like, you know, the multiple different brands. Like, I'm sure, like, a lot of them might share the same platforms, but then, like, you know, like, the interiors are gonna be different. Like, you know, so, like, I was considering, like, you know, if I worked at, like, Hyundai, Kia. Like, they're, you know, as. We'll just be giving, you know, give them for, you know, being crap. But I mean, they're.
I'm not gonna lie, they're easy to work on. Like. Yeah, pretty plain, simple. And, you know, so, like, I was looking at. At, you know, doing that or, like, you know, I'm looking at maybe even other options or whatnot. Like.
You talked about maybe going into, like, a teaching thing.
Yeah, like, that was the. The idea that was brought forth. Like, brought, like, brought to me today. Like, hey, like, you know, would you consider like, you know, teaching, like, you know, you know, shop at, like, high school. And I'm like, that actually wouldn't be too bad, you know, like, because then, like, you know, really the only expectations, like, hey, like, just, you know, teach class, right? Like, just, you know, so whereas there's no, like, expectation, like, the, you know, like, oh, we gotta fix the car properly, whatever we can. I could show kids, like, hey, like, you know, this is what happened when you screw, when you screw up, whatever. Right? Like, yeah, you know, so, yeah, so I'm looking at. I've talked to the wife about that.
So we're gonna, we're gonna explore all our options, see what we have.
But yeah, because I don't. And I don't mean to. This is not a situation. I want to run your boss down. I just think that you're like, the kind of. When we talk about the shops that, like, we want to see do better or the, the shops that we can kind of talk about in the groups that we know are. Are in the old ways and are not thinking forward, you're in one of them. So it's very hard for me to, to not really get impassioned about, like, getting you out of there because I don't, like, I don't see a future.
You know what I mean? Like, I see a job, but I don't see the future. I see a paycheck. And I think you're at the same point. And I can't. I can't tell you to jump to a dealership because I, like, I know how hard that is. And. And you know, I'd probably go to Hyundai Ikea dealer because, I mean, as much as people talk their crap, they are, like you said, they're easy to work on. They're buil building better quality every year than what I saw 10 years ago.
And I'll argue this, like, other than that 2 liter engine thing, like, their cars are not terrible. You know what I mean? And even still, they really stepped up when they admitted they had a problem with, like, that engine. They did the right thing for the customer mind saying, okay, we're extending the warranty, you know, and didn't, like, so people make fun of them. But I mean, I see still a lot of old Kias and a lot of Hyundai's coming in, and they got 200,000, 300,000 miles on them or kilometers. Excuse me. And like, they're still a reliable car for that customer. Like, it's. Whereas I can't see.
I haven't seen a Chevy cruise yet over 150,000. You know what I mean? I see caravans over 150,000, but they're rotten, like in the second tranny and, you know, like, second oil cooler or whatever. Right. Like, it's, you know, they're starting to get into the long and the tooth. So I, My, My advice to you is, is to keep your options open and to keep, like.
Yeah.
Pouring into yourself, your skill set and look for, look for an avenue out. I hate it that it's so, like, desolate where you are in terms of opportunities that you have to drive 45, 50 minutes to, you know, get maybe a better door rate and a better pay.
Yeah.
But you and I kind of talked, unfortunately, in this industry, right, like, sometimes certain areas are just going to be all like, your boss, and that's your only options. And, you know, like, I am now. I would never go back and work for somebody like that. They've been in my career, in my, in the past. I'm not going back. It's just too. I've seen too much, you know.
Yeah. And that's, you know, and like, you know, like, the other guys are good, like, good, good guys, but I feel like they're just, you know, they don't have the energy to. To argue anymore. They. They're. They're pretty much like just, you know, they're, they're trying to stand up and say something. It's just.
Yeah.
Unless it's like, really, like, unsafe, whatever. Then, like, like, you know, or like, you know, then like, someone else will say something. But, like, yeah, most part, they're just like, you know, it is what it is. It's like you either accept it or you leave. And it's like.
And they're in the twilight of the career, right, where it's like, oh, I got 10 more years of this or five more years, or whatever. Right. Or.
Yeah.
You know, and like, a lot of them, I hate to say it, I've worked with some text that, like, I remember I worked with one and he was, he was. He was a character. But he, he knew to the day when his mortgage would be paid off, and then that was going to be like the day he turned in his notice and he was all gonna be all done with that dealer, like, working. He was all done. He had no love for. He wasn't gonna work in another shop. He wasn't gonna work another dealer. He was gonna go down to the local bike shop, like motorcycle, and start over there working on bikes, because that's what he loved to do.
And like, you know, he had some, he had some addiction issues, but I mean, at the same time, I don't know, we've kind of lost touch. But if he, without that job, maybe some of his addiction issues wouldn't have been a bigger problem and maybe he could, you know what I mean? He could have started over and be just killing it by now because the job is not making him, you know.
Yeah.
Want to drink so much. But it was, it always cracked me up. He knew that he could tell you on to the day when his mortgage would be paid, and the very next day was when he was turning his notes in. He'd had enough. He was, he'd been over like 13 years at that store, and he'd been, he was older than me, which I'm getting up there. And so he'd be 60 something now. And like, he was already done. He'd been doing it since he was 18 years old.
He had no love for it anymore. Didn't want to do it. Like, you know, and I get it. I totally can relate.
So, yeah, like, I know I started late, but, like, I still, like, I'm still pretty healthy and whatnot. Like, I smoke, but I mean, I'm, I'm planning is to quit eventually, but anyways, like, you know, for the most part, I'm still pretty healthy. Like, I want, like, I, I, I enjoy turning wrenches. So, like, the thought of, like, you know, going like, going into a teaching or going to like, like something else, like, it just, it feels like, like I don't, I, I kind of, that was kind of like always like a, you know, almost like a retirement plan. Like, okay, like, you know, like, go to that one. Like, my body fails.
Yeah.
You know, not now when I'm like, I'm not, I'm two years, I'm two years away from 40. Like, I'm still, I still feel pretty good. Like I can do this. So. Yeah, just. It sucks.
You know, if, if somebody wanted to reach out to you and give you an opportunity, I mean, you're, you're not that hard to find. You're pretty easy to get a hold of. If somebody, if somebody hears this and think that, you know, Brian might be a good fit for, for your shop, their shop. Reach out to me and let me know and let him know if you can find him and, you know, let me know and I can definitely find him. And, and because, like, I, I just, I don't want to see you become another statistic of this industry. And I feel like if you stay there. I think if you stay there, you're going to be where I was a few years ago, like five years ago. And, and like wanting out.
And there's. Listen, if ultimately you choose to go out, I'm not like, no judgment, no hate on you. Like, do you do what yeah, you have to do, but I don't want to see, I don't want to see shops like what your boss is running that pretty much are not going to improve and don't want to improve and see no reason to improve. I'm gonna say right now, I don't want to see them continue.
Yeah.
And that's just because I don't. I feel like it's hurting the industry at this point, not helping it. And it helps it in the sense that it provides employment for you. But I feel like his whole business method is a detriment to the rest of the industry and it's, you know, the, the ways we've been trying to get past and push past and, and show he's living in that. Where he doesn't see it and doesn't, doesn't appreciate it and doesn't think he's doing anything wrong. And that's fine. We don't have to convince. I'm not out to convince everybody.
I'm not out to change everybody, but I can't change the people that are closed off and he's closed off and that's fine. But I think the industry will surpass him in a very short period of time. And whatever he has left is whatever he has left. And I want to see the younger people like you have better opportunities so people are listening and you can give Brian a better opportunity or want to talk to him or, you know, reach out to us and let us know because, I mean, that's kind of the goal I have for, for, for this conversation, Brian, is to get you, you know, thinking about how to move forward. So.
All right. Yeah.
Yeah. So I want to thank you for coming on tonight.
Oh, thank you.
I want to get you to get back to your family. So, you know, it's a Canada Day weekend up here. I have, yeah, I've got Monday and Tuesday off, so. Because the Tuesday holiday.
Yeah, yeah, I gotta work Monday, but I got, I got Tuesday off, but my brand new barbecue just showed up so the other day. So I got that all put together. So we're, you know, we're hoping some, some nice weather.
Yeah, it's turned nice tonight, so I'm hoping I'll probably fish tomorrow and fish. Let's say tomorrow is going to be Sunday. I hope to fish Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. And that's a nice week. So that's kind of my summer now. Just try and. But I tell everybody, like, if I wake up and it's already raining, I don't go. But if I'm already out there and it starts, I just stay out.
But I hate. It's so easy to convince myself if it's already raining, like, don't go out and hook the boat up. Just go back to sleep. Because I, I like to leave at like 5 in the morning, right? So, because that's habitually when I wake up anyway for work. So I'm already awake at 5. So if I took 5 and I don't have to go to work and it's raining out, I'm like, I'll just roll over and go back to sleep. But if it's not raining, then I'm like, okay, let's go fishing. So.
But keep your chin up, Ryan. Reach out to me. Keep me in mind of what you know, anything you want to bounce off ideas from people who are listening. Brian's a sharp, sharp guy. He's pretty humble about what he can do, but he's, he's no, you know, he's no amateur. And if you think you have a fit for him or can guide him or help him or just give him a encouragement, reach out to me, man, and, you know, reach out to him and share it. Because I think, you know, for all the talking we do in these groups, in this podcast, in the industry about trying to change it, this is part of the change, is to help people get out of places that, you know, aren't the best for them. So, everybody.
Brian, thanks for listening, man. Thanks for having me, you know, coming on here and sharing this with us. And thank you, everybody that's listening. You know, as always, I love you all. And if you want to have a conversation, reach out to me. We're glad to do it. So love you all. Happy Canada, everybody.
We'll talk to you soon. 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 ASA group and to the Change in 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
Bryan Bueckert joins the Jaded Mechanic Podcast to discuss the impact of low shop rates in the auto repair industry. He shares his journey from a call center to becoming a mechanic, highlighting the challenges faced by technicians, including low pay and the need for better training. The conversation delves into the importance of charging for diagnostic work, the pitfalls of using cheap parts, and the necessity of educating customers about vehicle maintenance. Bryan emphasizes the need for change in the industry to attract new talent and improve working conditions.
Original notes
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In this episode, Jeff Compton sits down with technician Bryan Bueckert to talk through career challenges and the realities of working in the automotive repair industry. Brian shares his journey of entering the trade later in life, including the financial sacrifices and steep learning curve involved in switching from a call center job to turning wrenches. The discussion highlights key issues like low shop door rates and reluctance to charge for diagnostic labor, which make it difficult for technicians to earn a livable wage.
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01:18:08 Spare Key Programming Challenges
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01:28:57 Considering Teaching High School Shop
01:33:10 Pursuing Passion After Mortgage
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The Jaded Mechanic Podcast
Jeff Compton
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