Obviously, the manufacturers aren’t going to be happy with NJ’s new legislation, but it’s definitely a win for mechanics, dealerships, and owners of recalled vehicles.
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Perhaps it will spur carmakers into designing more quality into their vehicles.
Look at the quality and reliability leaders (Toyota & Honda). You don’t see too many of those parked outside shops, unless it’s for winter/summer tire change over or other maintenance.
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They’re just cars
Perhaps a little more reliable than some other brands . . .
But they break down and need repairs and maintenance, just any other car
ANY car will be very expensive to keep on the road and in good shape, if you keep it for more than a handful of years
Just because a car is parked outside of a shop doesn’t mean it’s a piece of junk . . . it could be there for routine maintenance, to replace worn out shocks, tires, brakes, etc.
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I like to say, all vehicles are junk, just some are much better junk than others… 
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Would a working mechanic/technician who works for a dealership who performs Recall, Warranty, and Routine Maintenance Work pipe up as to the truthfulness to this…
True or False… The mechanic/technician gets paid the same flat-rate whether the work is a factory recall, warranty repair, or routine maintenance.
I heard enough times that a mechanic has to work their bu++ off just to get 100-hours in eventhough they are only working an 8 to 5 (40-hour week)…
I honestly do not know reimbursement policies for recalls, my GMC and toyota have had recall work done, no flinches from the service departments doing them.
If I recall correctly, how much time a mechanic gets credit for is specified in the letters to the dealerships. I am sure there are warranty policies that cover extraordinary situations.
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OK4450, a now-deceased forum member, was a Master Mechanic who had worked at dealerships for several different makes, and he stated–on more than one occasion–that mechanics were paid substantially less for warranty work than they were for repairs that the customers paid for.
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I will be making up numbers here just as an example…
A tech makes $20.00 an hour, a shop charges $100.00 an hour, a standard job X pays a flat rate time of 2.0 hours, the customer pays that 2.0 hours or $200.00 labor for said job..
Now if that job happens to be a factory recall/warranty job X, the tech only gets paid 1.7 hours flat rate for the job…
Used to be part of the reasoning for lesser time on a recall and or new car warranty job is that a job takes less time on a new vehicle than on an older vehicle with rust and grim and stuck/seized parts etc etc… I can tell you that working on a newer clean vehicle is much nicer than working on an old dirty, grimy, oily, rusty, stuck parts vehicle…
The subject of a tech turning 100 hours or whatever in a standard work week has been discussed many many many times since I have been on here…
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Royalty auto service did a you tube on this. I don’t recall the exact numbers but warranty work pays next to nothing and not equal to routine shop work. The owner was comparing various pay schemes and what they use.
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My information is a bit dated. Here’s how the Chrysler Regional Rep explained to us mechanics the way Chrysler arrived at the number of hours it would pay for warranty work.
To R&R a given component:
- The component to be replaced was already identified. Time to diagnose was not covered.
- The new car was already on the lift.
- All the parts and necessary tools were on a bench next to the lift.
- The person doing the R&R was already skilled at this procedure.
- They started a stop-watch when the R&R was started. If a snag was encountered, they’d stop the stop-watch until the snag was resolved.
- The stop-watch would stop when the component R&R was completed. The car was still on the lift and the tools, rags, etc were still on the bench.
We all hated warranty work. But when you need to eat and feed a family, there’s not always a choice.
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You left out a few things, imo . . .
The component(s) had already been disassembled and reassembled multiple times, so the guys filming the video knew darn well nothing was stripped or cross-threaded
The guy in the video was well-rested and sometimes even “wired” from guzzling SEVERAL energy drinks ahead of time, all so that he was especially fast and “motivated”
Any sealant and thread-locker had already been thoroughly removed ahead of time
Fluids were already drained
Agreed, and I believe being constantly short-changed on warranty and the various hassles associated with it is just one of MANY reasons why there’s high turnover at new car dealerships. You can only ____ a person so many times before he’s looking for a better place to work, imo
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False. The number of labor hours the company allows for warranty work is not the same as the book-rate for the same job for a customer-pay job. For example for a head gasket replacement on an F-150 the book might say it’s a 25 hour job if the customer is paying. But for a warranty replacement Ford might only give the tech 19 hours. Same job. Just that warranty work doesn’t allow for as much time. Which cuts into the tech’s pay.
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I’ve owned lots of American and Japanese brands over the years, mostly bought used. It’s been my experience that the japanese marques are FAR more reliable than the domestics. I think the defining factors are better QC in the supply chain and non-union labor.
That’s right, labor. Depite all the Buy American Union label rhetoric, and the obvious benefits the labor movement has historically brought to all of us, it’s pretty clear that the UAW doesn’t build cars as well as the non-union workers at Honda’s Ohio factory where Accords are made. From parts built in North America. By non-union workers.
Let the flame-throwing begin.
That sucks and I’m glad NJ made it illegal.
I’ll only toss a match at you. That is an unfair statement, it would only be fair if all parties were building the same vehicle.
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@Hondaphile Nice try
I’m not going to be drawn into this with you
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Union or non-union has NOTHING to do with it. This rests entirely on MANAGEMENT (mainly upper management).
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It starts with design and design margin. You can have the best consistency in parts manufacturing possible but if the design is lacking or there is insufficient margin in the design, it won’t matter one iota how closely you track quality. Case in point- make a part subjected to high stress out of plastic versus metal. Be on your suppliers backs to ensure they have consistent quality with very tight tolerances and process control. You save tons on the manufacturing costs but the long term reliability still suffers.
BTW- the term QC is no longer used. The accepted situation is you cannot control quality. It has to be designed in. So it is more commonly referred to as quality assurance now. It is a more wholistic approach to quality compared to the days we just inspected everything to the prints when it came in the door 
To your point, when I bought my latest new car, I was extremely pleased to see it was a Japanese built version. Overall quality seems to be better with things that require some attention to detail in the build process…
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That’s a fair point. I made a passing reference to superior supply-chain QC. The last domestic brand car I owned, a 2001 Oldsmobile Aurora 3.5, experienced myriad parts failures. Transmission, power window motors, etc. Some of the failed multiple times, which indicates inferior parts that can’t be fully blamed on GM. But they spec and source those components, which means they’re making decisions based on short-term savings, instead of long-term quality.
Based on my experience, having owned three Honda Accords and a Clarity PHEV, Hondas don’t do that. There are a few problem areas in some models - the current CIVIC Hybrid has a known issue with defective 12 batteries - but nothing that compares to the failure rate for domestic makers.