My dear friend is the service director at audi silver spring and most of his service advisors and mechanics make near or over 100k. Pretty sure some that are qualified to work on r8s might rake in much more. If you live in the DMV, ill put a good word in for ya
start with people you know… “Hey man, I am doing oil changes for insert price here Let me know if you are interested and I’ll hook you up!” Friends, family… facebook would be a good place to start if you do that sort of thing. From your posts, it seems like you know how much your time is valued at. That’s a good start. It might even be enough for you to confront your boss about it. Ask why you are getting paid less than others and why you didn’t get a raise after your first year. especially if you have given your all. Show your confidence but don’t be cocky. Hope this helps.
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Nice theory and all but attempt this at any dealer and your toolbox will be rolling to the doorway after getting canned…
Are you saying that you are a flat rate tech and work this way? I’m having a hard time buying that for even one second.
I hear what you’re saying, and I appreciate your empathy 
That said, I’ve been in situations where the service manager tears up the original paperwork RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY FACE and says this job will be goodwilled. And he also deleted the original repair order from the computer system, so that there was no record of the customer ever agreeing to pay for any of it
And he literally lined up all of the mechanics and told us if we want to complain, don’t let the door hit you on the way out, because he’s got a stack of job applications on his desk, and he can hire any of those guys to do our job(s) for cheaper
Well, that was the past . .
I’ve been working as a civil service mechanic for a rather large city’s fleet for a few years now. No opportunity to flag 20hr/day, but the pay is steady and fair, I’ll get a pension, and the benefits are good
I do miss working on the latest and most high-tech vehicles, but I’ll take dependability over drama any day of the week
So instead of standing up for myself, I decided to do something different . . . extricate myself from a rather unpleasant situation
Since I knew I couldn’t change the situation at that dealership, I decided to put myself in a completely different situation altogether
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If you’re unhappy with those conditions, find a different employer. At the shops my former employer operated, there were four grades of tech: A, B, C, and general service techs. The a,b, and c techs were on flat rate and paid for everything they did according to Mitchell’s labor guide. The general service techs were assigned the oil changes, shop clean ups, etc. and were paid by the hour. All the techs were paid commissions on upsells.
Way ahead of you . . .
I already changed employer over 10yrs ago
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I doubt if Mr. OK will answer that and why do you ask. I am wondering what your trying prove or accomplish . I know I certainly would not answer that question on an open web site.
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I think I am starting to smell TROLL.
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This is Car Talk , not Legal employment practices .
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I hope I am wrong but i also smell spam coming up.
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I will not recite may name. However, my experience has been for well over 45 years as a mechanic, shop foreman, and even service manager. I’ve worked for 5 new car dealers, one independent, and at one point the camel’s back broke and I said to hell with it all, I went the self employed route and was beholden to no one but me for getting things done. Much nicer…
I retired some years ago and about 2 years ago after my first heart attack i lost all passion for turning wrenches. I held many factory certifications for multiple car makes, ASE certs, and still to this day hold an A & P license as an aircraft mechanic.
As shop foreman and service manager (and even at times as a mechanic helping a clerk out on warranty claims) I’ve had plenty of experience with warranty claims, personnel issues, and so on.
That’s just a rough sampling. So how much experience have you had actually turning wrenches? I suspect not a damned minute.
You remind me of the “auto maintenance expert”: who wrote a story for a publication some years ago about how warranty work is handled. According to this expert if a warranty job pays say 1 hour and the mechanic spends 3 hours the mechanic simply asks the factory to pay him 3 and it’s a done deal. Not in this solar system it isn’t.
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Why would some one who joined 4 hr’s ago come on an old thread & and start insulting people they do not know who they are & what experience they may or may have? As far as wanting ok4450’s name & where he work’s I wonder i he is wanting to report them for some reason. I can not ever recall any one else asking that question.
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I’ve been hearing about this “technician shortage” for decades
And it hasn’t stopped certain service managers, shop owners, or what have you from treating the technicians badly
Not all, but some . . . I won’t get into percentages
But the reality is that many mechanics are scared . . . and rightfully so. Most probably have mortgages to pay, might have car payments, might be paying for private school for the kid(s). Don’t bite the hand that feeds you . . .
Griping will certainly attract attention, whether it fixes anything or not. And most mechanics I know don’t want a reputation as a griper to preceed them.
At some point, you have to shut up, turn wrenches and get the job done
If you’re not successful enough, not earning enough money, etc., then you may have to think about why that is. If it’s because you’re not efficient enough, you need to do something about it, whether it means night school, reading more automotive text books, or what have you. If you feel your hourly rate isn’t enough, maybe you’re not very good at negotiating a rate which is appropriate for your skill level. Not everybody is good at negotiating. Might have to read up on negotiating a better hourly rate, wage, salary, etc. If you can’t make ends meet, it’s also possible you need to relocate. Some areas are very expensive to live in. I live in such an area, but “somehow” I’ve gotten by
Bottom line . . . you have to accept some level of responsibility and make things better for yourself without burning bridges by griping
At my current job, there is a very nice mechanic, but he’s a miserable griper. It seems he spends more time griping than turning wrenches. He keeps griping we don’t have special tools, our break room isn’t nice enough, and so forth. But other guys manage just fine.
Less talking, more wrenching . . .
Griping on a car forum is one thing, but spending all day at work griping is quite another thing . . .
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10 buck’s say I know who is doing the flagging & I will also get flagged.
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The fun police are out, bet the car talk radio show would have gotten flagged multiple times. Better keep it car related
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You guys smell spam, I smell a lawyer trying to drum up a c;ass action lawsuit involving auto techs.
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Wow…this thread took a turn, I don’t know why I just got the notification that someone replied 0.0 and to mr. Lawyer guy, the real world and the “should be” world are two very different places. It’s not good by any means and most don’t like it, however trust us, someone has tried (including me) and it goes no where. The only solution, if harassment isn’t involved, is to work somewhere else. The upper management doesn’t care, the service advisors definitely don’t care, every other technician around you cares and understands, however it gets to a point of tolerate it or attempt to better your position somewhere else. Also, nice eggs and spam.
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40 years ago I saw a move by dealers and the large corporate shops to spin mechanic’s pay. For many years mechanics were paid 40% of the labor on the work they did but someone recognized that if they raised the shop’s rate without increasing the mechanic’s hourly pay no one would pay much attention. So today the rates that I see locally are $110+/hour billing to customers with mechanics earning $20+. Mechanics have seen their piece of the pie cut in half and then some. But it’s like so many businesses these days that increase profits by squeezing more from the hired help while paying them less. It amazes me how successful my small shop was for me while paying my mechanics 40%. But of course I was clocking up a lot of hours on the floor while the corporate/dealer owners and managers were strictly management and more often than not felt entitled to a great deal more than their ‘stoop labor.’