Featured Repair Industry Failing to Attract New Talent

Summary or transcript?

 

everyone wants to be a bank teller or clothing salesman. no more dirty hands for americans

 

And zero women?

 

Service and trade work wages have languished for a long time.

If there were more examples of tradespeople having stable careers with good lifetime earnings potential we'd run out of instagram influencers overnight.

 

not around here. construction trades are making more money than surgeons. but we've been in a building boom for 50 years. mechanics, i'm not sure.

 

This is why everyone would rather just buy a new car that won't break down for a long time, even if they can't afford it... But it's good news for those of us that do a little side hustle on Prius repairs for friends and friends of friends.

 

Mechanics overall have hurt themselves. Too many bad raps and more people opting to do as much DYI as possible. Mechanics are supposed to be paid anywhere from $175 to over $200 per hour labor, so the minute any of us go to a dealer, that usually is the minimum charge.

 

I'd pay a lawyer or a Doctor that much money per hour, but a mechanic? Heck no! Never ever would I waste money like that... Auto repair isn't that hard. I was working in an autoshop when I was 16 years old because it was not only easy work, but it was fun too.

Of course these days with repair shops having so much unsustainable overhead and overcharging people so often those customers don't come back because they'd rather have the certainty of financing a new or near new car than getting robbed every time the littlest thing goes wrong in their old car.

 

I wonder if it doesn't have some connection to just Auto's and the attitude about automobile repair and maintenance has really changed from Generation to Generation?

I recently watched some episodes of "Father Knows Best". Which probably was NEVER a realistic portrayal of life. But there was an episode were oldest son "Bud" get's his first car. Then after that a re-occurring theme was Bud in overalls, covered in oil and grease, working to get and keep the vehicle running.

I guess my point being, I've seen vehicles become less DIY friendly or accessible. It's computer code readers, and small engine bays, with everything shrouded by plastic covers.
So it seems to me, a lot of the younger generation that in the past might of made a hobby of auto maintenance repair, today just don't do it. I seem to see it marginalized to "raising or lowering suspension" or "Installing Sound Systems".
But you don't see a lot of people with hoods open, doing major overhauls or repairs.

I know from Prius Chat alone this isn't a perfect statement. Some people do. You get people here, doing everything from engine replacement to battery refurbishments.
But I still think in comparison to the simpler vehicles of the past, and with each passing generation, you have less and less, young people that really even embrace repair and maintenance.

Kind of a symptom of modern cars, which are more complicated systems, and almost require specific trained techs.
Don't tell Bud, but today, you're probably NOT going to get the Prius running with a pair of overalls, a wrench and some oil and grease.

 

at least you don't have to own a strobe light anymore, that sucker was expensive

 

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The flip side to that is new cars don't need the maintenance that older cars, which needed more than an oil change, which was also needed more often because of the quality of available oil back then.

 

On the other hand, today's Bud has had little computers in his hands doing increasingly sophisticated things since he was 4, so unlike yesteryear's Bud, he probably doesn't think it's so unfriendly or inaccessible to plug a gizmo into the car and ask it for insight into a problem.

The hard part of wrenching in the old days wasn't so much getting access to things, it was figuring out what was causing some baffling problem when you had none of the monitoring and visibility into the process you can have now, Straightforward problems were easy. Puzzlers could be exhausting.

The video in the OP is interesting enough to watch through. The guy being interviewed runs a shop and hybrid tech education outfit, and fosters kids and gives them mechanical experience.

Part of his argument was there might be more faces applying for auto tech jobs if they weren't expected to show up with their own $15,000 cabinet of Snap-On tools. Makes the entry barrier a little steep for a non-rich kid.

 

Maybe, but I'm tying this to the original post, which proclaims that the repair industry is failing to attract new talent, which would suggest to me, that we've reached a generation, less enthusiastic about vehicle repair and maintenance.
But also, it's just personal speculation.
Another observation of mine, is a younger generation that doesn't even know how, or even want to change a tire.Today for many it's a flat repair kit, OR call roadside assistance.

 

The original post was just one word, a colon, the poster's name, and a video link. The video is where the person is talking about the industry struggling to find new talent.

The video is also where the person talks about ideas for improving that. He's an old-timer. When he started as a motorcycle mechanic, it was pretty easy to get started in the business. He didn't need to have a multi-thousand-dollar tool investment to get in the door. He suggests ideas like changing the billing model and having the shop own the tools. Some of those ideas it sounds like he uses at his own shop.

 

And companies like John Deere restricting the information farmers need to keep their tractors maintained.

 

if dealers wanted to give up some of their trillions in profits, they could work with tech schools and increase compensation for mechanics. but greed plays a role like everywhere else in society

 

I easily concede my posts in this thread are A: Being presented as questions. AND B: just my own observations and opinions.
I feel GOOD about my take here. But I have no scientific data or polls to back it up.

At my age now? I get the freedom to sit back and say things like " Who knows why those young people do what they do? " .
A earned perspective of age, is the latitude to blame everything on what the younger generation is either doing or not doing.

You can say Don't trust anyone over 30.
But I get to say, it's all the kids fault.
I think it balances out.

 

Toyota buttons up their Repair Manual info pretty tight too. I used to be able to buy a phone book size Honda Shop Manual for around $100. It had pretty much everything, paid for itself the first time you set up the valve clearance, I always figured.

Now all the manufacturers seem to be online subscription only. Too, the quality of the content seems to have suffered, my 2 cents.