wow. this is bad. i started at 7:45 and only touched one car today.

and to top it off it was only an oil change.

 

alright this is rediculous. i haven't touched a car in over 3 hours.

 

I feel for ya man! Been there and done that! Come on down here to the states and maybe you can fill my shoes here! I'm gonna be taking a new position here at VZ hopefully in a couple weeks so there will be a Vehicle Maintenance position here in Indiana! Got all your certifications? You use A.S.E. up there?

 

still an apprentice, not licenced yet going back to General Motors school in september probably. they might be sending me to some diesel courses this summer as well.

 

Ha, I could keep you busy for days on end, where I work we have a whole fleet of ford's ! plenty of running around and fixing and maintenance to do on a daily basis......... not to mention the 10 machines and then the maintenance divisions fleet of gas and diesel powered stuff thats always in need of help.

 

I hear you man, its has been absolutly dead around this area too. No cars come in at all. I think I touched three cars today. No, maybe it was two.

On the plus side I did finish a decent book so now I get to move on to another.

ETA: I have been looking around for another shop to move to and been driving to interviews durring the day. One thing I have noticed as I drive through town is that all the shops, and I do mean ALL the shops are dead. Mostly I see techs standing in the door watching the traffic go by. Its going to be tight for about another 3-5 months for us. People are scared by fuel prices and food prices right now, not to mention the talking heads. The thing is our infrastructure is not set up for anything but commuting, so the work will come back. They can only hold out so long and they will need the car fixed.

 

I feel for you guys...that's why I went back to hourly....flat rate stinks, and it was for GM. All my master certs and not worth the money or the stress wondering how I'm gonna make a house note this month, or how many second jobs I can get to suppliment my income. Thanks for hanging tough and fixing cars......

 

I`m hearin ya dj, I work at a Toyota store, we used to avg 100+ cars on a weekday and 120+ on a Sat (highest was 145 one Sat, boy was I beat @ the end o the day), lately if we have 70-80 on ANY day it`s good (big shop, 20= techs). I don`t know how it`s been all this week as I`m home with a stomach virus but I`ll tell ya this, I prob clocked more hr`s than they did (but I burned all my sick time). In our local paper there was usually at least one full page of help wanted`s but since the new year it`s down to single digits for open jobs. It`s getting pretty scary but I am optimistic (or foolish) that things`ll pick up again soon.



tmleadr03 is correct, cars will only run without maintenance for so long...the question is, how long?

 

That's part of the reason i left the business got tired of wondering if I was gonna make the bills or not, now i'm a paramedic, sure don't have to worry about a shortage of work there.

 

Its not just Toyota either. My buddies at BMW (with the maintenance package included in the price of the vehicle) have been seriously slow these last few months too. Not to mention BMW has supersaturated the tech field with there STEP program. I am a STEP guy but find it actually hurts me right now due to there being so many STEP guys out there.

 

it'll get better, but you should talk with a lot of old school techs and see if this is what you really want to do. These days dealerships keep tons of guys on hand so that they can whip stuff out as quickly as possible when it comes in.

You can do really well, but it's a tough gig. I have lots of friends who are dealer techs. Make friends with your service writers ASAP!

 

AND the dispatcher!!

 

Exactly why I bailed out. Finished my degree in EE and walked. I am not standing around making no money and decorating the place. Bailed!!!!

 

DJ I think it might be because your customers know you can't spell Ontario. lol

 

Yesterday I was at my local suspension/alignment shop and the owner saying business has slowed way down for him. Usually he would see 8-10 vehicles a day and now down to less than 5. He only had my truck and a 1st gen 4x4 to work on for the day.

MikeyB