I am sorry to say, that only a PULSE is required to work at a dealership these days. I have been a driveability tech ( independent shop) for 31 years. I spent a TOTAL of 6 months at a dealership in those 31 years and only 10 in the parts and service company business. ANYONE with a set of wrenches can be hired, accuracy and Knowlege DOES NOT pay in this industry......pay is based on "parts replacement"...sooooo...if you a good diagnostician, your pay suffers. THAT is a travesty, Ignorance of systems/operation pays ( only because those types "try this and try that" ) In my one man shop, I have over 100K invested in diagnostic equipment and INFORMATION systems ONLY. My testing fees are 20.00 higher than other places, so I see A LOT of vehicles that have THOUSANDS of new parts hung, with THE SAME issues being present...all because "billy bobs test is cheaper"...gonna rename my business "last chance auto repair". My point is you're going to HAVE to seek out a dealer that has a GOOD driveability/ diagnostician....and that's GOING to be frustrating, to put it mildly.

 

I will second this, about 9 years ago, I was still a master mechanic, but my certs were due for renewal soon. I applied at a lexus dealership down here and all they would do is spew to me about how the top guys were pulling in 150k per year. I asked them about the certs and if/when I would need to have them re-established and they said never...Hmmm

Some dealerships ask the techs to help "eat" the costs of warranty repair directly and all of them make you eat it in some way or another. These guys were up front about that, saying that warranty work was paid with this equation (P=t(x.8))"where P=pay t=time x=warranty modifier", this made me cringe and I declined the job. Pay me for the time I spent by the book or bugger off IMO.

For these reasons and others, dealer mechanics must maintain a very high workload to make that $$ they are tempted with, it's like a carrot on a stick for most mechanics who don't use performance enhancing substances. This is part of the reason I don't care to buy a new car at all, I would probably just fix any problem myself, as I don't trust over worked techs putting my critical systems back together again.


And the part the above poster said about being paid as a "parts plopper" is absolutely correct if you don't sell the customer a bunch of stuff they don't need you will never make over 30-40k per year as a mechanic... trust me I was one of the few honest ones out there and my biggest year was 47k ~

 

James, boy do I ever relate !! Speaking of ASE....they've become a money game ( nascar ?) Ford and Chrysler have CUT times WAY BACK ( blaming power tools), GM is still ok, but getting worse. the time for the civicc hybrid 1.3 16 valve adjustment with 8 COP's is only paying .8 warranty and 1.0 CP ?? although it can be done in 1.0, like you stated, one would need steroids or methamphetamine to do it that quick. I can do MOST things well under "book time", but more and more, The book time is beating me, and I'm STILL pretty agile.

 

I know right, I even have double jointed thumbs which really help me work on japanese cars. As far as power tools I had an IR butterfly impact I used for everything... heck I still do lol, best tool in my arsenal for speeding up repairs. And yes I knew some of the mechanics in various shops I had worked in in the past used Meth to beat mitchell book times(sad cause mitchell is easy to beat anyways), only problem is they were the ones who would forget to put oil in the car or leave all of the lug nuts finger tight.

So the price in Repair Quality is too steep for me to buy a "new" vehicle and rely on the warranty. I tried this back in 2004, I bought an 04 elantra since I was getting out of mechanics soon(retrained as a video editor) but the thing was a lemon and was in the shop as much as out of it... I did eventually figure out what was wrong with it. The fuel evap canister had a blocked port (plastic plug in it from bad moulding lol) and in between, I had stalled hundreds of times, once while making a blind left and a semi truck was approaching. I swear that truck hit every brake system it had and bounced to a stop a few inches from my driver door. Needless to say that was the final straw, I diagnosed the problem, gave them 2 more tries to diagnose it(they failed) then sent the car back to Hyundai under the lemon law.

This experience is one reason I don't buy new cars anymore. I figure after 10k miles or so a car will have many of it's gremlins found and smashed by the poor old owner under warranty. Or I buy solid salvage cars with minor damage to them still for a steep discount, a salvage title will void just about any warranty on earth other than calif. emission parts. Not really an issue though lol.

 

I am thinking you all need to move to Kansas City, I bought a used '09 with 14K on the clock, I have had a couple of issues one was a surge when I started from a stop sign, these guys here are very helpful, get the car in and out and have resolved issues you guys are having under warranty. I wouldn't go as far to blame Honda, there are bad dealers out there. Last trip in they had it up on the rack and saw 4 of the clips that held the pan on underneath were broken and they replaced them, didn't even ask they told me about it when I picked it up and I said they had broken last time I changed the oil, the SM said Oh you should put these aftermarket ones in they are better and easily removed.... They didn't sell them to me I went and found them... I am getting around 46MPG and that is coming out of a dead cold winter...

 

I agree, I believe most dealer's are OK. I have to take mine for the latest re call. [Converter] Hope that doesn't cause issues!H