Nope, I’ve been at my dealer for 2 years, own 4 cars, about to close on a house, and I am 21. Great benefits, annual bonus, it’s all about finding the right dealership and having the right work ethic.

I kinda do. Overworked and underpaided while not being appreciated. But it does have its highs but they seem very far apart

I regret how the whole industry is regulated. Overworked, underpaid, and it’s the most labor intensive job in the shop. I’m paid well, but I still feel like techs should make more for the work provided. Though techs are not created equal. Some are overpaid and underworked. Stick it out long enough with a shop and things usually turn around, provided you can keep the job long enough.

Yes

Im a refinishing tech. Its a daily toss up, i enjoy the process of making things shinny but i dont directly enjoy cars.

But in general, its sucks. Paint is crazy expensive, customers are so obsessed with color match when their cars are 4-5 colors from the factory already. The shop owners in my area are super anal about paint usage. They want the least paint used possible but the paint manufacturers are pushing us to make our own libraries ( which is good and best practice ) even though that screws us with the yearly new single year colors. Plus if customers call upset about stuff, paint or parts is often the first to be blamed. My father told me that when he was a painter, 3 stage white was the only special effect color. But now thats normal and we have RMs, SECS, 3 stage blues, whites, reds, and even yellows, 4 stage grays because why not, and recently radar transparency toners. Wtf did they make a 3 stage black for???

Not to mention, we spray liquid cancer everyday with majority of shops refusing breathing equipment thats standard. They will pay for the 20$ masks. Then once you buy your own 2-3k$ fresh air supply, they lose their mind over it when you change jobs. Same for spray-outs cards.

At the end of the day, while we are losing techs each year, its a good job and the money you can earn will continue to rise as people leave.

Only between 8 and 5

Nope! I am retired with a pension, SS, savings, and health benefits. My old coworkers are doing fine as well.

I don’t get why people complain about their jobs and still stay there. Move your feet! Try fleet maintenance or HD work if the dealerships and independent shops are not making you happy. Government fleets are always hiring.

Our toolboxes have wheels for a reason. If you are truly being underpaid then you shouldn’t need anyone to tell you what to do. Go get that money!

Only the older I get, I really feel it in my knees and back now that I’m approaching 40, although I’m in more specialized career, I work on construction equipment and the money is generally better but the job involves more labor, heavily parts, bigger bolts to fight etc.

The other regret is everyone expects me to work on their shit, it always starts with asking my opinion then they try to slide into me fixing it. I generally tell them I don’t know because I only know construction equipment, sometimes it stops them, sometimes it doesn’t

I regret not going into business for myself when I had the chance. My body regrets every minute spent with a tool in hand.

I did until I settled into a job as a fleet mechanic. I hated everything about the auto world. Flag hours, customers and shop owner/dealership all suck and I’ll never go back.

As I sit here with tingly hands, right leg, and ringing ears, absolutely I regret it. I’ve destroyed myself for this job.

Nope … work as a big city fleet diesel mechanic…garbage trucks salt spreaders front end loaders cars medium duty trucks tractors ect…over 100k base salary + overtime 5 weeks vacation full Heath care for life 25/55 retirement…before this I worked at a Ford dealer for 10 years .firestone recall 3.8 head gasket recalls and the 6.0 powerstroke had me thinking it was a mistake I

Yes. So much that I went back to school, got a degree, and now I’m making 3X the $ for half the work

Yes, being a mechanic sucks ass. And with the rapidly approaching electric vehicles. I’ll get paid to “repair cars”. I’d make twice as much doing HVAC or Electrical repairs on homes 11 year Vet here. I get paid half as much, but still expected to diagnose and repair vehicles that are 10x as complicated as a home that uses HVAC and electric. I’m trying to stick it out because I know a breaking point is coming at some point. But fuck all this

I like the work. I make good money and the biggest reason I stayed in the job is I can usually take however much time off I want and they don’t care because I’m basically just losing my flat rate. This is basically the only job where I make 6 figures and be as lazy as I like. I’m 46 and have been doing the job since I was 17. I am not really sore, don’t have a bad back and am actually in pretty good shape because I made sure not to hurt myself. I always wore ear protection, safety glasses, never picked anything up that was too heavy, watched where my hand would go if they wrench were to slip, etc.

The only advice I have is to get into high line. It pays so much better than low line. High line techs in the LA area won’t get out of bed for less than 150k/yr and that’s only just going to get them interested.