Retired auto techs or left the auto industry what do you do now?

TreeClimber said:
Spent 30 years in car dealerships, started circa 1983, made GOOD money, retired 2013 making average money.
Enjoyed retirement for about 8 years.
Started volunteering at local school district about 4 years ago, driving school bus part time. (They actually don't have volunteers, so I'm paid, but this doesn't qualify as a job in my mind)
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They said on the radio the other morning that auto mechanics is rated at the bottom of good jobs anymore (pay/job quality) next is tool and die maker. Top was drill rig crew/operator, must mean oil field I guess. I would’ve thought tool and die maker paid good but maybe not. I know it’s a tough world for auto techs today
 
Landslide said:
I’ve had opportunities to be a field equipment tech years ago. I love the outdoors but, dislike Missouri weather extremes. Stupid hot high humidity or freeze your fingers off. I was happier in the shop environment. But like many here, I got burned out on it and needed a change in my life. I did that also, sold equipment for over 20 years. First ten years were awesome but things and the industry changed. Who am I kidding, every fawking thing changed. It used to be rewarding working for a company or a brand of product. It all changed in the 2000’s and has just got worse ever since.

I’m sole fabricator where I work today and absolutely no pressure from anyone at all. Every job is different but some similarity of projects. I have a huge shop and a service truck. I love staying busy doing things but I work completely at my pace. There are trade offs for jobs with low stress but where I’m at in my life, this fits the bill.
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100% my concern on the outside portion. I know a few people there and some are now indoors at one facility while others are out on the road bouncing all over. I don't think I'll mind the driving part but I'm concerned about weather. I really picked at that part of the interview and he said once conditions get to a point they either make the client move the machine to a suitable work area or reschedule.

I'm a bit intimidated by the shear size of some of the stuff in general. Guys I know there say majority of the repairs are easier small stuff. Big stuff you use equipment to help and another service guy to assist.

There's warehouses all over around here which is why this intrigued me. If I can get in house at a warehouse it would be awesome. Everyone starts on the road though.
 
Landslide said:
Top was drill rig mechanic, must mean oil field I guess. I would’ve thought tool and die maker paid good but maybe not.
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Turns ya into an asshole. :flipoff2:

T&D maker at our place make pretty decent money. I dont know what starting pay is for em though.
 
Well, I start my new gig Monday morning. I'm excited just for something different. I'm so glad I started looking when I did.

Things got real bad real fast since I posted this thread. The 3 of us remaining had our last day today. Area manager and regional manager came in trying to get me to stay. I wasn't trying to burn bridges but they came in carrying a gas can and I might have had a book of matches. I wasn't planning on going back but I highly doubt I'd be welcomed back now.
 
94toytruck said:
Well, I start my new gig Monday morning. I'm excited just for something different. I'm so glad I started looking when I did.

Things got real bad real fast since I posted this thread. The 3 of us remaining had our last day today. Area manager and regional manager came in trying to get me to stay. I wasn't trying to burn bridges but they came in carrying a gas can and I might have had a book of matches. I wasn't planning on going back but I highly doubt I'd be welcomed back now.
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Still in automotive, or different field?

If you don't mind me asking, what company were you with? I worked for companies like that and lit the bridge just to watch it burn...
 
I left the auto field entirely. I'll be doing mobile fleet maintenance on lift trucks and scissor lifts. No holidays, no weekends, OT after 8 hours, paid drive time and company vehicle/gas card. I asked about training and such and they literally rolled out a planned curriculum to keep you advancing. I'll still be working on stuff but differently. No flat rate, steady pay, no cut throat people to deal with over a hour ticket. They just want stuff done correctly.

Let me get my final pay and all settled and I'll spill the beans on it. They aren't too happy how I left and I know they were watching my socials...
 
Johnny Longrifle said:
Timely update. I was searching for this thread last night. I'm working on my resume and cover letter now for a road and bridge position that just opened up. I haven't applied for a different job in 30 years, but it's time.
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Chat GPT makes an insane resume if you upload your old resume and the job position.
 
I’m 65, retired, wrenched for 45 years, everyday something else aches. I have 2 new hips, hardware in both feet, both elbows have been working on, my hands have had surgery 8x, one thumb was rebuilt, had surgery 2x on my back and my lower back and SI joints are loaded with arthritis which I just went through radiation treatment for.
Other than that I’m doing good, lol
I still wrench on something every day.
My advice…. go to dental school.
 
Motorcharge said:
That's what one of our master techs ended up doing. Brand ended up hiring him direct and threw a ton of money at him to teach classes and to go around to different dealerships diagnosing weird one off **** so they could make production changes. I haven't talked to him in years but from what I've heard he ended up fairly involved in their engineering.

That guy wasn't some college educated genius or anything either, just good at diagnosing issues and turning wrenches.
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The difference between a parts replacer and a true technician who can not only diagnose the issue but also figure out the root cause most of the time.
 
Ummduh said:
Industrial maintenance. A LOT of the stuff translates over well.

We have a couple guys that came from automotive backgrounds

Edit: I'll say that this is a HUGE range of things you could get into.

I work at a printing/packaging company. Basically everything is inside, we have heat/ac, all our **** is clean and it's easy to work on for the most part. Yes I have a lot of cramming myself into positions and parts of the machine people were never meant to be in, but it doesn't beat me up like working on cars. I've been in it for going on 5 years (no experience going in, just working in the trades as a background)and broke 6 figures last year, in a not very high cost of living area. I do electrical and mechanical. I guess a lot of places you don't do both, there's usually separate electricians and mechanics.
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About 8 years ago, I did an interview with a sales/maintenance repair industrial fabrication company for a tech position. Their offer was good except one major issue. They wanted me to drive my own vehicle loaded with tools and parts across two states (not the whole states but a big chunk of them) with crappy reimbursement program. When they said I needed to lie to my insurance company that I wasn’t using my truck for business, I was flat out of it. It was a small family run business and they had issues with a previous employee abusing their company truck so they were running this program.

I didn’t want to be dealing with my truck loaded down with all the crap needed all the time. Unloading it for a personal trip or whatever was a no go as well. It was great for them to put the liability on me and not them. Fawk those greedy fawks.
 
Gdogg said:
I’m 65, retired, wrenched for 45 years, everyday something else aches. I have 2 new hips, hardware in both feet, both elbows have been working on, my hands have had surgery 8x, one thumb was rebuilt, had surgery 2x on my back and my lower back and SI joints are loaded with arthritis which I just went through radiation treatment for.
Other than that I’m doing good, lol
I still wrench on something every day.
My advice…. go to dental school.
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Dyamm dude, hard to believe all that from just working on vehicles. But I guess bending over the hood reaching into impossible locations to start a bolt in a blind awkward hole or climbing under the dash trying to do repairs can gnaw on a guy.

I worked on small and then, heavy equipment for a bunch of years. I saw the old guys and how beat up they were from doing that job. I didn’t want any part of that and decided to make a change.

I went to my boss and told him I needed a change and he asked what I wanted to do, I said I wanted to go into sales. He told me to come into his office and close the door. A position opened up to sell skid steer loaders (1993) I was all about it and excited about doing this job as I liked this type of equipment.

After the new Deere equipment introduction, I hit the ground running. Buuuuut, it’s a lot different than what you’d expect. Doing cold calls and getting over the internal element of rejection and the excitement of winning a deal and the depression of losing a deal (I nicknamed it the roller coaster ride) I ended up getting the shingles across the top of my head and down to my nose due to stress.

I quite my college class’s I was taking and total 100% focused on learning how to sell without the mental trauma. I stopped getting excited (just lowered it down to an acceptable level) I switched the high and lows of winning and losing to just focus on the next deal.

I ended up being extremely good at my job. One of Deeres top ten sales nation wide. They sent me on all kinds of trips back when they didn’t suck. I went to a bunch of nascar races all paid for and top notch. Had access to the Deeres hospitality tents. Got to meet a lot of drivers like Richard petty. For a lot of years it was a very fun job and very rewarding.

Everything cheater the crunch in 2001-2002 ish. It wasn’t just Deere, a lot of companies went to **** after that. Today, good luck finding anything out there that doesn’t suck ass for a job. You think the grass is greener on the other side. There’s a chance it could be, but I’d say those chances are rare. My motto is this, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
 
Gdogg said:
Landslide , I know can be brutal just like you said, but to be good at what you do it’s takes a lot of patience and determination.
If success was easy everyone would be successful.
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I’m at the point in my life, I don’t want to deal with people in business again. I love what I do now and I only answer to my boss which has been great so far. I’ve been burnt by management in the past at least three career jobs for no reason. I’m definitely not a rah rah company man like I was in the first 18 years of selling equipment. After that, I don’t invest into companies anymore. I just show up on time and do my job to its fullest and doing the best quality work I can do, beyond that, leave me the fawk alone.
 
Got my stuff out yesterday. Checked my flags one last time and did the emissions and inspection paperwork for the end of the month. I was a manager in the safety inspection permissions so I removed the last of us from the state computer before leaving. I'll be calling the stste auditor tomorrow to let him know since I did the records.

Definitely strange seeing the shop just empty. There was one box left and he was on the way with a roll back.
 
I will be wrenching until I die. The grass is green here. Unless your a doctor, most people I know with a "4 year degree" make less money. The only upward path I can make is shop ownership, but as someone else said a page or two back, employees suck! This is such a strange time in the car world. The people have not advanced (on average) with the cars.

Years ago I posted a similar thread on pirate and there was a BMW guy who said you learn to love it. That's paraphrased because my memory sucks from all the brake clean and CO I breath lol, but still I love it. Im still a 16 year old doing burnouts in my mind. These machines will always be interesting and I love that I have got to have character development along side there technological development over my life so far. We evolve together the automobile and I. My advice is get your ASEs, train weekly, experiment on stuff, feel excited about how miraculous these cars are today, help your customers and make them like you and they will have no problem giving you money, and don't be a quitter.
 
gmcxt said:
I will be wrenching until I die. The grass is green here. Unless your a doctor, most people I know with a "4 year degree" make less money. The only upward path I can make is shop ownership, but as someone else said a page or two back, employees suck! This is such a strange time in the car world. The people have not advanced (on average) with the cars.

Years ago I posted a similar thread on pirate and there was a BMW guy who said you learn to love it. That's paraphrased because my memory sucks from all the brake clean and CO I breath lol, but still I love it. Im still a 16 year old doing burnouts in my mind. These machines will always be interesting and I love that I have got to have character development along side there technological development over my life so far. We evolve together the automobile and I. My advice is get your ASEs, train weekly, experiment on stuff, feel excited about how miraculous these cars are today, help your customers and make them like you and they will have no problem giving you money, and don't be a quitter.
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Almost any other trade makes more without spending any money on tools. If I knew then what I know now I would have never started wrenching for a living.

The automotive industry is absolutely packed with owners that deserve to go out of business. You are right, it's also full of techs that are 5-10+ years behind that refuse to advance, those guys should be unemployed just like the bosses that let them get away with it. In the end the ones left holding the bag are the consumers paying 200+ dollars an hour for guesses from guys who can barely tie their shoes. Those guys make just as much as the super dedicated, highly skilled guy that has to fix their **** ups.
 
Yes there a people that are greedy and look at there employees as a means to and end, but not everyone is like that. There will always be shishters and crooks in every trade. I could write a book brotha.

As for the guys who aren't up on training and throwing guesses around, they are gaming the system. This is a leadership problem on the management side and a disciple problem on the technician side. If you are on flat rate and you make a diagnosis and you are wrong, you should not get paid on that job and should either be back flagged or that job should take priority before other jobs are given to you. The customer should only pay for what fixes there vehicle. If it's not enforced then it grows like a tumor and become systemic in the shop. As a tech I've had to guess and I've been wrong and I own up to my mistakes, learn from them, and move on. In your heart of hearts as a tech if you know it's not right to throw a timing chain on that job that could have low oil pressure and a knock then don't be guilt of commission and omission on to the truth of matter. You must be honest and have integrity. This is part of making the customer like you. Even if you mess up they will still feel good about paying you to fix the real problem. A manager must also walk that walk keep your people in check and accountable. Good shops do exist. It starts on a personal level though.
 
gmcxt said:
Yes there a people that are greedy and look at there employees as a means to and end, but not everyone is like that. There will always be shishters and crooks in every trade. I could write a book brotha.

As for the guys who aren't up on training and throwing guesses around, they are gaming the system. This is a leadership problem on the management side and a disciple problem on the technician side. If you are on flat rate and you make a diagnosis and you are wrong, you should not get paid on that job and should either be back flagged or that job should take priority before other jobs are given to you. The customer should only pay for what fixes there vehicle. If it's not enforced then it grows like a tumor and become systemic in the shop. As a tech I've had to guess and I've been wrong and I own up to my mistakes, learn from them, and move on. In your heart of hearts as a tech if you know it's not right to throw a timing chain on that job that could have low oil pressure and a knock then don't be guilt of commission and omission on to the truth of matter. You must be honest and have integrity. This is part of making the customer like you. Even if you mess up they will still feel good about paying you to fix the real problem. A manager must also walk that walk keep your people in check and accountable. Good shops do exist. It starts on a personal level though.
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The first step if you're on flat rate should actually be to quit that job IMO but to each their own, it's a crutch for ****ty management. I've worked for some of the "best" shops in my area, all had the same issue with having an owner who couldn't work with anyone or they hired a manger that couldn't work with anyone. My last day at my last shop, that business opened the day with 2 owners working and 4 employees, and they closed with one employee. The guy that owned that place was a solid tech, great with cars and ****ing terrible with people. Good shops, that are a good place to be employed are extremely few and far between, and in some areas they simply do not exist. If there were a market for it I'd love to travel around and consult with these shop owners on how to not be the scum of the earth but I don't think they really want to hear all the ways they suck. My last two jobs they had coaches, big groups of likeminded ****bags patting each other on the back.

I could go back to automotive and make another $20k+ a year, and I'd go right back to being stressed out 24/7, having little to no retirement, ****ty/expensive health insurance... **** all that. I'll keep my slow paced hourly union mechanic gig.
 
Not gonna quote gmcxt on everything he said, but I am in a position where the shop owners (Indy) don't offer any training unless it comes at no cost to them. Training cuts into the bottom line, so they just won't do it. But still expect the techs (God I hate that ****ing word!) to get every diag right and make zero mistakes. The suits have no idea how complicated a car is now.

I'm glad you love what you do. I used to as well. I could throw down 50+ hours a week doing heavy line. Engines, Transmissions, diffs, suspension, using my hands. I like hard work, and I'm ****ing good at it. Now they have me doing 3-4 oil changes a day and upsell on 30% of my recommendations, and I end up with checks in the 35 ish hour range for doing bitch ass lube tech work.

The only reason I am still where I am is because my flat rate $ per hour can't be matched anywhere else. I'm at the top of the scoreboard in this corner of the state. I'm the most overpaid lube tech there is! But I'm willing and searching for a position that is less stressful and easier on my body, for a cut in pay.
 
No horse in the race, but has anyone looked at doing mobile diagnostics?

A friend is doing it after having a shop, working in a shop, managing a shop. Seems to like it and its decent money. Not sure what outfit, could likely get that info.

As I am aging in the workforce myself, the only thing that makes sense is to be an owner.

Sure it is a slippery stone and risk, but everything else comes with exploitation/shortcomings attached to it.

LTL business I am in is basically a sweatshop on wheels. A prime example that local work gets you home to sleep, and rinse and repeat the next day. Hometime my ass, 12 plus hour days are a norm when its busy. Then when the freight drops off, we don't need you today. Feast/famine...
 
Gtrplyr78 said:
No horse in the race, but has anyone looked at doing mobile diagnostics?

A friend is doing it after having a shop, working in a shop, managing a shop. Seems to like it and its decent money. Not sure what outfit, could likely get that info.

As I am aging in the workforce myself, the only thing that makes sense is to be an owner.

Sure it is a slippery stone and risk, but everything else comes with exploitation/shortcomings attached to it.

LTL business I am in is basically a sweatshop on wheels. A prime example that local work gets you home to sleep, and rinse and repeat the next day. Hometime my ass, 12 plus hour days are a norm when its busy. Then when the freight drops off, we don't need you today. Feast/famine...
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I'd like to do the mobile diagnostics thing on the side but there doesn't seem to be a market for it in my area. Around here everyone just wants to have a guy that can do it full time of they're ok with shotgunning parts at the car. I know there are quite a few of those guys who do decent for themselves in other parts of the country though.

Mobile ADAS calibration is becoming a thing as well but the big body shop conglomerates are buying all those guys out
 
Gtrplyr78 said:
No horse in the race, but has anyone looked at doing mobile diagnostics?

A friend is doing it after having a shop, working in a shop, managing a shop. Seems to like it and its decent money. Not sure what outfit, could likely get that info.

As I am aging in the workforce myself, the only thing that makes sense is to be an owner.

Sure it is a slippery stone and risk, but everything else comes with exploitation/shortcomings attached to it.

LTL business I am in is basically a sweatshop on wheels. A prime example that local work gets you home to sleep, and rinse and repeat the next day. Hometime my ass, 12 plus hour days are a norm when its busy. Then when the freight drops off, we don't need you today. Feast/famine...
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In automotive myself, and see the same. There are guys making good money doing good diags, but they are locked up in shops in my area. Talked with a few older retired techs who have looked at it, but with all the dealers, shops, and mobile shotgunners it's hard to crack into. Unless you get into programming then it's a little different, especially into the aftermarket.

I'm not ever planning on going the ownership route, but planning on moving up within my company, allowing the company to assume that risk. I know I will miss out on cash flow, but it's risk/reward balance. The pay/bonus structure we have in place does allow for good pay, but it's not set up to make an absolute killing. Closed a lot so side work is able, but I typically keep it lower level easy stuff to not make it go too far.
 
Gtrplyr78 said:
No horse in the race, but has anyone looked at doing mobile diagnostics?

A friend is doing it after having a shop, working in a shop, managing a shop. Seems to like it and its decent money. Not sure what outfit, could likely get that info.

As I am aging in the workforce myself, the only thing that makes sense is to be an owner.

Sure it is a slippery stone and risk, but everything else comes with exploitation/shortcomings attached to it.

LTL business I am in is basically a sweatshop on wheels. A prime example that local work gets you home to sleep, and rinse and repeat the next day. Hometime my ass, 12 plus hour days are a norm when its busy. Then when the freight drops off, we don't need you today. Feast/famine...
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Half the shops dont charge for diagnosis now anyway, especially if they are flat rate and can make the tech eat it. I do some diag for a couple of shops that are a few years behind the times. If the owners weren't my friends and I didn't have a good reciprocal deal with them to do some of my motors and transmissions, I wouldn't bother.

The money is in doing small to medium job maintenance/repair. Brakes, suspension, axles, etc. The stuff the roads around here destroy anyway.
 
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