RANT - Tire Jockeys and Parts country of origin...

[AlleyCat]

i would have shot out that door in seconds if i seen an impact coming near my front wheels and new rotors.

Locked...

Unfortunately this is understandable since most shop insurance policies require locked doors between the shop and customer waiting areas. Sadly there are far too many uneducated, lawsuit crazy consumers out there who are looking for a fast pile of cash.

[70_F100]

Indonesia?

Nope, remember I said you would never believe it...

SURELY not the good ol' USA????

[DuckRyder]

Indonesia?

Nope, remember I said you would never believe it...

SURELY not the good ol' USA????

Yep, sure enough...

[ToughOldFord]

Tariffs only accomplish raising the price on the consumer. Raising the prices stifles consuming and lack of consuming hurts the economy (further). We simply need to be more competitive in our pricing. If we had competitive pricing then we wouldn't even see the Chinese and Malaysian junk over here.

Jeff's point is exactly correct, a lot of us could have our own business if the burden wasn't so great. A local small business that my company works with was trying to buy a small piece of property to park his equipment. He's a very small business, it's just him and two laborers. He has no need for an office, he does his billing out of his briefcase at the job site, and all his other business paperwork at his home. He has zero need for any buildings, all he needed was a place to put his equipment. Every time he thought he found what he needed the city, no The City, told him he needed sidewalks, disabled parking, streetlights, landscaping, etc, etc and they really didn't like to hear that he wasn't building a building. All that permit money and taxes they wouldn't get because he had no need for a building. Well, a small time business trying to meet the unnecessary requirements of the city just wasn't feasible so he gave up on the ownership idea and just ended up renting parking from existing businesses.

Our fees/fines/and regulations are what's driving business out of the country. In fact what's happeneing to the State of California is an amplified example to what's happening to the country as a whole. Industry has long left our state and the people and business that are here are tired of being fleeced and are fleeing the state by the thousands per day.

Toyota Leaving California to move to Canada.

Nummi employs 5,400 people, including 4,550 United Auto Workers union positions. More than 1,000 suppliers work with the factory, which has annual payroll and benefits of $523 million, according to a plant publication.

Toyota will shift production of Tacoma pickups to San Antonio and move Corollas to its factory in Ontario, Canada.

Why California Is Bad For Innovation

Final inspection is now leaving California for Hong Kong. Better. Quicker.

[OldRedFord]

Jeff's point is exactly correct, a lot of us could have our own business if the burden wasn't so great. A local small business that my company works with was trying to buy a small piece of property to park his equipment. He's a very small business, it's just him and two laborers. He has no need for an office, he does his billing out of his briefcase at the job site, and all his other business paperwork at his home. He has zero need for any buildings, all he needed was a place to put his equipment. Every time he thought he found what he needed the city, no The City, told him he needed sidewalks, disabled parking, streetlights, landscaping, etc, etc and they really didn't like to hear that he wasn't building a building. All that permit money and taxes they wouldn't get because he had no need for a building. Well, a small time business trying to meet the unnecessary requirements of the city just wasn't feasible so he gave up on the ownership idea and just ended up renting parking from existing businesses.

Our fees/fines/and regulations are what's driving business out of the country. In fact what's happeneing to the State of California is an amplified example to what's happening to the country as a whole. Industry has long left our state and the people and business that are here are tired of being fleeced and are fleeing the state by the thousands per day.

Sucks, doesnt it? Cant imagine what kind of hoops I might have to jump if I want to open a welding shop.

There was also a big to do here in my town. The John Deere dealer moved out of the building it had been in for 30 something years to a different location. I will also point out that in the past 15 years a neighborhood had gone up behind the dealership.

Guy buys the building and wanted to open a truck repair shop. I think he wanted to service medium duty trucks Like Isuzu NPR's etc. The people living in the neighborhood complained there would be too much noise etc etc. So the repair shop did not go in.

But it was ok to be repairing tractors?

TOF, yes taxes for American companies sting, but no import tarriffs is just plain stupid. Over on the PracticalMachinist.Com forum the small machine shop company owners really explain it pretty well. The jist of it is lots of political back scratching by the companies keep the tarriffs gone so the companies make more money.

Jamie

Theres a good thread over there right now about the economy and the subject of this thread ties into it pretty well.

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/sh ... 94365.html

[binder56jd]

say hello to "globalization" & the final chapter in the demise of what was once a great country

we are now in "ameriKa"

sad state of affairs

i can shed light on this,but not here

u want info contact me direct

[SteveC]

sadly most things are made every where but here now a days. Personally speaking i can say as a tech/mechanic in training. The computer stuff is nice but just looking at the codes and replacing that part can get you into a world of trouble.

take for example the car has a intermittent starting problem computer throws a code saying the ecm is bad and/or several other components are bad so you just go out and get those replace them and charge your customer the 500+ to replace just in parts. Not 20 minutes after the car leaves the shop you have a very angry customer on your door step with the same problem in the same car.

Now if you had followed a flow chart for a no crank no start problem maybe you would have found the badly corroded wires coming from the battery to the ecm and the broken vacuum lines (that would should have been able to hear when the engine was running) and saved your customer a lot of money and saved you a costumer.

and never ever install tires with a impact
Speaking of impacts did you know that one of those probably really shouldn't be used to reinstall a oil pan drain plug?? saw that and the behind chewing that followed.

Sadly we have some kids that i cant beleive they made it as far as they did. cause they just read the codes and replace the part or just start throwing parts at something and not listen to the other kids that know what is wrong or the teacher at all.

ok im done typing now i really should get headed to work

[rjewkes]

don't get me started all of furniture row/ and probably all places except those that custom build it from real wood in their own shop, is from somerwhere in south east asia, mostly vietnam and china a lttle is from india.

[AlleyCat]

sadly most things are made every where but here now a days. Personally speaking i can say as a tech/mechanic in training. The computer stuff is nice but just looking at the codes and replacing that part can get you into a world of trouble.

take for example the car has a intermittent starting problem computer throws a code saying the ecm is bad and/or several other components are bad so you just go out and get those replace them and charge your customer the 500+ to replace just in parts. Not 20 minutes after the car leaves the shop you have a very angry customer on your door step with the same problem in the same car.

Now if you had followed a flow chart for a no crank no start problem maybe you would have found the badly corroded wires coming from the battery to the ecm and the broken vacuum lines (that would should have been able to hear when the engine was running) and saved your customer a lot of money and saved you a costumer.

Steve electrical work is a specialty. If you're good at solving these kind of problems you'll never be out of work. I've seen many days where other guys were standing around twiddling their thumbs for lack of work and I had jobs backed up waiting for me.

[SteveC]

that's what my teacher said as well. "Turning off the check engine light" and other electrical problems are where a lot of money is at. You can pump out suspension and alignment all you want but they don't make that much money.
Plus you dont get much engine rebuilds, transmission rebuilds , and differential rebuilds as much as electrical problems or a simple light that is on.

Heck when i do a oil change while the the car is up on the hoist i like to do a through inspection of all wear parts that i can. steering/suspension , leaks ,parts that look worn or damaged and let the customer know that something else may need attention soon.. even if they don't go for it but you have made them aware and when that part goes bad most likely they will come back to you to get it fixed. ( least that's my luck so far)

[AlleyCat]

Heck when i do a oil change while the the car is up on the hoist i like to do a through inspection of all wear parts that i can. steering/suspension , leaks ,parts that look worn or damaged and let the customer know that something else may need attention soon.. even if they don't go for it but you have made them aware and when that part goes bad most likely they will come back to you to get it fixed. ( least that's my luck so far)

That is the way service work should be done. It's often referred to as up selling. Just be careful to make good calls on items that need attention. Far too often beginner techs who are on the lower end of the money scale get sucked into salary plus commision pay packages. While they usually start out with good intentions financial burdens like groceries, rent, insurance, car payments and of course the never ending tool bills can push them into selling unnecessary repairs.

[SteveC]

i know about the never ending tools.... all to well . Its good that i have some good habits in place then. And could you explain the salary plus commission thing a little more if you could? thanks

[AlleyCat]

i know about the never ending tools.... all to well . Its good that i have some good habits in place then. And could you explain the salary plus commission thing a little more if you could? thanks

Salary plus commission has a few variations but the basic idea goes like this. You start out earning so much per hour. For the sake of simplicity lets say it's $10 per hour. A 40 hour week gets you $400 before the tax vultures get their roughly 25% cut leaving you with about $300. Now deduct some additional expenses for things like health insurance. That $300 just got whacked to $250. At those kind of numbers you'll have to hustle on the side or starve. Garage owners are well aware of this so they offer you a commission on the parts and/or labor you help to sell. Again I'll use a figure that helps simplify things. Lets say they pay you 5% of total parts and labor on each job you do. On top of that most repair pricing is based on standard times for each job. The O.E.M.'s figure these out. If you know what you're doing you can often beat the times. Now let's go back to the 5%. That equates to your recieving $5 for every $100 the shop bills. They bill $1000 you get an extra $50. Hustle and it's possible to bill 12 - 14 hour labor working only 8 hours. The more items you find " wrong " and repair the more you take home on pay day. There is a fine line between being a good hustler and a ripoff artist.

Don't cross that line.

[SteveC]

it seems like thats what quite a few shops do for pay here in North platte ... just dont cross the line and start trying to replace stuff that isnt broken just to get a buck or two.

I can see the downfalls of the system and how easily it is to manipulate old granny into spending a lot more than she needed to

[AlleyCat]

Steve it's not only the rip off thing that's bad but it's also how John Q. Public views mechanics in general. Most people who enter the trade do so because they actually enjoy repairing vehicles and take pride in their work. From an apprentice tech like yourself who is just beginning a career to a journeyman like me with decades of experience most of us strive to deliver top notch work at a fair price. The problem is when a rip off shop gets exposed it usually gets lots of attention from the media. John Q. reads or hears this stuff then often jumps to the conclusion that if one shop or tech is a rip off artist then all shops and techs are alike.