would anyone recomend being a car mechanic these days?

7

79mongoose

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Dec 14, 2004
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My 20 year old nephew, was think of going to a tech school to be a mechanic. Its a 2 year school that costs 20k, plus after school he will need another 10k worth of tools. It seems techs start out as C techs makeing 10 bucks an hour FLAT rate. Can anyone provide any insight?? Seems like a big investment.
 
The nice thing about auto mechanics is that it's fairly off-shore resistant. Yes, mechanics in China make 1/50th of what mechanics in American cost, but it's not worth shipping the car over and back just to get it fixed.
 
There was a news story just a few days ago about trade schools not being licensed and accredited. Many closed a took students money. That sounds pretty expensive to me, I'd look for courses at a local community college, or apprentice at an independent shop.
 
I train automotive technicians at a Community College. I am not a College Instructor but work for a College Foundation and I usually work with several students at a time. We have a pretty high job placement after training. The starting wage is around $15 to $20 depending on whether it is flat rate or hourly. Not knowing your area I would visit some of the shops that he is interested in working at and ask them what type of qualifications they are looking for. Some shops have apprenticeship programs and actually help with training. The old days of just replacing parts until it fixed it are gone. Technicians now have to have extensive electrical backgrounds along with computer skills. It was never a field I thought I would end up in but it has put food on the table and knives in the safe :p
 
A friend of mine owns a shop. All of his mechanics are ASwhatever certified, (Old guy brain fart :p ).He told me that his lowest paid mechanic made 50K last year and his best made 150K. They own their own tools but he keeps them certified and trained as part of their employment.

Doesn’t sound like such a bad deal to me.
 
woo somewhere I can give my .25. I goto Nashville Auto Diesel College:D I'm paying around 27000 for the base 48 week program, the 10 week high performance engine course and getting my associates while here. Our school hires only ASE Master Techs for instructors and is extremely well respected in the industry. Alot of companies hire people that have graduated from NADC no questions asked. There is alot of money to be made and is one field that will never be shipped overseas.
 
The mechanic that I use collects guns. Way more expensive than collecting knives. If there are any other questions, he also loves purbred alsatian guard dogs, which cost him in the several-thousand-dollar range. I think he does ok.
Of cxourse, he owns the shop.......
 
As a professional mechanic myself, I'd say go for it if he likes tinkering with stuff. I have known guys in the auto trade to average 18 hr. a day flat rate and many days at 28 hr.
He should stay out of airplanes though. We make much less than auto guys with more liability issues and stalled, read 1950's, technology in the small aircraft arena.
 
I'd suggest staying away. Especially if he likes cars. Being a mechanic will just kill the love of cars unless you have the freedom to work on cool stuff like when you own your own shop. And as a career, its fine now at 20. But who wants to be pulling trannies at 40? Working with chemicals all day. Having your hands and arms beat up and skinned. Straining your back from leaning over a hood or bending down frequently. Getting stuff in your eyes because its a pain to wear safety glasses 100% of the time. That resulted in my eye surgery that I'm still paying for...

Yes, you can make good money if you work at the dealership and do the same stuff every day. Thats how you get quick. When you work on a variety, its more interesting, but far harder to beat book time. Besides, ask those dealership guys how big their Mac or SnapOn account is. Quite a few are pressured to buy thousands of dollars in tools in their first year to keep up. And those toolboxes are over 5k alone.

I worked as a mechanic for awhile because I thought it would be a good job since I love cars and racing. It wasn't...

Mark
 
It's a mid level paying job that has very high volume... be an honest mechanic and you'll have more business than you can shake a stick at. My mechanic not only fixes cars that people bring in, but he buys wrecked cars at auction, fixes them and sells them (full disclosure of course) for a good fair price. He's always got a line of cars waiting to get into his shop because he'll give it to you straight whether you're an experienced mechanic yourself, or a 16 year old kid who has no idea why they put air in tires...

A military is not always a good place to start as one could sign up to be a vehicle mechanic and end up fixing ball-cock joints on toilet fixtures. Go for a good accredited mechanical school like Apex tech...
 
I agree with Minjin on it killing your love of cars. Everyone gets burned out. Most of the instructors that are at NADC are here because they got burned out working on cars or they couldn't physically do the job anymore. I had one instructor that knew his career was over when his hand all but stopped closing from arthritis. Also as for the military, in alot of cases military training means nothing when you get out. People want civilian certs. I already owe 3k to snap on and I don't have enough stuff to actually do a brake job still.
 
I heard that someting like a head BMW mechanic can make $100k+...if it's his calling let him go. It can be rough, but as long as he can stay focused and does his best, I'll let him work on my car (if i can't fix it).
 
BMW recruits from here. They are pretty demanding in what they expect like less than 30 hours missed in 48 weeks and at least a 90 overall average to gain entrance to their STEP program. There was a kid in my class around 5 phases ago that was in his last phase before graduation then he was off to their school. They told him that if he was good he could expect to break 100k in 7 years or so. Heavy equipment mechanics are making top dollar to:) Some CAT techs make over 100k a year too.
 
car mechs make damned good money, not a bad carreer choice, airplane mechs dont, my bud is a certified A&P mech, airframe and powertrain, has tons of experience for dyncorp/US army/several civilian companies and he doesnt make good $$ at all, even with all the responsibility, unless he is outta the US somewhere working for dyncorp (which is fine but hard on a marriage) he makes like $12 to $15 hour, barely a living wage imho, and this is with college/etc. i would stick with the cars, my bud wishes he would have gone into auto mech instead of aviation. also most of the garages ya see are at least covered with fans/etc, he often is stuck out on the side of the runway in the sun/wind/heat/cold/rain/snow wrenching, sucks imho. and i have known several in aviation, seems to all be the same, in this area anyway.
 
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