Another attack on technicians, with no regard for the actual outcome.

here is the book on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KEW9ENS

I haven't bought this book, nor will I. There is no reason to believe that anything new will be discussed in it. The one thing that I can agree with the author about is that good techs(mechanics) want the bad ones out because they ruin things for everyone. Where this book is going to fail, just like every other attempt to educate the consumer is that everyone lays the blame for the overselling on the technicians without really getting involved in examining why it happens. If that is never done the only thing that will continue to change is the number of qualified shops and techs who can repair vehicle problems when they occur.

Just imagine where the consumer will be without truly qualified technicians, who don't oversell and strive to do exactly what the customer needs each and every time. The dealerships and chain stores don't favor these people because their productivity is typically lower per hour than the ones who are selling services, while they demand a better pay rate and benefits. There are many reasons for that, not the least of which is the way the flat rate pay is managed especially at the dealerships. Imagine doing a major repair such as a head-gasket on an engine, or some internal transmission work. If it is customer pay "the book" allows for one labor rate, while warranty pays maybe half for the exact same job. They call it flat rate, but there is nothing flat about it and the technicians routinely get taken advantage of. Meanwhile they are being trained to sell services in order to make up the time that gets lost when they do a warranty repair. If they don't sell those services which they must do in order to be profitable by the end of the week, the technician can end up losing his/her job, even if they have perfect quality in their workmanship with the more difficult repairs.

Consumers will read that and quickly write it off as not their problem but that is because they aren't looking at the long term effects of the management practices that have been in place for the last twenty to thirty years. Today inside the trade we see a serious shortage of qualified technicians. The ones that are carrying the real high tech load are typically in their late 40's and up and life is going to do what life does and they will all too soon be gone from the trade.

What this author likely doesn't understand is that is exactly what the dealerships and the manufacturers want, because when you can't get your vehicle repaired efficiently and correctly that will drive sales of new cars. Some may think "so what", or they may think that it doesn't make sense for them to not have qualified techs to service their cars and generate resales. The facts are if someone is dissatisfied with their present vehicle, they worst they will do is switch to a different manufacturer for their next purchase. Meanwhile someone else will be doing the same thing in the other direction. That's a win/win for the manufacturers and the dealers at the consumers and the auto technicians expense.

There once was a time when there was a shop on every street corner. You don't see that anymore do you? Between the cars getting better and requiring less repairs and now longer service intervals, shops have been closing with no-one in line to replace them. There was once a time when a tech could have a career plan that ultimately lead to owning a business. That has all but been destroyed due in part to the cost of the tools and equipment required to open a shop, let alone the rent for (or cost of)  a properly zoned location. On top of that the wages produced by today's pay-scales for technicians puts that goal well out of reach. You might be paying $100/hr for their services, but most techs make under $20/hr. To add to the problems is the need to specialize inside the trade No-one can do it all anymore, and especially the idea that one can work on all makes and models. It is simply too expensive to tool up and train for even a handful of manufacturers and any business that cannot generate a return on its investment is doomed to fail. That makes the career of being an auto technician little more than a dead end job, that gets attacked at every turn, which BTW is all this author is really accomplishing with this book, and of course the feedback to it.

No one ever considers the natural reaction to the action of attacking the trade like this. Here is what the ultimate outcome from this book will be.

It is correct that overselling is wrong, no argument about that at all the author is right on the money with that perspective. But what constitutes over selling VS making correct inspections and advising the consumer about their car? IMO the latter is always going to be subjective opinions, nothing more, nothing less. When a tech, especially a younger one takes to heart the suggestion that selling is wrong they naturally stop selling completely and the result is in fact another wrong when they fail to recommend proper service that is truly needed on someones car and that ends up causing an otherwise preventable mechanical failure. The consumer involved may then go back to the shop laying appropriate blame on them and the result is another nail in that techs coffin and they move ever closer to doing something else with their lives. Think about it, how many times do you see someone say they that are an ex-mechanic? They demonstrate knowledge and passion, yet they weren't able to make a career as a technician. Isn't it time that someone starts asking why?

Lastly, doesn't it seem strange that the manufacturers and the dealerships never rebut these books and articles, in part or in whole? It's not because they agree or disagree with any of the points that get made. The facts are these things all lead right to where they want to be anyway, and that is a shorter turn over of the vehicle fleet. They don't want cars out there that last several hundred thousand miles and fifteen to twenty years (or more). They darn sure don't want people who can make them last that long either, because it is expensive for them to train and provide the equipment and tooling to do so, and they make more money selling the cars anyway. It takes decades to learn to be the technician that consumers need us to have, and as one former shop owner puts it we have become a trade that eats its own young. We haven't been attracting the people that we truly need to work on the high tech computerized systems that are on today's cars because as a career we have nothing to offer them compared to what they can earn in other fields. On top of that it takes a truly capable person some twenty years to master the trade and even if they started coming into it tomorrow, there is no reason for them to stay in it long enough to get good at it.

Instead of praising this author, thank her for helping to contribute to you being less likely to finding a great technician that can solve the difficult problems that can occur on today's cars. That is really the only thing that comes from any of these efforts because they never look at the actual cause for the problem and try and effect any changes where the blame really lies.