Sick of being a motor mechanic :(

Kevjdm123

Had enuff of working in this crap trade, shockingly bad pay for the work that has to be done nowadays, thinking of quitting after over 10 Years at it

J Mysterio

I just watched that show Car SOS or whatever it's called and was thinking how romantic :pac: Your man Pete Townshend is a cool guy.

I guess you have to have the passion and be able to sustain it through interesting projects. The environment you work in would have to be a big factor. You may just need a change of scene.

bucketybuck

Good mechanics with good reputations name their price these days. I should know, we have a constant battle both trying to retain our lads and to get new lads in.

It will never be a glamorous industry and there are plenty of badly run garages out there, but if you are a good worker then there are plenty of good positions as well.

boardsuser1

Whatever you choose next make sure it ain’t truck driving.

Tails142

I was shocked to hear that average mechanic pay is 36k a year, can't remember exactly where I read it.

Would you ever consider setting up your own business?

Del2005

Tails142 wrote: »

I was shocked to hear that average mechanic pay is 36k a year, can't remember exactly where I read it.

Would you ever consider setting up your own business?

The same ****e with you having to chase payment to pay the bills never mind make any money instead of a wage at the end of the week.

LollipopJimmy

Del2005 wrote: »

The same ****e with you having to chase payment to pay the bills never mind make any money instead of a wage at the end of the week.

No pay no car. You won't get rich as a mechanic while working for somebody either.

jsd1004

Tails142 wrote: »

I was shocked to hear that average mechanic pay is 36k a year, can't remember exactly where I read it.

Would you ever consider setting up your own business?

Friend in the business. All dirty work now. With all the diesels it is horrible work. All injectors turbos dpfs dmf and people cant afford to pay for them and shocked at the repair costs.

EPAndlee

It's just a job that's full of hardship for sh!te pay

uck51js9zml2yt

An independent set up beside me a few years ago. They built up the business and are now doing really well. Don't envy them in the workshop on cold days though.
I can leave my car with them and be confident they will do whatever is needed and not fleece me.

Four Phucs Ache

Put it this way,

Manufacturers spent millions putting the car together. You replace their failings.

Declans car needs a service. While giving it the once over you spot the break pipe is wrapped the wrong way behind the shock and could snap if not fixed. You possibly just saved a life.

Mary has a light on the dash. You tell her about the low oil and top it up with a new filter and show her how to check in future. You just saved her a few grand.

Mick comes in saying his coil pack is going because google said so and he has a new one in the boot. You tell him its the crank sensor because you were able to scan the car and he should have come to you first but it wont cost too much. Mick comes to you now for all his problems and let's you buy the parts.

Feck went on a bit but your skills and knowledge are needed but if you have an itch to move on for whatever reason go for it or where you might have more respect or freedom as a mechanic

JC01

I packed it in a while back, did a course or two in the evenings and working in pharma now earning twice as much as I did and the work is half the hardship at its worst. I've also gotten my passion back for tinkering with my own cars which I had grown to hate while I was on the spanners. Plus I actually enjoy going to work which has improved every single aspect of my own life.

Without a doubt the best decision I ever made, there's lots of opportunity out there if you use your head. In some unrelated industries mechanics are well respected and easily converted as they have fundamental skills that can be very difficult to teach to lads fresh out of college with masters etc.

James Bond Junior

After spending last Saturday battling my hobby car and getting nowhere I decided the romantic notion of doing a mechanic course in my spare time is exactly as it should stay, a romantic notion. Hard work to say the least.

Doltanian

I was looking at some newer cars recently and they look to be an absolute nightmare to work on, absolutely no room at all, seen a mechanic working on it with a mirror, FFS! Governments and the leftwing are all responsible for this with global warming lies and Car manufacturers are really ruining cars with all this eco-****e. A litre of Diesel or Petrol is like 38-40c when you take the leftwing driven taxes out of it. There is no need for all this when petrol cars at 30mpg will run forever without any eco thrash. I think car design peaked in the 1990's in terms of reliability and its all downhill since there. Cars are no different now to anything else with planned obsolescence, make them disposable and use PCP financial stupidity to fuel these modern junkboxes.

J Mysterio

Four Phucs Ache wrote: »

Put it this way,

Manufacturers spent millions putting the car together. You replace their failings.

Declans car needs a service. While giving it the once over you spot the break pipe is wrapped the wrong way behind the shock and could snap if not fixed. You possibly just saved a life.

Mary has a light on the dash. You tell her about the low oil and top it up with a new filter and show her how to check in future. You just saved her a few grand.

Mick comes in saying his coil pack is going because google said so and he has a new one in the boot. You tell him its the crank sensor because you were able to scan the car and he should have come to you first but it wont cost too much. Mick comes to you now for all his problems and let's you buy the parts.

Feck went on a bit but your skills and knowledge are needed but if you have an itch to move on for whatever reason go for it or where you might have more respect or freedom as a mechanic

This is it.

I found a mechanic/ garage I trust 100% about 7 years ago and I go to them for everything and trust them implicitly.

I think most people are like that who arent great with cars. It's a public service and you are appreciated for it.

J Mysterio

J Mysterio wrote: »

This is it.

I found a mechanic/ garage I trust 100% about 7 years ago and I go to them for everything and trust them implicitly.

I think most people are like that who arent great with cars. It's a public service and you are appreciated for it.

True.... but as hypothetical as that Mary bird was she might be better off bring advised why her car has low oil rather than being shown how to top it up :pac:

bucketybuck

Four Phucs Ache wrote: »

Put it this way,

Manufacturers spent millions putting the car together. You replace their failings.

Declans car needs a service. While giving it the once over you spot the break pipe is wrapped the wrong way behind the shock and could snap if not fixed. You possibly just saved a life.

Mary has a light on the dash. You tell her about the low oil and top it up with a new filter and show her how to check in future. You just saved her a few grand.

Mick comes in saying his coil pack is going because google said so and he has a new one in the boot. You tell him its the crank sensor because you were able to scan the car and he should have come to you first but it wont cost too much. Mick comes to you now for all his problems and let's you buy the parts.

Feck went on a bit but your skills and knowledge are needed but if you have an itch to move on for whatever reason go for it or where you might have more respect or freedom as a mechanic

Then Declan, Mary and Mick go online to complain about the price for just an hours work, and about how the mechanic fitted a filter when all it needed was a top up.

Ajsoprano

Building trade is picking up will be good money for labourers soon enough. You can always go back to your trade.
Get out in the sun for awhile.

Voodoomelon

Yes it seems to be a common theme i've read on here over the years, was surprised to hear what a poor trade it seems to be in. If you have any interest in working on your own cars, I can only imagine how working at it for a living would kill any interest or passion, much the same as any trade. Not to mention the poor climate we have here, its a cold, tiring, dirty job and i've only done a handful of nasty repair jobs.

Fair play to anyone that's worked up a reputation, earns a good living and still has some passion for it.

Philb76

Can see the op point was a diy enthusisast for years and got more better with doing different jobs and always looked at it that car was getting serviced properly correct oil filters so on Haynes manual was always handy if doing a different car friends or family but got fed up of lying on driveways in winter still do some things but for oil change just leave into mechanic and I supply parts

bucketybuck

Voodoomelon wrote: »

Not to mention the poor climate we have here, its a cold, tiring, dirty job and i've only done a handful of nasty repair jobs.

If there is one constant at every garage I've worked its the cold, I've never yet seen a garage of any size that could be heated properly. Its the big bay doors, sucks the heat right out of any place. Seen various solutions tried, oil burners, space heaters, heaters in the roof space, you name it and the place will still be baltic in the winter. Its a real bitch doing fiddly jobs with numb fingers, believe me.

I suppose its no different to many jobs that would be outside, with maybe the difference being that many building sites or guys putting up steel wouldn't be open in the depths of winter like garages are.

Vicxas

Cork Truck Driver wrote: »

Whatever you choose next make sure it ain’t truck driving.

Is truck driving really that bad? I get that with all the EU resting regulations it can be a real pain.

Del2005

Vicxas wrote: »

Is truck driving really that bad? I get that with all the EU resting regulations it can be a real pain.

The rest period are not the problem.

It's barely getting minimum wage for being in a truck for 12 or more hours a day along with the fact that if you point out a fault with the truck, which means that the driver gets points and fines as its always the operators responsibility, you are told to drive it or someone else will. The person packing the shelves of the supermarket you just dropped to earns more than you with zero responsibility.

Del2005

LollipopJimmy wrote: »

No pay no car. You won't get rich as a mechanic while working for somebody either.

That's not how our legal system works unfortunately.

You won't get rich being an employee but you definitely won't go broke. Working for yourself you need to build the trade but to do that you need equipment and a garage with a lift. What do you do for money while building up the trade but still have to pay rent, power commercial insurance, commercial rates etc?

Then there is the time that you feck up and destroy a car, you now have to replace it. I know plenty of lads that got caught out doing nixers when a simple job suddenly became an expense repair who won't touch a car outside of work now.

Toyotafanboi

bucketybuck wrote: »

Then Declan, Mary and Mick go online to complain about the price for just an hours work, and about how the mechanic fitted a filter when all it needed was a top up.

That's literally it.

Mary's oil ran low because she hadn't had the car serviced in four years because someone told her that their cousins, boyfriends dad can service his own car and for that reason any mechanic who charges €99 for an oil change and inspection is a criminal, so the same fella told her the best thing she can do is not service the car at all because she's only going to the shops and mass in it.

That and the only reason Mary came to your garage is because a warning light came on her dash and "her usual guy" is away or can't fit her in until tomorrow. So you do the correct thing, an oil and filter and then the cousins, boyfriends dad will post on boards.ie about how you exploited Mary and her lack of knowledge about cars.

You made about €20 from that whole exercise.

galwaytt

...i started out in the trade, then went to the UK, and worked there some more, and came back on a whim and got a job at Something Else Completely. Best decision ever.

I can guarantee you that after working on car/bike stuff all day, the last thing you want to see in the evening or weekend it another bloody car/bike/whatever.

Even now, and despite all the toys etc, 99% of the time I give it to my local Indy.

And as for going and setting up as an Indy, from scratch ? You'd be mad. A good friend of mine has just done the opposite: folded his up and gone into a dealer. As the saying goes, there he'll paid on Thursday - every Thursday.

martinr5232

Tails142 wrote:

I was shocked to hear that average mechanic pay is 36k a year, can't remember exactly where I read it.

There is not many mechanics on 36k id say average is under 30k

Ubbquittious

I'd say you'd have to be tough as nails to run your own mechanicing business. I reckon you'd be absolutely plagued with people trying to get freebies, accusing you of breaking unrelated things when you fixed their car the last time, people looking for credit, people not paying, people wasting your time with spurious intermittent problems that might not even exist and you definitely can't replicate.

If you let one fella off one time by telling him he can pay next week you'll struggle to ever get paid off anyone again because they all talk to each other in the pub or back home. I'd do most things that need doing on my own cars but I'd never touch anyone elses car, just too much chance I'll get sucked in

Bazzy

My Brother in Law is a self employed mechanic runs a business from the yard/garage beside his house

I called down one Monday to get him to change a coil spring

His workshop was absolutely baltic , he did work for someone and got made redundant so decided to try it on his own.

i'd say it wont be long until he's back working for someone !!! He's 2 and a half - 3 years at it and everything you say here

people landing with their own parts , arguing over price , looking for credit all messy stuff especially when he lives rural and everyone knows everyone.

Certainly wouldnt be for me !!

khaldrogo

J Mysterio wrote:

I just watched that show Car SOS or whatever it's called and was thinking how romantic Your man Pete Townshend is a cool guy.

Its grand as a hobby but its no way to earn a living

khaldrogo

Tails142 wrote:

I was shocked to hear that average mechanic pay is 36k a year, can't remember exactly where I read it.

That's top of the scale in my experience