Rather than going straight to college i think i'm gonna go through automotive school. Is it worth it? I want a good part time job while im in college and being a mechanic seems worth it... Starting is usually like $13 an hour, correct me if im wrong.

Anybody know of a good automotive school around the 757 area? I was thinking TCC?

 

$13 a SERVICE hour meaning if a job thats quoted for 1 hour takes you 3, you still only make $13.

 

^^

unless you already have decent knowledge of cars dont do it, the key to making money as a mechanic is being profecient and fast. here is the pro and con...

PRO- you do an 8 hour job in 2 hours, that is 8x13$ for two hours of phsyical work, not bad.

CON- you get something your un familiar with, takes you 6 hours for a 1 hour job = one shitty day.


Another con is if your dealership is slow moving, you wont get much work to do, got to remember your gonna have other mechanics sharing the cars that come in, just get a stable part time job while your in college.

 

You're not counting internal cars. When we don't have a lot of customers, we can stay busy with PDIs and used cars.

But he's right, when flat-rate works out well it works REALLY well. When it doesn't, it really bites you in the ass.

Recent example: had a brake job. Gravy job, 3 hours labor to replace pads/turn rotors. One side done, quick and easy. Second side, bolts are frozen and one breaks off in the caliper. Then we don't have one in (a caliper) in stock. Call Napa, get price, call customer. Wait for customer's reply. They want it (car cannot drive without it; it's stuck in 1 of your 2 bays and you're running around trying to solve the problem.) Call Napa. Napa takes forever to bring it; install it, roll it out. A job that should have taken 30-40 mins tops has now taken a LOT longer, still only pays 3 hours and stopped up the rest of your work because the car was stuck on the lift.

In my experience, the automotive schools are a waste of money. They cost quite a bit and the people coming out of them generally aren't as good as they would've been just getting job experience (and getting paid for it.)

 

agreed

 

But yall are counting that he gets paid commission, not all places pay commission to people. The shop that I know pays starting people by the hour, its better then commission starting off. But I don't know any place starting people out at 13 dollars an hour if they don't got there own tools and know how to work on stuff.

 

Indeed. Also, Take up service writing. That is a good alternative! I made some serious money for only being 14 a few years ago being a service writer. (Knew the owner for several years) and went through training. Of course, you make mistakes when getting on job experience but hey, it's worth it. At 14 years old i was averaging out with 8 dollars an hour with comission, Plus, your always busy and you get to sit in the A/C all day I was 14 at the time........Just think of what you can make with being older and having more demands/needs than I did.

 

honestly unless you know something dont expect to walk in the door making 13/hr flatrate

 

tuition and stuff is not a problem. My parents just want me to do something before going straight into college because they think ill get burned out if i go straight into it out of high school. heh.

You guys talk about just going in and getting work experience.

The Wok, where can i go in and get "job experience" and get paid for it?

But after listening to yall I think I might just do HVAC and refrigeration instead...

I just dont know what I'm gonna do though when I wanna hook up my car later on... heh

 

True. That's a $45k+ job at a dealership.