subscribed to this one.

 

Unfortunately, state franchise laws in the USA prevent auto manufacturers from taking action against incompetent or dishonest dealerships. And many have tried.

Guess who got the franchise laws written? Auto dealers.

 

As an old fart, this is my main complaint with cars today and car mechanics. In the "old" days you can drive the car in to one of those non-glitzty shops and the guy comes walking out the mechanic's stall with grease under his fingernails. Spends about 10 or 15 minutes looking over the car and not only knows what your problem is but can fix it in a couple of hours.

These days you drive into some fancy place where they have to run umpteen diagnostics by the book until they finally stumble (or not) on to the problem. Then you have to hope that the apprentice mechanic they assign it to can fix it without breaking 10 other things.

Progress? In think not!

Doug

 

It's bureaucracy run amuck, Doug. Layers and layers of it, leading to lack of accountability and mediocre results. It's one of the hallmarks of a bloated organization past its prime. It's what fuels the indy shop sector!

 

Modern day service technicians are no longer "shade tree mechanics." They've got to be good at reading flow charts and diagnosing things through computerized diagnostic machines.

A high level of intelligence is required to be a really good service technician. They've almost got to be an electrical engineer to read the new style schematics, including CAN/BUS systems.

Unfortunately, the old school shade tree mechanics lack the knowledge of electronics and the electronic scanners required to diagnose driveability problems. It's also unfortunate that modern service technicians don't have the common sense mechanical abilities and experience of the old school "shade tree mechanics."

Dealerships have difficulties obtaining ideal service technicians. People today just don't have the motivation to (1) be a really, really good basic mechanic, (2) take years' of technical training to learn all modern electronics and diagnosis, and (3) the work ethic to be the best they can be at their job.

In many dealerships the hardest working, highest income service technician is in the suspension/alignment department. And, it's still the least technical of all current areas of expertise.

 

All of the high-tech whiz-bang electronics and diagnostics modules are a double edged sword. If you are lucky the problem will reveal itself during a diagnostic scan or code read but often times not. I had a chronic problem with my 1995 Corvette where the engine had a miss under certain conditions. It never threw any codes and nothing showed up on any diagnostic analysis. So at that point you just start throwing parts at the problem until you get lucky. By the way this was pretty chronic problem with most LT-1 engines of that vintage.

Even if you get a code it might be vague or point to several possibilities. Also, in the old days when you had a problem it was generally pretty evident. These days the onboard computers can compensate somewhat and mask the problem until it gets really bad.

Doug

 

Boy, you said it sir!

 

SO TRUE! SO TRUE! Service is the true key to repeat customers...