Monday, Jul 05, 2004 at 20:17
G'day Andrew,
I totally agree with everything you said.
I was in the trade for 17 years (both here and in England ) and it never fails to make me mad when people bitch and moan about hourly rates.
We all expect a fully qualified mechanic to work on our cars, but they are leaving the trade quicker than thay can be replaced. Fact.
When I left the trade 4 years ago I was one the higher paid mechanics, getting only 35k per year, and I worked roughtly 9 hours of overtime to achieve that. In my experience, the people that complain most about the hourly rate, were the ones with the big flash expensive cars, who would be earning double that per year. Nobody wants to go to a crap looking workshop, we all want the big, nice Toyota/Nissan signs with the smart layouts, but that has to be paid for somewhere. It all comes down to choice, if you don't want to pay the hourly rates that Nissan/Toyota etc., charge, don't buy the vehicle. You have to expect that vehicles like these will cost a minimum of $2000 +++ a year, just to maintain the
services through the dealership.
One business practice that's becoming more apparent in the UK now, and is sure to come to Australia at some stage, is the use of non skilled labour in the workshop with a highly skilled technician as a diagnostician, who then tells his 2 or 3 lackeys what to do.
Would you be happy to pay for that? I doubt it.
Cheers
Nino
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