Meeting people as a mechanic.

[4bangen]

so I recently got back into the autoparts game. man I think people are dumber now.

[4king]

Speaking of coolant, I'll need to stop by and grab a thermostat in the next couple days.. mines stuck open and won't stay warm if I run the heater and drive in colder weather..

I'm right there with you buddy, my civic has a cracked thermostat housing and that has taken it out of my daily driven status.

(This is a picture of the bottom of the housing and the housing assembly. The housing assembly has a hairline crack and is a discontinued part from Honda

[Stephen]

I'll also add in this statistic

1 out of ten customers who come into an auto parts store do not know what kind of car they drive, or what year the car is.
For example:
Cust: hi I need to get some oil for my car"
me: ok what kind of car is it?
Customer:. Umm that red one
Me: ok that looks like a Dodge caliber, how much oil do you need?
Customer: I don't know it says low oil on the dash that means I need oil right?

4 out of 10 customers do not know what size engine is in their car and can not determine what year the car is
Example:
Customer:. Hi I need a starter for my truck
Me: ok what size engine does it have in it
Customer: I don't know does that really matter
Me: yes it's very important
Customer: how would I know if it is a v6 or a v8, I'm going to have to call my wife to have her text me a picture of the engine
(This still boggles my mind that you can some how diagnose your own problem, know what a starter is, and have no idea what engine your car has because jiffy lube does all your oil changes)

7 out of 10 customers who ask for a check engine light diagnostic have no idea of even the basic functions of how a car works. Of those 70% of customers with no car knowledge nearly all of them have no idea how many miles their vehicle has on it. Our system asks just to print recommend maintenance, it's a generic thing. Nearly every one of them can not even guess, can't even give you a maybe on it, they go back outside to look


Today starting at noon, I sold 28 gallons of coolant. From 4pm-6pm every customer bought at least one gallon. It's staggering to think how many people are just using tap water. Tomorrow night it's going to get down to 21 degrees and I'm going to sell a shit ton of radiators on Saturday

Speaking of coolant, I'll need to stop by and grab a thermostat in the next couple days.. mines stuck open and won't stay warm if I run the heater and drive in colder weather..

[4king]

I'll also add in this statistic

1 out of ten customers who come into an auto parts store do not know what kind of car they drive, or what year the car is.
For example:
Cust: hi I need to get some oil for my car"
me: ok what kind of car is it?
Customer:. Umm that red one
Me: ok that looks like a Dodge caliber, how much oil do you need?
Customer: I don't know it says low oil on the dash that means I need oil right.
Ok what kind of oil do you usually use
Customer: i use motor oil that goes in the engine, you guys have that stuff right?

4 out of 10 customers do not know what size engine is in their car and can not determine what year the car is
Example:
Customer:. Hi I need a starter for my truck
Me: ok what size engine does it have in it
Customer: I don't know does that really matter
Me: yes it's very important
Customer: how would I know if it is a v6 or a v8, I'm going to have to call my wife to have her text me a picture of the engine
(This still boggles my mind that you can some how diagnose your own problem, know what a starter is, and have no idea what engine your car has because jiffy lube does all your oil changes)

Side rant, I have ASE master mechanics that still can't figure out if an 04 f150 is a heritage model or if it's the new body style. Does it have a seperate turn signal right next to the headlight, "uhhhhm I'm not sure". WEEKLY i deal with a fleet company whos master technician still can not tell the difference between an 07 Silverado classic and an 07 Silverado. And god forbid they can figure out how to clearly speak the vin number over the phone 3 times before getting it right


7 out of 10 customers who ask for a check engine light diagnostic have no idea of even the basic functions of how a car works. Of those 70% of customers with no car knowledge nearly all of them have no idea how many miles their vehicle has on it. Our system asks just to print recommend maintenance, it's a generic thing. Nearly every one of them can not even guess, can't even give you a maybe on it, they go back outside to look


Today starting at noon, I sold 28 gallons of coolant. From 4pm-6pm every customer bought at least one gallon. It's staggering to think how many people are just using tap water. Tomorrow night it's going to get down to 21 degrees and I'm going to sell a shit ton of radiators on Saturday

[4king]

I've officially run off all of the illegitimate shade tree mechanics from my store. The last one really turned into a basket case expecting charity from everyone including his customers. I had a local guy who this mechanic purchased parts for tell me that he installed parts that he purchased from our store, and now those parts were making noise a week later. I remember this specific purchase and looked into this mechanics file and he had been purchasing parts and charging customers and then performing no receipt returns on those parts in order to purchase other parts for other jobs while he kept cutting corners.

This specific shade tree mechanic was given a free car from the people of his church, people at this church would support him and have them "fix" their cars and do odd jobs for them around their house
The grand Marquis they gave him was in great shape and a year later it is completely falling apart. When I confronted him in the parking lot about doing fraud to his own church and family his free car was now knocking, missing the front bumperr, hood held on by bungee cords, mis matched junkyard rims because he blew the original rim and tires on a curb. It's a small town, he told me the car was a piece of shit to begin with and I went off on him because I knew the car and who gave it to him. It had no oil in it because he had neverr changed the oil, the rotors I sold to the guy who donated it were so glazed and destroyed after 1 year of him owning it that I could see the surface cracks in the rotor behind the junk yard steelie rim

I cant stand people who just think the world is going to automatically give them great things as long as they have a sad story. He admitted to the fraud, he admitted he didn't actually do the work and returned the parts so he could pay rent that month. Bull shit, your church members may feel bad for you but you don't have custody of your own kids and you need to grow the fuck up.

I still talk to the gentleman who donated him the car. He is retired and won't speak a bad word about anyone, when I bring it up he just shakes his head and says, I hope God blesses him, we've all been praying for him, but it seems like we should be praying a little harder lately

How can you call yourself a mechanic when you can't even take care of your own damn car. Do you really roll up to work on other people's cars with the engine knocking and front end falling off of your old grand Marquis and think people respect you? I swear he just trolls the highways looking for broke down cars to ghetto rig and Rip desperate people off

[Jewrrick]

Got anything new?

[Baba Ganoush]

SOAP!

A true Olds 442 is ALWAYS worth saving.

The nice one you posted was a '70 or '71 442 W-30 which is on another level and would sell for six figures if mint.

Fuck yeah Munson!

[orphan Shelby]

Just keep finding More and more shot metal. I'm just about ready to Cover all the holes with gorilla tape. Cover with a light coat of Bondo and spray a rubberized coating. Seriously thinking about that. Especially with this cheap bastard. I'll probably mention a convertible option to him lol.

You must like to punish yourself if you take on that job. Get a tetanus shot first

[Chili]

From application to interview is usually 2 weeks. To pass back ground is usually 5-7 days. Depending on when you pass orientation is saturday 8am-5pm in Oak cliff. So after 3-5 weeks the only people who usually are still looking for a job are the ones who are un qualified. We have to do background checks because drivers do pass by schools, so..

A store should call and interview regardless of test score as long as you pass the personality tests. But like I said at minimum it's 2 weeks before I can even schedule you a shift, and most qualified applicants find jobs that pay more quicker than we can call for an interview. But as you have all mentioned already it's hard to staff and work here

BTW, just to be clear, that wasn't a bash on you. There are just too many companies not willing to pay the appropriate salary to get strong candidates.

I had a position open last year that really required experience and knowledge that doesn't come cheap. Of course my budget cap was only about 2/3rds of the going rate. I ended up hiring a guy that was smart and had some of the experience I needed, which was the best I could get for the money I was working with.

He turned out to be a great employee, learned very fast, and within 6 months he was pretty damn close to exactly what I needed. Of course, just shy of a year in he resigned and went somewhere that would pay him appropriately for the job he had here. Now that he had 'experience' he could make a good $20 - $30k more per year.

[cool cat]

That.

[petyweestraw]

You can say that agian

Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk

[4king]

From application to interview is usually 2 weeks. To pass back ground is usually 5-7 days. Depending on when you pass orientation is saturday 8am-5pm in Oak cliff. So after 3-5 weeks the only people who usually are still looking for a job are the ones who are un qualified. We have to do background checks because drivers do pass by schools, so..

A store should call and interview regardless of test score as long as you pass the personality tests. But like I said at minimum it's 2 weeks before I can even schedule you a shift, and most qualified applicants find jobs that pay more quicker than we can call for an interview. But as you have all mentioned already it's hard to staff and work here

[Chili]

They don't pay employees very well. To be honest if I hire some one who scores better than 30% on the test they leave within 90 days because you can make more at a shop doing oil changes.

I have seen this a lot.. Managers will hire shitbags over solid candidates because they assume if they hire the good candidate, they will leave very quickly. So to avoid turnover and having to go through the hiring process they will hire losers that couldn't get a better job anyhow.

[4king]

Autozone doesn't seem to want anyone working for them with any actual experience working on/building/racing cars.

A few years ago I was between jobs so I was applying here and there for any kind of work and I applied at Autozone. I assumed that it would be pretty easy to get on with them with my experience. I did their online skills aptitude test that comes up when you apply for a job and I aced it.... and I never heard back from them.

Meanwhile, every time I went to Autozone to get something I left shaking my head at their choices of people that did work there.

They don't pay employees very well. To be honest if I hire some one who scores better than 30% on the test they leave within 90 days because you can make more at a shop doing oil changes.

I don't have any good stories lately just more of the same. I had an old lady give me a good cussing because I wouldnt go through her fuse box to figure out why her hazards and turn signals weren't working. I explained that it was most likely the flasher under the dashboard, she asked me to find it and replace it for her, sorry we can't work on cars here. Well can you just check all of my fuses? So I did, and of course they were all good. Referred her to a shop but of course I'm the devil for not helping her because I should do it because I know what's wrong with her car, and I should help people like her

[jw33]