Want to get into the motor mechanics trade

Well here's my background and my opinion on what you are trying to do in relation to your motor trade quest...

I did my Leaving Cert around 1994, started my trade in Motor mechanics that year, I did a one year compressed program that let me do my Junior Trade Exam's after year one, I went on to do my Senior Trade's and my National Craft Certificate. I then went into a full time course in Bolton Street to study Automotive Engineering, and eventually went on to do my SIMI. Tech. Dip which is the furthest you can go in this country in terms of automotive technical training, I think went on to do my degree in Automotive Technology. Not bragging here, but I'm about as qualified as a motor mechanic can be in terms of having an academic and practical skillset that is documented. I went on to run my own independent garage, and am now heavily involved the parts end of the industry.

But here's the problem with the motor industry in this country. Anyone can be a mechanic. It is a strange world where you have to be registered with a regulator, have a tax clearance cert, have your competencies in terms of exams, etc, filed with the regulator, have a registered number with the regulator and be regularly checked in terms of how you operate, JUST TO DRIVE A TAXI, yet if you are the guy who is removing the sub-frame, suspension, steering, etc out of that car for the purposes of working on it, in the case of a clutch, gearbox of whatever, you don't have to be regulated with any person or party, you don't have to demonstrate a competency in your trade to anyone, you don't have to be insured, you don't have to be anything, you can be 16 years of age and work on a car in a garage and not have a clue what you are doing.

The motor trade in this country is poorly represented by the SIMI, which is a talking shop full of vested interests/main dealers, who have been obsessed with one thing and one thing only and that is new car sales.

If you are a mechanic now operating on modern vehicles, especially if you are doing any diagnostic work, the technical competencies you now require are more that of someone with an electronic engineering degree, than anything else. The remuneration simply is wrong for the type of job that it is these days, and the price of everything is kept artificially low, because of the amount of black market activity in the industry, that is going completely unchecked by Revenue, the SIMI, etc.

The trade is effectively led, in terms of the SIMI, by a bunch of politically minded arséholes who meet the minister a few times a year to discuss what can be done about new car sales. There is no recognition or acceptance of the fact that the industry has literally been overrun by black market activity and that a credible career structure for motor mechanics does not exist. Anyone with any sense, is getting out of the trade, because you cannot make any money in it, and by that, I mean that you couldn't support yourself, never mind a wife & kids on a motor mechanics wage.

I'm lucky that I have a skillset in software engineering, and I'm working hard on developing that at the moment for the purposes of getting into the IT industry, back in 1994, I was exactly of the mindset that you are in now, but fast forward many years, and it's probably THE BIGGEST mistake I ever made, getting involved in the motor industry, and it's genuinely all down to income. I'm not hungry for money, but if you have notions of settling down and having any kind of a comfortable existence and maybe starting a family, forget about the motor industry and motor mechanics because the money just isn't there.

Nissan doctor wrote: »

I agree 100% with most of your comments regarding SIMI and lack of regulation in the industry.

Having said that, I still stand by what I said about working at it and gaining a name for your self. I know numerous people who make a living from it including myself, I have a house(2 if we're counting), wife, holidays during the year etc so its certainly possible. IMO you need to manage your career as much as just get a qualification, by which I mean not only your further training but also your relationships within the industry. I can't imagine any good mechanic who doesn't know numerous people within various dealerships, other garages, parts suppliers, training providers etc and so would be open to various vacancies or career paths that may arise if they are genuinely good.
I've been in the lucky position of not even having to do an interview for my current job and have been offered other jobs in main dealers and independent garages.

TBH if your mate was as good as you say he is then he would be well known within at least local circles and there would be no reason for being on anything like €450 a week. I know of complete morons working for tyre centers getting that and more.

Well the person I'm referring to is the top diagnostics guy in the independent garage he works for and there are main dealers in that town sending diagnostics work to this independent garage, so there is no question but that he is a valuable asset to his own employer. maybe he is on slightly more than €450 a week, he could be coming out with that, but it's still shít money when you consider that there are people typically getting 40K a year salaries in this country for secretarial type work. This guy isn't particularly hungry but he is either doing overtime or nixers if I'm talking to him at 7-8 in the evening on a weekday.

You sound to be the exception to the rule, more regarding your employer than yourself. You are in a busy dealership with a specialisation for one particular brand. If that dealership happened to close though, you probably would find yourself extremely exposed in terms of your CV because you have allied yourself to one brand. I know a few lads who were top of their game once they stayed in a dealership, but if the dealership closed, they suddenly found themselves very quickly outflanked because they were a "Expert" in one particular brand but knew very little about any other.

Nissan doctor wrote: »

Again, I agree with most of what you say. But I do think you are being overly pessimistic(or perhaps different parts of the country suffer the problem worse then others).

Doing all of the above, my experience is that the majority of customers will choose the premium or midrange tyre over the chinese options, for example, and even if they don't have the money for all the repairs you have shown them are required at the time, in the majority of cases they return over the next couple of weeks/months to have the various jobs done.

IMO this is how any properly professional garage operates and how garages who operate like this have continued to turn a profit though the middle of the recession.

I used to run my own independent garage, I ran a highly reputable operation that was years ahead of its time in terms of diagnostics ability and the service levels that we insisted upon, we were doing stuff before the recession even started, that garages are now clambering over each other to do, free service valet & wash with every service, free collection & delivery of car, complimentary small bottles of red & white wine with every service to take the sting out of the bill, customer service history online on our website, you name it in terms of throwing value and service at a customer, we did it and still it wasn't enough. We had a policy of showing customers all parts replaced every single time we presented an invoice, we recommended taking the parts home if a customer wanted to show them to someone who was more in the know.

My experience is that in this country, you are wasting your time trying to make money out of running a garage, people don't want to pay you, it's that simple, and the hours that you'll put into adding the bit of service and explaining to clients what they need done now and in the future, you won't get paid for them! I had it in my old business, we'd NEVER fit a part without authorisation through the customers, so say in the case of a timing kit replacement, you might find something else that needed to be done (we also did a safety check on every vehicle regardless of what it was in for, bulbs, brakes, basically a quick mini NCT based on an inspection), say for example you found a worn track rod while the car was in for a timing belt replacement, we'd call the customer to inform, advise and get a decision, usually if the customer was a woman, you'd then have her brother or boyfriend landing down into the garage with his fake "hard man" persona, to carry out his own little inspection of what was going on, the underlying logic being that we were obviously trying to rip someone off! Then another half an hour lost explaining to someone who is pretending that he knows what he is talking about, trying to get this guy to understand the problem, so he can go off and explain to his sister or girlfriend, what the problem is, then she rings back to say that she hasn't the money to get it done so it'll just have to wait.

This is what you are up against when you are running an independent garage, I personally HATED it, and it's one lesson in life I'd NEVER forget. I now have a business in the parts end of things, when I price up a job, I get the nod for it, get paid for it, with none of the bullshít and the messing that came with working on people's cars.

If you work in a dealership, you are insulated to some extent from this malarkey as its the service advisers/managers job to manage these problems, and sure when you work in a shiny dealership, you are generally trusted anyway because you are the main dealer so therefore you must know everything about the car and what needs to be done.

Personally and speaking from experience, I would advise anyone thinking of getting into motor mechanics to run a mile from it. I don't know a single mechanic, apart from NissanDoctor on the thread, who would not run a fúcking mile from the trade if they were given the option. It's hard work physically, if you are running your own garage, it's emotionally draining work, especially at the moment, it's harder to get the work than it is to do the work these days, then getting paid for it is a whole science in itself, because people simply do not want to spend money on their cars these days and many people will tell you spoof stories that are actually incredibly well thought out, just to get their cars back off you without paying, and then you can have a giraffe for yourself if you think you'll get paid then!

I've heard it all, I was told by one customer that her father had just had a heart attack and had been rushed to hospital and had forgotten to take her wallet with her when she ran out the door to get her car after getting a phone call that her father had been rushed to hospital, it turned out when we were still trying to get paid off this absolute cúnt 12 months later, that her father had in fact been dead for 5 years and she had a cocaine habit.

Another woman again, started crying in front of me and said she hadn't money to pay as her child had just been diagnosed with leukemia, and every last penny of her money was being spent on that. So you naturally, not being a cruel hearted bastárd, you give her a bit of latitude and space and you let her on, 12 months later, you are still trying to get a cent paid off the bill!!!

I haven't even started on the "you worked on my car 6 months ago and now the airbag light is on, I was on google and apparently what you were doing to it 6 month ago might have caused the light to come on" brigade...

AVOID AVOID AVOID!!!