automotive service employment-dealer/indy comparisons
 

alright so i've been working as a service tech in an independent shop since 07/08. have completed the red seal program. primarily, my experience has been in light duty diesel trucks. of which there is a high demand for from both sides of the fence. i am currently looking for work and have been giving serious thought to working at a dealership. the benefits. the paid, extensive training (i love school), the flat rate/bonus system (i am very fast and thorough at what i do). so basically i'm looking for advice from others who've played on both sides and what their experiences were. good or bad, and preferably some details on your opinion.
as always, greatly appreciated

I've gone through the same path. Started in Independent for the first 6yrs of my career, gone through my apprenticeship, and eventually my red seal ticket.

I loved it for what is was, which was my training ground to develop the foundation for both my wrenching skills and my diagnostic process. I loved the fact that i could work on everything and do everything each day was a new adventure. I loved the fact that i could take my time to become the master of my trade. It was really a byproduct at working at and awesome shop under and awesome boss.

When you work in an independent your customer base is 90% out of warranty , so the newest thing will be aprox 5yr old to fucking ancient. Cars have come along way in the last 10 years, so if you want to be on the forefront of technology indy's don't really satisfy that itch. In the area i specialized in (euro's) it was becoming more difficult to diagnose and repair due to information and special tooling. Diagnostic equipment and information is horribly expensive to invest in so most shops don't do it.

I dont know , so what made me leave. Well i grew up and started having grown up responsibilities like marriage and home ownership. I had to step up my earning game and thats the area that indy can't hold a candle too. I would say at the least you would double wage before you factor in benefits and flat rate bonus.

Going to a dealer, it was nice to finally work on new cars all the time. No more shit boxes, rusty bolts, old greasy jalopies. I was blown away at how technology inside car's has come along in the last 10 years, depending on what manufacturer. The information base at the dealer level is unmatched. I recieve tech support on the engineering level, All factory tooling. There is literally nothing you can't fix. There are no excuses for being frustrated anymore, you have all the resources at your disposal that you would never had before.

Dealers are great but.... there not all created equal. Its totally dependent on the crew and how well its run. If its a full flat rate shop, its pretty cut throat, no one gives a shit , there just there to make money. There are many moving parts in the operation like parts department, foremans, service advisors and service managers.

From my experience, coming from an indy give you a huge advantage, if you have your red seal, the world is your oyster. I find Dealer trained techs far inferior to the indy equivalent generally speaking from my experience. The top 20% of the techs from my shop came from the same back ground, apprentice and trained on the indy side.

Your happiness in this career is totally dependent on the level of your competency, so go find a manufacturer that makes a product you love working and and get er done.

Best of luck!

automotive service employment-dealer/indy comparisons
 

dealer techs are usually worse at diagnostic skills because they work on one make of car. If there's a brake problem on one civic there are definitely more with the same brake problem. go work for a race team. change it up. they hire a lot because by the end of a season half their team has been fired

thank you so much for taking the time.
chef. i thought you were a honda head, man! haha. what you posted and your past experiences sound exactly like where i'm at now. getting married in october. gone through my training. protege'd under some extremely intelligent techs. now i kind of feel like the independent side just doesn't have as much to offer me as i have to offer them. being experienced in ld diesel is a huge asset. all the independent shops turn away their diesel business because they just don't have someone competent or experienced enough to take on the diagnosing and even the repairs. and that is a huge margin. with diesel, it's all catastrophic. it's typical to perform 20-30 hour repairs. and that is gravy. but you have to tie up a hoist and a tech for that time.

i had interviews today with both a dealership and an indeendent shop. first the dealer. ford dealership. without going into details, i am primarily interested in working on ford diesels. like you said, chef, the dealer is unmatched in up to date training, allowances for equipment, dianostic aids, general organization of the shop and tech schedule/workload. it's just beautiful. everything that i felt was lacking is provided. it's a complete flat rate system, which i may or may not be worried about except for this simple fact: i'll be the only diesel tech there! it's beautiful. where i came from, i would churn out those 20-30hr jobs in half the time. and that's under an hourly wage. flat rate, i'll bust even harder. it also alleviates stress. i'm the type who feels i need to show my worth. flat rate enables me to get paid directly for my productivity or lack thereof. i don't have to worry about whether or not i've shown my value, because the only one it effects is me. they'll also train me to achieve master tech status. and thus, allow me to be paid even more. that advancement was unavailable at my previous job because i was already foreman and recieving the top pay for a diesel tech at any independent shop. ford also has a diagnostic hotline available only to ford techs. a place to view symptoms that may be common to something you're looking at. similar to identifix, only if you punch in a symptom of a 2013 f350 on identifix, you will get slim to nill there. that's because the ford techs are keeping it in house, on their own network. identifix is really only used by independent shops anyways though so you wouldn't see much anything that wasn't past warranty there. not that i use identifix for anything other than the easy access to test procedures, pinouts, and wiring diagrams. that's where it really shines as.

if you can't already tell, i am completely sold on working for the dealer. i guess it really ruined it for my next interviewer haha. i still went, of course, out of consideration. talked for a good couple hours. as i suspected, they wanted to get their foot in the door on the business that they've been turning away. they want to capitilize on my experience and past employment to the point of marketing it. it's funny. i pretty much saw the shop that i left, only it was five years in the past. i thought to myself, why would i want to guide and develop a diesel sector (and believe me, you need a dedicated sector to work on diesels with any kind of consistency. that's 2 bays, and a dedicated service advisor), for someone else to profit, when i could just do that on my own? and that's where i'm coming from with my original statement about being at a point where they no longer have as much to offer me as i have to offer them.
anyways, sorry for rambling! haha. i tend to do that sometimes. appreciate anyone whose taken the time to read. thanks

ps; i will try to remember to update this thread in approximately a months time after getting situated. thanks!