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Automotive technicians be a dying breed in the future

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str8boostin

Probationary Member
6
0
Jul 8, 2006
New Hyde Park, New_York
Alright so here is the question, I recently enrolled at lincoln tech institute and will be working towards a career in automotive, it seems though alot of people, mainly friends are telling me that soon cars will be able to diagnose themselves and ity'll be something anyone can do by just plugging into a computer, and all there going to come to you for is to switch the parts that come up wrong/broken. Now I know with the new obd-III coming out , that no-one know what is exactly goign to be going on with that, it could be a possibilty or if not that maybe the next. I was wondering what you guys felt? would it be worth it to pay all the money to go to lincoln tech and graduate? I have no doubt in my mind that I will put alot of hard work and studying into the program that I will come out of there as one of the top students, and by no doubt in my mind, I mean exactly that. So would it be worth it putting in all this hard work, and say maybe 10-15yrs down the line, it won't be such a good job anymore to where I would not be able to suppot a family/myself?
Let me know what you guys think on the subject.
Thanks John
 
My brother was a GM tech but gave up working on cars because he was worried he would be becoming less valuable in the future.
 
There's always going to be a need for technicians, the cars will never be able to diagnose themselves completley or atleast in our time they wont.
 
There will always be a need for techinicans. Computers can maybe diagnose things, but can they pull apart a motor if need be and fix them? Probably not. That would probably be many many years down the road before that kind of technology is widely availiable for all shops and dealerships to use.

My advice, go for it. If the program looks good and promising, do it.

EDIT:
Posted same time haha.
 
Go ahead and enroll, just cause the computer can determine whats broke does not mean the owner will fix, cause there will be something that will always need to be professonally done engine work etc.
 
Yeah man,, go for it, deffinetly! I just enrolled in Central Maine Community for auto tech and I did it as much for my own gain as I did for the career. It sounds like you want to do this and your really into it so don't think twice about it. Also I agree with the other posts, I wouldn't worry about anything that advanced in our lifetime, computers can't turn wrenches.
 
Yea im not worried about it at all, im looking for a nice auto tech college to go to.
 
im a tech and it seems like we cannot find new techs anywhere we need them LOL
 
How much money would a tech be looking at annually my uncle makes over 100k easily and he works for Ford but he's in a bigger city Pinehurst NC to be exact, I talked to a guy locally and he makes about 50k a year in a small town. They both went to college.
 
How much money would a tech be looking at annually my uncle makes over 100k easily and he works for Ford but he's in a bigger city Pinehurst NC to be exact, I talked to a guy locally and he makes about 50k a year in a small town. They both went to college.

Are you sh*tting me? Techs around here don't make much more than $15/hr, while the shop charges at least $60/hr. My dad was a tech until '93, he saw the light of how much bullsh*t you have to go through with low pay, so he quit. Now he owns his own construction business and makes about 4 times as much, and 1/2 the bullsh*t. I enjoy working on my own vehicles, but if I had to do that every day for a living, I'd rather commit suicide than twist wrenches all day. (Sorry, but these new cars are just rediculous to work on.) There ain't much more than a 15 minute laps of me throwing a fit while working on my vehicles. It's just gotten to complicated and compact than the old cars.
 
Yeah man,, go for it, deffinetly! I just enrolled in Central Maine Community for auto tech and I did it as much for my own gain as I did for the career. It sounds like you want to do this and your really into it so don't think twice about it. Also I agree with the other posts, I wouldn't worry about anything that advanced in our lifetime, computers can't turn wrenches.

Hey Im from Maine also. I currently live in Lima, Ohio and attend the University of Northwestern Ohio for automotive high performance. Its the best high po center in the states. You should look into it.

As for this post. If your really worried about it sure be a cook or something, Just leaves another tech spot open for me. Besides ill be working on a race team when im done, not turning wrenches at a dealership.
 
there will be an even more growing need for technicians, and good ones at that. any yahoo can fix what a computer code tells them to fix, but when you get the problem that doesnt pull a code and you have to use deductive reasoning to diagnose a issue, thats when a real technician comes into play.

if it were me, id start researching the newer technologies, like hybrids, flex fuel technologies and the like, learn their systems inside and out, as that is the next generation of transportation, and knowing it now will give you a head start for the future. becoming well versed and knowledgeable in those fields will get you very far.

as long as we have personal transportation we will need automotive technicians.
 
Are you sh*tting me? Techs around here don't make much more than $15/hr, while the shop charges at least $60/hr. My dad was a tech until '93, he saw the light of how much bullsh*t you have to go through with low pay, so he quit. Now he owns his own construction business and makes about 4 times as much, and 1/2 the bullsh*t. I enjoy working on my own vehicles, but if I had to do that every day for a living, I'd rather commit suicide than twist wrenches all day. (Sorry, but these new cars are just rediculous to work on.) There ain't much more than a 15 minute laps of me throwing a fit while working on my vehicles. It's just gotten to complicated and compact than the old cars.

I have an auto tech teacher trying to convince me to become a mechanic because he knows a few guys that make $80k+/yr as a mechanic.

I know a million guys making $15/hr as a mechanic...

I love working on cars, period. But I just can't afford to do it as a career. Doesn't pay good enough, and there's always the fear of an ever-shrinking job market. I'm headed for engineering instead. I can still build n fix stuff, just on a broader spectrum :D
 
hey guys thanks for all the responds....keep them coming. I'm still having trouble deciding, I kind of need to make up my mind by wednesday but yah I was totally psyc'd about it, I love cars (I have 3 btw and im 19), I love working on cars, I love learning more and more of what I can, but I just don't want to be stranded in the future. I understand what you guys are saying about how a computer doesn't need to turn a wrench, but wiht cars comin out soon there going to be up around 100,000 mile warrenties behind them...I mean thats got to say somehting about quality, how often do you see new cars in the shop for somehting going wrong wiht them, you mainly see grandma 1990buick....IDK my god damn friends are brain washing me and I'm trying to get myself excited again, but I just have that ish in the bakc of my mind:(
 
hey guys thanks for all the responds....keep them coming. I'm still having trouble deciding, I kind of need to make up my mind by wednesday but yah I was totally psyc'd about it, I love cars (I have 3 btw and im 19), I love working on cars, I love learning more and more of what I can, but I just don't want to be stranded in the future. I understand what you guys are saying about how a computer doesn't need to turn a wrench, but wiht cars comin out soon there going to be up around 100,000 mile warrenties behind them...I mean thats got to say somehting about quality, how often do you see new cars in the shop for somehting going wrong wiht them, you mainly see grandma 1990buick....IDK my god damn friends are brain washing me and I'm trying to get myself excited again, but I just have that ish in the bakc of my mind:(

well i just wanted to let you know that just because they have warrenties does not mean that they will not break down because i can tell you from experience that my parents have owned 3 new vehicles and they all had to eventually go to satan because something ended up messing up on them and thats because they were only daily drivers and they probably had less than 20,000 miles on them when we took them
 
I'm just saying though. If there going to start offering plans like that, there has got to be something right about them, and maybe it won't even be liek that. I 'm just throwing out possibilities and would like to hear your guys feedback.
Thanks for the replies
 
The way I see it, is with the worst case scenario of all the new cars diagnosing themselves like you say, but what about all the old cars that can't? I think there will always be a need for techs.
 
Cars will always need brakes, tires, exhaust, shocks, etc....
 
I think the trend is going in quite the opposite direction, in fact. (Highly trained) automotive technicians are going to be in increasing demand within the next few years.

Example: If I want to work on my 95 Eclipse, I can. I know where the spark plugs go. I have almost all the tools necessary to do basic maintenance. I can do an oil change without having to reset the computer. I can take out the seats without having to untangle an entire wiring harness for key-coded memory positions and seat warmers and massagers and whatnot. But then you look at my wife's 2000 BMW 328i. This car is smarter than I am. I have no idea where ANYTHING is on it. There's no engine that I can see; only a plastic panel covering a bunch of wires, sensors, solenoids, computers, etc. that I have no clue what purpose they serve. Somewhere in there is an engine, I'm sure. But I don't know how to work on it. And even if I did, BMW has special single-purpose, marquee-specific tools that cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. Even the oil drain plug requires a special contoured socket, and once the oil's changed, the computer still needs to be reset to update the recommended service messages that pop up on the dash message board. And this is a 2000 model. Imagine how many sensors and technological nightmares exist on the newest cars that all manufacturers are coming out with.

In short, the days of the shade-tree mechanic are nearly at an end. To work on any car produced now, you NEED training. Training comes at a price. That price must be accounted for when dealerships, factories, and shops come up with compensation for their technicians.

Think about that word, now: Technician. Sounds like technical. Remember back when people who worked on cars were called mechanics? As in, they just turned a wrench mechanically, and fixed things? My uncle Tim is a mechanic. He usually works on semi's and older cars, though he's helped me on my car a few times, as much as he hates imports. But as he was fond of saying "I can't do much on your car. I'm a mechanic, not a computer programmer."

My prediction is that automotive technician courses are going to become just that much more technical in nature. The auto manufacturers are making it harder and harder for the common public to do anything on their own cars. And there are generations of vehicals on the road that are just getting older and need more care that can only be done by trained professionals. And for the new cars, the ones "diagnosing themselves", the more technical parts they have, the more parts they have to fail.
 
I make $22/hr. flat rate an I'm only 21. Granted I have all of my ASE's but as soon as I achieve my Master Tech. status and start getting other cert. LS1 and such I can make upwords of $30/hr which is what the lead tech at our shop makes. He takes home about $1900/wk. So add taxes and he makes well in excess of $100k. Your everyday "grease monkeys" that throw parts at cars until they fix the problem are already being phased out. Soon you will have to be highly experienced to have your own shop. I forsee in the next 10 years that you will either take your car to a dealership or franchise to get worked on. (Pep Boys, Firestone...) Private shops will not be able to afford the tools they need to diagnose cars in the near future with all of thier electrical needs. Technicians will never be phased out because people will never wanna work on thier own cars or not understand it. OBD 3 will never come out. Development was haulted in 2004 and nothing has been said since. I agree with the Boxx dude. Manufactors are gonna make it harder for you to work on your own car. They want you to bring it to them to fix it.
 
^^^This guy knows what hes talkin about. In Socal the factory trained BMW tecks start out at 27$ and the masters are 10$ over that. Mitsu and Toyota guys can make any where form 15 to 28$ an hour depending on experiance. you must also understand that most of these postitions are "flat-rate" or by the job pay, so even at 15$ an hour a Toyota guy in Cali is going to flag 150 hours or more every two weeks so his pay will still be good!
the BMW guys only flag 8hrs a day or so where the Toyota guys are doing 15 to 25 a day.

I never went to a teck school for auto training, I found a dealer when I was 18 the had an appreinticeship program, so I could lean while i earned. then the dealer would send me to the factory training programs. Mitsus training was ok but it dosent hold a stick to Toyota training. Toyota also has there "T-10" program the you can take at a teck college that is second to none! the wrote the book on Hybrid tecnology. you will almost be and engineer when you done, Im not kidding!

Personally, I would avoid domestics I worked at dodge for 9 yrs before I went to imports and I realize I should have left sooner! Toyota or Lexus is a great way to make a living these days.

Keep in mind no matter what you here, there are alway politics at dealers. and your experiance may very place to place, so if you go for it get all your ASEs as soon as you can and make your self as marketable as you can, so if you have to look for another place you can have some credibility!
 
There's always going to be a need for technicians, the cars will never be able to diagnose themselves completley or atleast in our time they wont.

You can drive to Autozone, Checker, Advanced Auto etc and their computer will diagnose your CEL and tell you exactly what parts are needed to fix. There's an even newer model that does the above, plus it lets you know the average price in your area a mechanic would charge in labor too.

I disagree with the few people that said cars will become so technical that only technicians will be able to fix. As long as you can grab the CEL code and you know what parts are needed to fix, it's as simple as removing some bolts and installing the needed parts. Even the BMW is just nuts, bolts and electrical wiring once you take off the plastic engine covers.
 
You can drive to Autozone, Checker, Advanced Auto etc and their computer will diagnose your CEL and tell you exactly what parts are needed to fix. There's an even newer model that does the above, plus it lets you know the average price in your area a mechanic would charge in labor too.

I disagree with the few people that said cars will become so technical that only technicians will be able to fix. As long as you can grab the CEL code and you know what parts are needed to fix, it's as simple as removing some bolts and installing the needed parts. Even the BMW is just nuts, bolts and electrical wiring once you take off the plastic engine covers.

I get about 1 Cell for every 5 problems i get so don't give me that autozone garbage. Cells are usually sensor related alot of parts are mechanical and electrical failure.
 
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