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Posted by D Sherman [72.47.153.24] on Thursday, May 03, 2012 at 13:06:40 :
In Reply to: Look at the bright side David posted by Clint Dixon [216.248.73.1] on Thursday, May 03, 2012 at 12:42:16 :
I'll take a good old-school mechanic over a "factory trained automotive service technician" any day. I've never understood the push to push to change "mechanics" to "technicians". A mechanic is a man who understands machinery, intuitively, professionally, and technically. A technician is a man who can read a flow chart in a factory service manual and find the part where it says "If A does not work, replace unit B".
Of course there are other factors in the US that also contributed to the demise of the machine shops, radiator shops, auto electric shops, etc. Liability is one. If I rebuild some lady's starter, and 5 years from now it fails to start when she gets back from her hike in the Bob Marshall wilderness, so she's forced to hike out to where her cell phone works, but along the way she catches a ride with some guy from Idaho, but he drops her off in Glacier Park, where she walks up the hill to where she can get cell service, but she sees a cute little marmot sitting on a rock so she stops to take its picture, but a grizzly bear sneaks up behind her and eats her, guess who her kids are going to sue?
Or, I decide it would be nice to offer some radiator service on the side so I don't have to order a new one for $500 every time some customer has one with a leak in it, but then I find out that if I want to boil out radiators I need $100K worth of EPA and OSHA approved equipment to keep me and the environment safe, and I have to send the dirty wash water off to the toxic waste dump in barrels at $3000 a pop.
So, yeah, between high wages, declining skills, liability, government regulations, and non-rebuildable designs, I can see why there aren't the real automotive shops in America any more. Still I like the idea of being able to do like clueless and take a pitted driveline yoke to a local shop and have it flame-sprayed and ground (or whatever they do) for less than the cost of a speedi-sleeve.
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