Everyone pays too much money for a used Subaru.

I never really got into Smokey. Seriously. I know he’s right up there with them but this was originally a list of my favorite car books and the title got changed slightly. With “Definitive” in there, Smokey should have been on the list a long with a few others.

You missed one:

Which is great if he can feed himself just on German car work. Now, if I bring in my new GM, can he do diag on it? A Mazda? A Kia (god forbid)?

I’m thinking that the charging for extra hours was how they got past the hourly pay stall. No raise in 25 years, not even cost of living? And then they drop them from health insurance?

... and rent (or paying down the mortgage for the building/land)

The irony here, is that its up to the middle class and poor to make change happen. The real problem is that people are either too stupid to see whats happening, or too lazy/afraid to make change happen. Although its the top 1% making the moves, its only because 99% allow them to.

As the article alludes to, the ridiculous hourly rate isn’t going to the mechanics. The dealership is pocketing the majority of it, and when they raise the rate from $95 to that $125, only ~$3 is going to the mechanic. The other 90% is going to the dealer’s profit.

Didn’t have time to read the whole article, but my input thus far is flat rate is a cancer in my industry. It encourages spite and cut-throat competition amongst the techs and writers to the point where a “green” tech won’t ask questions if they aren’t sure of something because they don’t wanna be taking food off of…

This is simple wage theft. They need to get a class action certified.

If health insurance weren’t through our employers, it would leave them with one less bargaining chip to f#ck us over with.

As a 300 owner, every time I remember how much of a mutt my car actually is, I get this cold chill down by back...

The resulting risk of this is that the oil could spray onto the windshield, thus impairing vision

“Yes Osama Bin Laden is bad, but we must not forget that other people are also bad.”