I like to do an engine flush with my oil, so it takes a good hour including a good warm up.
It's nice to see that you check your car every few months. People probably think I'm mad washing my car weekly (at least, sometimes more than once a week), but I think it's a good idea, especially when the roads are salty. It's also a good oppourtunity to spot problems with tyres, leaks, wipers, etc. A yearly service does seem quite long to me for checking for problems. When I finish uni I intend to do a thorough service on my car!
Oh yes...the surveys. Usually done on a handful of garages in a very limited area and pretty much not including many small independents or any word of mouth recommendations.
The quality of the job is down to the individual mechanic doing the servicing. So the surveys should actually be about the individual employees rather than the garage.
That is plain nonsense. Garage stds are set by garage owners or managers. And the 'Which' surveys are not carried out in a limited area. They're spread out all over the country.
Their surveys into garage stds, indicate a lack of responsible management. If those garages choose to employ 2nd rate mechanics, it's the managements fault when customers receive a 2nd rate service.
Employees can come and go, but if those responsible for taking on staff, make sure that those they employ are competent, stds can remain high. Mike.
I work in a small factory. About 10 of the employees have cars. All of them, apart from mine, are serviced by garages. When they get problems they often ask me to have a look before they take it to the garage. All of them have evidence of shoddy workmanship under the bonnet, bolts missing, harnesses not fitted to the clips provided, hoses routed incorrectly, linkages that haven't seen a drop of oil for months, cover plates missing, the list goes on. Granted the chance of them causing a breakdown is low, but if that's the std of what is easily seen, it leaves a big question mark over the std of workmanship of those items that are not so obvious.
A real classic IMO was my bosses car. A Cosworth Saphire. He spent a fortune at his local Ford garage, when the engine kept blowing water out of the header tank, and bursting hoses. New radiator, new thermostat, several new hoses etc etc. These were fitted at different times over a period of about 3 months. I knew little about it at the time. He just carried a gallon of water in the boot and kept topping up, or ringing the garage to be recovered. Until one day he was under the bonnet and I asked what was wrong. It was fairly obvious that water had been spraying everywhere, and he gave me the history. I idly took the header tank cap off, (a plastic screw on type) and looked inside. It looked a bit crappy, so I dismantled it to see the PRV. The vent hole was completely blocked, and had obviously been blocked for some time. No way could it relieve pressure in the system. I told him to get a new cap, which he did. Problem cured. That blocked cap cost him over £500 in garage bills, and no doubt would have cost him even more before the garage discovered it. Mike.
That is not necessary as you should well know, if you have the experience you claim. A few well chosen questions, and watching a mechanic at work, will usually show, (to a competent observer) the degree of skill that that mechanic has.
Precisely. Which is why the surveys conclude, that in general, garage stds are low. That is not the fault of the mechanics. It's still the fault of those that employ them.
There's a general shortage of skilled artisans in all trades. That has been the case for decades, but that is no excuse for an employer to hire unskilled labour to do skilled work. Especially when it's related to public safety, as it is with car servicing and repairs.
The answer lies with the moyor trade itself IMO. If they put more resources into training, and paid good money to those mechanics after training, there wouldn't be a shortage of skilled mechanics there are today.
Not everyone has the ability to earn good money in a white collar job, but IMO a good craftsman, engineer, or mechanic, is worth just as much. Despite maybe, their lack of academic qualifications.
I would go on to suggest that few car owners would object to paying high garage charges, if that equated to a high quality service. Unfortunately that is seldom the case. Mike.
Um, no. It can quite fairly judged by the number of complaints from customers - even allowing for fussy pedants.
As a garage owner I can choose to employ a load of retreaded monkeys with wrenches, or I can get experienced and motivated individuals. The short-termist employs the monkeys for cheapness, the professional owner pays a bit more and gets / trains the right people.
Now, whose garage would you like to take your car to?
If the garage only employ skilled mechanics that shouldn't be necessary.
I meant in that in the context of an interview and observation by those responsible for hiring and firing.
No. The persons who employ and allows incompetent mechanics to work on customers cars are the ones really responsible. You have a strange idea of business ethics. Those at the top are responsible to the customer for the way their staff carry out their duties. That always has been the case, and it always will be.
The point I was making is that those possessing manual skills, in general, don't receive the financial rewards that such skill deserves. Too much emphasis is placed on academic qualifications IMO. Mike.
How do you know how skilled they are? They've got a City and Guilds qualification. Could be they're on bonus as most are and rush the job.
In an interview you say what you know the employer wants to hear. You keep your nose clean for a while and until something goes wrong, they're not going to find out...
No, I have a good grasp of reality.
They get very well paid nowadays.
Still, nice to see your post shows you've never got your hands dirty in your life...
A good mechanic is not measured by paper qualifications. One of the best vehicle mechanics I knew was illiterate, but talk him, or see him working on a car or lorry, and it became quite obvious that he really knew his job. He maintained a small lorry fleet, and worked on cars on the side. With the full knowledge of his employer BTW.
If a bonus scheme means a job is not done properly, who's fault is it?
I'll accept that possibility. A genuine mistake is one thing, but if it's due to carelessness, or incompetence, maybe it time to get rid of them.
That reality is only in _your_ mind. The truth is as I stated.
You couldn't be further from the truth. I've been an engineer, a toolmaker, all my life. From the bench to running a successful toolmaking business for over 20 years. The rules that apply to employing skilled toolmakers, are just as applicable to employing skilled motor mechanics. I paid the highest hourly rate in the area, so I had little difficulty in selecting only those that could do the job. Despite paying top rates, my prices were no higher than the competition. Getting the job right first time is cheaper than having a job back in the shop to be corrected. Not to mention the message it gives a customer of a Co's competence.
Which brings me back to the point I'm making. Management is responsible for customer service. If they choose employees that can't do the job, it's their fault. Not the fault of the employees themselves. Occasionally though, I did take on incompetent toolmakers. The longest any lasted was 3 weeks. Most less than a week. Mike.
But its pretty much the only guide an employer has at interview.
Bonus schemes are in place at most dealerships.
Until something goes horribly wrong you don;t know there's a problem. Even then, with the complexity of modern cars you cannot be sure for every problem that it wasn't an unconnected failure.
The truth as you see it from having exactly ZERO experience of working in a garage.
Engineering and toolmaking are 1000 miles apart from garage mechanicing from the POV of being able to identify a shoddy job.
So you admit you can't tell from an interview. However unlike spannering, its easy to spot a bad job in toolmaking.
A few well thaught out questions can tell an employer more about the ability of an applicant, than a piece of paper saying he's passed such and such a course. Then there's, where has he worked before. Why did he leave. Ring and talk to his previous employer. Just some of the ways to reduce the chances of taking on an incompetent mechanic.
That may be so, but you haven't answered my question.
A genuine mistake is one thing, but if it's
Rubbish. Minor mistakes are just as indicative as major ones. And what is preventing someone checking a new mechanics work before a car is returned to the customer. Most items related to safety, which IMO is a major concern, can be checked quite easily after the job has been done. The same goes for most other repairs, apart from those dealing with the internals of gearboxes, engines etc. Even with those, much can be told by how they perform after the repair.
Granted. Even more reason to ensure a garage has a competent workforce.
How do you know that? Once again you're trying to reinforce your argument by making completely unsupported allegations about another persons experience. You really should stop doing that. It does nothing to strengthen an argument. In fact it suggests a weak argument, that can only be supported by accusations of ignorance.
In any case, whether or not I've worked in a garage is irrelevant to the point I'm making. Whatever the business, the service given is down to those who run it. If their staff are incompetent, they employed them, and only they have the power to dismiss them and change that situation.
Wrong again. That comment suggests you know little about toolmaking.
That comment simply shows how little you know about toolmaking as a profession.
And yes. There's no way of ensuring an incompetent is never employed, but there's certainly no excuse for continuing their employment.
A special purpose tool can be equally as complex as say an engine or gearbox, with just as many, if not more opportunities for mistakes to be made. From design to finished product.
As a Ford approved subcontractor, much of my work was motor related. For example think of a tool that automatically winds the coils in the heads of car insruments. Or one that checks the durability of multiple car steering column switch panels, by cycling all the individual switches, and electronically recording the results, failures etc, over a period of days, or even weeks.
Toolmaking encompasses far more than simple jigs, fixtures, guages, and press tools, which appears to be what you believe. Mike.
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