Only downside to performance is the lack of places to work. If you dont like how you are being treated at the place your at or you dont make enough money, there usually arent any other places you can go locally. If you live in an area wheres there a lot of tuner shops, then it might be ok but its not that way around here. I know theres about 100 dealerships I can go to if I dont like my current job.

As far as collision goes, I am not much help there because I have never really done anything in that area.

 

im by chicago and im sure theres alot of shop like AMS.. wonder how much they pay

 

Also I think in terms of high performance and also collision, you need to make a name for yourself, which takes time and skill. No one is going to take their ride to some no-name person who doesnt know what they are doing...wheras dealership service is rather anonymous.

Try seeing if you can get a part time job at a tuner shop and see how you like it. Make sure they let you help on some of the easier projects and teach you along the way.

 

Our wages are competative with most dealer mechanics. From what Ive gathered, my company pays more than most aftermarket "tuner" shops. Its just like anything else with cars, you get what you pay for. AMS pays for good techs to assure you get good work done to your car. I wouldnt have moved 330 miles to live in one of the most expensive metro areas in the country if it wasent worth it.

 

Im airforce and have been a mechanic for 7 years. I have all the ase certs and many others. Funny thing is most people in my job that get out dont go work for dealerships due to the pay and fact that it is a direct labor job. With life in the airforce once your in for a while your a trainer or manager not a direct worker. Most of them do managment jobs cause of the better pay. Also being a mechanic can take a toll on your body. Its much better these days but we have a few civilians that have been doing this for 15 years or so and there body is now crap.

 

I would recommend not doing it. Of all the people I graduated with from college I think probably 1 or 2 still work on cars. You may love it now but after 10 years you will be sorry. You will start to look around at other older guys in the shop and realize you don't want to be them. 40 or so and still busting your *** and standing on your feet all day. Hot weather sucks, rain sucks, snow sucks. I am speaking from experience, I figured it out at 26 or so and have never looked back. At the time, I was the best Tech in the shop but even at that pay I started my new job about $7000 better off. Don't believe the hype about how much you can make. Wait till Christmas when no one wants to pay for work. If your shop has no guarentee you won't make ****.

I know no one ever listens to thier elders so I guess this is a waste of time but I gotta try. My friend runs a machine shop and hates the career, even though he is damn good and has a race car he wishes he was doing something else. You are much better off making more money at a better job and therefore enjoying the hobby more.

 

how much is it to attend UTI and how long is the schooling for?
I want to go back to school for automotive and get a job for a dealership or the like

 

I was thinking of also going back to school for auto mechanics. I'd love to get a job with Mitsu working on evo's all day, but I really don't think that'd be a smart move on my part. Who knows how long it'll be before mitsu goes under. In my general area though, I think master technicians make about 50-60 a year.

 

please explain more

my 1st career choice was computers(and it wasnt by choice) and now Im getting away from that and wanting to go into automotive
if you say not to get into it as a mechanic then what else to do?

dont you agree that you should be in a career that you love and enjoy doing?
I LOVE anything about cars(except engineering...i am the sUxOrZ at math )and its my passion and one day I would like to own my own speed shop
so what more else is there to do?

I dont think anything else would interest me

 

It all comes down to what you know about cars, mechanically and technically. The more you know the more you get paid. One thing bad about working at a dealership is that you only work on a particular car, whether it be Honda,Toyota,Nissan etc. Working at a shop, you get to work on all facite of cars which won't limit your knowledge about car.

 

I think my friend mentioned it's an 18 month program and it costs around $20K.....its a lot, but u can find dealerships that will give u full reimburstment for your tuition. This is rated the best automotive school in the country, so thats gotta tell u something.

 

I have been a tech for 10 1/2 years, 9 years at this current Ford dealership, 1 1/2 at a speedshop. First of all I can agree with some of you that say that this job beats you up, it does. I work in the NYC area so pay is good. Im guaranteed my 40 hours even if im standing around doing nothing, but if I produce 70 hours I take home 70x my hourly salary . Whats nice about a union shop dealership is that you start at 8am and you leave at 5pm, thats it. You dont have to keep working until you finish the job. HIgh end brand dealerships don't pay anymore than regular brand dealers, so don't imagine that working for BMW or MB will pay you more. The top payed guy at my shop makes about $32 an hour and the lowest makes about $18.

Liking cars is not enough in this business. You must have an ability for working on cars efficiently and correctly. Some guys just don't have what it takes to handle a tool or figure a problem out. To the guy that said that a scanner will help you pull a code and you simply have to fix it, BS. If that's what you think then you need to stay away from cars. A scanner is simply a machine that will help guide you in the right direction. Just because you get an EGR code doesnt mean that you should replace the EGR.

A performance shop is fun, at times. Work schedule sucks major ballls. You tend to work from 8am till whenever the boss feels like going home, sometimes 9pm or later. The pay normally sucks. And since a speed shop is normally no more than 3 lifts there are less techs, less techs means that the boss is up your *** about everything. God forbid you screw a job up A speedshop will loose big, were as a dealer will absorb a loss easier.

All in all being a tech is my calling but its not as easy as most think. The object of the job is to work fast, fix it quickly and fix it right. YOu can't simply close the garage door and leave it for the weekend to continue.

Good luck to all wanting to get into this business

 

Best advice yet. And for you young folk, (im 27) I was so all about working on cars but after 7 years in the job (in military and imports on side) I dont want to touch them. It becomes very repetious and you do alot of the same things over and over. I am to the point now that runing a shop is much better. And the only car i want to touch is my EVO. I am ASE master certified on auto and heavy truck and I take my wifes 98 honda accord in for oil changes. Well they do wash it too, LOL. For you guys asking what to do.. If i coul turn back the clock I would have went to college got a degree in something and used that. I am currently work in an airforce body shop ( could not take the mechanics anymore) and i am back in school. Like the last guy said mechanics is not for everyone. And you need to know 100% its what you want to do. And please remember working on a customers car is nothing like working on your own. And the comments about scan tools, haha those are a joke. Most of the time they will get you in they will get you in the ball park. But most codes can be set by things that have nothing to do with replacing that part.

 

yes i know what you mean as car as a hobby... me myself personally already have an income without doing **** because of family pass downs. (lucky ***) ... my plan is take an automotive program for certain amount of time and get a job at dealership or speedshop for number of years...maybe 5... and open my own place.. loving car isnt enough.. knowledge is money...

 

I guess the point is, we all thought the same thing when we were young. I loved working on cars back then and it is exactly what I wanted to do. After 9 years or so I realized that it pretty much sucked. If you are really good at it you will have it even worse because you end up with all the **** work and everyone else's comebacks because they know you will fix it. I think the other guys will attest to that. Idiots get paid for the time they waste diagnosing a car, the good techs don't get **** for it cause the writers argue that you only had it for 1/2 hour.

Now that I have been out for 5 years or so I don't mind it at all now. I spent Saturday rebuiding the trans on a quad. My engine is all in pieces and I even do side work here and there.