I'm new to this forum, and im coming out of highschool soon looking for opportunities in the automotive career. I have always been a ford "fan", and so I'm inclined to look for jobs as a technician at ford dealers. I'm curious as to what begineer technicians make and what many of you have moved on to do? And also are their better opportunities somewhere other than a dealer?
Appreciate any help, Derrick.

 

Technicians usually are paid a base salary and get additional with their productivity based on volume. The more training and certifications you get under your belt, the more you make. Many times, techs start out working the lube dept. 35-40k for newbie technicians not doing lube jobs and the seasoned masters can work towards 80-100k with some O.T..

 

At my dealer and the other three ones I know people at, we techs are paid by the work we produce, not for how many hours we actually work. Its called flag rate, for example the book time for a timing cover gasket is say 10 hours, first time it takes you 14 hours but you only get paid 10 hours, after doing two or three times you can do it in 7 or 8 hours yet you still get paid 10 hours since that is what the job pays, regardless of how long it takes you.
The bad part of being flag rate is due to Covid-19 I only made like 50 hours last paycheck, I usually make at a minimum of 70 hours but often get get up to 80 hours.
The senior master tech at my dealer who is the unofficial shop foreman usuually flags above 100 hours every two weeks, works 7AM -5ish PM 5 days a week.

I made a little over $40K last year after taxes and heath insurance. I have been at my dealer 3 years and am paid $27 or $28 a flagged hour, I dont do much internal engine or trans work but do pretty much everything else.
I should say that I have definitively over $30K of tools, its most certainly higher then that but I try no to think about it, **** Ive got five different impact wrenches and still need to buy two more to be able to do everything.

You should know that warranty work sucks, the pay is crap, usually around 2/3 of book time, book time for 2.0 focus timing cover is 5.2 hours, warranty only pays 4.0ish hours.

I will say for how much you make seems to largely be dependent on the location of the dealer, is it in a well off area or a poorer area, The dealers in more well off areas generally charge more per hour so you can get paid more per hour but also the customers have enough money not to get turned off by the a larger bill, I cant tell you the number of oil leaks that the customer come in about get declined cause they dont have money for it.

 

Appreciate the info. Is starting out at a dealership in your opinion the best path to one day owning your own shop?

 

Umm so thats a very vague question, I would say a dealership is a good way to find out if being a mechanic is what you want to do long term without going crazy. I would say its a good way to learn how to work on the one brand the dealer sells very very well, however we dont deal with special setups all that well, we usually do the same jobs over and over and over again and get really good at doing them quickly but we dont have to deal with weird custom setups, like doing a alignment on a lowered performance setup mustang or a monster lifted F150.
I think it would depend on what you would want for owning your own shop and what brands you would want to specialize in. Its probably not a bad idea since it kindof throws you into the world to see if you can swim or not and you get to learn what all a shop has to deal with to run, but you may be able to learn that also from working at a firestone or goodyear. I will say with a dealer job you have to learn all the little stuff and how the little stuff works and doing diagnostic on weird gremlins since no one else wants to deal with it, especially when its brand new and under warranty.
That may have rambled a bit, sorry.

 

Dealerships play funny games sometimes.
In order to get to do warranty work , they have to send at least one man for training on the new vehicles So who can they spare, the car washer !
He sleeps through the class because he will never get to do any of the work but the requirement has been met . If the shop tech has managed to get some training, great . When a new vehicle comes in with a problem , the customer thinks the tech has been trained and that is not always the case. The repeat calls tell us something..

You try to learn as much as you can , then get a job with a fleet shop. There you get to know your vehicles and if you take a short cut and it is no good , you get it back to do right..On the other hand what you do right because if it comes back , your job is a lot easier. You get to know your vehicles and operators.You try to learn as much as you can because it makes your job a lot easier and who knows , someday , you are the boss. Shop management is important, learn as much as you can.

 

I worked for one of the top US Heavy Industrial Contractors for 35 years, that had half a dozen subsidiaries in a range of western states, working globally. Started out as a Shop Laborer, then worked on equipment as a start up, moving on and away into the Fleet Services. They had a very extensive fleet of Ford products within their divisions,, business cars, small/ medium/ heavy trucks. Some GM and Dodge did filter in At one time they owned a Ford dealership in AZ. In fact all of their fleet was Ford that ranged for decades.. So basically commercial Ford.

The company would cover any training, shop tools/equipment were provided by corporate although I did have some of my own invested there. What started out in early years as an hourly employee getting paid something comparable with dealer and independent shop levels of incomes, turned into being a salary employee with an ESOP (employee owner) in which income/bonus increased as the company profited. Some years were flat, but rare, but my pay was never reduced due to performance, meaning theirs, or mine. If jobs had to be repeated be it due to normal failures, severe service use issues, including abuse in some cases, or historic model fails that plagued some until Ford updates were available didn’t affect pay rate, and were eventually rotated out of the fleet.. The 6.0/6.4 being one example. If it were a job fail done that I held some accountability (not part failure related),, it happens, I would normally invest a few hours of my own time for correction...

We had great company provided medical/health care, sick/vacation time, and one of the best incentives was I was able use the shops after hours for some of my own projects. There’s many large commercial opportunities, and certainly dealer offerings. Or, other tech/diagnostic jobs outside of the automotive arena. It’ll be interesting to see what the future will hold for gas/diesel powered platforms, something to consider as well In career decisions , but certainly an expanding and changing industry. Certainly training volumes and direction will....

Working where I did, when, and for how long afforded me the opportunity to retire at 52, somewhat difficult in the wrench bending, bloody knuckle industries.. Probably far reaching as a start up, but hooking your wagon to a business that can ‘provide you’ with the opportunity to prosper, and enjoy the job,, is job one IMO..

I have friends working in dealerships, motor carrier, aircraft AI/AP, and others that own their own shops. All have rewards, and complaints. ’ ‘Time‘ is usually the first talking point. What ’they’ think your entitled to be paid for if at all arguable, actual or equality, or the lack of time when owning your own shop or business. Most shops will recognize a gifted and quality mechanic by results. Training, pay should follow the employees dedication and skill set.
And of course there’s the customers....

Eithe way you go,, Good Luck on the path you take....

 

thank you, this is all really helpful. I appreciate it.

 

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In order to get to the valves, a mechanic carefully removed the engine parts from a car while the car owner - a surgeon - looked on.

Afterwards the mechanic said to the surgeon:
'You know, I reckon my line of work is every bit as difficult and skilled as yours.'

'Perhaps,' said the surgeon, 'But I'd like to see you do it while the engine is running.'