I just wanted to say I'm so glad I found this forum. As a dealership line tech I earned my master tech cert and my ASE master cert. I loved and hated working at the dealer. The pluses were I got to drive all kind of new cars a d trucks, I had all the factory service info at my disposal and any special tool or J-tools we called them I had. The bad side was the pay and the consistency of pay. Don't get me wrong being paid flat rate I had great months but other months I was eating PB&J. Warranty work was the worst, if a car came in with an odd problem and it took me a couple of hours to figure it out they only wanted to pay me .3 of an hour. Anyways when the economy took a dump work really dried up so I started looking else were for work. I was lucky to get a job for a larg delivery company doing maintenance on their fleet, lets just say I see a lot of brown. For me it was a big step back in time. Mostly I just replace lots of brakes, clutches and starters. Very rarely to I get to use my diagnostic skills. Until that is I found you guys, in a way I feel like I got some of my Mo Jo back and I want to say thanks for accepting me here.

could always use the info. ive never been a fan of the flat rate BS as a customer either. there are a few dealers i wont go to to buy a car or whatever because the service manager was yelling at me because i expected them to do something other than just the oil change i brought it in for. regardless you cant do quality work if you arent allowed the time and thats one of the reasons i wont take a car to the dealer even for the free service.

I agree its a fine line. Try explaining to an old lady we are going to charge her .4 labor @ 91.00 per hour to replace a taillight. It'* hard to swallow.

Thank you William, we could always use help here in the forums.

There'* one dealer I will only go to, and that'* because I came in with a question, and they were willing to talk with me about the problem and figure it all out hypothetically, w/o once asking or demanding to have the vehicle brought into them, they knew I'd do the work myself too. That'* such a rarity, just willing to hash out problems. I'm glad I found this forum