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by bityard 1688 days ago
If you were even remotely close to the industry, you would know full well that the older a car is, the more of a pain in the ass is to repair. It only takes one rusty bolt snapping off to turn a 30 minute job into a 3 hour one. When that happens, the mechanic has to eat those extra hours. They don't get to crawl back to the customer and beg for triple the price. The shop owner certainly isn't going to pony up the difference. It (effectively) comes right out of their paycheck.

I feel that the instant knee-jerk accusation of discrimination against someone you never even met says quite a bit about you.

2 comments

That's why "book time" is based on a newbie that has no idea what they're doing.

Fairly common for a job that gets charged out at X hours to only need X/2 hours. And then there's work that gets charged at shop mechanic rate but gets partly or completely done by an apprentice/assistant.

But being from the rust belt, I know what you mean about corrosion.

I live in the northeast and used to flip shitboxes. I understand why anyone working a flat rate environment would rather not deal with old vehicles.

Also the rusty bolt thing is over blown. You learn what you can and can't get away with and stop snapping them pretty quick.

Also the mechanic we're discussing is in CA so it's not like he has that problem.

Obviously everyone wants moneyed customers. The closer you are to the money the more you get.

I'm not saying the primary purpose of his messaging was to tell the poor to screw off, just marveling at the fact that it does nice double duty.