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>Mechanics are about to make a killing. If you're a mechanic and already have plenty of business, I imagine it's a tough call: do you jack up your hourly rates

>Mechanics are about to make a killing. If you're a mechanic and already have plenty of business, I imagine it's a tough call: do you jack up your hourly rates and take advantage of the windfall, at the risk of customer loyalty in the future? This insanity will pass, after all.

ska 5y ago
Perhaps you just get pickier about the jobs you take.
- randycupertino 5y ago
  My mechanic does this! He loves to work on classic cars as a passion project and has a bunch of classics in his lot that he's slowly working on, however if you call him now, his voicemail says, "Please note if you are calling to inquire work on a model over 20 years old the waiting list is 5-6 months." He's a great guy- if anyone is in Bay Area and needs a good honest mechanic for foreign or domestic, shout out to Jack at Tom and Jacks in San Bruno!
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    That message does nice double duty as a PC way of saying poors need not bother shopping him for a quote to replace something on their '99 Grand Caravan.
    - CoastalCoder 5y ago
      IIUC, you're implying that that mechanic is disdainful of poor customers, and that this just provides convenient political cover. If so, I'm not sure why you'd assume that. It seems more likely to me that the mechanic is simply choosing his work based on personal interest and perhaps profitability. I don't see why we'd ask anything more than that from him.
      - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
        I'm not assuming. Everyone even remotely close to the industry knows that mechanics don't like the people who want to do the bare minimum amount of work all the time and that fairly strongly correlates to "poors". Of course given the choice a mechanic would rather do an oil change on a '15 4Runner owned by some yuppie he can upsell a cabin air filter to than do a timing set on a '03 Outback for someone who'll decline the water pump that they traditionally try and sell with it.
        pbourke 5y ago
        > mechanics don't like the people who want to do the bare minimum amount of work all the time Does anyone? > oil change on a '15 4Runner owned by some yuppie Yuppies don’t drive 7 year old cars
        greedo 5y ago
        Eh, it also correlates to "cheapskates." I know a lot of people who make FAANG money who do the bare minimum in home/auto repairs. Just cheap SOBs.
        lotsofpulp 5y ago
        I would have thought 4runners were disproportionately bought by people who want to fix the car themselves.
        bityard 5y 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.
        5y ago
    - tonyedgecombe 5y ago
      Sadly life gets a lot easier when you exclude the poorest customers. I don't blame anybody for doing that.
  - olyjohn 5y ago
    I tried to get in for an alignment a couple of months ago. I'm used to making an appointment 1 or 2 days out for this sort of thing. All the local shops were booked out over a month. I eventually found a place that had an opening, which ended up being a chain... But I couldn't drive my car for 2 weeks with a bad alignment while I wait for the appointment.
fshbbdssbbgdd 5y ago
One compromise is jacking up rates for new customers only.
barrenko 5y ago
Yes it will, just like real estate prices. Joke.
- eru 5y ago
  Could you please explain the joke?
CoastalCoder 5y ago
I noticed a similar dynamic with general contractors / handymen a few years ago. There was a multi-year period where the demand far exceeded supply, but they didn't seem to adjust their billing rates accordingly. I never got a clear answer as to why. The one guy I talked to seemed scarred by a very demand-limited market some years prior, so maybe he was fearful of making any changes that might leave him under-employed.
- greedo 5y ago
  I had the exact opposite occur. The missus wanted a patio installed (pavers or bluestone) and the quote we got from one guy was 10k over what others were bidding. He didn't even submit any drawings/diagrams, just told us the quote. Obviously didn't want the job. Same thing happened with a flooring guy who could have done $30k worth of work. He kept claiming he'd send us a bid but eventually ghosted us. Tradespeople can skip doing the hard/less-profitable jobs right now while the market is hot.
  - Scoundreller 5y ago
    As you observed, a shrewd tradesperson never refuses work, they just give a terrible quote. I had an aunt where the neighbour's son replaced a section of fence and just said to pay what they felt was reasonable and it was difficult for my aunt to come up with a number. Probably wasted a few hours coming up with that number, ugh.
NDizzle 5y ago
Will the insanity pass, though? There's talk of putting cameras in all cars starting in 2026 to prevent... drunk driving[1]?! What's next? I can't be alone in never buying a car that has this feature. [1] https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-11-09/congress-mandates-car-technology-stop-drunk-driving https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-11-09/congre...
- noduerme 5y ago
  I still won't even buy a car with GPS. Seems I'm in a vanishing minority. It won't pass, because people born after 1990 have spent their adult lives in a world with surveillance machines in their pockets at all times. Their cars are just big phones. By 2040 you probably won't even be allowed to drive your own vehicle.
  - ranger_danger 5y ago
    Just unplug the GPS/cell antennas if you're that paranoid? Newer cars will not be made without them anyway because they are actually safety features.
    - noduerme 5y ago
      Being spied on is always a safety feature. That's why North Korea is the safest country in the world. No one ever dies there. Not a single case of covid!
      - ranger_danger 5y ago
        Believe it or not, trying to tell people they don't want someone else just a voice command or push button away in the case of an accident, is actually a hard sell. It might be seen as a privacy invasion to some (whether it's used as such in practice is another story), but to others it might actually save their life.
  - hyperman1 5y ago
    To be honest, not being allowed to drive your own vehicle is probably a good thing. See e.g. https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/global-road-safety/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/global-road-safety/index.... From the first few paragraphs: Road traffic crashes are a leading cause of death in the United States for people aged 1–54 More than half of those killed are pedestrians, motorcyclists, or cyclists. Drivers risk other people's lives, hence, other people have a right to demand safety from drivers' actions. Supposing computers do get better than humans in the future, why not just stop humans from doing this dangerous activity? If someone wants to do some old school driving in 2040, go have fun on a private racetrack or whatever. You can even ignore speed limits.
raisedbyninjas 5y ago
It's not just inflated labor pricing. Customers are willing to make more extensive repairs because it's more economical than buying a replacement.
Wistar 5y ago
A friend owns a high line/niche used car dealership and his service shop, who has a legendary mechanic, has not increased rates at all but just got more selective about the service work they are doing. Also, effectively no new service customers as they are booked solid for months.
- eru 5y ago
  So basically they are taking their increased compensation not in the form of more money from customers, but by improving their working conditions. It's very interesting, because this situation mirrors what economists predict about minimum wages: Employees take their compensation as a mixed basket of wages and non-monetary perks (like nicer working conditions or opportunities for learning and advancement). Different people like different baskets. Minimum wage laws make some of these baskets illegal. So orthodox economics predicts that increases in minimum wage leads, amongst other things, to deteriorating working conditions. Now the situation here is reversed: there's effectively a wage ceiling when service shops are unwilling to raise prices. But they can still raise compensation, by improving working conditions. Something similar-ish happens with very high marginal tax rates: eg the US used to have crazy high marginal tax rates after WW2 that essentially amounted to salary caps. Cue companies finding all kinds of fringe benefits that were taxed less, like health insurance.
  - BurningFrog 5y ago
    I took "being selective" to mean focusing on the most profitable jobs.
    - Wistar 5y ago
      In this case, it is a blend of more profitable, less challenging jobs such as brakes and LOF, as well as interesting cases requiring the lead mechanic's renowned diagnostic skills. I have often thought this mechanic should maintain a blog about some of the crazy and perplexing issues he has solved but, he just has no interest in writing them up. Besides, I am not sure he could write them up as some of the leaps in logic he makes are closer to magic than any sort of process. Also, they have used this era to weed out the pain-in-the-ass customers.
vkou 5y ago
Keep rates steady for old customers, raise rates for new ones.

ska 5y ago

Perhaps you just get pickier about the jobs you take.

randycupertino 5y ago
My mechanic does this! He loves to work on classic cars as a passion project and has a bunch of classics in his lot that he's slowly working on, however if you call him now, his voicemail says, "Please note if you are calling to inquire work on a model over 20 years old the waiting list is 5-6 months." He's a great guy- if anyone is in Bay Area and needs a good honest mechanic for foreign or domestic, shout out to Jack at Tom and Jacks in San Bruno!
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  That message does nice double duty as a PC way of saying poors need not bother shopping him for a quote to replace something on their '99 Grand Caravan.
  - CoastalCoder 5y ago
    IIUC, you're implying that that mechanic is disdainful of poor customers, and that this just provides convenient political cover. If so, I'm not sure why you'd assume that. It seems more likely to me that the mechanic is simply choosing his work based on personal interest and perhaps profitability. I don't see why we'd ask anything more than that from him.
    - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
      I'm not assuming. Everyone even remotely close to the industry knows that mechanics don't like the people who want to do the bare minimum amount of work all the time and that fairly strongly correlates to "poors". Of course given the choice a mechanic would rather do an oil change on a '15 4Runner owned by some yuppie he can upsell a cabin air filter to than do a timing set on a '03 Outback for someone who'll decline the water pump that they traditionally try and sell with it.
      - pbourke 5y ago
        > mechanics don't like the people who want to do the bare minimum amount of work all the time Does anyone? > oil change on a '15 4Runner owned by some yuppie Yuppies don’t drive 7 year old cars
      - greedo 5y ago
        Eh, it also correlates to "cheapskates." I know a lot of people who make FAANG money who do the bare minimum in home/auto repairs. Just cheap SOBs.
      - lotsofpulp 5y ago
        I would have thought 4runners were disproportionately bought by people who want to fix the car themselves.
      - bityard 5y 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.
        5y ago
  - tonyedgecombe 5y ago
    Sadly life gets a lot easier when you exclude the poorest customers. I don't blame anybody for doing that.
- olyjohn 5y ago
  I tried to get in for an alignment a couple of months ago. I'm used to making an appointment 1 or 2 days out for this sort of thing. All the local shops were booked out over a month. I eventually found a place that had an opening, which ended up being a chain... But I couldn't drive my car for 2 weeks with a bad alignment while I wait for the appointment.

fshbbdssbbgdd 5y ago

One compromise is jacking up rates for new customers only.

barrenko 5y ago

Yes it will, just like real estate prices. Joke.

eru 5y ago
Could you please explain the joke?

CoastalCoder 5y ago

I noticed a similar dynamic with general contractors / handymen a few years ago. There was a multi-year period where the demand far exceeded supply, but they didn't seem to adjust their billing rates accordingly. I never got a clear answer as to why. The one guy I talked to seemed scarred by a very demand-limited market some years prior, so maybe he was fearful of making any changes that might leave him under-employed.

greedo 5y ago
I had the exact opposite occur. The missus wanted a patio installed (pavers or bluestone) and the quote we got from one guy was 10k over what others were bidding. He didn't even submit any drawings/diagrams, just told us the quote. Obviously didn't want the job. Same thing happened with a flooring guy who could have done $30k worth of work. He kept claiming he'd send us a bid but eventually ghosted us. Tradespeople can skip doing the hard/less-profitable jobs right now while the market is hot.
- Scoundreller 5y ago
  As you observed, a shrewd tradesperson never refuses work, they just give a terrible quote. I had an aunt where the neighbour's son replaced a section of fence and just said to pay what they felt was reasonable and it was difficult for my aunt to come up with a number. Probably wasted a few hours coming up with that number, ugh.

NDizzle 5y ago

Will the insanity pass, though? There's talk of putting cameras in all cars starting in 2026 to prevent... drunk driving[1]?! What's next? I can't be alone in never buying a car that has this feature. [1] https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-11-09/congress-mandates-car-technology-stop-drunk-driving https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-11-09/congre...

noduerme 5y ago
I still won't even buy a car with GPS. Seems I'm in a vanishing minority. It won't pass, because people born after 1990 have spent their adult lives in a world with surveillance machines in their pockets at all times. Their cars are just big phones. By 2040 you probably won't even be allowed to drive your own vehicle.
- ranger_danger 5y ago
  Just unplug the GPS/cell antennas if you're that paranoid? Newer cars will not be made without them anyway because they are actually safety features.
  - noduerme 5y ago
    Being spied on is always a safety feature. That's why North Korea is the safest country in the world. No one ever dies there. Not a single case of covid!
    - ranger_danger 5y ago
      Believe it or not, trying to tell people they don't want someone else just a voice command or push button away in the case of an accident, is actually a hard sell. It might be seen as a privacy invasion to some (whether it's used as such in practice is another story), but to others it might actually save their life.
- hyperman1 5y ago
  To be honest, not being allowed to drive your own vehicle is probably a good thing. See e.g. https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/global-road-safety/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/global-road-safety/index.... From the first few paragraphs: Road traffic crashes are a leading cause of death in the United States for people aged 1–54 More than half of those killed are pedestrians, motorcyclists, or cyclists. Drivers risk other people's lives, hence, other people have a right to demand safety from drivers' actions. Supposing computers do get better than humans in the future, why not just stop humans from doing this dangerous activity? If someone wants to do some old school driving in 2040, go have fun on a private racetrack or whatever. You can even ignore speed limits.

raisedbyninjas 5y ago

It's not just inflated labor pricing. Customers are willing to make more extensive repairs because it's more economical than buying a replacement.

Wistar 5y ago

A friend owns a high line/niche used car dealership and his service shop, who has a legendary mechanic, has not increased rates at all but just got more selective about the service work they are doing. Also, effectively no new service customers as they are booked solid for months.

eru 5y ago
So basically they are taking their increased compensation not in the form of more money from customers, but by improving their working conditions. It's very interesting, because this situation mirrors what economists predict about minimum wages: Employees take their compensation as a mixed basket of wages and non-monetary perks (like nicer working conditions or opportunities for learning and advancement). Different people like different baskets. Minimum wage laws make some of these baskets illegal. So orthodox economics predicts that increases in minimum wage leads, amongst other things, to deteriorating working conditions. Now the situation here is reversed: there's effectively a wage ceiling when service shops are unwilling to raise prices. But they can still raise compensation, by improving working conditions. Something similar-ish happens with very high marginal tax rates: eg the US used to have crazy high marginal tax rates after WW2 that essentially amounted to salary caps. Cue companies finding all kinds of fringe benefits that were taxed less, like health insurance.
- BurningFrog 5y ago
  I took "being selective" to mean focusing on the most profitable jobs.
  - Wistar 5y ago
    In this case, it is a blend of more profitable, less challenging jobs such as brakes and LOF, as well as interesting cases requiring the lead mechanic's renowned diagnostic skills. I have often thought this mechanic should maintain a blog about some of the crazy and perplexing issues he has solved but, he just has no interest in writing them up. Besides, I am not sure he could write them up as some of the leaps in logic he makes are closer to magic than any sort of process. Also, they have used this era to weed out the pain-in-the-ass customers.

vkou 5y ago

Keep rates steady for old customers, raise rates for new ones.