When looking for a new position or job, what is the most important factor that you look for?
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When looking for a new position or job, what is the most important factor that you look for?
View full poll questionHey Technicians! What’s your favorite vehicle to work on?
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Great review for Sales & Leasing Consultant; Nick Wade.
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What are some fun activities you like to do in the fall?
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Food Truck time to celebrate some special events! One tech celebrated 36 years of being here at Tom Wood Toyota. Another tech reported a first known issue found to Toyota and was awarded a special medallion.
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Air Tools or Electric tools?
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Minnesota roads can be unbearable in the snow, but this winter car workshop could be a game-changer for new drivers
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Happy anniversary to our Shipping & Receiving Clerk; Sam Lynch
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Great review for Service Advisor; Michael Manns!
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🎉 C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S 🎉 Congratulations to Garrett for being our BEAST of the week.
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If you could work on cars from any era, which would you choose?
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What's the most satisfying part of being an automotive technician?
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Thank you to everyone that joined us for the PenFed Racing Simulator Challenge on August 30-31. It was a pleasure to host Sabré Cook and showcase the Porsche GT3 Cup racecar while enjoying time with our amazing community and team. We hope you had a great time meeting Sabré, testing your skills in the racing simulator, and joining the scenic rally drive.
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Junior Technician, James, replacing a drive shaft on a 2022 Tiguan.
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THROW IN THE TOWEL? Automotive Technicians need tools to perform our jobs, in fact we need more tools than any other skilled trade (not discounting HD or aircraft technicians). Early in my career, buying tools was fun. Every tool helped me perform my job faster, better, and made more money. I wasn’t fond of the tool bill, but those tools were helping me pay it. For instance, early in my career I struggled breaking loose fan clutches. I often burned 1/2 hour to get it broken loose and I broke several holding tools. After 1.8 years I changed shops and the new shop had Lisle 43300 as a shop tool. When I moved on from there, I bought my own, cost me $117. It took about 3 minutes to set the tool up, find the right wrench head, hammer the clutch loose, and put everything away. So, per use I am winning by about $16. If I only use that tool once a month and I have owned it 8 years, it has made me $1,536 off that $117 investment. What’s not to like about that? In 2020, I was really struggling with some ball joints. The tool I had wasn’t beefy enough, so it was an 8 hour slog getting the old joint out and the new one in on one side. I was 2 hours into the other side when the Matco man showed up and said, “I have just what you need.” “Prove it.” “It would be a used tool then and I can't sell used tools.” “Okay, if it works, I’ll buy it.” It worked. $1,500 later I was the owner of a new ball joint press. I figured the time saved was worth $368, but all it did was help me break even. I’ve used it 3 times since for the job I could not do any other way. $1,104 lost time saved in 3 years. Yes, I might make money off of it someday, but was it a good investment? During the time frame I bought that ball joint press, I paid out of debt. From that point on I’ve been paying cash as much as possible for tools. Lately I've had to buy several expensive tools for odd jobs. Latest one is a no start, customer swears fuel is fresh, I want to test but I don’t have a way to pressurize fuel while bypassing the vehicle’s fuel system. I can cut it off, but not tap in and pressurize so I can attempt to start the engine on known good fuel. So I looked for a tool to do that, found one for $552.54. I choked. 10 years line wrenching and this is the first time I tried to do this. Is it going to be another 10 years until I need it again? I felt physically sick. At what point does a technician stop investing in more tools? Does it mean a tech is no longer growing and improving when no longer buying tools? When is the return not worth the investment? I dread needing a new tool. It doesn’t get me excited to have the latest and greatest. I want it to work, work well, and last. I want a good return for my investment. I don’t want to stare at the trash can wondering how bad it’s going to stink when I vomit in it. When I no longer want to spend money on tools, does that mean it’s time to throw in the towel?
Technician
Now this is the kind of discussions I think this app really needs. I don't think I have enough experience under my belt to give you a correct answer, but all I can say is 6 years in I still look forward to finding my next tool to make my job easier and faster. I do think that there is allot of ways a technician can continue to grow and tools is certainly part of the equation but not the full solution. I know there has been a few times in my career I felt I did not have a purpose moving forward, and have been very fortunate to have some mentors help me get back on a path of improvement. I hope you can find that same excitement you had early on in your career even if it's not tool related! (edited)
Technician
Hi Josh, Thanks for chiming in. In my opinion this forum is trying to find it's feet still, so content producers are still learning what to do with it. The good thing about here is it's strictly automotive related, so we can relate because we're walking in those shoes. I've been in the field 15 years overall, including tech school, so I've acquired most of the inexpensive tools I need, so the things left are expensive diagnostic tools. It leads to hard questions like, "Did I earn enough money from the scan tool I bought to justify the cost?" When I bought it, I didn't care, it was a fun toy and it would give me a leg up on the other techs in the shop because they didn't have access to a scan tool that would read anything except gm vehicles. 7 years later as it's nearing the end of life and I'm looking at needing to sink another $6500 into a new one, I'm asking, "Can I recoup the cost?" It's convenient to have a handheld that goes with me, and it's nice to not have to rely on gm and their flaky software, but unless I go out on my own, I likely won't recoup the cost. Do I want to go out on my own? Lot to think about.
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