Monday, December 5, 2011

-=Adapting for the future

I opened my fortune cookie one day, and this is what it said "When you're finished changing, you're finished".  And it got me thinking about how that statement is not only true in life, but also in the world of auto repair.  The world of automotive is always changing.  I remember watching TV commercials for trade schools that talked about working on abs brake systems when they were still newer technology.  Ten+ years later we have systems such as advanced traction control, electronic throttle control, hybrid systems, rain sensors used for automatically applying the brake to keep the rotors dry.  If a technician does not spend time in the classroom one can fall behind, and become a dinosaur.  Education is not the only important adaptation to stay alive in this industry, the tools required to diagnose and repair these systems are always changing.  These can be of great expense to the technician, and the business.  Many times customer do not realize the labor rate a shop charges must cover not only the regular overhead of the building, utilities, pay roll ect, but the on going cost of keeping shop equipment, technicians, and service information up to date.  These can be very expensive, a good quality scan tool used to pull trouble codes and data from on board computers can run around $8,000 new along with required software updates which can run approx $1,000 every year!  With all the new technologies that arrive, the cost of survival in this industry increases.  In today's economy if your able to keep up you are very fortunate.

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