What Auto Dealers Don't Want You To Know

Well having been an auto service technician for 20yrs, and having worked as a service advisor for a year I know all the dirt. First of all, the entire dealership (all dealerships)is commission based. Almost all of the employees of the dealers have commission based pay plans. From the general managers all the way to the oil change technician. Basically if they don't sell anything, they don't get paid. These type of pay plans create monsters, especially in todays economic enviroment.The salesman's salary is based on how many units they move, and they get bonuses for moving the vehicles that have sat the longest. The finance dept's commission is based on selling you the highest interest rate they can, and upselling extended service plans and gap insurance. The service writers commision is based on the amount of the repairs that they sell, and any services they can upsell you (usually before your vehicle has even entered the shop, or that is how they are trained anyway) . The auto techs pay is based on the amount of labor hours they sell. Basically the tech makes money by completing thier job faster than the time aloted for the job. As an example I will use a brake job. For a basic brake job which includes machining the rotors and replacing the brake pads, the labor charge is 2.5hrs. The actual time it may take to do this repair is .5hr , so the tech gets paid his 2.5hrs and moves on to the next job. It is not uncommon for techs to be paid 12-15hrs of labor time in an 8hr day. A big secret that they don't want you to know is that the labor charges for the repairs you need will increase as the amount of labor time goes up. Lets say they advertise $85.00 an hr labor fees, well this is not exactly true. If you need a repair that has a labor charge of more than 1.0hr, lets say a waterpump that has a labor charge of 4.6hrs you will be charged on a scale which may come out to $95.00 an hr. This is a good idea of what's going on in auto dealerships. And gives you a good idea of why when you take your car in for the $19.95 oil change special, you are hit with an estimate for $500.00 or more of repairs your vehicle needs. Keep these things in mind next time you visit a dealership