I can agree w/everything you said except, you aren't going to make 6 figures in a modern Ford service department without "penciling". And those who "pencil" get their boss fired. Once he is gone and their pencil gets muzzled they don't last long
What’s the going rate for master techs these days??
I could ask my buddy back on the dealership i used to work at. He's a smart dude, and I would assume they pay him as well as anybody in that shop as he's been there the longest now, but I know he's on the fence about his future there. The reality of flat rate work is they could pay you $100/hr, and if you only turn in .3 per day what does it matter? Wrenches don't make money in these shops, pencils do, but heavy pencils get managers fired and dealerships audited. Ford warranty audits are "draconian" in nature. Basically they send a guy in and he grabs a stack of say 100 warranty orders out of say 100k. If he finds a flaw in a claim the penalty is 1000x the amount on that claim because he only checked 1%, and they assume that that percentage of fraud has occurred. A $300 warranty order gets the dealership a $300k fine. One guy in a shop who pencils the same labor op over and over gets these red flags set. Ford compares labor ops submitted by similar dealerships, and you gotta be in line with everybody else...real busy month? Tough tittle. Your dealership does good work on a particular known warranty issue and every customer in town wants you to fix theirs? So sorry! Thats how it was when I was doing it, might be different now. Dont know/don't care...glad to be out of it!
If the actual reason is limited resources then that's actually great. Think about it. this dealership is prioritizing their customers 1st, good for them (and the people bought from them)
Okay, let’s say you’re right. This is a great practice. Where do you draw the line? The dealer has limited resources, you brought your Bronco from them 3 years ago and have not bought anything since. Does the dealer work on your Bronco or Ms. Hines who purchases a new vehicle every 2 years?
So that when it breaks down you have to buy a new one like Tesla? I will never buy one, thats just me!
My brother just retired after a couple of decades manging a shop.
Or they send someone to your house. Sounds great to me.
So that solves the problem how? Plus w/Tesla your local mechanic cant even order a part and install it. You are totally at their mercy...it's the finest plan of "planned obsolesence" ever devised! No thanks!
By doing away with dealerships and letting warranty work be performed at any ASE cerified shop there are over 280k shops in the US. The same people that do most of the work once your car is out of the Warranty period for more competitive prices then dealerships.
The point would be that they would no longer be independent, so they wouldn’t turn you away. No Tesla service center turns away a Tesla owner because they didn’t sell them the vehicle because they (a) don’t sell vehicles and (b) are company owned.
Tesla doesn't allow this AFAIK...they don't even sell parts OTC...completely closed system like apple. I get it, they want to put me out of business. Well F them!
No one wants to put anyone out of business. Customers want fair treatment at fair prices. If I buy from any brand I expect that brands subordinates to service that product no question asked.
