Car Mechanics are Quitting EVERYWHERE in 2026…

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]You don't think we have enough skill skilled labor?

[00:00:01]>> Oh, it's unbelievable how chronic the shortage of of skilled labor is in this country.

[00:00:06]>> You make junk vehicles >> and your labor times suck.

[00:00:10]>> There's a really big problem with modern manufacturers and how they pay for warranty. A lot of times manufacturers pay a lower rate than what a normal customer would pay. This is why your car is costing a fortune to fix. Mechanics everywhere are quitting. Fewer people are entering the industry and new cars are becoming more complicated than ever.

[00:00:30]What used to be a simple cheap repair cost thousands of dollars today. And the craziest part, most people have no idea how bad the situation is getting behind the scenes. So in this video, we're breaking down why mechanics are leaving the industry in 2026, what's causing it, and how it's already affecting your wallet. As usual, I'll be reading some of your comments in today's video. So, if you want to be featured in the next one, definitely make sure to leave your thoughts down below. Ford CEO, we don't have mechanics. Interesting. I'm >> watching the Ford CEO say, "We don't have any mechanics. We can't get anything fixed." You know, it's funny.

[00:01:06]What do they think is going to happen if they continue to let the economy run the way it's running?

[00:01:11]>> To become a mechanic, you got to take up trade school. True. To take up trade school, you got to go full-time. Even part-time is damn near full-time. But you got to go full-time. True.

[00:01:20]>> You got to take out debt to pay for the trade school. Yes.

[00:01:23]>> Then you have to have experience because most places don't want to hire anybody with experience coming fresh out of anything.

[00:01:30]>> True. I don't want to cut them off, but that's not just within trade school like that that industry. It's also if pretty much everyone that goes to college and comes out with a degree, you know, a bachelor's degree, an undergraduates degree is practically useless now since I don't know 2018, 2020. You need a million other things, extracurriculars, 37 years of experience just to land a job that's going to pay you minimum wage. It's it's [ __ ] >> Whatever it is, electricians, construction workers, just general laborers, no one wants to pay. And then you go through all this trouble and if you can find a position, let's say at a Ford dealership, they want to pay a tech $19 an hour, $21 an hour when you're, >> you know, however much in debt, wherever you're from is obviously every trade school is going to have a different, >> you know, uh, price. But the point is the same. You go through all this effort, you rack up all this debt >> because if you can't go to work, you need more debt to survive. If you're not fortunate enough to have, you know, uh parents or or family, you know, if you don't have anyone to help you out, you got to stay somewhere, right? It's just it's just it's a fascinating thing.

[00:02:41]Mechanics don't want to work. And I know this cuz I see it everywhere. It doesn't matter what dealership you go to, there are no mechanics.

[00:02:47]>> Yep.

[00:02:48]>> Nobody wants to do these things. Well, excuse me. People want to do these things.

[00:02:52]>> They just financially can't, >> of course.

[00:02:54]>> So, what do you do? How do you continue this economy? I don't know. What do you guys think? How are they going to continue this economy? We're going to create diso Well, we've already created disposable cars that you'll drive for three years, then they'll destroy them and plop you into the next one. They'll be at some point where probably won't even have service centers at dealerships anymore because these cars will never get to that point. If you haven't seen my new cars are absolutely horrible episode, we've went in depth on this topic and it's absolutely bonkers and ridiculous. Now, I'm not going to take the focus away from the mechanics here because I 100% agree. I don't have experience as a mechanic, but I love wrenching on cars all the time. I even have a second channel all about fixing cars. But it's not just affecting, you know, auto mechanics or the trade industry. It's affecting everyone, too.

[00:03:47]At some point in our society, we have pivoted from taking care of our customers and employees and just focusing on profits over people. At some point, corporations have gotten so big that they've, you know, lost focus on the bigger picture of of of let's actually take care of our employees.

[00:04:06]It's ridiculous. And not to mention, he he mentions going into debt. And I don't know how expensive trade school is now.

[00:04:14]I I know it's probably continuing to get higher and higher as they exploit uh you know, people for their hard-earned money. But then let's not forget that the tool the tool industry I don't know the the tool trucks that prey on you know new technicians in the industry and the social pressure in the environment of working in a dealership or in any sort of mechanic setting. Oh, you need to get the latest and greatest tool, the latest and greatest scanner. You need to take out the the newest ratchet and wrench that. Who really cares? I understand that there's a time and a place to have professionalgrade tools.

[00:04:50]Don't get me wrong, but I've been wrenching and cranking on my Pittsburgh impact sockets for geez five to eight years now. They've been through the ringer and they only cost me like 50 bucks compared to the $2,000 it would have cost if we got the name brand tool truck version. Anywh who, I wanted to read a couple of comments that people had left on that Tik Tok cuz I found it fascinating. Someone says the top comment was there's no mechanics because nobody wants to pull the engine just to replace the starter. These new vehicles are a nightmare to work on. And we've gone indepth about this. The cars they're putting out now. I don't understand. Are the engineers not talking to the designers or something like that? Because the cars, it's ridiculous. You'd be lucky if you'd have to pull the, you know, the uh engine out to replace a starter. Now they're putting them in like bell housings inside the transmission in order to diagnose something. It involves chasing down tons of electrical wires and software and coding blah blah blah blah blah. That is just a nightmare. It's a nightmare. Last comment says, "People don't want to work." No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Employers don't want to pay.

[00:06:05]People actually want to work. People enjoy working on cars.

[00:06:10]All right, VTO, let's do this.

[00:06:12]>> All right, >> so we saw a video of the [ __ ] four CEO saying that uh there's a shortage of technicians, that they have 6,000 empty bays.

[00:06:22]>> Why is this funny?

[00:06:23]>> He understands why. Now, so here's your [ __ ] answer, dude. This is why.

[00:06:28]>> This is why.

[00:06:29]>> I like that guy.

[00:06:30]>> Your answer is because you charge an insane door rate. Technicians don't take home even a third of that usually. Hm.

[00:06:38]>> Uh, you make junk vehicles and your labor times suck. They're usually less than half of what it takes to do your job.

[00:06:47]>> That's crazy.

[00:06:48]>> Yeah. So, take into consideration that we have to buy our own freaking tools.

[00:06:53]>> Yep.

[00:06:54]>> That's one.

[00:06:55]>> Yep.

[00:06:55]>> Two.

[00:06:56]>> And it's a fortune. The I can't get over it. The tools are an absolute fortune. I have done some pretty difficult jobs on my second channel, my car channel with Harbor Freight tools and they have never let me down. Cost a fraction of the price compared to the tool truck.

[00:07:14]>> Your warranty times are [ __ ] >> Yep.

[00:07:17]>> If an engine replacement pays 25 hours under customer pay and then we go do it under warranty, it's freaking 10 hours. You're screwing us up. You're supposedly helping out the customer at the cost of the technician's paycheck.

[00:07:33]So, yes, that's the freaking reason why, not because your other stupid reasons that you mentioned, >> right?

[00:07:39]>> That and on top of over complicating simple things that you've had for years that have worked well, you constantly reinvent the wheel, model to model, year to year.

[00:07:49]>> Yep.

[00:07:50]>> Making repairs more lengthy and difficult for technicians.

[00:07:54]>> That's why everybody's leaving the industry. Pretty simple.

[00:07:59]If you guys fix your reasons why there's a shortage of technicians, there wouldn't be a shortage. This has nothing to do with colors, white or blue. If the pay was fair and everything else that comes with it was fair, then there wouldn't be a shortage in any freaking industry.

[00:08:21]>> The end.

[00:08:22]>> Adios, mofos. I want to talk about something real for a second because no matter how dialed in you are financially, stuff still comes up. You can be budgeting, saving, doing everything right, and then out of nowhere, life hits you with something before payday. And I know on this channel I talk a lot about avoiding debt, and that still stands. The goal is always to stay out of it. But if you're already in a situation where you need help bridging a gap, I'd much rather you use something like this than turn to the typical alternatives that can make things way worse. It's actually why I like what Clover is doing. It's why we've worked with them before and why they are today's sponsor. Clover is an earned wage access app that lets you access up to $400 before payday. No interest, no credit checks, and no late fees. So, instead of digging yourself deeper, it's a way to handle short-term situations without getting trapped financially. And honestly, I see it as more of a tool than anything else. not something you rely on every day, but something you have in your back pocket for emergencies, which we know come up.

[00:09:24]And I know what a lot of you are thinking. How does an app like that even make money? And that was my question, too. And their answer was pretty cool.

[00:09:32]You see, they partner with brands inside the app. And if you want your advance instantly instead of waiting a few days, there's a small fee, but there's no monthly membership required just to use it. So whether it's say car repair, groceries, rent, or just something unexpected, it gives you that flexibility without the stress of fees stacking up. So if you're short on cash, you can access up to $400 with no credit checks or late fees with the Clover app.

[00:09:57]Make sure to click the link in the video description to sign up. This way they know that I sent you. And again, huge thanks to Clover for sponsoring today's episode. Adios, mofos. I mean, those are tried and true. Those are the major reasons why everybody's dropping like flies and quitting and starting their own practices or or becoming, you know, mobile mechanics. It makes sense. Some of the prices now that they're even charging customers, it it's atrocious.

[00:10:28]It's disgusting. I'm going to play a video for I have an Audi. I'm going to play a video that I called the dealer just for kicks. How much? Take a guess.

[00:10:37]Drop in the comments how much you think it costs to replace the front brakes and rotors on a 2018 Audi. I'm not going to disclose which one cuz I don't think it really matters. They're not carbon rotors. Regular stainless steel rotors.

[00:10:49]Take a guess.

[00:10:50]>> Front brakes with rotors about uh $7,300 after tax and everything. It's pads, rotors, and hardware installed.

[00:10:59]>> Okay. And now that you heard that, it makes you think because I bet you the technician that would work on my car or do the work is getting paid a fraction of that. A fraction. It's not that complicated to do brakes on a traditional car. My Ford dealer's labor rate is $229.

[00:11:18]The highest paid tech is only making 55.

[00:11:21]$55 an hour isn't really that that's pretty good. That that isn't that isn't too bad, I'm going to say. But either way, it's it's just the it's not even like a quarter of what the Ford dealers labor rate is. And that that labor rate just keeps skyrocketing through the price. I think in a year or two will be well over $300 an hour to do work. And and it falls onto us consumers. It falls onto us customers who have to now pay and shell out tens of thousands of dollars, like you heard, to do simple repairs and simple maintenance. It's ridiculous. $4 $500 for an oil change is absurd.

[00:11:59]Thousands of dollars for for getting front and rear brakes done is is it's insane. It'll seriously destroy anyone's paycheck or or savings account. It's nuts. And that's why for those listening, I highly recommend you start working on your own crap. Anyway, I wanted to read a comment that somebody left on my previous new cars are horrible episodes. And if you want to get featured in the next episode, definitely drop your thoughts on this situation down below. But someone says, "My phone is more waterresistant than a new car." And that is just the tip of the iceberg, my friends. The way these new cars are being built and the more tech BS software and I don't know, sensors and and and eye tracking crap that they're adding to here, it's destroying, you know, businesses, even ones outside of the dealership. Even your own mom and pop car businesses are are feeling it now because these businesses lock all the software. They create new devices, new scan tools, they sell it for several thousands of dollars and then they charge insane subscription prices on here. They constantly switch up the way the cars are manufactured.

[00:13:06]Just when they finally get it right, just when they finally make them okay and somewhat reliable, they'll switch it up and then the following year everything's in a different location.

[00:13:16]Everything's rewired. Why? So, you have to continue to pay this absurd subscription to get access to the repair manual, to get access to service the car, to get access to even read the codes on the car. It's insane.

[00:13:31]>> So, mechanics are paid two ways. You can pay them as a salary. So, you know, whatever if you want to pay them 30 bucks an hour times 40, and you know, they clock in at 9:00 a.m., they clock out at 5. And the other pay is called flat rate. Flat rate is where let's say I want to take the front axle out of this Mercedes.

[00:13:49]>> If I look at the book like um All Data or Mitchell on Demand, it could say maybe 6.8 hours. Now, if the technician takes it out in 3 hours, he still gets paid for the full 6 and 12. But if it takes him 8 hours to get this axle out, let's say it's rusted, it's crappy, whatever else, unfortunately, he still only get paid the 6 hours. Now, typically, this is usually great way for mechanics to make a lot of money. Back in the day, I remember doing like head gasket jobs, getting like 13, 14 hours and knocking it out in a little less than a day. And that was a great thing.

[00:14:19]And so, you're making all this extra money. But now cars are becoming so insanely electrical. The diagnosis is what kills everything. So, even like this car, I'm going to show you over here.

[00:14:31]>> This is a G Wagon we're taking apart.

[00:14:33]And it literally has seven computers back here. control the navigation, the stereo system, the self-leveling system, all kinds of crazy stuff. But just imagine if you have a short and you have literally three lbs of spaghetti >> to double check and go through. How do you know which one's wrong, which one's bad? And most times they only pay you maybe a half hour or an hour for diag.

[00:14:53]That's not enough. So technicians are racking their brains spending hours upon hours to fix this stuff and then they're not being compensated.

[00:15:01]>> So I want to hear from you guys. I'm sure by now there's got to be a couple of mechanics or technicians that are subscribed to the channel. If you guys aren't, definitely recommend doing so, checking down below. A lot of you guys actually have left comments saying that you were subscribed or you thought you were subscribed when you actually weren't. Something with the YouTube algorithm. So, if it's not too much to ask, just take a quick peek down below and check if you are subscribed. And before I forget, we're so close to hitting a 100,000 subscribers on the channel. Just a couple thousand away.

[00:15:29]And once we do, we're going to be doing a huge giveaway. $1,000 hopefully to help someone pay off their debt, buy groceries, get out of a hard time, whatever it is, I want to give this away ASAP. So, definitely help me reach that goal by tapping that subscribe button below. Let us not forget warranties screw over us technicians. Also, most vehicles are extremely complex to work on and don't ever pay.

[00:15:53]>> You don't think we have enough skill skilled labor?

[00:15:55]>> It's unbelievable how chronic the shortage of of skilled labor is in this country. We don't have vocational schools. There's no apprentice programs.

[00:16:03]>> Hi there, vocational school graduate.

[00:16:05]>> It just popped into my head. I'm waiting for Ford to go look for people overseas.

[00:16:12]I'm waiting for them to start picking out people from other countries, bring them into the states, pay them nothing, and and that's it. That'll be the answer here. Are you talking about there are trade schools, vocational schools, apprentice programs on every corner begging to take your money now? Yes, absolutely. There is a shortage of skilled technicians in this trade for sure. But there's not a lack of people entering it. There's a lot of people entering it and then immediately leaving once they see the [ __ ] that they signed up for. I almost left trade school. That is once I realized the [ __ ] I had signed up for, but I was already too far gone. They had already gotten my money. I had already signed all the documentation. Might as well stick around, get the degree. And a lot of other people felt the same way. They were pissed once they realized that they just paid 30 grand to watch the equivalent of Chris Fix videos all day.

[00:17:00]And I get it. Most of these schools are geared towards people who have never picked up a wrench in their life. And that just wasn't me. That wasn't quite a few people that were in my class. But the people that literally had never changed a tire or did brakes or change an air filter or anything like that.

[00:17:13]Those people were actually learning something, making some progress. Some of them did finish the program and go get jobs at shops. And >> to my knowledge, they're still technicians to this day. But as far as these like apprenticeships and vocational schools you're talking about as someone who went through one and finished and graduated, the general consensus was amongst everybody there or the vast majority anyway was like this was a bad idea. Why did we sign up for this? Cuz what these schools do is they prey on young kids fresh out of high school, you know, looking for a career path and they sell you, you know, oh, you could be automotive technician, you could make all this money. It's, you know, >> this and that. It's a great field to get into. It's growing, expanding, but what they don't tell you is all of the nonsense that comes with it. And being in that sort of environment where you're exposed to other technicians and you know a lot of the instructors are ex-technicians now teaching um you start learning real quick that this field is very flawed. There's a lot of [ __ ] that comes along with doing this and it's a lot of times not worth it for me most people. So they start dropping off like flies. So it's not fair to say that there oh there's no vocational schools or there's no trade schools or apprenticeships or that's [ __ ] They exist. People are signing up for them.

[00:18:21]My class was full. Every class in that [ __ ] was full.

[00:18:24]>> Yeah.

[00:18:25]>> You know, everyone was young and dumb and >> yep, >> signed up, wanted to learn, wanted to become a technician, and then they started realizing what the field was actually like, and they [ __ ] left.

[00:18:33]And I can't say I blame them. I mean, I could make a list a mile long. I talked about some of my last video why there are no technicians and the technicians we have are leaving. And then the new guys aren't even making it to their shop before they're quitting.

[00:18:47]They're making it a few weeks through the tech school and they're like, "Fuck this [ __ ] This is pointless."

[00:18:52]Anyway, ran over. Go have a good night.

[00:18:54]>> From what I am trying to understand that he's saying is I think people are going and realizing how stupid and how much they got fleeced. You know what I'm saying? Taken advantage of of their money because like he said, it's basically like watching Chris Fix videos. Here's how to unscrew a bolt.

[00:19:09]Here's how to take a tire. stuff that if you're going into that field, you probably already have a good general understanding of and you just wasted your money on it. Like you already either know how to do it or would have learned that in 30 seconds outside of that. You didn't have to spend 30 grand to learn that stuff. And unfortunately, that is practically the same thing as college now. I don't know if it ever was different, but certainly now it has become so watered down, so simple. I went for marketing and I didn't touch on marketing classes until my last semester. Maybe my last year if I really want to, you know, be conservative and nice. But it wasn't really until my last semester did I finally see it. Just opened the book, graduated, done. Barely spoke about it. Just wasted my time. It was like 13th grade for, you know, three and a half years. And then I got to learn a little bit about it. I I I learned all that stuff and more on YouTube in a couple of hours in my dorm room. I didn't need to go to school and spend tens of thousands of dollars to learn this for a marketing degree. Have you tried paying them more? And at the end of the day, my, you know, technicians and mechanics that are subscribed or watching can answer this.

[00:20:30]Even though it is an absolute pain in the ass to work on some of these cars, I will agree. Some of the newer ones, I would think you'd put up with it if they paid you more. I think lots of problems can be solved with more money at jobs. I I really do.

[00:20:48]>> There's a really big problem with modern manufacturers and how they pay for warranty. A lot of times manufacturers pay a lower rate than what a normal customer would pay. And that is so fascinating to me that they will pay warranty work like significantly cheaper than if they charge the customer that just walked in outside of a warranty.

[00:21:08]That to me just tells you all you need to know that it's cutting corners and profits over people, >> right? So, as an example, as a former FCA, Stalantis, Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep Tech, whatever, whatever you want to call it these days, we sold I think they still sell them. I They were going to discontinue them. I know that for sure.

[00:21:28]But we sold a small diesel engine called the Eco Diesel. We put it in half ton trucks and Grand Cherokees and Wranglers for some awful reason. What you need to know is the 3 L Eco Diesel is a pile of junk. And I've read people say that they love them to death. I've been inside the things. They are garbage. Initially, when this engine hit the sales floor, there was a bugaboo. The 3 L EcoDiesel is an Italian engine. And initially when this thing was released, they were using an oil in that engine with a viscosity level that was way too low for it. And from the jump, these things were breaking crankshafts in half.

[00:22:07]>> So there was a recall. We basically just did an oil change, put a different viscosity oil in it, and put a different sticker on the oil cap. That was a whole recall. Save the engines. Right now, at the time, a customer pay labor rate. So it's it's your car, you're paying for the repair. A customer repair labor rate to pull an Eco Diesel out of a halfton truck and replace it was about 19 or 20 hours.

[00:22:31]>> The manufacturer labor rate the >> they're charging $200 an hour. Remember 20 hours, think about how much they're charging you.

[00:22:40]>> Labor rate to pull an Eco Diesel out of a half ton truck and replace it was about 19 or 20 hours. The manufacturer labor rate the warranty time was 9 hours. 9 hours to get the truck rolled into the shop, the cab pulled off of it, the engine pulled out, put back in, the cab put back on top, and that thing running and driving out of the shop.

[00:23:05]>> Out of your mind.

[00:23:06]>> 9 hours.

[00:23:06]>> 9 hours.

[00:23:07]>> Let's get back in the productivity meetings. You would have these one-on- ones with management and they'd look at your hours that you're producing in a given pay period and they'd say, "Well, you're not doing, you know, as many hours as we think you could do. We think you could do more hours. We don't understand why, you know, your hours are so low. We need we need you to bump up those. We need you to sell more services, sell induction services, sell brake fluid services, you know, do really good inspections, upsells. That's what you need to do.

[00:23:36]>> Scam people." a whole other conversation we can have uh if you want to have that conversation, but basically it was management telling you you weren't working hard enough. And I had a manager that would say something consistently in these meetings that the one thing he loved to say was, "I want to make you more money. This is going to make you more money. This is what can we do to make you and your family more money. We want to take care of your family. We want you to make more. I I want I want to do this for you. You know how I was talking about this is basically commission. The thing about knowing the customer pay labor rate, the hourly rate per job and what I was making per hour is you can go back and do some really basic math. Now, if I took the customer labor rate, how much we charged you an hour, and how much I was making an hour, I could do some really basic math to figure out percentages. At our customer labor rate, my take as a technician was about 19%.

[00:24:48]I don't want to get too wishy-washy here, but I had legitimate financial interest into my job at that point. I had spent >> not as much as many other people, but over the course of my career, you could probably say somewhere between 20 and $25,000 in tools. By that point, I had spent over a decade honing my craft, becoming a great technician, working very hard, doing great diagnosises. I was the one with the skill. I was the one doing the repairs. And the people sitting at the desks up front printing paper were making more than I was fully certified, almost a decade of experience with this dealer. And my take was just 19%. That boss that would tell me that they just want me to make more money.

[00:25:37]They want to take care of me. They want to take care of my family. There's a really easy way to do that. I can work as hard as I want and I'm never going to break that 19%. So what about the other 81%.

[00:25:52]The harder I work, the more money you make. And you're already making more money than I am. So don't get >> Now I got a question. I don't know how that would work though. You might be paid flat rate or hourly or he's calculating their percentage off the job. I don't know if that's the same thing for adviserss and and people that are working in a service center. You probably just get paid a salary unless you are getting a percentage back. I I know like salesmen, the finance department, I think they get commissions, too. But I would think all of this is a lot of that's going right up to corporate. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm not sure how the layout of where money moves in in dealerships. This bull crap about how you want to take better care of me. You want to make more money for you, from me. That line would always drive me insane. You want to take better care of me and my family? Bump me up from the 19%. Then there are only so many hours in the day. I can work as hard as I want and I can produce a lot of hours, but you're still going to be richer than me. And you're going to be richer than me because of people like me that are doing the work for you. taking advantage of. Someone says$1.5 million to the dealer, $80,000 to the tech. He speaks the truth. The skilled labor should be the highest paid employees.

[00:27:16]The rest of the employees that leech onto the skilled worker need to be compensated that way. No skill equals lower pay. And I can understand the frustration with like the service department if that's what he's getting at. Anywh who, guys, that is going to be it for today's episode. Let me know your thoughts on this. It's certainly affecting all of us, which is why I made the video. Not just the mechanics getting screwed. They keep raising the price on us, us consumers, us customers, and it's not good. So, I mean, hopefully some of this stuff gets worked out, unions or whatever, something fixes it.

[00:27:48]But, you know, us customers out there, us people that have to deal with this, you know, backfire uh by them raising the prices on us when we need our cars repaired, my best advice is try to figure it out yourself. At least the basic maintenance. I'm not saying drop an engine or take one out, but if you can learn how to do your brakes, do your oil change, change your cabin filters, maybe rotate your tires, you can save tens of thousands of dollars over the ownership of your car. Just some food for thought. Anyways, that is going to be it for today's episode. Smash the like button, turn on post notifications, subscribe if you haven't already, and if you haven't seen my previous episode on why new cars are horrible, definitely check it out right after this. Peace.