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Ford CEO Says There Aren't Enough Mechanics. Then a Mechanic Responds

https://www.motor1.com/news/774805/ford-ceo-complains-shortage-mechanics/
30•thunderbong•2h ago

Comments

staminade•1h ago
Standard CEO: "I'll do anything to hire more skilled workers, except pay them a reasonable wage."
ares623•1h ago
Is this the new "learn to code"
stavros•1h ago
No, "learn to code" was the supply-side response of people who saw software engineers get paid shittons of money. This is a demand-side CEO lamenting the fact that he can't get people to fix cars for cheap, so literally the opposite problem.
stavros•1h ago
Every single time someone says "there's a shortage of <profession>", you can mentally substitute it for "we can't get <profession> for cheap".
ares623•50m ago
Agreed. It kinda worked for software for a bit since it was such a new field, so there could’ve been some truth to it just as a matter of time to get the systems in place to educate people.
bko•36m ago
While that's true, there is some market clearing price in which the activity just ceases to exist.

For instance, take something with a small marginal benefit like a dedicated person at a supermarket to bag groceries. It's a nice to have but the value to the employer is probably less than a $15 minimum wage. So you could say there is a shortage of grocery baggers since there is no one willing to do it at a market clearing price.

Doesn't mean we should do anything about it. There will always be some extra activity that would take place at a lower price, but it's worth while to notice that.

LaSombra•1h ago
Excessive regulation to blame? How so?
HPsquared•1h ago
Auto mechanics do things to "flat rate" where a particular task is listed as taking a given amount of time. There seems to be a lot of variation between what the book says, and how long the tasks actually take. How are these flat rates assessed? I wonder if it's assuming a new car with no complications or wear and tear to components, or rust etc.
dugmartin•59m ago
The "design for unmaintainability" problem has been around for a while. I remember helping a friend change his plugs on this Ford Ranger in the early 90s. The closest two plugs to the firewall required you to climb into the engine bay and basically hug the engine to get your arm into position to blindly get to the plugs. If you look around on YouTube you'll see some crazy mechanic videos where they show things like bolts located in impossible to loosen locations.

Cars used to be simpler to work on because a) they inherently were simpler and b) the engine bay used to have a lot of room to work in. Both of these things are not coming back.

burnt-resistor•35m ago
It's kind of always been that way to varying degrees. In the 70's/80's, changing the Porsche 911 spark plugs required dropping the engine.

Also, in addition to planned obsolescence and repair hostility is Design for Manufacturing (DfM) that doesn't care about maintainability, safety, comfort, or durability, only lowest cost to shove things together on an assembly line. This is why there are some cars that require removing the wheel well to change the oil filter and other that have things completely out-of-order or require absurd tools to service. My grandfather was a 30 year Chrysler dealer mechanic who had a dozen or so custom tools for very specific purposes.

Source: Dad had an A/C & electrical mechanic shop next to a Porsche specialist shop.

nialse•28m ago
In the 70's/80's you could fit a person in the engine bay of a Volvo. So, varying degrees of complexity and difficulty to fix things.
burnt-resistor•41m ago
Yes, opining for wage suppression but also here's a mechanic owner/operator explaining the situation:

https://youtu.be/9cfbhxsqW84

Git based CMS for my blog

https://ferrucc.io/posts/git-based-cms-for-my-blog/
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