[Blued and Painted]

Yes, the sealing of the engines has greatly improved. The black streak down the middle of the roadways has disappeared. The chevy's would normally get past the 12/12 before the vcg's would shrink up. Our Pontiacs still take allot of effort to keep dry.

For the young guy's, back then there were service stations. In a couple of minutes, You could get gas, have all your fluids topped off, tires aired up, and the windshield cleaned without leaving your vehicle. Occasionally having a quart of oil added was the norm.

Somewhere around the mid 90's the dealers figured out they could raise the labor rate per hour, but cut labor times on customer pay operations. Not much change in price to the customer, but the mechanic got the shaft.

I switched to fleet work.

[Tom Vaught]

Originally Posted by Blued and Painted

Yes, the sealing of the engines has greatly improved. The black streak down the middle of the roadways has disappeared. The chevy's would normally get past the 12/12 before the vcg's would shrink up. Our Pontiacs still take allot of effort to keep dry.

For the young guy's, back then there were service stations. In a couple of minutes, You could get gas, have all your fluids topped off, tires aired up, and the windshield cleaned without leaving your vehicle. Occasionally having a quart of oil added was the norm.

Somewhere around the mid 90's the dealers figured out they could raise the labor rate per hour, but cut labor times on customer pay operations. Not much change in price to the customer, but the mechanic got the shaft.

I switched to fleet work.

A good mechanic (and a honest dealer and service manager who would authorize and pay for that work) could make a good living the the 70s. Most could beat the rate for the job and still have coffee time.

The Trans Guys vs the Engine Guys seemed to make the most money for the work required. Deal was the GOOD engine guy hardly ever had a "come-back" whereas the Trans Guy was fast and made money but typically he did the job over at least 50% of the time.

The 90s were much worse FOR EVERYTHING.

Tom V.