subject: Is It Easy To Become An Auto Mechanic? [print this page] It's high noon an a 100-degree day when your car calls it quits and a cloud of steam escapes from your hood as you limp into a conveniently located service station. The mechanic on duty is over to help you quick as a wink.
"Shucks, it's just your water pump," he says after a quick look. "I can fix it, but it'll cost you $100 and you won't be on the road for at least 20 minutes." Even before your alarm clock goes off, you know you're dreaming.
Ah, life as a car owner in the 1980s. To this day, mechanics say, we expect car repairs to be as quick, simple and cheap as they were then. It just isn't so. And the mechanic is always the motorist's favorite scapegoat.
To suppose that the problems associated with auto repair are largely the result of incompetent or dishonest mechanics is about as helpful as saying that the incidence of heart disease is the result of greedy or incompetent surgeons.
Mechanics say there are a few things we should know about their line of work before we point fingers at them. They would like us to stop thinking of car repair in 1980s terms while they're having to deal with the infinitely more complicated cars of today. They would like us to learn to take better care of our cars in the first place, rather than waiting until the thing breaks down and then demanding a quick repair.
And they would like us to explain better just what the car is doing wrong, rather than assuming the car needs a tuneup.
It's not an easy job, of course. A mechanic has to be a plumber, technician and electronics expert as well as a mechanic. The problem is not fixing the thing. It's figuring out what thing needs fixing.
People think of mechanics as being good at fixing things and that's only half of the story. Being able to figure out what's wrong is the important thing. Car engines today are computerized and growing more complicated by the year. Half of the engines are angled, set in sideways or buried under what appears to be the aftermath of some electronic explosion.
Every car manufacturer has a different idea of what goes where, what it looks like and how it should work. A simple valve that used to take you a few minutes to do, now can take a few hours. Plus, there are so many types of cars and each one has four or five models.
Wait a minute, you say, don't mechanics have these fancy diagnostic machines that can interpret what's wrong with any car? Sort of. Some service stations have such equipment, but they're not the cure-all. All that equipment does is tell the mechanic the general area in which the problem lies. It doesn't say where the problem is exactly, or how to fix it. So lets give mechanics a break, shall we?
by: Milos Pesic
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