On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, we take a look at “10 Repairs You Should Never Try to Do Yourself”, of course that really only applies if you’re not a mechanic. Right away, the marketing concept that people can fix their own cars is objectively wrong in most cases. Bodywork is number one for a good reason, a lot of people think that they can paint a car, but the amount of work actually involved in doing it right makes people do it wrong! Number two is ECU tuning, which might just be...
Jul 27, 2022•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 204
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy watches a video from CNBC on the automotive technician shortage and actually agrees with most of it. There is however, one big thing that they kinda skimmed over that we wanted to elaborate on: passion. Having passion for cars and having the passion to fix them for a living are two different things. With the sheer number of things in modern life that you can be passionate about, it is no wonder why people have put their cars on the back bu...
Jul 21, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 203
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, we embrace the meaning of that term and take an article from Indeed called “15 Ways to Become Indispensable at Work” If you are one of the people who solves problem for a living, you are already indispensable- especially if you do it with tools. There are some good points in this article that work well for our profession, but sometimes don’t mesh when it comes to their application. Going above and beyond is great - if you’re getting paid for it! In th...
Jul 14, 2022•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 202
On this week’s episode we delve into the churning gears of capitalism and talk about the Grind. The Grind begins the moment your feet hit the floor, and with the sheer amount of knowledge that we have to do our job, it doesn’t stop until our heads hit the pillow. This week we are going over the article, “Five Common Traits of Savvy People Who Escape the Rate Race” and straight away - two thumbs up! One of the best ways to beat the grind while you’re still in it is to make sure that you use all o...
Jul 07, 2022•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 201
On this week’s episode of Grease the wheels, we take a look at, ‘9 Things that Service Managers Should Do”. Right off the bat, the problems have not changed in the 10 years since this article was written, and in some points it is weirdly prophetic. Overall, this article pitches a lot of pretty solid things such as: regularly reviewing the calls that service advisors make in order to figure out where to make more money. As a tech, this can often be infuriating as the service advisor downplays or ...
Jun 30, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 200
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, we get to the bread of the complement sandwich with Service Advisors and give them some serious tips and tricks on how to do their job better. This of course comes with the underlying message that if you find yourself seriously deficient in any of these categories, you may want to exit the business. You have to have the right personality to be successful as a service advisor. For Example, if you have deep seated racism or misogyny, you’re pretty much ...
Jun 23, 2022•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 199
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy goes over what complaints customers have about Service Advisors on an industry wide basis. Turns out customers and technicians are in agreement on a lot of this list! From diagnosing from the chair and being wrong, to not getting the entire story on upcoming issues and incomprehensible promise times - the rift in the perception of what we do to the public eye begins and ends with the Service Advisors. Uncle Jimmy pitches a few lines that a...
Jun 16, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 198
On this week's episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy dives into the disgusting swamps of the forums to find out what customers really think about us as automotive mechanics. In the process, he ends up making the case that typically the most ignorant voice their opinions the loudest on the internet, often with flimsy reasoning or dubious evidence. Some of the negative experiences that people had with their mechanic’s were simple misunderstandings, while others might have been entirely chalked...
Jun 09, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 197
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy thanks all of our fallen service members in addition to all of the wrench twisting folks who keep the world moving, However, we are still very much in the throes of “The Great Resignation”, so we are talking about some of the scientific reasons why people quit their jobs. Most of them are complete no-brainers, such as not getting paid enough and not being recognized for the work that you do. However, when you compound that with rapidly ris...
Jun 02, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 196
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy gets into some of the cold hard economics of the current automotive technician labor market and talks about how to get a raise. When techs can’t afford to live in the city that they work in, you are going to have major personnel problems- you don't have to be JD Rockefeller to figure that one out. When you throw the rampant inflation into the mix, the situation becomes a lot more acute and visible. The pain is real, and wages need to go up...
May 26, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 195
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy goes over a laundry list of things that you shouldn’t say to your manager in a while collar setting, that more often than not you SHOULD say to your manager in a blue collar setting. Reminding your manager of “The Great Resignation” works well in a white collar setting, but in the trades it punches just that little bit harder. When you get to the automotive trades, it can be a powerful tool to leverage higher wages in the face of a continu...
May 19, 2022•59 min•Ep. 194
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy fires up the Delorean and goes back to the magical time of 1972 to figure out if technicians were better off then or now. The most shocking thing that we uncovered is the concept of “Flat Rate Percentage” which is an awesome way to get paid that desperately needs to make a comeback (and never, EVER will!). As far as the cars go, technicians were way better off, because odds are that in 1972 somewhere in Middle America, you’re probably not ...
May 12, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 193
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy gets into the weeds on some of the perceptions that the general public has about various factions of the automotive repair industry. For good or for ill, your reputation as a mechanic is tied directly to your shop’s reputation, and as this survey suggests, having that reputation being well represented in the form of glowing reviews can make you a lot of extra money. How trustworthy are dealerships? How well do quick lube places know their ...
May 05, 2022•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 192
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy takes aim at some of the glaring fallacies of articles running down mechanics on the internet. This article states that saying a phrase like “I wouldn’t drive that very far” as a mechanic should disqualify them from servicing a customer’s car. However, this fails to take into account whether or not cords are hanging out of the tires and the brakes are metal to metal, and the ball joints are hanging on by a thread; this becomes less a matte...
Apr 28, 2022•2 hr 7 min•Ep. 191
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, we talk about how we respond to the naturally chaotic and often perpetual stupidity that we deal with on a daily basis. The natural response to this is anger, but if you’re in Texas like Uncle Jimmy, they will kill you if you kill someone- even if they are stupid! Instead we talk about some of the more practical ways to not get old sparky when you lose your cool with people. Trying to remain calm almost never works when it comes from the outside, but ...
Apr 21, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 190
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, we deal with the image the public has when it comes to the people who fix their cars: they think we’re scumbags! Are we dirty? We definitely can be; when you’re dealing with things as gross as other people’s cars you can get really dirty! As far as looking the part, point taken but the second part of being a scumbag lies in how you treat others. If you are one of the people who keeps the world moving by fixing things, it is hard to actually be a scumb...
Apr 14, 2022•44 min•Ep. 189
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy doesn’t skimp on the praise as we talk about how employers can appreciate their employees, and tailor it more to the automotive industry. Appreciation is best shown in the Automotive Industry through paying well and trying to make the job as bearable as possible. Balanced feedback prevents managing from the negative, which can be a big problem for more sales based managers. Also, a healthy amount of respect also goes a long way as well, be...
Apr 07, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 188
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels we take a look back at some of the finer points of the origins of this show: how little auto mechanics are paid and why. The numbers are pretty pathetic and for a lot of us wouldn’t even get us to return an employer’s calls if they offered us a job at that wage. This of course has precipitated a disastrous drop in the amount of people doing the job which will only get worse as time goes on. However, we look at the ways to command a higher price when ap...
Mar 31, 2022•46 min•Ep. 187
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, we look at the final bit of the employment process- the point where you have had enough or circumstances change and you need a new job. There are a lot of really good reasons to quit your job as an auto mechanic: partner gets a better job somewhere else - go with them, cars break everywhere! Wanting to go back to school is usually a pretty good way to get a raise and get out of that stuck feeling. We also talk about some of the ways that someone quitt...
Mar 24, 2022•59 min•Ep. 186
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, we are talking about happiness in the workplace. Seems like a bit of an oxymoron in the automotive industry, but Uncle Jimmy is co-opting articles written for cubicle workers for Auto Mechanics again, so hilarity ensues. The key to being happy at work is in maintaining a good work-life balance and there is a lot to unpack there. Some of the best tips for this include checking the baggage for one at the door of the other, and mentally training yourself...
Mar 17, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 185
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, we complete the interview process by coming up with some intelligent questions to ask your interviewers. Admittedly, we have covered a lot of this in the last two episodes, so this is a bit more general (if you hate pushing cars, make sure you ask how they get dead cars into the shop) Asking the person you are interviewing with some of these more broad questions will be more helpful, because they might not know a lot of the specifics about equipment, ...
Mar 10, 2022•55 min•Ep. 184
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, we continue to explore how to game job interviews with well thought out answers to the most common job interview questions. The important thing to remember when you are getting interviewed is that this is also an interview between you and the shop, so find out as much information as you can from the people that already work there. If the narrative that your potential employer is giving you is massively divergent from the operational realities on the g...
Mar 03, 2022•54 min•Ep. 183
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy goes over the top 50 questions asked during job interviews. We are still in the throes of “The Great Resignation” which started at the end of last year and is still going strong with people leaving jobs en masse. How is it affecting the automotive industry? Well, if the want ads are any suggestion, it isn't helping anything. If you are looking to grease your wheels, this two-part episode will give you the questions that you are most likely...
Feb 24, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 182
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy recounts a recent experience of taking a test for employment and flips the script by coming up with his own survey for you to send potential shops. Obviously sending it as an attachment with your resume might get you disqualified for the job right away, it’s just the nature of the industry. However, if you can snag an interview you often get the chance to ask questions like, “how do you get dead cars into the shop?” or “does all of your eq...
Feb 21, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 181
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy finds an article on the internet that almost sounds like it was written by someone who listens to this show. The article: Four Reasons for the Technician Shortage, and the first one is money! This guy gets it! The only real part that we disagree with is the idea that the technician shortage could become a crisis, we only disagree because it already is a crisis. We also get into the discussion about working conditions and some of our favori...
Feb 10, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 180
O n this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, we talk about listening, because it’s something that pretty much everyone in our industry is bad at. That’s not entirely true, tech’s are usually pretty good about listening to other techs especially when the information that can make their job easier - or just general shop banter. Other than that though, no one is listening. We also go into reasons for why people aren’t listening: people who constantly whine and complain are generally disregarded be...
Feb 03, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 179
On this week’s Grease the Wheels we talk about the inherent difference between Proactive and Reactive in the Automotive Industry, as well as some of the ramifications that being too heavy on one or the other can cause. As a rule of thumb, you should probably be a bit of both: being able to prevent fires in your shop or dealership is just as important as being able to handle them when they show up. By fires, we are usually talking about customers and some of the “unexpected” repairs that we quote...
Jan 27, 2022•55 min•Ep. 178
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy describes the contents of the automotive pandora’s box when it comes to all of the crazy chaos we run into. The difference here is that we have actually found some ways to attempt to minimize the chaos. People pay us to handle the chaos, and how well you handle the chaos can determine how much you are actually worth. So Uncle Jimmy came up with both a list and an anti-list for when it comes to dealing with the daily chaos of the automotive...
Jan 20, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 177
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy eschews finding a top 10 list from the internet, and instead makes his own and tells you some of the ramifications of not following them! This week- it's Diag Tips! Get the Whole Story: when a Service Advisor is vague and gives your Repair Orders like, “replace a tire” make sure you find out which one. “Has a leak”, well what fluid is it?- so far the weirdest answer is milk. The customer is rarely forthcoming with details especially when t...
Jan 13, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 176
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy does the boring and predictable thing of talking about goals for a New Years Podcast. However, this is going to be a little bit different, because as Technicians, our goal is to get paid for fixing broken things. One of Uncle Jimmy’s goals this year is to finally open the floodgates on a technological revolution that will let you work from home and collect all of the money for the labor that you create. Having goals is a good thing, but th...
Jan 06, 2022•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 175
