On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, we look at an article about coming trends in the automotive industry from connectivity, to automated driving and electrification, and even some of Jimmy’s better conspiracies. This is a wild one where we look into the future from the recent past and compare notes to how it’s going. When it comes to connectivity, the leaps and bounds have been extreme since Jimmy entered the industry. From a few cars having bluetooth to full Apple Carplay and Android A...
Oct 21, 2023•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 263
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy pulls an article from Identafix talking about the burgeoning opportunities for techs in the $60 Billion per year Automotive Industry. We talk about this in the context of other episodes, but the main focus of this episode is dumb things that customers do. We ponder if technicians make good service advisors, even though they are typically more educated than the people selling the work or the products themselves. Being a service advisor is a...
Oct 12, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 262
On this week’s only slightly late episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy takes another swing at the problems we can fix - only this time it is the people in your building. We also examine whether the switch to EV’s is going to decrease the number of help wanted signs seen around shops. For some reason, the author of this article seems to think that EV’s are immune to the universal law of entropy and will never need any form of repairs and maintenance. Because of this, the author predicts that...
Oct 07, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 261
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy swaps diagnosing problems with cars, to diagnosing problems with people. The source of 100% of the problems that a shop will run into in a given day is driven by the customers. If there was nothing to fix, there would be no problems. However, where problems become even bigger problems is the gulf between the perception of modern auto repair and the reality. Cars are a lot more complicated now than people think they are. Yes, they work bett...
Sep 28, 2023•50 min•Ep. 260
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy is back on form and shredding internet articles. Looking for a spark of lunacy, he delves into an article titled “20: Ways to Tell if your Mechanic is an Idiot” This is one of the more ridiculous lists we’ve seen as it actively counteracts things that we are telling our service advisors to do. It also completely discounts the thousands of absolutely fantastic technicians who have never even taken an ASE test. We also get into some of the r...
Sep 21, 2023•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 259
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, WE ARE BACK! This week we are talking about the differences between the forward thinkers and the reactive thinkers in the automotive industry. Often times vehicles can be described as “forward thinking”, but rarely can the same be said of management in this industry. The difference is being able to anticipate where the proverbial puck is going instead of focusing on where it has been. One of the major areas that is going to stress test forward thinkin...
Sep 14, 2023•1 hr 18 min
Okay, so this is how this shit works! This is actually Uncle Jimmy , Erik the Producer has been in a bad car accident . He and his significant other have both sustained some serous injuries. We are told they will be okay , but it is pretty bad as of right now. So if you have some prayers and well wishes you can send to Erik and Caitlyn that would be greatly appreciated. Since Erik really does all of the back breaking editing work ( I'm still not sure how he makes me sound good) we are going to t...
Aug 20, 2023•4 min
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy hits one of our collective nerves: tools. From the tools that we use every single day and would be lost without, to the tools that get relegated to the back of the bottom drawer once a particular recall is done - we can’t get the job done without them. We also talk about the level of mechanical genius often found in some of the ways that we modify tools to do certain jobs better, or look at a tool designed to do one thing and having it do ...
Aug 03, 2023•1 hr 25 min
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy dives into an article about alternative career paths for automotive technicians - written by people who know nothing about being an auto technician and even less about some of these other jobs. We’ll give them the easy ones like building maintenance technician, Parts Manager, HVAC maintenance, and even shop foreman and shop owner for those who age out of being an auto mechanic, but that is about it. If you had a hard time working on cars, ...
Jul 27, 2023•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 256
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy starts off with an innocuous enough question and rapidly descends the rabbit hole of what people who don’t know about cars think about car repair. The question is, “how hard is it to change an engine?” Simple enough right? Not for these folks! There are plenty of jobs that are more mechanically difficult or arduous than changing an engine. Sometimes changing the entire engine is a completely preferable alternative to the massive amounts of...
Jul 20, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 255
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy takes a look at some of the reasons why you should stay at your current job. We know we have spent the last 250+ episodes telling you why you should leave, but there are often serious pull factors such as not having to look for a job, and being stable financially to some degree. There are also people that make the job worth it sometimes, and many times these people get genuinely close to you due to the amount of time you spend in close pro...
Jul 13, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 254
On this week’s holiday episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy breaks down just how many job openings there are on Indeed.com for every brand of car manufacturer. We really like Indeed, and they didn’t pay us to say that because it allowed us to break down the national demand for wrench twisting folks quickly and efficiently. Likewise, we see that national demand for technicians at independent shops is almost equal that of dealerships. The wildest part is that most jobs get filled before they'...
Jul 06, 2023•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 253
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy endeavors to extend his thanks to the rest of the world that fixes things - by bringing you content created from people who need things fixed, but can’t. This is a good one folks. Anyone who seeks out information is already ahead of the game in some ways, but some of the responses you get on the internet can be dubious. In this episode we see responses that run the gambit from: “learn from the ground-up how to fix and shred the engine your...
Jun 29, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 252
Jun 22, 2023•52 min•Ep. 251
On this weeks episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy gets back to good old fire and brimstone with the service advisors. Anytime you can start off an episode with the prompt, “you couldn’t sell an AC repair to a woman in June, in Texas” as a statement of fact instead of a murderous burn - you know we’re in for a good one. In this episode we explore how the customer service arm of the service department can and often does drop the ball when it comes to customer interactions. When you think tha...
Jun 15, 2023•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 250
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy takes a look at the Automotive DIY Market. This is one of those countercyclical industries that really kicks in when the economy gets bad - and in the past that wasn’t the worst thing in the world because cars were exponentially simpler. Today, depending on the make, model, and Russian YouTuber whose video you find - the results can be a lot more mixed. We go into an article about jobs that the internet thinks that people can do themselves...
Jun 08, 2023•1 hr 52 min•Ep. 249
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy goes further down the “talent acquisition” rabbit hole and finesses some good ideas out of mediocre ones. Establishing relationships with tech schools, colleges with automotive programs, and even some high school trades are a good start - but they need to be catered to the objective reality that the applicants are facing that cars are getting harder to work on every single day. We also get into the idea of hiring both the formerly incarcer...
Jun 01, 2023•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 248
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy further explores the generational divide in the dealership. When it comes to Gen Z, they are getting driver’s licenses at an even slower rate than the Millenials did at that point. However, as the economy improved for millennials and needs eclipsed public transit options, they started getting their licenses. It has yet to be seen if this trend will replicate itself with Gen Z, mainly because the economy is still firmly in the sh*tter. Howe...
May 25, 2023•38 min•Ep. 247
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy examines the pendulum-like market forces of auto repair. The basic idea here is that when the economy slows down, people hold onto their money - especially when it comes to their cars. However, because a pendulum swings back, when people put off certain repairs for too long they become a LOT more expensive. We also talk about the generational shift going on with Gen Z not getting their driver’s licenses - but that pendulum will swing back ...
May 18, 2023•1 hr•Ep. 246
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy goes into some of the biggest time sucks in western civilization - which gets compounded when you’re working flat-rate. There are a whole lot of things that can waste your time in the shop, and some of them are completely unavoidable. Is there ever such a thing as an actual quick question, NO! Industry wide, talking is one of the biggest time wasters there is - unavoidable really. We also get into the corporate time wastes from improper or...
May 11, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 245
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy channels Aristotle to the tune of Charlie Manson and comes up with a much more nuanced 10 point code of ethics for technicians. “Thou shall know what you’re doing, thou shall not rip people off blindly,” that kind of thing. We also get the rest of the service department involved and come up with codes of ethics for Service Advisors and Service Managers alike! This one basically comes down to, “do your job!”, or the burning bush will be ars...
May 04, 2023•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 244
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy gets into the constant corporate kerfuffle of ethics. Specifically this week we examined the ASE’s technician code of ethics and found that it was really pretty hard to find! We get what they are going for here, but we don’t agree with the orthodoxy that “in order to be a good tech, you must be ASE certified”, because quite frankly we know brilliant technicians who just don’t test well. The meaning of this article is well, but we actually ...
Apr 27, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 243
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy takes aim at another batch of misconceptions spread by corporate entities when it comes to the direction of the automotive industry. Unless the good folks at Area 51 have come up with some new types of fasteners that use nano-bots and electricity to hold stuff together - we’re still going to need toolboxes! Seriously, some of the ideas being peddled by this article are not even close to where the industry is going, so at least it is good f...
Apr 20, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 242
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy goes down the angst-inducing rabbit hole of aftermarket warranty companies and adjusters. First point of contention, just because you “used to be a mechanic” does not give you carte blanche to be an asshole - we’re not on the same team anymore because it is literally your job to not pay us. Second point of contention, do not accuse Uncle Jimmy of not performing work on a vehicle just because it is clean - this will earn you a short drop an...
Apr 13, 2023•55 min•Ep. 241
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy cues the John Barry and suggests that one of the best ways to fix a shop or dealership is to send in a tech undercover to find out all of its strengths and weaknesses. It’s benevolent corporate espionage with just a hint of Grease the Wheels HR methodology. In terms of finding out how a shop either works or doesn’t work, a technician with a set checklist of things to figure out could be a ruthlessly efficient way to skunk out problem perso...
Apr 06, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 240
O n this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy goes into his K Plan for onboarding new hires and setting them up for success in your repair shop. The first part of this is having a deep understanding of the flow and chemistry of the shop, because if they are going to spoil this chemistry- you might want to back off on hiring them. The goal is to reduce the massive attrition amongst new hires in the auto industry - and we think this could definitely work. The K Plan is pretty comprehen...
Mar 30, 2023•1 hr 42 min•Ep. 238
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy lays out the real first step of the “K Plan” for new guys and outlines what has to happen in the interview process. Before that even happens, the job posting has to be succinct and tell the potential hire what they need to know - especially in terms of benefits and compensation. Also, where you place these ads and the keywords you target can have a drastic effect on the quality of the applicants you get. The real goal of the interview proc...
Mar 16, 2023•1 hr 42 min
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy talks about something that is kneecapping just about the entire economy right now: the lack of replacement parts for stuff that we have to fix! For some systems in cars this was a problem before the pandemic, but since it has spiraled out of control and has increasingly come under the microscope as the transition to EV’s has been hampered by production and quality control issues. That is nothing to talk of the massively underpaid and apath...
Mar 09, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 236
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, we Tarantino it. Uncle Jimmy begins to formulate the answer for how to lower the “Verdun-esq” attrition rates among new hires. To do this, he’s going to need more time, but in the meantime we take a look at how corporate minds plan on dealing with the solution. The problem is that they are taking the position of the shop when in order to solve this problem you need to solve it from the perspective of the new hire themselves and address the root causes...
Mar 08, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 237
On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, Uncle Jimmy examines ways to be less cranky. Getting enough sleep, avoiding being hangry, and regulating your caffeine intake are all tried and true mood stabilization methods. We also talk about the echo-chamber-inducing smartphone and how that can be an enormous cause of anxiety in people’s lives - the weird part though is just how self-inflicted it is. Anxiety in the workplace is a recurring trope here on GTW, and with cars getting even more compli...
Mar 02, 2023•1 hr 6 min
