On Sun, 27 Nov 2005 18:29:30 GMT, Gunner Asch
wrote:

On Sun, 27 Nov 2005 14:32:08 GMT, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:

"Pete C." wrote:

Not entirely true, the few lucky people who have been able to find
honest, reliable mechanics do tend to speak highly of them.





Remember that the people bringing in the cars in the last 15 years or so
as you have noted, are the parents (or now their children) from the
generation that has deluded themselves into the belief that mechanical
trades (dirty jobs) are somehow devoid of education and skill and have
actively discouraged their children from having any interest in such
things.

This delusion of the PYVs (plastic yuppie vermin) is furthered by the
increasing complexity of cars and the thought that the grease monkeys
couldn't possibly understand anything about computers so they must just
be swapping parts until things magically start working.

It's only going to get worse too...

Pete C.


Seven or eight years ago the gas gauge quit on my dad's jeep. He
took it to the dealer. The changed the sending unit. Then they changed
the gauge. They had it over a week and still hadn't fixed it, so he paid
them over $400 to get it back. I took a look at it and found the problem
in 15 seconds. The lug on the ground wire to the sending unit had
snapped, and the wire was hanging down, in plain sight. A new lug took a
few minutes to install and it worked fine, till he traded it in on a new
car a few years later.

Shrug...I spent $65 to have my truck run though the computer
diagnostics. They couldnt find the problem, suggested some high dollar
repairs..shotgun approach.

I replaced the badly worn distro cap and the rotor. Ran fine after
than.

Im starting to think that there are more button pushers than actual
tradesmen in auto mechanics.

Gunner


And you need to ask why??????
Anyone with half a brain got out of the business 15 or 20 years ago.
ANd not too many with half a brain or more are getting into the
business over the last 20 years.

When I started in the late sixties, it was the lowest paid trade - bar
none.
When I taught the trade in the seventies, the attitude at the schools
was "he's too dumb to make a scientist, plumber, electrician, or
machinist out of - and too smart to be a lawyer, so we'll put him in
Auto Mechanics.

So I had to teach them electrical, plumbing, physics, machining, math,
and all the rest to make mechanics out of them.

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire.
Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us)
off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give
them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the **** out of you
for torturing the cat." Gunner