Commander FAT

Hello everyone. Although I do not own a Mercedes ( I actually own a BMW 330, don't hate me ) I have just been recently accepted into the Mercedes-Benz Elite program. Beginning this coming March I will be training to become a certified MB technician.

If I'm not mistaken most sales of higher end cars like Mercedes or BMW are leases. Does this mean that most cars I will end up working on are within being five years old? Is it true that most of the work will be electrical/computer/ or electronics related?

Any advice or input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

If you like you can message on AIM using do1997.

Dwight

I have been a MB tech for 10 years and my advice to you would be to change your program to a BMW program. I know at our dealership the BMWs are outselling the MBs at a 3 to 1 ratio.
It sucks but, with the slightly lower prices and the free maintenance the MB customers in our are have changed to the BMWs. I hope the MB will do something soon to help compete. Sorry to sound glum but, it is what it is in my area....Dwight

Commander FAT

Thanks for the input.

Unfortunately I was not accepted into the BMW STEP program (they wouldn't tell me why which I found rather insulting, but whatever).

More than likely I'll get a position in one of three places, California, Florida, or an east coast state. Woman in the employment office showed me the most recent list of opening and that's where about 90% of the openings were. Those are big money areas so hopefully the dealership I work at won't have trouble getting customers.

Anyway, Dwight, what do you see as being the majority of the work as far as how old the cars are and type of work?

Shinigami

In Switzerland, MB sales grew by 4.1% this year, whilst BMW sales dropped by a whopping 48.3%.

Dwight

The type of work is mainly new under warranty vehicles. Unfortunately the dealership prices are scaring away the cash customers. Usually people do not understand that more times than mot if they have a real problem with the car it is going to cost more to take it somewhere other than the dealership. I have seen this happen many times and all I can do is scratch my head....lol
Texas is another area where MB is strong but, in the midwest it seems to be more of a BMW area. Dwight

Commander FAT

What's a reasonable amount of money to be made after a few years at a dealership? One of my goals is to build my own race car to take to driver school weekends. I'm hoping to make enough to make that dream a reality.

Dwight

The money part is hard to tell and varies with areas. As far as racing goes I guess it all depends how much time and money you want to devote to the dream...D

McBear

As a cash customer, I nearly always leave the dealer as soon as the car is out of warranty. (current cars are obvious). With the independents, I have seldom had to take the car back a second time to complete the same repair. With my previous benzes, I was at various dealers on a weekly basis getting sunroofs realigned again, windows reprogrammed again, computers replaced, bearing repacked again. Most was done under warranty but I personally spent over 300 hours at the dealers from 1997-2002 when I made the decision to go back to cars that were designed and speced by engineers, not accountants. Since then, I have spent less than 15 hours at a service center and my cars have spent 11 days total in 4 years for 2 cars with a combined 350,000 miles and that includes two complete motor rebuilds that I could not do myself.

Once the 97 CLK 320, 97 E320 and 98 C280 were out of warranty, their returns for re-service of the same problem dropped to nearly 0. (one instance). And yes, I do keep all those records on a spreadsheet.

Karl

RECALLS!!!!!

Vik888

You'll never run out of repairs to do with MB especially with the latest quality issues. Most owners are smart now -- they just dump the thing after the warranty is over.