I'm very retired.
My experience at the dealership level - "only" 2 decades. In the industry, probably five decades. I was an Independent for only about 5 years.
I only know of one technician who actually moved from a dealership shop to his own business, who survived and was successful. Yes he made better money, but still dealt with employee problems and staying up to date with diagnostic equipment and technology. He quit working on current models this Century.

Yes, there's a shortage of technicians, but that's a High School Counselor issue. I worked with another educator to integrate high school classes and credits with the local Community College 20 years ago. It's producing technicians and jobs. (Mostly healthcare right now.)

A good shop will have a waiting list. It will pay enough so technicians don't have to "follow the money" because they're already in it.

In my experience, the Techs who have a desire to Be The Best work for Dealership Service Departments. That's where they get the best training (the only place to get ANY training), have the most sophisticated equipment and get the best cars to work on.

And, you know, those are the ones I want working on my cars.
NOT the ones who follow the money.

But I also want them to be rewarded, which is why I meet with a Service Manager to get an overview of the operation.

 

Sorry everyone, I don’t want to take this too far OT but,
LOL me too, I just keep getting sucked back in. I still consult for Mfg’ers occasionally. But it’s at my own pace. Mostly in the reverse engineering/benchmarking field these days, but sometimes on the manufacturing side too.

Oh, this is something we totally agree on! It’s a high school level issue for sure. Part of the problem is the video game generation. Let’s face it, working on cars is hard work! But to be fair, it’s not just that.

You got to get kids before they drop out. Not all kids can afford to go to advanced education if they’re trying to make ends meet today.

So since you’re retired, we’re probably close in age. High school auto shops (at least on the west coast) have disappeared! And that’s one of my big beefs…

I’m sure there’s a few, but doubt they are on the level of what was offered in the past. This is a cost issue, I get it, but stills private industry should do a better job of feeding the pipeline.

To give you an idea. My high school was an ex-Ford Assembly Plant. We had airplane engines on the roof. The auto shop was a GM supported.

LOL! We had 4 stroked prototype aluminum 327 GM engines (that are probably worth a fortune today). Yes, block and heads! We would practice taking apart and reassembling them. They never ran, castings had porosity issues.
Full machine shop, carpentry, restaurant management, Automotive Repair, air plane frame & power plant repair classes. Even watch repair!

By the time I was 16, was proficient in sharpening tool bits, cutting threads on a lathe and how to operate mills, lathes, shapers, planers.
Got a job that year at a machine shop, working after school at a job shop that refurbished Navy Ships for part time work.
By the time I graduated HS, had already rebuilt, machined and blueprinted several engines. Having that job and good money, opened the door for some higher knowledge at colleges.
Fortunate to have several great trade/community colleges in the area back then. One is an MB training center now, the other is a GM training center. Their internship programs were also excellent.
I think the internship program is gone now too. Their machine shop programs were linked to internships with places like NASA and Lockheed which was a fantastic experience.
I think we can agree that if you do what you love, and are passionate about your craft, the money usually will follow. There are a LOT of profitable automotive career avenues one can take if you have a good technical foundation.


GOOD LUCK

 

Exactly.

Strange because I can name 5 that own successful shops here in the DC area. I help them buy investment properties and they do very well financially. None of them would ever go back to working for a dealership.

It all depends on whether someone wants to keep trading time for money or if they have an entrepreneurial spirit and want to get out on their own.

 

Entreprenuers very often have to trade more time for less money, at the start of their entrepreneurship.
The old saying goes, as a business owner, you only have to work half days. The first 12 hours, or the second 12 hours.
Chances are you will have to work longer hours than just 12.
Then you are going to be working a 6 day work week. Maybe 7.
With enough hard, lengthy, productive work, you might get over the hurdle of the curse of 1st year businesses.
Approximately 50% of startups fail after 1 year.
But the remaining 50% are not in the clear.
By the 5 year mark about 90% of the original startups are out of business.
If you can profitably get to that 5 year mark, you have the basis for a business that can thrive from there.

 

All of that is true. Success requires work. I would rather work for my own benefit than someone else's every single time. I've never worked an hour of my life as an employee of someone else and I would do it all over again.

 

That's the luxury of wealth.
I couldn't afford the tractor where I loaded hay bales at seven. My first full time job was at ten. I later owned a $1 car that delivered pizzas, but didn't own the factory where I worked for two years during college before I got drafted (because I couldn't afford to be a full-time student). I didn't own the Army, either, and worked for Uncle Sam.
Ya gotta have resources to "never work for anyone." At least if you want a bed and food.
You were fortunate. Most aren't.

 

I certainly was fortunate, but I also started my first business when I was 19 and fully supported myself soon after. You either have the entrepreneurial drive or you don’t. It’s not for everybody. The point is I always support people going out on their own, and I can tell those people that hard work and long hours when you’re working for yourself hit different than when you’re not. I worked CONSTANTLY, for many many years.

 

There are a lot of benefits to being on the other side of the cash register, that nearly all W-2 wage earners are unaware of.
But, those that reap those benefits had(or have) to scratch, claw, and invest blood sweat and tears to get there.

 

Nothing worth doing is easy

 

If you can’t tell, I agree, although some people do get the results of hard working, without working hard. It doesn’t seem fair, but in the final analysis easy achievements aren’t lasting.

 

More cliches, life isn’t always fair, and you don’t get what you deserve you get what you negotiate

 

How could you even know if you never worked for anybody?
How could you know what it's like to be really good at your job, be the best among your peers, and be well compensated? You have no idea.

I came to resent people who were supported early in life, who preached that it was "hard work" to do nothing for a decade or more, and then use their family resources to jump ahead. The ones who say I didn't work hard enough or have the "entrepreneurial spirit." The ones who never mowed a yard, had a paper route, painted fences, milked cows or, in my case, had a full-time job at 10. Who paid their phone bills, fed and clothed them? Nothing came from their own initiative. To me that would be embarrassing.

I remember how proud I was to have saved enough, after two years, to buy a pair of $28 Redwing boots when I was 13. Now I had good work shoes. A $28 goal. 2 years.
Every day after school, every weekend and every holiday, every day during summer.
Supporting my family, not my family supporting me.
Maybe if my bank account had risen above $300 I could have been Entrepreneurial earlier. (Yes $300 was a goal at 18.)
Yes you were very fortunte.

Working for others can be very rewarding. Don't dismiss it. They aren't inferior. They have different values.

 

 

Me too.

 

I'm pretty confident it is. I would much rather work hard for my own benefit entirely than to be paid a small part of the value I bring to someone else's business or company. Thats just how I'm wired. I have no interest in working for someone else, never have. Don't care about being "the best" and I don't care about how I rank with my "peers". I do my thing and worry about myself. I have an income I want to earn, and when I earn it I'm good.

This isn't a competition. Yes I was very fortunate, but that doesn't mean I'm not proud of what I have built for myself nor does it mean I shouldn't be. I've worked very hard and sacrificed a lot, spent my whole youth working when my friends were out partying and being college kids and enjoying their 20s. No I didn't work from 0-15, I went to school. That was my job. I started working when I was 15, I detailed cars.

There's no reason to resent anybody. Everybody comes from a different lot in life, you turned out fine and those experiences helped shape the person you became. I didn't have to work when I was 10, and my kids won't either...that was my parents' success (they DID work when they were 10) and the fact that my kids won't have to is my success. Its also a different world now, i'm a lot younger than you are and when I was a kid middle class kids just didn't have to do those sorts of things.

Not dismissing anybody or saying anybody at all is inferior. I'm just saying that there are huge benefits to building something for yourself vs working trading time for money building something for somebody else. I can't be fired...can't be laid off...can't say that if you work for somebody else. I can sell my businesses and cash out when I'm ready or I can bring my kids into them and they will have a built in career they can move on with...can't say that if you work for someone else. I have seen it happen to people over and over again, work their whole lives and then are on the chopping block of a company or business that needs to save a few dollars and in the end they are nothing but a number to their employer. Not me, no way.

Hard work and success is hard work and success whether you work for yourself or somebody else, I'm just saying if you're going to work hard may as well do it to entirely benefit yourself.

 

I just posted this reponse on build quality on the W223 forum but it likely should have been here as it is more directed to this orginal thread post.

(Of my last three MB's only one has been what I consider (somewhat) trouble free. My 21 GLE63S and my 22 S580 have been far from trouble free and to make matters worse is that when they are "repaired" under warranty they are returned with new issues or damage created by the repairs. I truly enjoy they way they ride and drive but I am about over it. I have utilized different dealers in over a 100 mile radius and unfortunately I have become dissappointed in all of their service departments. My company has a fleet of trucks that are not "babied" and they do not experience anywhere close to the number of issues my MB's have nor are the fleet vehicles services cost per vehicle anywhere remotely close to what MB charges.)

So is it the lack of qualified technicians or the issue of MB build quality that has their technicians overwhelmed?

 

These cars are "Covid Era" vehicles. JD Powers research has shown that vehicles built during this period are more problematic than other years. My 2024 GLE450 has only been to the shop once (other than scheduled maintenance) since new. This was to perform the standstill adaptation for a rough downshift. My experience so far has been comparable to other Mercedes I have owned. (knock on wood).

 

The 2021 GLE63S was manufactured and sold pre Covid. I had a GLE450 at one time that was manufactured during Covid and did not have issues other than the seat cover cracking (poor quality)

I was trying to relay the fact that when they required repairs, for recalls or software / parts failures the vehicles were returned with more issues more often than not. Dirty is one complaint. Missing lug bolt, chipped paint, damaged trim pieces, coolant leaks, faulty sensors etc...

 

Not sure I understand your issues. Your 2021 was definitely not before the 2020 Covid mess.
Are you saying that your dealer chipped paint, lost a lug bolt, broke a sensor and caused a coolant leak? That's a lot of damage. What was the car in for?

 

Build / delivery December 2020. Covid lockdown was March or later?
Which car which time at which dealer? A 23 year old tech even took my AMG out of town over a weekend while in for repairs (they had it over six weeks). Drove it back at 1am at over 100mph while the check engine light was on. I had another dealer (over 100 miles away) retrieve it and complete the warranty repairs that time. That dealer seemed to have qualified technicians at that time but not lately. Definitely not what I consider proper and complete repairs. Clips missing and damaged trim pieces. By far superior to the other dealer experience but still lacking especially considering these are $140k "luxury" vehicles.
If build quality existed then they would not be at the dealer for repairs / recalls...

 

Covid lockdown was March 2020. December 2020 is after March 2020. Your car was built right in the thick of it.

I have never had these kids of dealer issues...

 

I agree. Have a 2010 E class and stopped using dealership a few years back. Not only was it much more expensive, but also a two hour commute and waiting for hours for even a "A" service. Found a reliable independent primarily European car specialist. Still not cheap due to cost of any part for an M-B, but much better. Took in Nov. 2024 for a 15 year Fuel Filter change. Viewed several videos on how to do it, but decided a little too risky for DIY. Also thought might be too complicated for an Indy, although said they could do them.
So, took it to dealer and decided to get oil & filter change (not an A service- no checks, etc. or anything else), air filter, coolant flush and brake fluid flush. All together cost $2,356 less 15% military discount. O&F only change cost $257. Had used this dealership for 10+ years for all work. According to service manager, M-B requires that the fuel filter and two fuel pumps all have to be done at same time. "Fuel Filter" change alone was $1,511.
The indy charged $165 with no discounts for Oil and Filter change (8.5 quarts of Castrol Full Synthetic Edge) in November. Labor was $22 vs. 152 for M-B dealership.
On a side note, I asked my insurance company why it cost so much more to insure my M-B compared to my Nissan Rogue SL premium which is five years newer. "Much higher priced Repairs and Parts."

 

Ratings for all M-B vehicles have gone down precipitously over last 10 years or so. This is based on actual owner experiences over period of years.

 

yeah I just did mine and it was $1800. the spark plugs were due to be changed. I advise you to have a chat with your service advisor and cut out the unnecessary stuff. Are you using cheap fuel? you should have much carbon build up in your intakes that fast. I with you, I don't like putting additives in the oil or fuel. I try to stick with good fuel like Shell, union 76, or Chervon. $2400 seems a bit excessive. if you have another MB dealership in you area. you might consider switching up. I did after one dealership failed to find a scavenger draw for 6 months and their most experienced tech was working on it. My current dealership found it in 2 days. on my E 350. Been no draws on it for dang near a year now.

 

Merc dealership lowest google reviews sum up my experience with them. I have had great experiences with audi and Volvo dealerships for 29 years and counting.

After I bought my Merc, I was hounded by the dealership lizards to trade in my car for months. That never happened with audi or Volvo dealerships. Merc seems desparate and lowly with how they treated me. After my warranty is done I'll never set foot in a Merc dealership or buy another one.

It's a shame because they are great vehicles but I just can't tolerate the dealerships. It's a systemstic problem from the top down.