"Alfalfa" (alfalfa-romeo)
09/04/2016 at 19:01 • Filed to: None
1
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"Alfalfa" (alfalfa-romeo)
09/04/2016 at 19:01 • Filed to: None | 1
| 12 |
Does anyone else get this question frequently, and aren’t quite sure how to answer it?
Many times it seems like my definition of a mechanic is different from everyone else’s. I’d call a mechanic someone who works on cars professionally, or maybe at least has in the past. To some, it seems to mean you know how to work on cars, in any capacity above their own understanding.
It just seems like an odd question, especially when I get it from someone at work and I’m like “No, I’m a machinist. You work with me, you should know that”.
Anyway, it’s just weird to me.
LongbowMkII
> Alfalfa
09/04/2016 at 19:29 |
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I generally answer with ‘not professionally’
Stephenson Valve Gear
> Alfalfa
09/04/2016 at 19:30 |
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This question is usually posed to me from someone who has got an estimate from professional mechanic and thinks it is too high, yet can’t or won’t do the work themselves. I interpret the question as, “Hey, I have a job that requires specialized knowledge, skills, and tools. I want to pay you pennies on the dollar to do the work for me.” To which, the answer is “NO”. I’m not a professional mechanic in a shop, but I’ll work on my own stuff. I’ve learned to refuse to work on other people’s stuff. Took me a lot of years to learn that lesson...
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Alfalfa
> Stephenson Valve Gear
09/04/2016 at 19:47 |
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Yeah, working on other people’s cars is never a good idea. Unless of course it’s another car guy friend who needs an extra set of hands. I bent this rule once about a year ago to help a friend with some needed repairs to pass safety inspection when he didn’t have much money to work with. He did nothing I told him to beforehand, and expected me to drop everything and work around his schedule.
His Stigness
> Alfalfa
09/04/2016 at 20:02 |
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Whenever people ask me that, I respond with” “No, I’m a technician.” Then comes their question about a noise their car is making or some other weird thing, and they want me to tell them what is wrong with it. I always find it hilarious when people have no understanding how cars work, or how they are diagnosed. It always comes as a surprise to people when I tell them I have to actually look at their car in order diagnose it*.
*Most of the time I have already figured it out after asking them about it, but I’m not about to give away information for free.
Batman the Horse
> Alfalfa
09/04/2016 at 20:14 |
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How’s that friendship these days?
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Alfalfa
> Batman the Horse
09/04/2016 at 20:57 |
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Ooh that’s the best part of the story. So after I abandoned him in the parking lot struggling with his tie rod end because I really did have other shit to do, he made a FB post saying that he needed someone to help with his car who wouldn’t “flake out”. Well his wife and mine were the really good friends, we just hung out when they hung out, so I was over it. I always thought he was an idiot anyway. But my wife told his wife what happened, and she apparently chewed him out for being the idiot he was being. Next time I saw him, be pretended it never happened.
Dave the car guy , still here
> Alfalfa
09/04/2016 at 23:01 |
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At work I get asked all the time how to fix something or my feeling on diagnosis. I’m in that grey area of needing to sell the person parts for a repair but not wanting to sell the part that doesn’t fix it. I try to get them to see our service department and warn them if they just need to buy a part that it could be money to the wind if my guesstimate isn’t correct. If its a common issue I can tell them exactly what they need and the difficulty but you can’t make a guess on an intermittent electrical issue which is the issue too often these days.
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Batman the Horse
> Alfalfa
09/05/2016 at 00:02 |
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Stephenson Valve Gear
> Alfalfa
09/05/2016 at 09:41 |
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...and I occasionally break my own rule. If there is someone that is truly struggling with a lack of finances and car problems, I have a hard time saying no. But, just like in your story, they need to hold up their end of the deal.
wkiernan
> Alfalfa
09/05/2016 at 12:47 |
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You say, “No, no! I’m an organic.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH5TZa…
Die-Trying
> Alfalfa
09/05/2016 at 17:21 |
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i get that question a LOT......... i tell them no......., and explain that a mechanic works on cars for a LIVING, and as a means to put food on the table, and keep the lights on, and a roof over his family’s head. and then i tell them that i just play with old junk, and that i prefer to not work on other peoples junk............ i also prefer to not make my living doing things that i enjoy. takes the fun out of it............
then i ask them “why, whatcha got?............
The Stig's former college room mate
> Alfalfa
09/06/2016 at 15:03 |
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you are a mechanic if you’ve received formal training and have worked professional as such.
I went to school for auto mechanics, and worked professionally as a mechanic for 15 years. i would consider myself a mechanic. people that haven’t had that experience shouldn’t refer to themselves as mechanics. if you haven’t had to eat nothing but ramen noodles for a week because you have to pay Snap-On for that $300 specialty tool you bought last week to fix that car that you made $40 fixing and you’ll probably never use that tool again, you’re not a mechanic. If you didn’t live in a cheap apartment in the bad part of town driving a 15 year old rusted out beater that’s barely held together, because your tool payment and your student loans equal a mortgage on a 4 bedroom in the suburbs and a payment on a mid-range mercedes, you aren’t a mechanic. And if you haven’t had to (or aren’t able to) make the failed part work because a new one isn’t available, you aren’t a mechanic. That is the biggest one right there. A true mechanic can make that failed starter work again. Or that alternator. or water pump. or steering gear. or engine. etc. A mechanic knows how it works, why it works, and how to make it work again. There are far too many “parts installers” and not enough mechanics these days.