Why Nobody Wants To Be A Mechanic Anymore - This Is What Killed The Independent Repair Shop 

There is absolutely no shortage of highly skilled mechanics. There is however a dire shortage of skilled mechanics willing to work for very low wages.

Problem is, it's not just cars, it's everything.

As I've gotten older, I was less inclined to service my own car. After several shop screw ups and crazy high prices, I've gone back to fixing things myself -thank gawd for youtube.

The worst part of it is trying to communicate these type of issues to a customer who has zero understanding of what you are having to deal with. My sister blew a door lock fuse on her BMW328 and the BMW dealer wanted $400 to hook it up to an analyzer and change the fuse. The corner garage changed it for $15.

I owned my own business from 96-2006 after working on cars for 15 years. My wife developed breast cancer during the 06-08 real estate crash. Money flow dropped and medical bills climbed. Now, I work on draw bridges as an electrical journeyman. Best thing that ever happened to me. The expense one has to invest in tools, the years of experience to get good, the constant battle with the manufacturers for info, the constant need to keep up with each years changes, the total lack of respect, and the very underpaid income is the reason no one is going into the field

I'll tolerate a rambling story from a guy who knows his shit but also gives a shit. Keep it up !👍

One thing that killed the industry is the management. Management used to be ex techs that were promoted then trained in the business end. Now it is someone's son in law that believes that office with his name on it makes him an instant mechanical expert.

We've been asking for this for 30 years or more. I remember how happy everyone was at the cheap parts coming in from Japan, Taiwan and China. Not so happy with the quality. But we kept buying the imported junk until all the domestic producers went broke and quality parts were not longer available at any price.

LABOR CHARGE BACKS are the way to fix this. I've repaired cars for 40+ years, and I would have the parts shop forward my labor bill to the parts manufacturer for the job. When a chargeback was refused, we told them that we would no longer use their brand. It works. It takes 30 or 60 days to get paid, but it works.

“a race to the bottom” yep, that’s us, swirling the bowl of what once was.

To summarize: Nowadays the quality of products are shit.

..."it's not a defective pump...it's a defective process!" More like a defective society we've allowed to fester like a sore...

I’m a 56 year old mechanic who has worked in shops and who has owned my own shop and I couldn’t agree with you more.

I’m a CAT dealer field mechanic. Just this week I had a brand new factory EGR cooler fail on a freshly rebuilt C18 engine with less than a year of run time. Resulted in bent a connecting rod after the customer tried to start the machine while it was flooded with coolant. About a $50,000 job thankfully covered by warranty for the customer. Old CAT engines would run for thousands of hours, 10-20 years before they failed. Emissions regulations have ruined the reliability of diesel engines. Today I replaced a fuel level sending unit, warranty. Low quality parts are an issue across every industry.

I was an aircraft mechanic in the USAF from 1983- 2005. The early 80’s for us were tough, I remember 1 airplane going thru 7 (yes, SEVEN) flight control hydraulic boost packs before we got one that didn’t leak. Had another airplane that had cabin pressurization issues for weeks, replaced the cabin outflow valve (component that actually maintains a controlled leak to maintain cabin pressure at altitude) 4 times to get a good one. The repair facility would only repair what the failure tag called out, no overhaul. Once we found that out, we started marking failed, unknown reason.

Thanks for that wonderfully clear detailed explanation. It's not just cars that are suffering from this problem; just about everything we use in today's society is the same. My mother had a fridge that never failed & when I left home it was over 30 years old, still working perfectly in our garage. My folks had got a bigger & newer fridge for the kitchen, but it only lasted a couple of years & needed replacement. I bought a fridge for my place & it never worked properly at all, the door seals kept needing replacement. Everything today is made in China or India or someplace where quality isn't even a concept!

As a full time mechanic, the first step in diagnostics nowadays is seeing if any new parts have been installed and rechecking those first. If it’s a comeback the first thing is to retest what we just installed. And we use mostly OEM parts and it still happens…it’s incredibly frustrating

Young ford dealer mechanic here, just today I had a 2024 f350 with 3,200 miles, (you read that right) that had an infotainment screen that intermittently goes blank, and the backup camera will freeze up. Had a stored code for lost communication with the infotainment module (ford calls it the APIM) I cannot express how embarrassing and frustrating it is to have to do electrical diag on a vehicle before its first oil change, granted it’s probably the APIM, I have to please warranty by covering all my bases prior. If the end isn’t near folks, i don’t know what’s to come, this is madness.

This isn't even planned obsolescence; this is planned breakage. At least planned obsolescence would ideally have a fuel pump assembly last 100k miles (which is still obviously not good), but this "planned breakage" just wants to deter the consumer from fixing their old car and eventually pissing them off so much that they buy a newer model way sooner than should be acceptable. This is why I bought a Toyota Corolla, but even Toyota is falling victim to sacrificing the honesty associated with their brand for short-term profits. In a disgusting way, the companies concerned with long-term growth and sustainability are companies like Amazon and Meta, but they're only doing it to corral consumers into being exclusively dependent on their services, which incentivizes much more nefarious practices.

People think his videos are too long. "What we've got here is failure to communicate. Some men, you just can't reach." Lol! I always learn something from watching Uncle Tony's Garage! What I learned from this is you can't forget the basics. Nothing wrong with the fuel pump, but without a tight connection it couldn't make pressure...

The five year old's hands are just not strong enough to fully crimp the clamps.

Back in the 60s every neighborhood had at least one mechanic who liked young people and served as an adolescent babysitter. Most of us learned the basics from these greasy saints along with the same work ethic and dedication to honesty you speak of. Now I'm 70 and without that local greasemonkey to hang out with....until now. Thanks Tony, you're providing a lot more than you know. See ya tomorrow.

A friend is a master mechanic for a dealership. 30 yrs in the business. He tells me nowadays the shops don't want to pay anything, so they hire low-wage parts changers (he's the only one of two real mechanics there). He tells me stories about how the parts changers read a code then start replacing. Often that doesn't work and now the customer gets stuck waiting for parts (they don't stock many anymore) plus when they do finally fix the problem the factory won't pay for the unneeded parts if it is warranty work and the shop has to figure out how to charge the customer for the unneeded parts after their car was in the shop for weeks because they didn't troubleshoot before replacement.

Uncle Tony, don’t worry about the people that don’t have the patience for you to explain things the way that you like to do. You have a reason for doing it and for the majority of us that follow your videos, we enjoy the back stories and lead ups to what you’re trying to get across. Please, just keep being you . ❤

I was a drivability tech for years. I had 2 rules at the start of the processs : 1. I don't care what the shop before me found or did. 2. "New" only means it's never been used NOT that it's "good."

"Who controls the foods can control a region; who controls the fuels/ energy can control a continent; who controls money can control the world." - Henry A. Kissinger

I will definitely be checking my fuel pump modules closely thanks to Uncle Tony.

My friend with a newer VW product asked me if I could change his oil, thinking it would be a cakewalk I agreed. There were 16 cheap screws holding the undertray on half of which were stripped, and the drain plug was made out of PLASTIC. Apparently you have to change the drain plug every oil change. I was actually in disbelief, how much extra would it cost to manufacture an undertray with a little access panel for the drain plug, and how much extra would it be to have a regular drain plug with a crush washer. Actually a joke of a car.

I still love fixing up old vehicles, I just brought home a 72 Monte Carlo on Sunday!

You informed me about so much! I don't ever watch car videos, but this is THE car video for anyone to watch nowadays. God bless you sir.

Tony realized when he said “we’re far from the 1970’s” man I’m getting old😂

I work for a globally recognized multi-billion dollar company. I've been there for 18 years and I've watched our quality go steadily downhill. Our units used to go 30 years regularly before any major service. Now not so much. I asked one of the big shots what the deal was and was told the world is so small now its delivery time and cost over quality. We have to promise units quicker and cheaper than India and China to compete. They're so cheap it's more cost effective to buy new every 10 years or so than worry about lasting. So if this applies to a product costing millions, I can't imagine how cheaply they make a fuel pump. Replacement economics has replaced quality. It's a sad state when we expect things not to last.

All I want for Christmas is to be sent back to 1970 and never come back.

Some executive got big money for cutting the budget on engineering. Similar things are happening with computer parts. Intel has been encouraging motherboard manufacturers to get really aggressive with default overclock settings since their 8th Gen CPUs. With the 13th/14th Gen, the default motherboard settings were finally aggressive enough to cause physical damage to processors. Intel blamed the motherboard manufacturers, who blamed Intel. Motherboard manufacturers finally released new BIOS with "safe settings," WHICH ARE STILL NOT ENABLED BY DEFAULT. Some people are reporting that the "safe" settings still have instability.

“Who would have known that a brand new part”, now we will. Thank’s Tony. Another morsel of information tucked away until needed.

I've been a mechanic for the last 30 years and I wised you were blowing things out of proportion but the last 2 years have been hell. It seems like every car that leaves my shop is back in 2 days with the same problem because the new part I just install has already failed. It's extremely hard to make money in this industry right now and I don't see it getting better any time soon

Man… this is spot on. I just replaced the genuine Mopar water pump that I installed last July on my wife’s 2019 grand Cherokee because it was leaking from the shaft already. Two things… 1. why would a 2019 with 70k miles already need a water pump, and 2. Why did I not even get a full year out of the most expense replacement (genuine Mopar). Parts are just garbage these days. Companies have slashed Engineering budgets and source the lowest price junk to enrich shareholders. The same applies to “hot rod” parts from brands you used to trust.

You talk because you have life ....I'm listening Tony! God Bless ya Sir

As a mechanical engineer, this is typical across every manufacturing sector. It's not that engineers suddenly got dumber. We are constrained by design criteria and budgets determined by management above engineering. We are left to do the best we can with what we are given for resources. Time is another constraint. We are generally given a shorter time to design-cycle assemblies and shortcuts inevitably happen. We are trained to optimize mechanical design according to any criteria given to us. The problem is that most upper level managers come from non-engineering departments like finance. In those cases, we are forced to optimize design based on cost alone. It's depressing for us too because we all want to design the best possible machinery, but we are constrained so much that quality is sacrificed.

My cousin worked for a dealership back in the early sixties. Made great money. Then the dealership found that he mechanics were the highest paid employees. From then on the dealership started figuring ways to pay mechanics less and put that money in their pockets. I worked for a VW dealership and mechanics were struggling to make money. I left, open my own shop and was able to charge less than the dealership and put money in my pocket. Best part was, I could work at my own pace and do a better job which equaled happy customer. At a dealership you’re working against a clock.

I remember back in the 80's having to go back three times to the parts store for a new alternator. They kept failing out of the box and that was back in 1984.

Great video and I love the explanation at the beginning, you don't talk to much at all. I'm currently going through something similar with my truck and have now taken it back to my mechanic for the 5th time trying to find a mysterious problem with the brand new factory transmission they installed a few months back. I can tell they are very frustrated and so am I as I've now missed a ton of work due to the fact that this is my 1 and only work truck. This is a very reputable shop and they haven't tried to charge me at all since the initial installation, they simply want to fix the problem but it seems like we are chasing shadows trying to figure out the problem. One time it actually threw them a code so they changed the sensor that it said was bad, it worked well for about 2 days then started slipping again so once again it's back in the shop. At this point with all the extra labor involved in trying to fix this I'm sure they are losing money on the original install. I feel bad for them as I'm pretty sure it's not due to anything they did wrong, it's more likely something wrong with the factory transmission but trying to figure out exactly what is not going well, very similar to what your video is about. Definitely hard to make money when the industry is heading this direction, I'm not surprised by the skyrocketing prices of auto repair.

uncle tony, im a marine mechanic (boats, mostly fishing boats and ski boats), over the past few years I've had my hands of every make and style of engine, ford, GM, Mopar, mercury, yamaha, you name it, i've had my hands on everything from 70's ski boats with bare bones carb V8's to brand new Chris-Crafts with all the bells and whistles and all the electronics. the amount of work i have to do to diagnose a simple electrical issue on a brand new boat is INSANE and companies refuse to pay us enough for it, we need tools that cost thousands of dollars and we end up having to sign our lives away on financing so we can continue working, the industry needs a good THWACK

Tony, we have a partial solution at our shop. We have a contract with our main part supplier that has them reimburse us for labor when we get a defective part. This is how we manage. When that deal goes away, we just might go away, but for now it is working. They used to challenge us on whether or not a part was defective, but they haven't defeated us on that subject for 27yrs, so they stopped arguing with us.

Keep your old ones as long as you can. I have a 1982 Ford F150 long bed, in line 6, 4.9 liter and it only needs a safety inspection, no emissions. Still runs good, AC s well. The only negative is the 10 MPG gas consumption.

I was a tech for many years, and still work on my own vehicles for one very good reason. Any time I've taken my vehicle in to have it repaired, it was never done correctly. I can do my own work better than any technician I've ever allowed to work on my car. Auto repair really taught me that no task is outside of my own ability, with the right knowledge.

Hello Tony. I am an older trained mechanic from Germany. I had exactly the same problem you describe here on my new Peugeot 205 convertible in 1986. The fuel pump fell out of the bracket on the top hose and the car stalled while driving. One of the car manufacturer's suppliers had made the hose too big and it also tore from time to time. It took us 1 hour to find this fault. We tried to measure the fuel pressure at the rail pipe, but there was no pressure left. There was a lot of speculation beforehand, including engine damage. A very experienced mechanic put us on the track of the fault, which I had actually already narrowed down, as a lack of fuel or misfiring feel different. Nobody really learns that anymore. It's all about making money and no longer asking why something isn't working. Soon it will be even worse and the knowledge will be lost until someone perhaps remembers it again. Good Video from you.

Them Good Ole Days. I used to love it also. I gave up my shop a few years ago with the promise to myself that I won't turn a wrench again unless it's for fun again.

I’ve showed your videos off and I have heard people I’ve shown say “when is he gonna get to the point” but I like it just find cuz I talk like you. I go off on “tangents” people think there tangents but in our head it relates to the topic.

No truer words have ever been spoken. 100% Right On. 👍

Growing up driving 1960's cars, luxury to me was having air conditioning, power windows, door looks& mirrors, and a stereo. Oh, I do like fuel injection. Dual points were a pain. That's all I want now. I don't want a computer on wheels with all the crazy features on them. I especially don't want a computer touch screen sitting in front of me.

I installed what turned out to be a counterfeit Motorcraft fuel pickup foot in my F-350. Turned out to be made of a type of plastic that expended in diesel. It fell off the pickup tube and I ran out of fuel going down the road. Imagine making a part designed to live submerged in diesel out of a material that is incompatable with diesel.

Tony, I love the experience shares and lectures. Never change.

Thank you for showing us behind the scenes without making it out a you vs customer. I will share this video and I hope I can continue to support small business.

Before you even said what the problem was I knew it was loose clamps. Been there done that. Here’s a good one, did a tune up on my whole house generator. New plug, fuel filter, oil filter etc. ran great. Sat for a couple months and bad weather was coming so I figured I’d make sure it fires up. Nope, of course not. Weird seems like no fuel. Fuel in the tank. Pull the fuel line on the carb and open the shutoff. Sure enough no fuel. Weird there’s fuel in the clear plastic filter. Pulled the filter and the gas made the plastic soft and the clamp closed the filter shut. Fuel filter that dissolves in fuel, nice.

My uncle told me in the 90s you don't want to be a car mechanic he had been one in the 60s /70s . I listened to him and after a brief time at a hot rod shop found he was very right

Thank you uncle Tony

You are describing exactly my 1993 ford truck symptoms i replaced the rear gas tank fuel pump 2years ago, it ran good for one year then all of a sudden started to miss and stumble when i drove up hill or wanted to go faster, but it starts and idles fine drives ok at very slow speed. I have replaced the filter, and fuel pressure regulator, the truck drives perfect when i am on the front tank as soon as i switch to the rear tank it acts ok for a minute or 2 then i loose power and backfires . I was looking for help on u tube and by luck i saw your excellent video you describe my symtoms pefect. Thank you very much for making it. I have fixed my own cars since a young man and am ex army ah1g (cobra) helicopter mechanic vietnam vet. Like you for the last 20 years or so have noticed the terrible quality of carparts i say i get sold a bad part one out of 3 that i buy , its terrible now and carpart companies do not care i get gumchewing and shrugged shoulders . The salespeople are mostly untrained dipsticks totally uncaring when the screw up, in the last 10 years i have replaced the my waterpump 3 times the first 2 lasted a couple of years, my radiator 2 times the first one leaked after a few month, replaced the fuel tank selector sw 4 times, my altenator 2 times, now as i mentioned above my fuel pump, oh and i am on my 2 cond idle control valve, and my second computer, Any more i get pissed just driving by a autoparts store and going inside one i first prepare for war..

Early 2000's was some of the best stuff to work on. Obd2, and basic fuel injection systems, a couple computers. Really little to no Can Network. Now, its getting bananas. 20 computers, with 1 bad wire taking down everything.

We live in a World where everything fun has become a pain

Uncle Tony speaks the truth 😳

Good information buddy! I find that these new parts today are about 20% defective. New parts that are not properly tested can be a nightmare. The 70's thru to the 90's and early 2000's were great for car repairs! Today you're just working and hoping for things to come out right. Thanks!!

Great job diagnosing that fuel pump issue. You're right. The parts we get now are poor quality, garbage, totally insane!!!😢

I went to trade school when I was 17 in 2019. I love turning wrenches.. but this line of work just ain't doing it for me as a full time thing. Overcomplicated, underpaying and just too stressfull in dealerships. I make more money welding in a shipyard, and I get to fix my cars on my off days.🔧

I had replaced a fuel pump on the side for a friend in a 1998 GMC 150. The truck had almost 500k on it but I bought a quality Delphi pump, or so I thought. It completely quit in 2 days. I dropped the tank again in her driveway this time and got a generic pump to get her on the road. The generic pump was exactly the same as the more expensive Delphi. Both made in China, same pumps, same clamps, everything identical it just cost less for the generic store brand. It was about 5 years ago and I haven’t used any Delphi parts since. Yes the tank was clean. Amazingly clean!

Totally fascinating video bro. I totally get your point. Manufacturing standards are dropping across the board in all kinds of things. Life is becoming more complicated and people are not paying sufficient attention to detail. Even house building. An electrical contractor recently told me he purchased a brand new new-build house and immediately rewired the entire house himself as he believed the existing wiring was so bad it could cause a house fire. I know someone with a car whose engine packed up because in one of the cylinders the metal had been specified too thin and had fractured - the mechanic even showed him the same component from an older vehicle to see the difference in metal thickness. The modern Duster Dacia automatically toots its horn when you get out the vehicle (supposed to be a reminder feature) - can be embarrassing, alarmed people looking out their curtains late at night might call the police, it could even toot at a woman with a short skirt standing right in front of you and get you arrested for harrassment. Its across the board, its in everything, even administrative things like tax and finance and law. Its clown world.

This is a very profound video. This is a window into what has happened to America.

Need to make engineers install any part they design for new cars. Taking a transmission loose to put a starter in the bell housing comes to mind.

I have a shop, and I fight this stuff every day. Bad parts, wrong parts, parts listed as fitting a car but don’t, parts that are built in a way that they don’t function properly, sometimes parts that are built in a way to look like they are the proper design but you don’t discover the deception until you install them! Over time you start to learn what brands of what parts are reliable, then that brand gets bought out by someone else and they discontinue the proper part! It is definitely getting harder and more frustrating, and while I love working on cars, I don’t know how much longer it can go on. As for how I deal with it, I have significantly increased my markup on parts, and if someone brings their own parts, there is no warranty. You may be able to buy the part for much less online, but if you want me to install it and stand behind it, I need to get more for it because if and when something fails, that increased markup covers my wasted labor to do the job again. That has helped, but it has also alienated some customers who see it as overcharging them, so it is a balancing act, and as this problem becomes more widespread, that balancing act is getting harder and harder.

This is a good explanation of how much a lot of cheap products can effect the economy as well in the long run. Steve, long time parts business owner said awhile back that he's trying to find parts for his old buddies so they can still fix their old cars and it's not getting easier. Another parts store said if the starter didn't work bring it back and he would give me another one after the first two didn't work but he didn't offer to crawl under the car and change it again.

I’m not a car guys at all, but I dropped a like because I appreciate your honesty and work ethic.

replaced a brake master cylinder last week. 15min job.~~ 3 hrs later still no brake pedal. finally pulled new master cyl. plunger was not always returning back to draw in fluid. sticking in bore. took apart and honed to get smooth return. could have returned for exchange. figured fixing what i had was a better option. worked fine after.~~ frustrating!

I got tired of fixing people's cars only to have them come back with the customer complaining about things I didn't work on or touch. The tune up I did has nothing to do with your brakes grinding, and the brake job I did has nothing to do with your car not running a few days later or the massive oil leak under your car. That and people trying to o beat me down on prices, even though my prices were way less than the dealer or private shops.

I owned my own shop back in the late 70s and early 80s. Worked for several independent garages. Finally left it for another career in 84. It was getting like what you just described then...can't even imagine what it's like now

This is exactly it, brothers in profession. In the trade since ' 72. Best wishes from Germany.

I installed two new Timpkin front wheel hub and bearing assemblies on my 01 Durango last Nov. both were installed properly and torqued to spec. They both started growling last week. Removed the hubs from the spindles and checked them out. Since the truck is 2WD all that holds the bearings in the hub was a snap ring. Removed the snap ring and pressed the bearings out. Removed the plastic dust seal and found that the grease that used was literally the consistently and color of Vaseline. They put the wrong grease in them. I went to my local bearing warehouse and had them measure the inner and outer diameter. They had a match in stock and the bearing was for an automotive wheel application. I didn’t trust the parts store anymore so I brought two sets of them for $58. I pressed them back in the hubs and put the truck back together, truck roles better than new.

Shortly after I graduated from college with my Associate's degree in Diesel Technology, I relized that being a mechanic was a dead end job. Everyone was always having to spend their hard earned money on newer tools to repair the newer vehicles as they come along and there are how many brands of vehicles out there. I instantly knew I needed to work for a company where everything is supplied by my employer.

Thank you for taking your time to explain the backstory, 100% agree with this but as someone else said its not just cars this is all facets of manufacturing

it is everything. plumbing fittings, everything!!!

60 years as a mechanic. Love what I do and hate my job. Someone made a comment about bearings. On new bearings I usually remove the shields, blow out the bearings with brake clean, and heavily repack with full synthetic marine ( boat trailer) grease. Same as regular grease but they add something sticky. Like chainsaw bar oil or motorcycle chain oil. No more bearing problems. You can't make money anymore.

The breaking point for me was CAN Bus. Once everything went to CAN Bus in the early 2000s I didn't want to work on or own anything with that setup.

I had this problem in the early 2000's with an early 80's Toyota truck. The carburetor needed to be rebuilt, so I thought it would be easier to turn mine in and get another factory-rebuilt one. Long story short it didn't work. I brought it back and exchanged it with another one... still didn't work. I finally broke down and bought a carburetor rebuild kit and did it myself. It finally worked.

I had that problem with coil packs for a 2010 Prius. Replaced the coil packs twice in 1 week with aftermarket coils from the same distributor. The third time I went with Bosch and it worked fine ever since.

It’s not only aftermarket parts. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve installed brand new faulty OE parts at the Land Rover dealer I work for.

this degradation of society gives me anxiety

100% on point for almost everything in society these days. "Built to Last" is almost not even in the vocabulary of many companies, it's more like "Built to the absolute barest price point and hurry up and get it done yesterday".

Your singing to the chore😀 I had name brand wheel bearing go bad after two years and the cheaper ones i replace within the same month are still going strong five years later!!!

Those clamps looked like they were never crimped.

I actually was duel enrolled last two years of high school, taking Auto Tech at the local tech school. Graduated from both, in 2004, and went to work for a Cadillac dealership. I didn't even work there for a year before I said this is such bull. Considering I went to school for two years for this trade, I just was expecting more. I left the auto repair industry and started working in boat manufacturing. Within six months in that industry I was making twice as much as I was at a dealership. I still work in the boat manufacturing industry nearly twenty years later. Couldn't be happier.

Enjoyed your talk ,legend.🇮🇪.

Great Video - Excellent information & backstory, & truth. Parts are not what they used to be, & 70's model cars and earlier are my fav period lol

Being a mechanic and multiple shop owner for nearly forty years I have come to the conclusion that using OE parts is the only way to go, extremely low failure rate and a happier customer in the long run. Nobody wants to do the same repair for free and the customer doesn’t want to have to come back for the same issue because of a failed part.

Just wow, thank you for the info. I am sure this is the same problem I am having.

This is second video I’ve heard of a feed hose on a aftermarket fuel pump causing this issue on an older Jeep. South Main Street went through a similar situation of diagnosis. The owner of the car had been dealing with this problem for over a year and brought it him to fix from out of state. I agree with you that suffering as a professional trying to do your best job with subpar parts is next to impossible. Glad I work for an OEM at the moment.

I’m currently a dealer technician and the OEM parts aren’t much better. Half our new cars come off the transport truck broken.

50 years on the spanners and I retired in 2020. Like you, for probably the first 30 years or so everything was great. I always said that did what I loved doing and I got paid for it! What more could anyone want from life? But I got disillusioned a whole lot earlier than you did, when the era of ECUs came in. When the computer made all the tuning decisions, the joy went out of it for me. In the 70s and 80s a car would come in running like a bag of nails and you could give it a touch here and a tweak there and send it out running better than ever. and look at it and say "I did that!" Then suddenly they come in running OK (or not at all) and go out running OK and there's nothing I can do to make them any better. Sure, learning about EFi (yes I did too) was interesting and brought a few new challenges. But the Joy had gone! I kept going because it was what I knew how to do and I had a loyal customer base. But the day I turned 66 (UK retirement age that year) I was OUT. I gave the shop back to landlord and took my tools and stuff home. And I told ALL my customers that unless their car was at least 30 years old, (there were a good few) I was no longer interested! And it worked! Seems like i'm busier than ever, less overhead and i've got the Joy back! I don't know if you could do the same in 'Murca where the world and their wife has at least SOME knowledge of old cars, but it's great here in the UK where plenty of people own classics but aren't familiar with how they work. They also tend to have more money, be more aware of your skills, more aware that sh*t happens and less likely to want the car back yesterday so they can go to work in it today! But I agree with you on one vital point, the current parts quality situation is a complete scandal. But I don't see an easy end, everybody wanted cheap parts then moaned when they got cheap crap! In the meantime quality suppliers were priced out of the market. Karma is a bitch!

Had a similar issue with a 56 t-bird fuel pump last year; friend/customer got it new from reputable vintage ford parts source, got another guy to install it for him, and got me to help him finish the project. I do the PS, cooling, and exhaust, and go to start it, and it starts pumping fuel out all over the garage floor. I remove it and take it apart to find the bolts holding the top UFO together around the diaphragm/gasket material were just a tad too long, or the holes in the casting weren't drilled and tapped all the way through the flange (or the material was too thin, who knows?), so they bottomed out before compressing the diaphragm/gasket enough to make a seal! Gave each bolt an extra half turn while putting it back together and every one punched through and pushed what amounted to a 1/31" disc of flashing out the back of the flange, and viola, it tightened and sealed right up. That was just the last of three or four of such problems with the job. Gotta scrutinize everything even more i guess, because it seems like one to two out of three parts i get there's some kind of issue these days. Lack of quality control has spread through every step of the supply chain, affecting all but the most discriminating manufacturers and end users down the line, because there's more concern about saving/making that extra cent per unit, and all of a sudden even a part that's been proven for years can change for the worse.

This is why I bought a Mitsubishi Mirage. It may be the last new car that isn't decked out with absurd technology that maximizes the points of failure.

It's not only that, but it's the part stores too. They act like the part failing is on you, not the manufacturer. I actually had 2 alternators crap out on me (one actually had the cooling fins explode in the housing) in less than a year and I was told by the part store that I had to fix the issue with the car, because obviously it had to be the car, not faulty parts. Can't find anything that's made well anymore, make it as cheap as possible so they keep coming back! Meanwhile, us mechanics are dealing with those angry customers beating down the doors.

I got ripped off by a Firestone service center on my 1st car when I was 16, I resolved to learn how to work on my own car and have been doing so since the 1980's. The automotive industry has been attempting and succeeding in making it more difficult and impossible without Very expensive diagnostic tools. Why I still own a 24 year old truck and still do all my own repairs. This new batch of Mechanics in my experience are now handicapped by technology and have lost all that old school knowledge and know how, and depend fully on the diagnostic tools. I won't buy anything that is above OBD2 because without expensive computer tools you can't repair them.