It's not like I ever thought the repair side of the business was a great choice, especially after the IT industry imploded, but I needed to move forward, eat and survive. But there are so many factors coming together now - in no way I would ever recommend this business to a young person as a career.

H3ll - when I was a teenager more than a few tried to talk me out of it then (70's)

Joe - you're welcome !

Right now, many jobs are created for the electric vehicle industry, if you want to stay with cars.
Check this out (an excellent site to search for jobs, by the way):

Electric Vehicle Jobs | Simply Hired

Move to the Minneapolis area and we'll start a shop in Hudson, WI. I'll give you all the work you can personally handle, and you can structure it how you'd like.

Most all service business sucks anymore as a career.

Hey asphaltgambler i did the same thing 2 years ago i had 17 years in a porsche -audi dealer and 20 years with a 3 man german car repair shop with every porsche school and every ase cert. Including li advanced and a state inspection. I have not seen any other trade that you needed so many tools to make so little money and now that cars are so high tech and have been for many many years and no one wants to pay you a good paycheck. All flat rate and no base pay or gaurentee. Your experiance means nothing. I work on my own now and even in this bad economy there are plenty of jobs for automotive technicians but with grease monkey pay so i put in 5 resumeys a week with defense con tractors locheed martin,gruman,goddard etc. Because even a lower pay job has the best benifets than any private sector job. Good luck with your new job

Kaisen - thanks for the offer - .........................but I'm done this time. I made myself a promiss back early in '02 when I HAD to do something other than IT - that I'd give it my all and make another good run at this and climb to the top.

After losing my Dad this time last year and my partner taking off to the islands with the company's profit..................that was the last straw. I'm currently the Euro trech at a well known indepedent shop in Lakeridge, Va. There is very little work and the people in this area can afford the BMW/Porsche/Audi/Volvo payments but not the repairs

Hey - just came from a meeting - techs will not be credited (paid) for cars not picked up. As in My pay period ends today - so any car not paid and picked up -I do not get paid for those veh until next pay period, - good grief