My wife's cousin who works in tech said 'you guys just fix broken stuff, right?'

It hit different because he was talking about his own car, a 2022 Tesla with a dented quarter panel. I told him it's not just swapping parts anymore, you're dealing with sensors, cameras, and calibrations. How do you explain the real skill in our trade to someone who doesn't get it?

4 comments

4 Comments

jamesf292mo ago

Honestly, I used to have that same simple view of the work. Then my buddy's new truck needed a bumper after a fender bender. It wasn't just a bolt-on job. We spent half a day just getting all the parking sensors and the blind spot monitor to talk to the computer again. The part is the easy bit now. It's all the stuff that makes the car think that takes real know-how. You're basically a mechanic and an IT guy rolled into one.

paulw532mo agoMost Upvoted

Yeah that's so true now. It's like you need a degree in computer science just to change a light bulb lol.

the_drew2mo ago

Exactly. Jamesf29 is right about the real work being in the tech. Cars are just computers on wheels now.

jamief671mo ago

Every time something goes wrong on a newer vehicle I just brace myself. My neighbor has a practically new SUV and a deer ran into the side of it. It took the shop three weeks to get the lane keep camera and the auto braking sensor recalibrated. They had to send it to the dealer because their fancy scan tool wasn't the right one. It's like they design these things so only the dealership can work on them anymore. Makes me miss the days when you could just pop a new headlight bulb in with your hands.