legacycentral bbs

Hello all...
I am wondering how a person becomes a subaru factory certified technician...Do they have a course one has to take? Or is it just an examination/test to get certified. If its a course, how does one take it, and what kind of qualifications do you need to take it, do you have to work at a stealership?
thanks
micum

I don't know the exact initial qualifications. But I do know that over here you need somthing like 5000 hours as a apprentice and then write some exams for Subaru to be admitted. I know my dad, who is a mechanic at a Subaru dealership, has to write exams to be certified on every new subaru when it comes out like, he just wrote the Forester Turbo and Sti one, etc... Its a job filled with exams, and every year he has to go down to Toronto to SOC to do specific vehicle training.

Mark,

shit I think I know more about these legacies then some of the techs I haven't been too impressed with some of the subie techs I've seen around here....

Sheesh...sounds like a pain. I assume the apprenticeship must be at a subee dealer? Probably a dumb question...I am really beginning to think I would like to work on/around cars for a living...but only subarus of course. I havn't done really that much though beyond brakes, spark plugs (on a quad cam ) fuel injectors and rails, and your usual fluids and filters and simple bolt on stuff. I really don't want to spend two years at a tech school or something, cause I just finished college a couple years ago...yuck. I'm kinda hoping I could take a course here and there at the local tech college, and then get some kind of apprenticeship at my local suby mechanic (not a stealership, just some good local guys) or just be the shop $#!^ boy, run errands, pull parts of the junkers, real basic maintainance and repair work, hopefully learn a lot in the process...
Get to work on my car at the shop after hours...build a sweet rally car...get recruited by subaru/prodrives wrc team...
Thanks
Micum

Ya alot of techs arent up to spec on things. Things get hecktic at a dealership at times and if there are many more complicated jobs to get done at once, the forman will usually throw in a shop newby into the fire, and thats when things go wrong.

Mark,

Legacy777 wrote:shit I think I know more about these legacies then some of the techs I haven't been too impressed with some of the subie techs I've seen around here....

I agree completely. When I screwed up my axle seals on the tranny and resorted to having the dealer replace them, I was chatting with the tech, he had just gotten back from his class and he was thinking the STi had an EJ20. I didn't feel like arguing with him, but I was quite surprised. He is a veteran too...

I wouldn't want to work on cars for a living. Of course this is my personal opinion, but I think the work is waaaaay too back-breaking for the minimal pay you'll get. I was friends with the engine builder at Toyota, and he was making twice what I make as a bottom-of-the-rung parts grabber. I do like working on cars, to an extent , it's not like "Yes, this bolt is stuck and I'm going to have to take 20 more minutes to get it out, oh happy day!" but that's because I'm not doing it day in and day out. If the pay were a whole lot better, I'd probably be up for it. But it's too much work for not enough dough.

I was considering selling Subarus for a while, since I can ramble off almost every basic stat there is , but that would make me a car salesman, uhh no thanks

Not only a car salesman, but a USED car salesman.

Mark,

I will give you a little tip......don't turn your hobby into your profession. You will hate your hobby.

I'll give you a personal story....I am pretty good with computers, learned a lot through college, and worked computer jobs. However with doing more computer work, I definitely knew I didn't want to do it for a living. I hated the bs, I hated the puss-case computers, etc. What I really enjoyed was network architecure and that higher end stuff, but knew I wouldn't be able to do that without more school, and working my way up. So right now, it's more a hobby, and an ace in the hole. I say that because my computer background has become very valuable at work. Our company's automation group has enlisted my aid to help take care of all the recent virus activity. Well after looking at their setup, which btw is a complete mess, I've put together a plan of action to take care of the immediate threat, and develop a plan to use Active Dirctory and the group policies to keep these machines updated, working well, and easier to manage. I'm pretty much leading that effort, and our automation machines will be some of the first machines on the new AD domain for our company's entity. So assuming I can do what I say I can, it will be a very nice item to put on a resume, or to have upper management take notice of.

And I've had zero formal training on any of the stuff I'm doing. I've picked it all up from playing with stuff on my own, listening to others who taught me, etc.

Cars/mechanicing is no different, I personally feel you should have a decent foundation in the general mechanicing field, as well as a good mechanical & in today's world, electrical aptitude.

You have to become ASE certified to work at a dealership I believe.

ASE certification: passing written exam for specific area and two years experience or one year and classes (somewhere).

most community colleges offer ASE certified classes. At least the community college that I attended did.

As a former car salesman (New cars, only sold two used in 6 months and both 01 Outbacks) I can tell you that at our dealership the techs and the managers were the ones who made the cash. The average salesman was making 35K/year. The average tech was around 80K/year and all the management was making 90-120K/yr. I plan on going to WyoTech in the summer when I'm in graduate school at the University of Wyoming next year for Statistics. I figure I can supplement my automotive knowledge during the summer break strictly for my own benefit and maybe the occasional family member's.