Imagen how is it to me. I deal with french cars all day for fun, they have even weirder fasteners, 9mm 12 point is standard for Volkswagen Group vehicles. On top of that i still teach maths, physics, and computer science in 4 elementary schools in 2 languages and have part time job in sales.
Yep, I remeber being a young buck in a shop and when a volkswagon “anything“ came in for work, we’d all scatter.
No one wanted to work on those abortions. Got so bad the service writers on the front desk just started turning european cars away. The techs just refused to deal with them.
Don’t get me wrong, the Germans make good cars, but they’re a major pain in the butt to work on for a NA tech. Our tools and training just don't prepare you for their weirdness. We can fix them well enough, but you just can’t make any money at it if you’re always ordering another “non-standard” tool from the snap on guy or the quoted hours just aren’t enough time to figure them out.
French cars? You’re lucky if you ever even see a peugeot/citroen on the road, let alone coming into a shop for work. Those little bastards get charged “straight time“ over here. No one goes by the Mitchell manual rates for those disasters….if tou do, you loose money on them. So if its in the shop for 8 hrs, you cahrge 8 hours labor. At $110-150 an hour, that adds up fast. Two 8 hr days and you might as well junk the damned thing!
Too bad I didn’t know BMW slipped a Peugeot engine into their Mini line. Probably still would have bought one as the wife has always wanted a mini, but she’s pretty turned off on them now after seeing the money and misery its costing us.
Its a shame really. Its such a fun car to drive. Too bad its made out of sugar and sand….
