Fuck all that. My MY2019 truck, bought brand new, didn’t come with a double din head unit. I bought it way on purpose. Made it 100X easier to go to Best Buy and get a Pioneer Apple CarPlay unit (wireless mind you, installed in 2019). My aftermarket deck, you can eject the head unit face. So if parking at airport or going to be parked for a few hours, I eject it, and lock it up in the in-bed trunk. For JDM vehicles, the factory head unit sucks anyways. Go aftermarket. Best Buy will hook your brother up and it won’t break the bank. Might as well upgrade the crap JDM speakers while you’re at it. Everything is can bus now so no splicing necessary.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Not possible with the Mark Levinson system way too much integration. There is not a way to swap it without going full custom which is no even close to being financially considered.
Only options to swap are the Android based Chinese no names stuff that are complete garbage.

Question for any shop mechanics ???? If the shop book claims 4 hours for a specific repair and the shop charges the customer for the 4 hour time but the mechanic actually completed the job in 2 hours how much is the mechanic payed for ??? Does the shop keep the other 2 hour rate ??? .... drill sgt.

Of course they do. The mechanic probably gets an "ata boy."

Depends on if the mechanic chooses* to be paid hourly as an employee or "book rate".

Then it is typical a "book rate" @ 4 hours that takes the mechanic 2 hours, he get's paid 4 hours.
If he completes the job in 6 hours, he gets paid four hours.

For an hourly paid, the book 4 hours, you complete the job in 2 you get paid 2 hours and a smile from the boss.

You get the job done in 6 hours, you get paid 6 hours, no smile. Do it a few times in a row you get paid the 6 hours each time and a nice pink slip at the end of the week.


*
Chooses, by taking employment under shop's set policy of in scale or the other, or if the shop/mechanic negotiates for one or the other scales.

^^^
Absolutely not true @ZSMICHAEL
If the Technician is working in a "true" flat rate shop, and the flat rate book says the job takes/pays four hours of flat rate time, the Technician will be paid four hours flat rate time.
Even if it only takes two hours.

That same Technician is also going to receive the other edge of that double edged sword. A job that pays four hours of flat rate time, due to many things out of Technician control, might actually take eight hours to perform the job that they will only get paid for four hours.

Another item I failed to mention. During my younger years, YouTube wasn't a thing yet. Only factory service manuals. Those will show pictures and line diagrams. With SOME step by step instructions.

While doing my Kubota tractor restoration recently, I was seriously struggling with removing the dial/shaft/mechanism for adjusting the down position (cutting) height setting for the mower deck.
I looked at the manual, and online parts diagrams. I just wasn't getting how it all should be disassembled. I had to disassemble that item first for continuing onto other tasks.

So out of desperation, I went to YouTube, and input a very technical many words/numbers search string in the box and hit the enter key.
Well I'll be dipped it shit!!! The exact item, the knob/shaft/mechanism I couldn't figure out how to take apart, for the exact Make/Model/Year Kubota tractor, a guy had done a 30 second video short.
It even specified exactly what size metric deep socket was needed for completing the exact challenge I was unsuccessfully attempting to overcome.

Even I, and reasonably computer/internet "savvy" was shocked at the YouTube search engine ability/accuracy! It was simple reassembling that mechanism. I had just needed to know how to disassemble something I had never seen/experienced before.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Not possible with the Mark Levinson system way too much integration. There is not a way to swap it without going full custom which is no even close to being financially considered.
Only options to swap are the Android based Chinese no names stuff that are complete garbage.

AirPod Pros or if using Android pick a solid $200 set of BT earbuds.

quote:

Originally posted by Prefontaine:

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Not possible with the Mark Levinson system way too much integration. There is not a way to swap it without going full custom which is no even close to being financially considered.
Only options to swap are the Android based Chinese no names stuff that are complete garbage.

AirPod Pros or if using Android pick a solid $200 set of BT earbuds.

Not sure what that has to do with on screen apps through CarPlay integration.

What pisses me off is dealerships charging say $120 per hour for their employees that they may only pay $24-$30.

It is called overhead,ie rent,maintenance,insurance,taxes etc, I have run a successful business for over 40 years and the cost of doing business continues to climb,

quote:

Absolutely not true @ZSMICHAEL
If the Technician is working in a "true" flat rate shop, and the flat rate book says the job takes/pays four hours of flat rate time, the Technician will be paid four hours flat rate time.
Even if it only takes two hours.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I was referring to a union shop. I am not familiar with a flat rate shop, There are lots of ways to run a business, I agree with SIg Monkey,

^^^
Union or non union isn't the question here. The question here is Flat Rate shop, or Not Flat Rate Shop. Union or non union has almost nothing to do with it, essentially meaningless.
There are likely some Flat Rate shops out there someplace, that are unionized. My experience is saying that is extremely unlikely in almost all cases.
Also in most cases, the non union shops/not Flat Rate shops that pay hourly are the chain store muffler shops, quick lube places and the large chain store tire retailers.
When you frequent these type of stores, you'll be getting the inexperienced, hardly trained, those that failed auto shop in high school, and those that cannot survive in the Flat Rate New Car/Truck dealership service environment.

The Flat Rate "Book" is gone now in most New Car/Truck dealerships, it's all done with highly sophisticated computer applications, for figuring out how many hours Flat Rate time for a particular repair/maintenance task.

In my personal experience, the vast majority of New Car/Truck dealerships employ their major repairs technicians with the Flat Rate pay system. I guess it's theoretically possible a few might be unionized.
That same dealership will likely pay staff/Technicians in the Quick Lube lane (oil changes & quick things) with the hourly pay plan.

The hourly paid folks at the quick lube lanes, tire places, muffler shops, they typically do the "upsell" thing for generating additional personal pay, (small commission on "upsell" items) and repair shop
increased revenue.
It's less likely at a Flat Rate shop as it's generally rigidly scheduled, and "upselling" work possibly won't fit at times in the daily schedule for that particular day.
However, most places will be happy to "upsell" and have you return at a later date for the task to actually be done.

At least for the dealerships, the Flat Rate pay plan system has few drawbacks if a Technician exceeds eight hours Flat Rate pay/time during an eight hour day.
And what Sig Monkey said, and you are agreeing with Sig Monkey, he described both Flat Rate shops, and not Flat Rate shops.

BeatSonic Unit, front seat jackers, installed and GPS tracker all removed in under 2 hours!!! Lexuse wanted $800 just to install the BeatSonic! Very easy install. I took it super slow lots of wires to keep up with and route nice and tidy. I am a bit OCD about wires even if you can’t see them.
To do it again I could do it in 45 minutes, no doubt.
$800 Complete nonsense.

Nice Job! Well done!

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
It is called overhead,ie rent,maintenance,insurance,taxes etc, I have run a successful business for over 40 years and the cost of doing business continues to climb,

LOL $30 for the mechanic and $90 for the owner, that's some "overhead".

Had some potholes in my driveway that I wanted to fix. Called "the guy" locally that does driveways, roads, and such. He quoted me $6000 to fill the potholes, regravel the whole drive, water it, and roll it.

Did it myself for $375 worth of 3/4 crushed, a few hours on the Kubota leveling it, an overnight rain to wet it, and driving up and down it about ten times to "roll" it. It doesn't look as pretty as having a pro do it, but $6000? Nope.

I think he gave me the "I don't want the job" quote.

On the subject of incompetent dealer service - years ago I had an Opel GT that required work on the steering column. At the time, Buick was the Opel dealer. Picked it up when they were done, drove out of the dealership and, at the first turn, the steering wheel came off in my hands. Fortunately, I was able to stick it back on without mishap and return to the dealer. Their response - "OH guess we forgot the nut"

Acura wanted $160 labor to change the fan belt on my coworker's 2.4 liter TX.

For a chicken sandwich, I did it in 5 minutes.

The question comes down to what is one's time worth. For someone making a living off installing or troubleshooting equipment, one balances what the market will bear with charging the most money they can for a service. I empathize with both consumer and business owner. Personally, I try to fix everything I can. I've done appliance repair and lawnmower repair here at the house which undoubtedly has saved my hundreds of dollars in the long run (or delayed that expense).

Car repair is something altogether different. I'm one of those guys that is going to have to fork out the money for brakes, catalytic converter replacement, a/c recharge. Even an oil change, I'm paying for. I could have saved over $300 if I had changed my own spark plugs on this most recent service. Don't know how easy that would be in a 2013 Mazda CX, but I'll bet I could have done that myself. Kicking my own ass over that. Oh well. Maybe next car I own, I'll tackle that.