The Unfortunate Truth About The Automotive Repair Industry in 2026

A few years ago my ML 350 went into limp mode. I didn’t know much about car. Drove to the dealer because it was still under “warranty”. Turned out it was maintenance items. The green o ring in the turbo heat exchange needed replacement. $6 for parts, $1100 for the bill. Later on youtube, I saw the job took 10 minutes. Granted, lift time, tools and diagnose fees but $1100 was excessive! Now I do my own repair and maintenance.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG1O9Nzwk5c&amp;t=620">10:20</a> despite the free lunch!

I went online and inquired for maintenance services which could give them $3000 or more. None responded back. So, I now I do it all myself now and buy my own tools.

Is there anyway we can convince you to move to Australia 😅👍 our car repair industry is the same 😢

I’m thankful the dealership I go to is great! And it’s hard to find a good local mechanic because most are scammy and not that great so it’s a catch 22

Amed is the ultimate hypocrite snd hustler. He never sold a job? What does he think he&#39;s doing with his videos? He&#39;s so busy he cant squeeze in a loyal customer for an oil change? Suckers buy his bs. He’s got you all fooled🙏

I work with a local mechanic; they bought a diesel filter from the dealer service center at half price. The dealer service center tells someone that we changed your filter and never did. They sold parts to the local mechanic at half price and kept money in their own pocket. It&#39;s all a scam.

Its the land of the liberty of offering you whatever and its your liberty to accept it or not. Wasnt that what you all liked about USA? Extreme capitalism filters always.

Where is Car Nut located?

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG1O9Nzwk5c&amp;t=440">7:20</a> that sounds very much like a dealership upsell.

This was so relevant to an email I sent to a shop today doing the Fleet PM on my company service vehicle. They don&#39;t earn much. I know that. It&#39;s the customer service that should keep me to the WOW repairs that will pay well. Or word of mouth for quality work. <br><br>Through a bad service experience, from when I tried to get a tire plugged. I found out that the PM tire rotation was only an axle swap. The tires have staggered pressures. They swapped the tires. Did not adjust the inflation to the position. They were under inflated for their original positions. And they did not relearn the tires. The shop doing the PM was basically destroying my tires. Making my steering twitchy. And now I am supposed to trust they did the mechanical inspection to make sure my vehicle is safe?<br><br>This shop has been eaten by bigger and bigger conglomerates. The mechanics just punch in now and dont care. Their business is just about gone. I left them behind today. I may have to deal with upsells. But that won&#39;t endanger my life.

The fault is on OEM dealearships replacing the pre-maintenance check for a book that tell the dealership what to do at a designated Miles, also commisions are now placed on workshops, based on PARTS sold, the bottom lines is, seel the most even if they dont needed because &quot;its and OEM recomendation at that mileage&quot;.

Nobody has money to fix cars. Cars cost a fortune. Basically nightmare fuel for adults.

The more crooks the better in this auto industry.

i’m the interior/upholstery guy at a classic shop, i make 800 a week.

I had a GREAT shop when I lived in South Jersey. The owner was the only sales person and he still turned wrenches too. Would also show you on your vehicle and not just say you need this or that

Those Lexus LS430s in the background are the smoothest cars I&#39;ve ever driven

I wish i could like this video many times over.

Long live the 1uz

valvoline checks boxes saying they checked all this stuff. i watch them and I know they did not....

I can see that you are an honest person and say it like it is, and I applaud you for it, but you are dealing with cars,,,,,,,,,, metal, plastic, rubber etc..... But then there are &quot;Salesmen&quot; doctors who deal with live humans... flesh and blood. In my opinion, &quot;salesmen&quot; doctors are far worse than &quot;salesmen&quot; doctors.

Old Lexus ls430 in the back ❤ he knows

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG1O9Nzwk5c&amp;t=145">2:25</a> yup. And you go into the nonchain local ones and they&#39;ll even be pushing shirts and caps with their logo on it.

As someone who can do the basics (brakes, oil changes, coolant hoses, alternator change), I had tried multiple shops with an intermittent problem that no one was interested in actually diagnosing (random long crank but always started....turns out it was the fuel pump). I&#39;d rather trade in my vehicle than deal with these shops ever again.

Everyone wants to be rich at the expense of Everyone else, it rearly a passion anymore

The shady deals usually start with the service writers with these B.G services

They tried to upsell me on a refresh, lied to me, took advantage of me less than 40,000 miles on 2023 toyota corolla le and charge me $169.00 for it and then less than a year later tried to upsell me to have it done again. Elderly lady here, I don&#39;t trust them, they are pure evil.

That’s purely American spirit to literally sell the shit out to customers. It should begin in schools to educate honesty and righteousness. <br>Plus to educate to repair things yourself. Start to repair everything that breaks, after a couple of years you will master any broken thing and never get Ripped off ever again.

Amazing

You so right✌️

I just followed this guy

I’m here in San Antonio, Texas, I have a 2009 Camry, I take care of her as best I can. And I’ve seen the video you produced on Camrys, great awesome stuff love it. Good information. <br>I’m going out on a limb here, but, can you recommend someone here in SanAntonio, who has the same sort of principles you practice. If you can, that would be great if you can’t no worries thanks and I’m still looking at your videos. Good stuff.🇺🇸👊🏼👍🏼

Brother, you’re practicing biblical principles… and God is not slack in blessing those who do.

I wonder if private equity groups have done to the auto service industry like they did with plumbing, hvac, dental, etc. They bought many small operations they changed their business plan to financial raid consumers wallet. You are doing business the Lords way are many blessing to you 🙏.

The minute mechanics started charging more than $90/ hour for labor I stopped going to mechanics and fixed everything myself. You guys are not dentists you know

too much trust and too little verification

Yes , Tradesman scam all the time, and there&#39;s also problem with obtaining steady work. There&#39;s so many illegals into the trades that it&#39;s not even funny nowadays to get the proper pay and benefits. USA is going through some very strange times for sure. Grass is not always greener.

You’re absolutely correct I have been scammed at every auto repair shop at some point . The big game changer is Carfax. It shows when and what was done

And then there is excesssively taxed over regulated California. It&#39;s amazing a lagit independent one rack shop can even put food on the table.

Never change! You are a rare gem!!

I have finally found a Toyota dealership here in Finland that takes care of my cars maintenance and repairs. Used it for a few years now and prices are fair and they have never tried to sell me anything. They do what is asked and ask me if there is something else worth checking without putting any pressure on me about it. 🙂 Also everything they do they will give very close estimates on the jobs price before doing anything.

the major tire company service center have been hard pushing the fishing expedition theory for decades. Dealerships saw this and joined the club. I hated being any part of it in my career. My friend still works there. They are threatening termination if you don&#39;t want to participate. It&#39;s a sad situation. Be aware

Yup! Either got scammed or pushed for unnecessary sales just about every single time at every workshop including dealerships I’ve been to in the last 30 years, except one.

therupatic

The dealerships are all about up selling you so much more than is needed. They do good work, but was it really needed? I am all about prevention, so I fall for it every time. At 73 I just can’t do the work myself anymore. Dealership way overcharge for everything. I am always looking for an honest mechanic, but they are hard to find

&quot;Everyone else in the world is profit motivated except for me.&quot; Sad. Just a different method of competition in the form of virtue signaling.

Can you recommend a shop near Miami?

I would say mini 14 because you can buy them in any state. The AR no doubt has the advantage but for some they cant obtain one. And to most clowns it looks like you are Elmer fudd going to blast Bambi which can be beneficial

i think the problem is that people can&#39;t see the difference before the job and after<br>if you called an electrician or plumber you can literally see what they fixed, while missing oil change doesn&#39;t show you problems right away, and then people can skip jt and said it still runs fine they are scammers

Some advice. Get a free Carfax account and track all you maintenance. It&#39;ll tell you what&#39;s recommended at what milage too

I feel like 90% of the mechanics I&#39;ve been to have tried to scam me in some way. Now i try to do as much as i can DIY and it&#39;s saved me a ton of money thanks to channels like this

I had a airbag recall on my 2008 ford ranger. My little truck is meticulously maintained, clean, runs flawlessly. <br>After the dealer changed the passenger airbag, the edges were loose, incomplete, fingerprints all over the replaced airbag. The airbag is installed on tuperware like edge seals. The receipt from the dealer had a list of emergent needs ASAP. From a tune up, to an oil, trans service change. I recently tuned it up, change the oil and transmission myself. They created a $1400 list of things I had recently done. <br>It took them half a day to fix a 30 minute airbag job, including deenergized to prevent accidentally deployed airbag. Obviously they used my truck as a fill in on their schedule. The dealer took 7 weeks to schedule an urgent safety item. I ignore any recalls on it at this point. Dealers are worthless salesman hack scamers.

The unfornate reality is that the customers dont know what they want or what they need. (I dont work in this industry)

Unfortunately you are seeing an overcorrection, ie mechanics not suggesting non requested maintenance tasks in case they&#39;re viewed as just upselling. That leads to problems down the road. A lot of people just assume mechanics will do what&#39;s needed and don&#39;t understand that these days you need to ask.

This applies to all fiduciary industries! Im in the financial advising industry. Same thing applies! In fact the exact philosophy applies

Oh Lord, I recently traded in a car at AutoMaxx in South Carolina, and let me tell you the typical experience is extremely uncomfortable.
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<br>My salesperson made promises such as, “I’ll forgo my $250 as a discount,” “The car will be washed,” and “The gas tank will be filled.” Of course, the place had about 100 people running around like rats, while others, especially those sitting on the platform with 10 computers, were just talking and eating as though they were overlords. I guess they need the attention or something, but the whole setup seems incredibly wasteful.
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<br>My salesperson eventually started helping someone else, which was odd considering how many other salespeople were floating around. I ended up being there for four hours! Based on previous dealership experiences, I had already told him that I wanted to deal only with him and wasn’t interested in speaking with five different people and repeating myself over and over.
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<br>After four hours of sitting around and watching rats on a treadmill, I finally met with the finance guy. Apparently, there is only one, making him a major bottleneck in the entire process and creating a terrible customer experience.
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<br>Once you sit down with the finance guy, they try to sell you all kinds of additional crap. He even told me the car had LoJack installed. When I said I wasn’t interested, he claimed that every car on the lot had it and that it would cost me $400 to remove it!
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<br>I asked, “Why should it cost me money to remove something you installed because you have problems managing theft and vandalism? That isn’t my fault; that’s AutoMaxx’s problem.”
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<br>He reluctantly removed the charge.
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<br>Overall, this place appears to be focused entirely on the quantity of cars sold rather than providing a quality customer experience and developing relationships with repeat customers.<br><br>They told me the fluids were checked and replaced as well. I do my own maintenance and this 52k miles car had never had the transmission oil changed which I would have expected before they sold it and the engine oil was way over due.<br><br>Oh btw, I won&#39;t go to them again and I will inform anyone I come across and even online sources the same.

We&#39;re not here to give free appraisals of cars. That&#39;s not what we&#39;re hired to do. We&#39;re not appraisers. We&#39;re mechanics. We fix what the customer asks for. Don&#39;t make us accountable for a customer&#39;s bad choice to keep a car going for 800 bucks

When was the last time a customer actually knew the answer when you ask when something was serviced? Besides, customers don&#39;t value our expertise or their car

Mr Care Car I salute you on your principles, God Bless to you and to your shop. I hope dealer SHOP realized their mistake interns of offering services that are not necessary just to make profit. Our dealership here is so expensive on parts and untrustworthy with all their recommended repairs…

Repair shops want 200$ an hour!.. No one can afford 200$ an hour...Truth is shops charge way too much and all us customers know it and to say there are more good shops than bad shops is a lie bro

Here is part of the problem.<br>You had a very costly harness replacement thats going to cost over $7k to do . So you say you’re not going to charge him for the diagnosis to go easy on him . Well theirs no free lunch. You’re going to add that charge cost to people that have a lower cost job . That cost shifting keeps everyone happy but not fair ! <br>So want to point out long term you’re doing that !

There are definitely people that just recommend stuff for profits. BUT, car owners do not maintenance their cars well anymore and they also rarely keep any service records. In that situation I typically will inspect the fluids myself to see if they have been replaced or not. Most of us are trying to help keep your car alive and running well for as long as possible but people are always on the defense. Combine that with &quot;lifetime fluids&quot; and it&#39;s a complete nightmare trying to deprogram people and educate them but it&#39;s not worth it anymore. Take my advice or not, I don&#39;t care.

Sadly, small trade businesses like plumbers are being bought up by private equity and they are starting to push plumbers to upsell people on stuff they don&#39;t need just like some mechanics...

The scamming never started with mechanics, it started with car sales showrooms. After 40+ years in the car refinishing industry I&#39;ve seen it all. The scamming starts with car traders wanting a heap they took in p/x tarted up so they can sell it as &quot;perfect&quot;. This applies to body/mechanical. Then those same traders have &quot;contacts&quot; at test centres to get the heap passed through regulatory tests. What has happened is this has had a snowball effect through the trades, just like corrupt politicians and the snowball effect with everyone they associate with. Most body/mechanic staff are honest. Stop cribbing and hit the real scammers that cause the problems.

sad part it when you own a car worth of 3k, and receive repair bill of 5k, its like the industry was built on greed!

Auto groups that own every dealer in town usually give a 3000$ estimate for a 800$ job

Bought new Acura TSX in 2005.<br><br>10 years later, it&#39;s basically still new. 30k miles on it. Garage kept. You get it.<br><br>Demobilizer intermittently goes out. A little electronic bit that recognizes the key and lets the car start. So sometimes, you can&#39;t even start it.<br><br>Take it to dealership. They refused to fix it. But they were very eager for us to trade it in on a new one.<br><br>And that&#39;s how they lost an entire family of customers for life!

This phenomena is an international thing. Mechanics are always have been associated with being scammy

So many of the dealers and independents in my area are simply crooks. Dishonest, misleading crooks. I have one shop that I trust. Fingers crossed that they don&#39;t retire!!

Everything is going to 💩 in 2026

The creator of the video is now criminally twisting someone else&#39;s words. Voice ACTUALLY responded “What is a mistake”.

Well you&#39;re selling a service. But there is a big difference between selling a service the customers car needs and selling a service it doesn&#39;t need just to sell an additional service.

This is %100 the truth.<br>I started all the repairs on my vehicles myself because I was scammed multiple times by different shops/mechanics.<br>My mom has gotten scammed by mechanics over and over.<br>Every time I have an issue with my vehicle and even consider perhaps going to a mechanic I stop my self.<br>Sadly even the local discount tire when I got tires installed who has a partnership with a local shop for alignments I felt scammed me.<br>Of course I couldn’t prove it but as soon as I got my tires installed the same day the radiator seemed to develop a leak where the plastic connects to the metal at the bottom.<br>I thought what is the likely hood of this happening. <br>I realized I had scheduled an appointment with their partner shop for an alignment the next day.<br>I know it sounds out there but I feel like one of the discount tire workers has an under the table deal with one of the workers at the shop where they send their customers for alignments.<br>I also had another vehicle where I decided to take it to the shop that previously serviced it for 12 years the car belonged to an elderly man before I bought it who just happened to live in my area.<br>It had work done that was under warranty for the intake manifold.<br>I had the oil changed and tires rotated. I swear I heard the guy behind the counter as he was ringing me up for the oil change whisper to his coworker. “It’ll be fine he works for spectrum” “he has money”.<br>Sure enough like a week later it threw codes for the intake manifold which was supposed to be under warranty when I called them they said they would only warranty the work if it was the exact same code as the first code. I determined that someone must have either cut a ground wire or shorted out a connection to the intake manifold to cause the actuators not to work. <br>It really sucks because the ripple effect that caused in my life.<br>I am stubborn so I refused to take it back to that shop and I had to sell it.<br>Now I own a Lexus gx470 and so far I have done all the work on it myself. I’m gonna do the axle seals tomorrow with the help of your video!<br>You should do a video on the exhaust manifold gaskets which cause catalytic converter codes next!<br>Thanks to your videos I made a decision to purchase this vehicle because of the 2uz-fe engines reliability.<br>Thank you.<br>It is sad that people take advantage of other people without batting an eye.

Yes most mechanics are a scam. They lie cheat fraud. I have had many experiences, it’s the shops not even the dealership

When you hire an electrian or plumber, you know the exact problem. When you take your car in, you have no idea of the problem.

The mechanics are not gonna work with a parrot sitting on their shoulder.

2500.00 to do a brake job. 300.00 oil changes. 150.00 for an air filter change. Just examples. Every man could do their own brake job when I was young. It’s simple stupid work,but men forgot. It’s sad that they treat the simple work like a transmission rebuild. It’s these rip off like these 2500.00 brake jobs are why I have zero faith. It’s a 2 hour job in the yard,by yourself. If they screw you in that,they will screw you on everything. <br> 10k for a new motor,same for a transmission. Rip off. 10k for a rebuilt transmission. I pulled mine in the yard by myself and the swapped for a rebuild for under 400 bucks in 98. Now how is it 10k. Men need to learn to work on their cars again. A little knowledge would stop these rip offs.

Thank you. Wish you were in NJ. You are the Best

dodge dealership in Robinson twp. pa has a whiteboard in plain view from waiting area with service upsell chart showing who is in the lead for the month. . I&#39;ll never go back. not to mention they had to redo timing cover for leaks three times after changing timing belt tensioner and breaking my plastic oil housing, on my 2013 Ram. and trying to blame it on another oil change place when they did my last two oil changes.

In a corporate democracy the majority has no say, hered left an right while the parasites buy new islands while the salves feed to these legal crime syndicates...

The issue is the people on the front the managers, service managers etc typically don’t have mechanical/technical background I’m a Toyota master tech dealing with these managers/service directors make the job hard if I had it my way I would prefer a guy like you to be my service manager or service director. Our dealership is struggling in the technical department we have a bunch of techs who are no more than c techs the b techs are just glorified c techs

I was a shop owner for almost 20 years and had a great client base. Everyone trusted us because we were transparent and never sold anything that wasn&#39;t needed. Also saved the old parts if the customer wanted to see them. The problem we sometimes ran into wasnot getting the car done quick enough due to not having enough qualified mechanics to get the work out. I payed hourly not flat rate which has it&#39;s own set of issues. We would get great reviews and phone calls to tell us we got everything resolved and fixed!<br>There were customers that could be difficult for sure, and at this point I&#39;m glad I&#39;m now retired since the quality of most newer cars has declined and planned obsolescence is bigger then it ever been.

Totally agree... I&#39;m on the body side.. stop coming to me after you run something over and want me to put it back on for free... Technicians are 100% commission

Get rid of &quot;service advisors&quot; problem solved

I wonder if it’s like forcing everyone to get EVs

Always read the low reviews it’s where some truth lie but they even make those basic and fake now. I just got lied to out of 2.3k i feel so bad

2/20/26 I purchased a brand-new Ford Maverick XLT (Eco turbocharge) 6/15/26 made an appointment for at a Ford dealership in Perryville MO. just 8 miles from my home. 6/17/26 they got me in. Diagnostic test was done; the canister purge valve needed to be replaced. 6/22/26 Replaced the CANISTER PURGE VALVE. Drove home engine light was off. 6/23/26 Called Ford Dealership and told them the engine light was back on. 6/26/26 replaced EVAPORATIVE EMISSIONS INJECTOR. Oh, forgot to mention that the fuel gauge light came on after they replaced the last part. So now my engine warning light and my fuel gauge light is on which I&#39;m getting a warning vehicle is out of gas. 7/20/26 Back at dealership replaced TANK FUEL PUMP. Keep in mind that I only had 6,561 miles on it as of 7/2/26. I was also told &amp; I quote; Tech. performed a visual inspection and found float was dragging on fuel level sensor failure.<br>2/23/26 Both warning lights back on!! Drove to dealership had one employ to sit in the drive seat to see for himself after all the trips back and forth and all the parts the was replaced to fix this problem it&#39;s still not fix. Now tomorrow, (8/7/26) I&#39;m driving 112 miles to the dealership in Poplar Bluff MO. That I&#39;ve had a good experience with in the past and also where I bought the truck to have them fix this annoying problem. Thank God that when Ford, GM, Ford executives, and GM CEO and Penski Met with President Trump asking him to make it unlawful NOT to take your vehicle to the dealership for repairs. President Trump said NO! It&#39;s their vehicle, they own it, they have the right to take it anywhere they feel comfortable taking it for repairs.

Speaking of trust. You have 1.8 subscribers and I bet it&#39;s for the same reason I subscribe, we trust you, we don&#39;t question your motives because you are an honest and sincere person. Not to mention your skills and knowledge. I listen to a lot of these so-called AI mechanics and take what they have to say with a grain of salt. It&#39;s not even a real person you see in the video. I value what you have to say, and I thank you. Your very much appreciated.

Cars are unaffordable.

Nikola Jokić of the mechanic world! Great video of His Greatness👔. Thank you!

Automotive industry sucks from the manufacturing to the servicing. That is why the industry ranks at the bottom for customer confidence. You have earned it. No one in their right mind would want to earn a living doing this trade. <br>Quotes from $800 to $1200 for front brake jobs. 2 rotors and brake pads. Clean the mounting brackets, little lube. 1 1/2. Hours of my time. All in under $250. 😂

After buying my Toyota RAV4, I started looking for information on service and finding an honest repair shop. I don&#39;t trust most dealers further than I can throw them. <br><br>One thing that radiates from your videos, your sincere pleasing personality, is that there is a power active in your life that makes you want to be truthful with people. <br><br>Now that you&#39;ve told us the unfortunate truth about the automotive repair industry, but that there still are exceptions, could you do a video for your customers and listeners on how to get a good indication that a given person is dealing with an honest repair shop that works on the principles that you use in your shop.

If you lived in my town you would have my business FOR LIFE ✊

I think the issue is with mostly with American capitalism. Profit seeking and constat profit increase o year over year. The goal is not to serve the customer and make a living, the goal is to make the most money, and next year make even more. I&#39;m a plumber and in the us plumbing businesses are purchased by private equity. This means that plumbers are now payd commission on the amount they sell so that incetivises the same sell sell sell behavior. I think this profit maximizing behavior hurts a lot the middle and poor people. It&#39;s the whole enshittification of the economy. Maximizing shareholder profit, if that needs jobs to be moved away, so be it, if that means products need to last less so be it, if that needs products to be harder to fix so be it, the shareholders must he happy, everyone else can go f**k themselves

Dealerships are right up there at the top. Toyota dealership made me drive 1000 miles to buy a car just to tell me it sold right before I got there. This entire country is a scam 😂

You earned that title, you&#39;re greedy as fuck

Not all mechanics know that the car is beyond repair, because many failures are gradual and they often dont have the right tools for diagnostics!

Its crazy that we have come so far as a society, sent a man into space, Transplant a heart, and we have to re-discover how no to cheat. It seems like people operating three cups game on fairs have decided to put on a tie and open a business

Youre a mechanic and get paid 20 hours instead of 40 and the customer gets charged 5k for a 1k repair and the dealerships gets to fling their panties in the air while money pours on them. Cars are selling like water being sold to ocean fish and autorepairmen are struggling to find good work that actually pays their worth. If manufacuterers and dealerships stopped fondling each others balls then maybe we might actually get good cars again. 😂

People need to get smart about there car and what it needs in maintenance.and don&#39;t always cheap out it will catch up to you one way or another.