I really like BMW's and I wanna be a mechanic after I graduate from high school. I heard UTI has BMW-specific classes. How hard is it to become a mechanic? Like, how many years do you need of class and how long does it take to become fully familiar the parts of a car and how to fix them?|||I attended UTI in 1999 and 2000 and attended the BMW S.T.E.P. program after that. If you just take the basic auto program at UTI you should be done with it in about 18 months or less. After that the BMW program took 6 months. I thing it has been extended to 7 months now.UTI was not that hard and the STEP program was not easy but it wasn't that hard. Its just intense. If you have half a brain and are good with your hands and have common scene you should have no problem. After getting out and getting into a shop it will take one to two years to get up to speed. You may pick it up faster of slower depending on your skill level. To be honest I would not recommend doing it. It has done good for me but in the past few years things got bad.BMW technical support is a joke now and most of the problems you will see are software related so it sucks trying to figure out whats going on. They don't give you the info you need nor do they want to pay you for the work you do. Most shops you will work for you will be payed on whats called flat rate. What that means is you get payed for the work you do rather than how long you are there. I have had cars that have taken 6 hours to diagnose and get payed one hour for it. It can go the other way to. I know tricks that help me get a 6 hour job done in one hour. There is way to game the system from being creative to out right cheating. I pride myself on being a honest mechanic. Allot of it comes down to the quality of the person that is responsible for paying for the work you do. The last place I worked out warranty administrator was by far the stupidest person i have ever meet in my life. Her name was Lois. Anyway if you have a good one you can make a good living. You always want them to like you. Thats where i messed up. I don't get along well with people like her. I no longer work at a dealer but last year i made about $75k. Not bad for a high school dropout. The problem now is you would have a hard time finding a job. Theres allot of mechanics out there that don't have jobs. BMW has been pumping out a few hundred tech a year for the last 12 years or so. Also you have to think that things are slow now at the dealer, there not selling cars like the past. At my dealer sales where down about 30%. BMWs have a 4 year 50k mile warranty to a 6 year 100k warranty. That means you will see the car for that long, If there is 30% less cars sold thats 30% less cars that need service. If your the new guy you will be on the bottom of the latter when it comes to work and getting the jobs that pay well. Also don't count on getting into the STEP program. They have closed a few of the STEP program facility's so theres not as many seats. You have to do an interview to get in and you only have one shot, at least in my time you did. Over all this can be a good path to go but its hard on your body, you deal with allot of nasty chemicals and BMW customers can be um interesting. If your smart enough and you like BMWs i would say go to college and get a good job so you can buy a BMW. If you like working on cars and you like BMWs i think the last thing you want to do is be a mechanic. Like i said it can be a great living and has done me well but i wish i would have done something else. But im glad i did it.|||I was injured in a bike accident and changed jobs. Im making 40K or so part time but am much happier at an independent shop. I payed for it with student loans. u could check on scholarships, you would be best to check with your student counselor or shop teacher. feel free to email me w questions
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|||Oh yah, Brod reminded me of another thing. BMW was kind enough to give us a 25% pay cut last year. One of many things BMW has done in the last two or three years to screw over the people that acutely these S#$% boxes running. Again i encourage you to pick another path in life and not be a mechanic.
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