C4 ZR1 Mechanics in the Pittsburgh PA area

[XfireZ51]

Let?s see. How did I guess? 🇮🇹

[PhillipsLT5]

Tom Henry used to be the go to place for LT5 parts, a long time ago

[Ccmano]

Originally Posted by staminqia

I did ask Mirrock as he is only about 20 minutes from where I live but he didnt know of anyone in the near by vicinity that he would recommend. Yes there is a wealth of knownledge on this forum. As of now the car runs well with no issues but i am always looking for that specialist in case something happens. I know everyone does not like to go to dealerships but I heard of a really good LT5 mechanic that works out of Tom Henry chevrolet his first name is TIM, dont know is his last name. Yes I am Italian

While the technician may (or may not) be knowledgeable, the billing structure of a dealership service department (I've run several) is designed to extract the dollars from your wallet much more efficiently than their ability to solve problems with your car. Today's dealership service departments are designed to do warranty work on newer cars and not much more. With few exceptions there is little incentive for technicians to properly diagnose and repair a customer pay job, especially on older cars that they seldom see. At today's labor rates ($125 - $200 per flat rate hour) even simple repairs and maintenance add up quickly.

Flat rate, for those that don't know, is how all dealership shops and many independent shops charge you and pay the technician on any given repair or maintenance item. There is a published flat rate for every conceivable job on every car ever produced. Usually compiled by the manufacturer. As an simple example let's say the dealers hourly rate is $150 per (flat rate) hour. The job is to replace the belts. It takes the technician one hour to do the job. However the published flat rate for that job is 1.5 hrs. You pay for 1.5hrs labor or $225 not the one hour it took the technician or $150. The technician is paid for doing 1.5hrs of work not 1.0hr. Most good technicians are adept at beating the flat rate as in this example. This often produces shoddy work because the technician is always trying to beat the flat rate. However this can also work in the opposite direction. Same example but in this case it takes the technician 2 hrs. You still pay for 1.5hrs, the same dollar amounts as shown above but the technician only gets paid for 1.5hrs of work. While you would think this is good for customers and in this case it might be, but it creates situations on more complex repairs where the repairs are shortcut once again resulting in shoddy work or worse, incomplete diagnostics resulting you paying only to revisit the dealer a week later with the same issue. This is also the reason for shops "throwing parts" at a particular issue. This is a percentage gamble on their part (with your money). They know (hopefully though experience) that any given issue has a better than even probability of being resolved by replacing a certain part. So in order to beat the flat rate they dispense with the diagnosis and simply replace the part and send it out the door. You end up paying for parts you may not need or paying for multiple parts until they finally get to the right one.

Many dealership technicians also dislike jobs that require extensive diagnostics. A particular problem on our 30 yr old cars. This is because warranty jobs often limit diagnostic time or the diagnostic procedures to resolve an issue. On a customer pay job they know people are hesitant to pay several hours of diagnostic time (@ $125+ per hour) to replace a $0.50 part like say a vacuum check valve. This often results in them not getting paid for the time they put in. Even under the best of circumstances extensive diagnostic work can be very expensive.

I want to be clear. The problem, from my perspective, is not with the technicians. It's with the system that encourages this kind of behavior. Often good technicians are boxed into a corner by this system just to make a living. Also with poorly managed service departments that allow this to go on or even encourage it.

A good dealership service department has checks and balances in place (on a multitude of levels) to prevent bad work from going out the door and incentivizes the technicians to do good work. The problem is that few dealerships are that good. That still leaves us with paying flat rate for even the simplest repair or maintenance.

This is also why specialty shops are a better way to go for cars like ours. Unfortunately they are few a far between for work on our LT5 engines and related systems. A regular Corvette specialty shop should be able to handle anything else.

I would want to talk to more than a few people that have recent experience with this dealer and his technician before going there. But that's just me. Sorry for the long winded reply.
H