AUTOS: THE MESS IN THE GARAGE

AUTOMOBILES are costly to buy and to maintain. Although motor-happy Americans are buying more and more of them (see following story), they have reason to cringe when it comes to repairing aged or ailing cars. As Economist William N. Leonard, a professor at Long Island's Hofstra University, told a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee last week: "No matter where you go for auto repairs, you run the risk of a fleecing. The automobile-service business has become a jungle for the consumer."

That harsh charge was echoed repeatedly during a three-day congressional hearing on the $25 billion-a-year auto-repair industry--a branch of U.S. business that collects an average $250 annually for each of the 100 million cars on U.S. roads. The public hearing followed an eight-month study that faulted the automakers and the nation's 400,000 auto-service outlets for the high cost and low quality of maintenance.

Beating the Book. Among many horror stories uncovered in the investigation was that of a Houston real estate man, who complained that he bought a 1967-model car for $7,000--and has had to return it to the dealer for repairs 27 times. Was the car defective or the repair work ineffective? Probably both. Glenn F. Kriegel, operator of a Denver "diagnostic center" that inspects cars for signs of trouble but does no repairing itself, checked 7,000 cars after they had left service shops in his area; less than 1% of them had been fixed properly, and some had not been repaired at all. Though Kriegel may have been overly critical--his testimony could only help the auto-diagnosing business--the findings were startling.

Auto service is a mess largely because of abuses in the system by which repair shops calculate labor costs. Under the prevailing piecework system, mechanics are paid a set rate for each job rather than an hourly wage. To figure the labor charge, garages rely on "flat-rate" manuals that specify how much time each job should take. Although automakers publish their own flat-rate manuals, many garages prefer to use independent books that list longer work times--and thus higher charges--for each job. Whatever the manual, the cost of labor ordinarily is figured at $7.50 an hour, which is generally split fifty-fifty between the mechanic and the garage owner. Thus both have reason to complete as many jobs as possible in less than the set time.

The subcommittee found that mechanics "beat the book" up to 75% of the time. One flat-rate manual, for example, puts the time for replacing rear springs on a 1965 Chevy II at 2 hr. 36 min., though the work often takes less than 2 hr. Some mechanics, of course, are skillful enough to finish the job that fast. Others beat the book only by doing the work sloppily--or not at all.

Another reason for shoddy repairs is the shortage of skilled mechanics. Few men are eager to train for the tough, grimy job, in which the rewards (an average base pay of about $150 weekly) run considerably less than those for plumbers and painters, not to mention mechanics in the aircraft and other industries. As a result, many motorists have to wait as long for an appointment with a mechanic as with an ophthalmologist or periodontist.

The Privileged Customer. Erratic manufacturing quality control and increasingly complex parts result in cars that break down far too often. The price of replacement parts rose 52% from 1960 to 1967. At last week's hearing, the Senators were particularly disturbed by the discrepancy between prices for work covered by auto manufacturers' warranties and prices on nonwarranty jobs. The automakers pay for the warranty work and they allow the repairman only a 25% profit margin. But on other repair jobs, the markup runs 40% and more. Garages also tend to offer discounts to such big customers as insurance companies and auto-fleet owners. Volume discounts, of course, are common in all U.S. businesses, but Michigan Senator Philip Hart, the subcommittee chairman, wondered "whether the cash customer is subsidizing the privileged customer."

Witnesses also criticized the automakers, particularly for pressuring their dealers to sell cars rather than provide service. Auto manufacturers, who were not asked to testify, argue that 95% of their dealers provide adequate service but admit that the other 5% can give the whole business a sour reputation. Car dealers insist that they average less than 1% profit on repair work. Other repair shops, said Robert Straub, president of the Independent Garage Owners of America, "are struggling to stay alive"but his testimony rang rather hollow after the reports of the steep markups.

Toward Simpler Cars. What can be done? Hart recommended that states start licensing mechanics, a move that might give motorists some protection against shoddy work. He also suggested that the Government might invoke antitrust laws against some auto-repair practices, notably that of charging higher rates for nonwarranty work. But most of the work is done at scattered, independent garages, which are hard to control. Spokesmen for them argue that drivers must be prepared to pay even higher fees if the shops are to attract and hold reliable mechanics.

Detroit is trying to recruit more and better repairmen for its dealers. General Motors, for example, conducts free training courses for high school graduates and offers similar courses for men in the armed forces just before they are discharged. American Motors uses eight vans to take the training classrooms to the mechanics because, as a company officer says, "the mechanics won't come to us." And Detroit also has plans for a longer-term solution. Within the next two years, Ford, G.M., and American Motors all intend to bring out cars that will be smaller, cheaper, less complex--and, presumably, easier to repair than existing models.

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