I have quite a bit of experience in this, don't ask me how being a retired plumber, I'd rather not get into it. LOL.
Now, I'm not saying it's a great deal, all I'm saying is this, every service department in any "auto" dealership ( I don't know anything about motorcycles and UTV's) that I have ever come across gets paid out of the book.
I don't know too many situations except for diagnostic and things like that, where techs get paid for the direct hours they worked.
If the book say 1.9 hours for a repair, and warranty DOES go by the book, and the tech can do it in 1 hr, he is picking up ONE hour for free.
I wouldn't really say that techs don't like warranty work because it really just depends on the type work. One of the many reasons that techs don't like warranty work is because there's no upsell possibility. With regular repair they can sell things, warranty
forget it!
But in a lot of situations when a recall came through, the warranty would call for 2.4 hours, and the techs could whip those things out in under an hour and were making a fortune! In that case they favored the warranty jobs versus regular.
It was not uncommon, nor would any heads turn, if a technician worked 8 hours that day but got paid for 13.
It's one big game back there with the owners and management pitting themselves against the mechanics. In my opinion, ALL owners of dealerships are very cheap and want to get by paying their salesman as well as techs, the LEAST amount possible!
I could tell you some stories... especially when the owners are telling you to do something one way that will make them more money, but the techs less, but you've become friends with all of the techs and you want to do it the other way around. That's when it's time to get really creative! Truly it's walking on a tight rope 50 stories in the air!
Another thing is, not everybody has to buy $20,000 in snap on tools. Snap on just charges a ridiculous amount of money for their equipment and I can honestly say I have never had a Craftsman brand break on me, even if it does, has a lifetime warranty and they swap it out!
Buy even cheaper and if it breaks you can buy six of them for the same price as one snap on!
My point is, if you're going to go in to business, start off with cheaper tools and If the business starts to succeed you can always upgrade later.
Going in business as a mechanic is extremely tricky and expensive because you need a retail outlet with lifts and things like that. Going into business as a plumber is a piece a cake, couple thousand in tools and a truck and you're ready to roll!!!
It's difficult for techs to just go into business on their own. That said, I have never ever ever ever in my life made an appointment to get service work done where they weren't always a couple weeks out. The local small engine repair shop who works on SXS's is a waste of time every single time you call this guy literally a month or two out. So that just simply tells you that demand is greater than supply.
I've always thought about opening up a repair shop for SXS's ONLY, no sales, no parts, just service. Personally I think a man could make a small fortune! I'm in western North Carolina and if any techs out there are considering such a thing, maybe we could hook up and work something out
PM me for a possible joint venture!