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Talked to a kid at the parts counter who made me feel old
Some 20 year old kid working the counter at Napa asked me if I had ever worked on a car with a carburetor. I told him I rebuilt a Quadrajet on a 77 Trans Am in high school back in 95. He looked at me like I was a dinosaur. Then he asked why anyone would want to mess with that when you can just plug in a laptop to tune a modern car. It got me thinking about how much the basics have faded. Do you guys ever run into younger techs who have no clue about older systems? How do you handle passing that knowledge along without coming off like a grumpy old guy?
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kelly.keith1d ago
Man that is a fair point honestly. Your mileage may vary but I think we get caught up in our own nostalgia sometimes. I had almost the exact same thing happen at an AutoZone a couple years back. Kid asked me what kind of oil my 88 F150 took and I said 10W-30 and he asked what year it was. When I said 88 he goes 'oh so that takes the old stuff with the lead right?' I about spit out my coffee. He was dead serious. But like you said, he didnt need to know. His job was selling oil for the last 15 years of cars and he was trying to help. I just told him nope lead went away in the 70s and he looked relieved. We all start somewhere and none of us knew everything right out of the gate.
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thea1432d ago
That 77 Trans Am had a 6.6 liter 400 under the hood right? I mean yeah the kid doesnt know what a carburetor is but does he need to? Most cars on the road today are fuel injected and if his job is selling parts for the last 20 years of vehicles why would he care about a Quadrajet. Its not like he was rude about it, he just asked a question. People act like its some tragedy that younger techs focus on modern stuff but thats literally what pays the bills now. Half the old guys I know cant even use a scan tool without crying about it.
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