mechanics and public attitudes : can we change?

    Hello, everybody. I just wanted to write a few lines today about the public's perception of mechanics and how that perception plays out in our interactions with customers. Although this site is tailored to truck mechanics in particular, this will apply to our brothers in the light vehicle field, also.
    I am sure we have all come up against customers who just don't, or won't, understand that fixing something is not always straightforward and by the book. Actually, most people don't understand that there really is no book. It is easy to find someone who will tell you of the time a repair shop ripped them off by charging for something that was unrelated to the problem, billing more hours than were used, or not finding a simple problem in a timely manner. I am sure there are shops that operate unscrupulously or whose mechanics are not up to the task at hand, but I am convinced that many, if not most of these complaints stem from a lack of understanding of the repair process.
    I have spoken to people who believe that to repair a modern vehicle, all you need to do is to hook up a computer and change the part the computer tells you is bad. Many of these same people lament the days when there were "real" mechanics who could fix things without the aid of computers and with just a handful of tools. What do you say to such people?  Maybe part of the problem is with general attitudes toward physical work. "OK, mechanics do have certain skills, but the work is mentally undemanding and could be done by almost anybody. I am thankful for mechanics when my car needs to be fixed, but I would rather my daughter marry a doctor or a lawyer". This seems to be the unsaid attitude with the general public. Maybe we need a reality show to bring the real world out into the open. Actually, I think such a thing is in the works right now. The problem is that from what I know of these shows, the wrong image would tend to be portrayed.
    Ultimately, it is up to us as professionals to change public perception, to the extent that it can be changed. I don't believe it is enough to try to make better relations with the costumers who come into the shop. I think we need to take a new attitude of worthiness and professionalism into the public, to schools, fairs, on television, and online, and show people what really happens on the floor and what repair is really like. Maybe we need an organization to help us do those things. If public perception changes, we may be able to demand better wages and more opportunity for continued learning. More younger people may actually start to come to repair as a career. Maybe technical schools would start teaching more meaningful, real world skills for the industry, giving new mechanics a deep set of basic skills they can build on.
    Feel free to post comments on this, or to post to the discussion board.
Thank you for your time.