tradell
2 answers
Jorge Jackson
Jorge’s Answer
In those roles, you’re usually doing basic work like oil changes, tire rotations, fluid checks, and other minor maintenance. These jobs often don’t require a large or expensive set of tools, and some shops already provide what you need to get started.
This is a good way to gain experience, learn how a shop operates, and earn money while you slowly build your own tools. As you gain skills and transition toward a full automotive technician role, you can add tools over time instead of buying everything upfront.
You also don’t need the most expensive tool brands when you’re starting out. Entry level or lower cost tools are usually fine for the first few years. Once you’re making more money, you can upgrade or replace tools with ones you prefer.
Many technicians also save money by buying used tools from garage sales, Facebook Marketplace, or from other techs who are upgrading.
What matters most early on isn’t having top brand tools, it’s learning the work, being reliable, and building skills. Your tool collection can grow along with your career.
G. Mark Stewart
G. Mark’s Answer
This question was in a group of others about aerospace engineering, but I notice that the topic listed was "automotive". Luckily, the answers are similar. In general, you don't have to have physical "tools" with you to be either and automotive technician or an aerospace engineer. But consider that your mind and knowledge and skills are all tools. So you can't ever be without them. Now, for an aerospace engineer, if you were to consider a computer a tool, you'll likely have one with you much of the time. But it's not absolutely necessary all the time, because much of the time you'll be thinking about defining a problem and about how to research the next steps using just your own brain. For an automotive technician, working in a service department, we all had our own personal set of tools and a rather large toolbox that we had accumulated over time. When you start working in a garage, you'll usually be expected to provide your own tools. However, if you work for a company that has, say, a prescribed assembly line or service process, they may very well provide some specialized tools for those jobs. Given that this is a pretty broad set of circumstances, I hope that answers any question you had in mind. As for having your own tools in a shop, I can tell you from personal experience, service techs tend to pretty demanding and protective of their tools. They LOVE them :-).