well most techs are paid flat rate which their paycheck is based on how much work they get done/sell. and at least at our shop you have to recommend everything you see wrong with the car to cover your ass and not have someone come back to you trying to sue you. bc if something does happen and you didnt mention it was broke..... hello lawsuit. and just bc a tech recommends everything doesnt mean it has to have it. it all depends on how the service writer presents it to the customer.
THIS, all the way.
That's how it is at my shop. I recommend things that would fail state inspection, routine maintenance items as appropriate by Ford's published schedule or my own inspection (ie, if Ford doesn't say you should need an air filter at 41,000 miles, but you have 41,000 miles and an air filter that looks like a smoker's lung, I'm gonna try to sell you an air filter), and tire rotations. I try to sell batteries when the tester fails them or when the alternator craps out. No more, no less.
Now, to add to the fun of it, the owners just changed the rules on us at my shop. Say I work on your car. I change the oil and the air filter, but never look at the brakes because I didn't need to take the wheels off for anything. Two weeks from now your brakes start making a grinding noise and one of your pads ate the rotor. I personally get to buy you new pads and rotors and put them on for free. So at my shop, it goes beyond covering the company. It is now to the point where I have to recommend this stuff to protect myself financially. And it's all because of these stupid people who want everything for nothing and want it yesterday and want to sue you if you don't deliver but still say that the dealership is a rip off.
Now I can recommend anything I want. That does nothing to stop you the customer from saying "no thanks" and driving on down the road.
Heck, this week I had one of those (yesterday into today). Guy has his car towed in, said he lost all electrical power. I look it over, determine that the alternator died and he kept driving until the battery was so run down that it just wouldn't go anymore. I tested the wiring to cover myself, and then made my recommendations. He felt our quote was more than he wanted to put into the car (and since it was a 98 Taurus I agree) we charged the battery up for him so he could drive it home, and sent him on his merry way. But at least anything that happened after that wasn't on our heads.