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58, been here 42 years, another 4 years and we will see...

1st 6wks or so up. The last 6-7 have cratered. Phone's aren't ringing and people aren't spending in our area. I think we've started in a recessionary period and our area is on the front lines of it.

We have 6 loaner vehicles. It helps a lot. We use SHOPLOANER.COM to verify that the customer's full coverage insurance becomes primary on our loaner. The SHOPLOANER.COM works well with our point of sale system and keeps all the records. Dan Ritchie EXPRESS AUTO SERVICE

We pay 868.00 per loaner for liability insurance only. We need to update our loaner papers. If you send me your email to [email protected], I will send you our contract. We have a clause that says no pets. We recently added that if there is cleanup other than just vacuuming, there will be a $100.00 charge to their Credit Card

Any Chance you would share the contract? I have 6 loaner cars ranging from a 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee to a 2016 Nissan Versa. I pay about $9800 a year for the loaner car insurance policy. I am curious what others are paying to insure the loaner car fleet.

We had a fleet of loaner Subaru's for many years. They were great until a few accidents happened. None were the customer's fault but the insurance company stated that we had to lose the loaners to keep being insured. Lyft has worked great for us. We kept one loaner just in case and the rate is about 4K to renew this vehicle for 2025-2026. We had to train our customers to not expect a loaner.

So far this year through February the shop is up 7%. Profit is down a bit. Everything has gone up in cost. labor, parts, Insurance, dumpster, management systems, uniforms, etc, etc. So watch the margins.

That will happen on occasion if someone breaks down and needs a car unplanned. In that case just send them over to enterprise for a rental if they need it. Generally the better customers are fine with that or will make do. The ones that complain about not have a free loaner I will take not then most likely part ways with them after that service or assess if they are with the trouble.

Having loaner cars is a large expense but they defiantly are worth having. I have 3 of them currently. I usually just do two year leases on equinoxes as I lease many cars and usually can get a very good deals on them. I have 2024 Equinox EV that I did a two year lease on and just did a one pay that cost $1900 for 2 years. So like free. Insurance is costly on them- around 200 bucks a month each. But I do mostly higher end vehicles- Euro / exotic etc. so my average RO is well over 2K. The best part of having them is never having to worry about getting stuff done and I can schedule customers as I see fit and keep the week rolling. I would not want to put customers in older cars as taking care of those would just be too time consuming etc. So my advice is that it will generate you way more money than the cost of having them and will keep good customers forever. But putting a bad customer in one would be a mistake. I am at the point in my business where I vet my customers and just turn away the problem child loser cars. If the customer does not value me and my time I just tell them they are not my customer base. Time is the hardest think for any shop to manage and wasted time is lost revenue.

I can't tell you how much tax season sucks. Thank god for accountants, they are my best friend when it comes to tax season. Running our auto repair shop is one of the enjoyable experiences of my life except when the tax man shows up 😂. It's all good and well though.

A few things: 1) You May know how to fix cars but you will have some learning when it comes to sales and business. That’s ok, but recognize that and grow your skills in those areas. 2) You need to be cool with sending price shoppers to other shops. That’s the symptom of a trouble customer. 3) It might help to have a few word tracks. When questioned about parts prices I’d say “you can buy a steak at Walmart for $10 or a steak at a steakhouse for $40. This is the steakhouse.” Most people understand that and you’ll be surprised at how many people will chuckle and give you the work. 4) Inspect every car and do not break down the prices for each repair when talking to the customer. Simply tell them the work that needs to be done and then say “looks like it’s gonna run about $3200 for everything, I can start on it today should I get the parts coming?” if they can do it, cut the job down to the safety items for them and repeat the process with the smaller job. It’s nuts, but it works. I learned that from a guy on here 10 years ago. That’s the fastest way to fix your profit problem along with a strong parts matrix like mentioned above.

I was a one man shop with 2 bays for about 10 years and just last year hired my 1st tech. I made money from day one but my overhead was extremely small compared to yours. I started out small with no debt and bought tools as I went along. I also didn't have issues with having enough work. My focus has been quality and honesty. Sounds like you need different customers. Whenever I have someone complain about price I usually don't end up working for them. They are the price shoppers and are only loyal to their wallet. Don't let them persuade you to lower your markup, that's a dead end street. You may need to raise your prices which may scare those price shoppers away and attract good customers that don't ask how much is it going to cost but when can you do it. If you could bill 30 hours a week that's $14400 a month. Some weeks I would bill 30 and some I would be able to bill 40 plus, just depended on the jobs. It takes some serious organization when you're by yourself to bill 30 to 40 a week. I usually don't work late either. My production went up when I switched to Shop-Ware for my management system. Wish you luck!

What matrix are you pricing your parts at? Our company marks up a minimum of 50-65% on aftermarket parts, 30-40% on special order and dealer parts. (We are located 10 minutes from D.C.). We offer a 2 year/24k mile warranty and remind our customers that we offer that warranty only for parts that we supply, no warranty on customer supplied parts. Our labor rate varies from $149-185 depending on whether it's a standard vehicle or a larger fleet vehicle, but we also keep our labor rate a bit higher as a cushion to cover payroll, parts, rent, etc. and also so that we can offer our loyal customers a 10%-15% discount depending on their affiliations. We work with multiple different referral and affiliate programs such as AAA Automotive Program, Costco Auto Care Program, and RepairPal for referrals as well. Maybe try targeting a specific consumer in your area, ex. 1/2 off oil change for local teachers to pinpoint your desired customer base. You could also get certified to become a state inspector, or Uber/Lyft if you have them in your area. Hope 2025 is a great year for you!