ATLAuto

Anyone tested this scanner out yet? $1600 and claims to do everything that a $10k snap-on can do. Too good to be true? Would like to hear from some guys that have used it for several months over a wide range of vehicles. http://www.maxidas.com/features/

VW Group only represents around 5% of the US market, so unless you are known for it, you will not see too many. However, in looking at scan tools, I compared auto market share by cost of the dealership-level tool, and the VW tool came on top for $400 and 5% of the market (another example, Ford's IDS will get you 16% of the market for $1600 plus $700 yearly, a much worse deal).

Wow, that duplicator is great, Motley. I believe I posted this already on another thread, but I want updates on this thread too, so I'll just post it here: Ross Tech's vag-com ... A VW / Audi dealer level scan tool for under $400. I see no reason why any shop would not have this tool ... It is unbeatable for the price. Heck, even VW dealership techs will use this tool over the official software. Highly recommended. It does literally everything the dealer tool does other than program keys. http://store.ross-tech.com/shop/VCHUC.html Also got a pair of auto-setting wire strippers from Radio Shack the other day. They're pretty sweet too.

Site looks great. Very professional feeling and not generic / cookie cutter. Well done.

Thanks for this .... Just spoke with them and will likely fly out there in November to look the equipment over. They have a brand new John Bean alignment system too. If you're in LA, we can meet up.

That is hilarious. Would love to see the look on his face.

As a side note, I am looking for a used Road Force balancer myself, so keep an eye out down there.

Jack, depending on the volume you plan on doing and the quality of equipment you need, do not discount Craigslist or other used equipment wholesalers in the area. If you are not going to be cranking through tires all day, nor doing high end road force balances, you can get some of this equipment really cheaply. If you are looking for new, there are several discussions going already on balancers and tire changers. If I can look at any used equipment in Atlanta for you, shoot me a PM, and I'll check it out before you make the trip.

Illegal or not, the internet is a paradise of anonymity. This is why I try my best not to offend anyone, even if they deserve it.

I had not heard of this USPS program yet. Thanks for posting. $0.149/ea to mail to every house in a zip code. Add around $0.06/ea for printer, and you're in the $0.20/ea range for this mailing. I would really like to hear from someone that has used this program, as it mails to EVERYONE, not just a subset of a demographic.

I have recently gotten very involved in the online review sites (namely Yelp and Google+). There are salespeople that will call your shop asking you to use their services to bolster your shops reviews. I have seen first hand instances of shops in our city hanging up on these guys and immediately receiving a negative review on Yelp. They made the salesperson so upset by their hangup that he went online and left a negative review that they could not remove. Just a heads up.

I just got off the phone with Anna Mae. Great lady and very knowledgeable on lists. My only complaint is that she is not a one stop shop. All she covers is lists. It is then up to you to bring that list to the printer to get the postcards addressed. I'm a bit hesitant to call Mudlick, simply due to not wanting to get on their mailing list ... are they able to handle it all (ie designing, printing, addressing, and bulk mailing)?

Looks like I am mistaken, in that case. Have you seen any issues with your current balancer that would necessitate the Road Force?

I've used the machine many times ... it adds roughly ten minutes to the tire job due to the increased amount of time waiting for the road force arm to swing down. The machine also costs 2-3x more than a traditional balancer. The industry is divided on these. From what I have gathered, Discount Tires does not believe in them and no longer keeps them in their stores. Kauffman Tire, however, will not build a store without a Road Force in it. Anyone have more input here? We will be buying one or the other shortly.

Interesting. Progressive sent me one of these devices a few years back. I plugged it into the OBD2 port, and it tracked my driving. Supposedly, Progressive would lower my rates if I drove carefully. I never saw a change in the price, but I did not pursue it very hard. Pairing this with a 4G wireless network, giving shops access to the data, and pairing it with a shop management program will be powerful for both consumers and the shop if used wisely.

For what it's worth, all new Kauffman Tire locations down here are adding pits to all their new stores. They couple the pit with the new Hunter alignment machine with floor mounted skid plates and crank through high margin alignments all day long.

$12k seems pretty steep, unless you've got a ton of guys on staff. Workers comp is based on your payroll and the worker classification multiplier (a tech is going to cost more in workers comp than a service advisor). This site lays the various classes and multipliers out for us in Georgia pretty well. $12k with a technician multiplier of 3.00 would come out with a yearly payroll of $400k... That seems like an awfully high payroll for a startup. http://www.oci.ga.gov/ConsumerService/WorkersCompensationConsumers.aspx

Great point, Jeff. I just found them all under the MOTOR Specifications sections. This gets us about halfway. Ideally, the RO software should export all the vehicle information into Identifix directly.

I do not recommend completing the contact information at the bottom of this test, unless interested in talking with Management Success weekly until you sign up. The test does not give you the results after pressing submit. Their salesperson will contact you to discuss the results...

It was actually cloud-based. All of Firestone's stations logged into a main server somewhere at corporate I'm guess. The software was so seamless and efficient. Shame that it's proprietary...

I second that. Please PM me, if you could be so kind.

I worked at a Mr. Transmission for awhile and never really understood how we could turn a profit. Almost an entire day was spent rebuilding a transmission plus the remove/replace time to get it into and out of the vehicle. Then, add test driving and possibly removing/replacing it again if there are any issues. This shop would NEVER upsell anything that was unrelated to tranmissions. I once had a vehicle in that had every single dash light on possible. I'm talking headlight warnings, TPMS, oil pressure ... you name it, it was on. I wrote this all up and recommended to the service adviser that we take a look at it. "Nope, that's another shop's issue. We do transmissions here. That's all we do." If this shop made more than 10% net profit, I would be surprised. Additionally, I did not know that a town of 12k could support a dedicated transmission shop. Maybe it can ... I do not know small markets too well, but it seems like a stretch. Personally, I would do the following to increase revenue: Start doing all vehicle repairs, not just transmission. Do a full courtesy check on each car. Recommend what you can, even tires. Heck, the car is going to be in there for a day or two anyway, so you can easily keep no inventory and wait on the parts/tires you need. It may be more efficient to just buy a Jasper transmission off the shelf and send the core back ... rather than rebuilding every single one. This really depends on your volume, though. It sounds like you are in a rural area. Have you looked into doing the big stuff? Tractor transmissions, Caterpillar work, etc? Lots of money to be made here, especially if nobody else is doing it. Just throwing some ideas out for you. I wish you the absolute best.

Back when I worked with Firestone, we used their proprietary shop management software which integrated EVERYTHING. Once the service adviser wrote up the ticket, a technician could select the vehicle, then with ONE CLICK, he could access the following: Oil type and quantity Filter numbers for cabin, air, and oil Tire size and pressure Wheel torque specs Mitchell / Identifix one-click without re-entering specs It was so nice and seamless to use all the multiple systems working together as one cohesive package. Try as I might, I cannot find another shop software that does ANY of this with one click. Rather, we have separate software packages for each of the above items ... each requiring re-entry of all the vehicle information every time. Anyone found a good one-stop integrated solution?

Joe, did you end up getting any traction on this? Typing in VINs is pretty awful. Curious what you found and how the scanner works over long distances.

Great rate. That's hardly above prime. We ended up going with a local Atlanta-based bank due to the level of customer service they provide that the big box banks don't.