mmotley

... I typed a whole bunch, but I went back and read it and it sounded like I was bragging. So I'll just leave it at this. January is already a record month for me.

Thanks. Just wasted a good 15 minutes laughing at all those pics! HAHA good stuff

I bought a used brake lathe on craigslist when I opened up. Can't remember exactly what I paid for it, but I think it was around $2000, maybe $1800. Came with the bench/table, adapters and cones. Cleaned it up with some WD-40, spray painted the the bench, and replaced a boot. I don't know if it was worth it, but it's hard to measure. Selling rotors on every brake job is gonna add ~80-100 I would guess. That could cause some customers to go somewhere else. Not that you want to be the cheapest guy in town, but people do pay attention to price regardless.

complete article here... http://editorial.autos.msn.com/blogs/post--senators-propose-law-covering-car-black-box-data

I feel the same way. Ignoring the fact that you can get yourself into serious trouble (lawsuits etc), just the loss of sleep from knowing you let an unsafe vehicle leave your shop is not worth it. I'm not sure I would try to cram all of those instances into a small disclaimer on the R.O. however. I feel like that is just going to get your tail in crack eventually. I would just instruct your service writers to refer that customer to the current manager on duty or you. Think about it, if a customer has a wiper blade from the dealership, are you really gonna decline putting that on? vs some used brake pads from the junk yard? Obviously an all encompassing 'no customer supplied parts policy' is the safest route, but I think applied common sense here can go a long way instead of a small disclaimer that hardly anyone reads. I think what I'm getting at is maybe a policy is better than just a disclaimer, and like you said CAautogroup, putting a note on the receipt is probably the best idea.

Sent you a PM

Do you own the shop or are you renting? Seems to me you would make more money if your shop was open during regular business hours, so maybe leaving your current job and opening your personal shop would serve you better. I almost did the exact same thing you're doing when I started my shop, but I decided to dive in head first and do my own thing full time. I'm so glad I did and never looked back.

Just curious, why are you staying at your current job and only working your own shop on nights and weekends? What is keeping you from going full time?

I think it really comes down to prepping the customer before work begins. When there is a massive leak and its hard to tell, you tell the customer 'Look, when we get done, there may be some other leaks that we couldn't see.' Remember, you're not the one who has let the car leak oil for so long that now you can't tell where it's coming from. It is a result of their poor vehicle maintenance. Like Xrac said, you can try degreasing the engine and reinspecting... And don't hesitate to charge for it! I recently had a customer come in with an oil leak, and it was covered in oil underneath from the radiator to the rear diff! I had to clean it off, I made him buy an oil change, and he is coming back in 100 miles... AND I told him it's still gonna be tough to tell. Remember, we're all human and we can't always be perfect, no matter how much the customer expects us to be.

Wes, that's what I've been told too. I wanted to try it out in a small section so I could see how it performed before I ordered 1000's of sq ft. There are lots of pictures of people using it in showrooms and home garages, but I never really saw any pictures where it was being used in a commercial application (only a few recent exceptions on there website). I just put it down in my main stall 2 days ago, so I'll be using and abusing it as much as I can before I start building my own shop. I'll post a my thoughts on it after a month or two

I just ordered some racedeck flooring and installed it in one of my bays this week. Trying to give it a good test run before I build my own shop and decide what kind of flooring I want. I'll try to give a thorough review on it after it has taken a little wear and tear. Also just bought another lift for the shop, maybe I'll post some pics and review for that too when I'm done if anyone is interested.

Had a few people interested in the construction of my sign, so here are a few pictures of the finished product. I didn't get to take too many during the construction, so hopefully these help enough for whoever is interested.

phynny, so how are ya'll pricing them over the phone? Do you just tell the customers you start at $XX.XX and go up from there, or what?

I even charge the same price for all filters, and it still seems that getting the price takes too long. Maybe it's just me being impatient. Also gets worse when you find out that their car could have a 4 or 6 cylinder... Hopefully someone here with a quick lube shop has some input.

Just curious, how are others handling the pricing of oil changes? More specifically, how are your service writers giving prices for oil changes if someone calls in? I know, I know, I know, many of you don't like price shoppers, but they still call and I would like to give them the quickest and best answer possible. Example: Customer calls in and wants to know how much for an oil change on their 2002 Toyota Camry. Where does your service writer get the price? Does he/she just say 'our oil changes start at $40 for a 5 qt oil change and each additional qt costs $5?'... What if the customer wants to know how much oil their car is going to take? Do some of you guys out there have a 'cheat sheet' with a table on it showing the year/make/model/fluid capacity/price, or is everyone going through mitchell/alldata and asking the customer to hold while you get this info? The reason I ask, I called a quick lube place this week, and the kid who answered the phone seemed to have the prices and info pretty quickly... Either he is really on the ball and knows his cars/fluid capicities/prices or he had a cheat sheet or computer program that had him the info quick. I know at my previous employer, they had a 'cheat sheet' with all the basic prices listed for oil change/air filter/cabin filter/rotation/etc. but they were a high end dealer and could make flat rate prices for all the cars. Every oil change cost the same there, 4,6, or 8 cylinder (with the exception of one car). I don't think that's feasible in an aftermarket shop. Any thoughts or input is greatly appreciated!

That makes way more sense (I didn't read the articles, just kind of skimmed...lazy). At that point, I would say they are definitely worth it. Wes, shoot me a PM with your email address and I'll send you a copy of the slideshow. For future reference, if anyone is interested in making a slideshow for a TV, here is a quick rundown: 1. In paint/power point/etc. save your image as a jpeg. 2. Save all your files to a thumb drive/jump drive/usb drive 3. Most TVs nowadays have a usb hook up. Insert the usb drive into there 4. Turn on the TV. Some will automatically detect the drive, others you may have to change input to media or whatever 5. Set to play, you may have to choose to loop all the images so they keep playing over and over. Reference http://www.scantips.com/basics1f.html for the correct pixel size for your image. I think it says to set it to 1920x1080 pixels

Wes, I would love to see the cost of those displays. I'm sure they work great, I'm just afraid the price is gonna be way too high for the return on invest (plus floor or wall space). By no means am I saying my slideshow is the greatest idea ever (I'm really just to cheap to pay for cable and I don't have enough waiting customers), but like Joe originally asked, can we have to many sales displays. The TV takes up just a little space on the wall, didn't cost me much (really, I took it out of my room at home, so it was kinda free), and has sold tons of keys, rock chip repairs, and headlight buff jobs. I guess it comes down to how many customers you have waiting around and being bored vs. customers coming in a out quickly. Bored customer might check out displays and brochures, but those just coming in to drop off their car or have you check their MIL real quick will at least glance at a tv... At least that's my train of thought. If I ever had a bigger waiting room and extra money laying around, I would probably invest in some of those displays though.

you should be able to google traffic count maps for your area, also income level maps. http://www.city-data.com/ is good for income maps

In my experience, take whatever rough ball-park figure you have in the beginning and double it. That's how mine went. Folks tend to overlook how much goes into starting a shop. Just the small, miscellaneous stuff (lug nuts, valve stem caps, drain plug gaskets, additional shelving and storage, etc.) can nickel and dime you to death. A lot also depends on your business model. If your looking to open up shop in a high rent part of town, you're probably gonna need loans unless a family member has a few oil wells. If your opening up a one man shop in a poorer part of town, maybe not. Also going to depend on how well you advertise when you open. If you do a soft open mccannable, you might just be breaking even the first few months (that might mean no personal income). If you do a massive mail out campaign (5000+ mail outs), radio ads, facebook and google ads, newspapers, and phone books a few weeks before you open... you will probably have the phone ringing off the hook and people showing up from day one... But all that advertising is going to cost money... There are so many variables, it's tough to give advice without more detail from you. I started off with funding from my Dad and personal savings. I got completely debt free and saved quite a bit before I jumped ship into self employment. It should be known that my Dad is nowhere near rich/wealthy, and I bought well over half of my shop equipment used on craigslist from other shops going out of business (how depressing that was a times). I've rented a crappy, non-insulated metal building, 40'X100'. It has 1 big bay door on the end, and a smaller bay door on the other end. I'm in the poorer part of town, and it sucks but workable. It has allowed me to open shop and learn by the seat of my pants, and not go broke doing it. Now that I've been open for 6 months, hired a part time employee, bought another lift, and learned how to advertise, I'm now talking with the bank about a loan to build my own shop in a nice part of town. Doing it this way allows me to go into the bank with numbers showing business increasing, along with other figures I've got since I opened. By no means am I saying this way is the best, just giving you my story. Hope this helps some. Edit: I also had no management experience, parts department experience, or service writer experience before, so I felt I would have had a tough time getting a loan with nothing but mechanical experience. Now that I know industry figures and averages, combined with reading some business management books/free online classes, I'm better situated to manage a shop and can bring that experience into the bank when it's time to get the loan.

I use a slideshow on my TV to show the different products/services we offer. In effect, this is one advertisement piece, however it changes every 10 seconds to show another service or product. Has been invaluable in adding on sales to tickets.

Might look into carpet tiles... They offer some great design and you can replace just 1 piece if needed.

I seriously wouldn't sweat the whole thing. Based on the fact that these people left the car for 4 years, I doubt they will really pursue it... IT TOOK THEM 4 YEARS TO FOLLOW UP WITH YOU ON THE CAR!!!!! Now all of the sudden, they are going to get serious about it??? I wouldn't loose any sleep over it.

HAHA, I knew this was gonna be a good one before I even opened it. As far as actually contributing to this thread or offering any good advice, I'm not sure I'll be any help. I'm interested to see what others have to say. Surely someone here knows the legality of the situation, but it may be on of those things where it is different from state to state. If nothing else, you could just play dumb. "What car are you talking about? I don't remember any of that!"... Might sound rude, but like you said, how would he like it if you left your car at his place for 4 years...

A lot of this depends on what size shop you are running. Pick up and delivery still seems cheaper to me vs. a shuttle. Plus, the hardest part is getting customers in the door. Pick up and delivery eliminates that. I give the loaner out to folks who are usually doing something bigger than a regular service, but it's really a case by case type thing. If it's a really slow day and someone wants to drop their car off for an oil change and tire rotation on their lunch break, I'll give em the car so they can go eat somewhere. If I know a car is coming in for a timing belt, water pump, valve over gaskets, brake job, and 90K later, I'll hold the loan car for that customer. Again, more I think about it, the more loan cars and PU and delivery services leave more decisions up to you. You can decide when to loan out the car and when to hold it. You can decide when/if you can PU and Deliver a car or not. Shuttle leaves you at the mercy of whenever a customer shows up (granted, there are ways around this too). Maintenance on loan car is pretty cheap... After all, you do own an auto repair business. Insurance is cheap (going to depend on what your loan car is though (2013corvette vs 1992 cavalier))

I have 1 loan car right now. I can't count how many jobs I've sold when I mention 'free loan car'. I've never really considered a shuttle, but I have been toying with the idea of a 'pick up and delivery' service. Pick up and delivery service would go well with free loan cars, but like Joe said, you are walking the line of Nordstrom and Neimen Marcus at that point. Now that I think about it, pick up and delivery should definitely be offered! It doesn't require any investment up front. You have to buy a loan car, you have to have a shuttle vehicle, but you and a service writer, service writer and tech, 2 techs, or whoever can go pick up the customers car from their work/home and then return it when done. Just my thoughts...