alfredauto

GTA V in real life

I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately. I feel if you have a strong customer base already established a one man shop can do great and make a lot of money with not too much stress. Ideally a one man shop is never "open" to the public, but rather a customer calls your cell phone and you do the job, maybe have an independent contractor type helper. No waiting room, no sign, just an anonymous shop. Ideally it would be at your house so you can share the utilities. I am talking about a legit shop, not a backyard evader. In NY they allow these types of simple shops, some states don't. Cash only. A shop like this can do just 10% of the work of a 5 man shop and make the same profit. The downside is 1. you have to do all the work, 2. you really can't sell this type of business and 3. it would be hard to attract new customers. Like someone said you are just giving yourself a job which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I charge more for parts than the internet does. If people complain about it, which is rare, I offer to them the idea of getting their own parts and doing the job themselves. An egg at the supermarket costs ten cents, that same egg at a diner costs $5. Same idea. Don't let the customers bully you out of business.

I agree that factory scan tools are the best. With that said I own an Autel scanner which is fully updated and a 4 channel OTC lab scope. I also have a smoke machine. I can pull codes from all modules on pretty much any car and use identifix to get a testing procedure. Most anything that a factory scanner can do can be done with a scope. It takes longer and requires more effort for sure but we can test pretty much anything. Flashing new computers or modules is one thing we can't err don't want to do. The amount of money we lose by sending cars to a dealer for programming new computers is so minimal it's not worth investing in all the different scanners and investing the time to master each one. Don't get me wrong I get frustrated knowing I don't have the best tool for the job sometimes but investing in other areas nets a much greater return on investment.

I can't imagine doing everything myself now, I would quit. I'm lucky to do 2 hours of mechanic work in a 10 hour day.

I attended a Jasper class where we learned the economics of replacing major components. It was a good seminar, we all learned something. Sure, $5000 for a new engine is cheaper than $30,000 + tax + fees for a new car, but who wants to put $5000 into a car with 200k miles? The engine might be good but the rest of the car is still rusted and worn out and will take a car payment a month worth of repairs to stay on the road. I let the customer decide but I have no problem suggesting they scrap their junker. On the other hand if their car is still good and they maintained it well a new engine or tranny is a great choice. Jasper would love for us to repower every vehicle on the road. Personally I keep cars until the airbags deploy.

I run an adwords campaign offering a student discount and it targets the nearby colleges, for $100 a month it generates a lot of awareness.

We do some fleet service, the phone company was a good customer, we worked on all their trucks and authorization was quick but they just moved to 45 days to pay and an out of state administrator so I'm not too keen on that anymore. Good luck with the used car dealers, typically they are the cheapest of the cheap.

I feel the same way whenever I can't help someone. We are usually booked up solid for a few days so real quick isn't happening. I explain that we are booked but if they drop the car off we might get to it sooner if someone cancels or a current job gets done ahead of schedule. This lets the customer know I do want their business and I care. They also learn the value of their appointment and our commitment to it, would they want me to bypass their car for someone else's emergency? Occasionally someone will take me up on it, drop off the car on standby, and then start calling me an hour later, I suggest another shop for them. Done-yet and Since-Ya are bad customers.

Hows it working out? I'm a Mastercraft dealer. I like the better pricing and the incentive trips and bonus cash. Goodyear approached me for the G3 program but I can't meet the requirements without giving up a current program. We were a Continental Gold dealer and Yokohama dealer, but now just Mastercraft. We still sell all brands I just can't keep up with having more than one program at a time, it dilutes the bonus potential. For other shops thinking about selling tires, it's a good service to provide. The profit is less than on other jobs for sure but it brings people in, keeps the cash flow high, and tires are easy to do. No comebacks. 4 tires might mean 4 tires plus a ball joint, tie rod, wheel bearing, brake job, alignment, oil change. All gravy work and they keep the bays full.

I use both, identifix is used on every diagnostic job we do. It fills us in on the whole picture and points us in the right direction. It's worth the money. Iatn is the backup plan, not a very good one. If I ever get stuck and post on there I get responses like "do a voltage drop test" or "use a factory part only", and some criticism, but no real useful info. Identifix can lend itself to ignoring the service manual which is a lazy bad habit that can lead to empty wallet syndrome. Reason being if 200 people had the same problem and fixed it the same way it makes sense in a time restricted environment to try that before going through all the tests. Works until it doesn't. We don't charge for wrong guesses so I pay the price for the OOPS moments. Mostly I use my brain.

I pay a monthly bonus based on gross sales. It's a fixed % for everyone, never changes. There is no minimum. I'm a small shop so it helps offset the lack of big shop benefits to my guys and keeps them happy. If they work smarter/harder/more efficiently they make a bigger bonus. If we have a good month they see the reward for their efforts. It also encourages a team effort in the shop. If I catch them overselling they get unemployment. Not best for all situations but it works for us.

solved this one, new transmission fixed the problem

http://kxan.com/2014/03/26/auto-shop-owner-facing-felony-charges-after-customer-complaints/ check out this article, I have no personal experience with this shop but it demonstrates what happens when you cater to a certain clientele. The comments say it all.

I worked at places with showers, I brought clean clothes to work and had the idea I would shower and change and go home clean. Never happened in 10 years. If I had a shower here I might as well put in a bed and just live here lol

funny how cell phones work. While the car is being repaired their phone works perfect enough to call every hour. Once it's done and they owe you money it doesn't work so good. Some customers are notorious for "stealing" their car in the night and paying next Friday. We lock them inside now. They learn too and 1st they give me an expired credit card and then they write me a bad check or a post dated check. Sometimes we do post-sale on the spot unanticipated payment plans if all else fails, it's not the best but better than taking parts back out. The first year in business I was owed at least $18,000. Now I'm down to less than $200 at any given time. No money no car they figure it out. I started charging storage too, that really speeds things up. At least if their check bounces they face easy to enforce embarrassing legal action if they don't make good on it. For me small claims court is another $50 down the drain. Last time I had to go there the judge told me I was 100% right in everything I did and I still didn't get paid. ?huh? A judgement does not equal payment. I got something eventually in barter items to break even on the parts but what a joke. The bottom line is people don't "forget" to pay, they just don't.

June 1 Update. 3 months $500 spent got me no tows no AARP and 3 legit phone calls. 1 customer came in and actually got work done, 2 wanted a deal on head gaskets which we don't normally do. I got a couple calls asking for free DIY help over the phone which I helped with cheerfully. One guy didn't call but came in and I helped him DIY which cost me about an hour, he was real nice so I was hoping for a tip or the job but no go. The 1 customer that called and came in and signed a repair order brought their own parts and was very concerned with price. Summary: I am going to cancel. Repairpal did call my last 60 customers and got unbiased reviews from them, it stoked my ego because they were almost all very good to outstanding ratings. They also checked me out and verified ASE status and things like that. The webpage is pretty nice, tracking is excellent. Props to the company for checking out who they promote. As far as effective advertising goes, at least in my area, not as many people as they would like you to believe goes on their website. I also feel it attracts undesirable customers. One guy already knew from the website that it should only cost $800 to do head gaskets on his Northstar Cadillac. The other girl wanted head gaskets on her 4.6 Ford and timing chain too while I'm in there. She had some of the parts in her hand. "How long is is going to take I need to pick up my kid at 1" Oh yea and don't change the oil she said my husband does that. Yea OK call the dealer have a great day.

Customer brought in his 03 Jeep Liberty 3.7 4x4 with no reverse and slipping in forward gears. Transmission fluid looked like black coffee. 180k, we put a new transmission in. Now it slams into gear has no reverse and grinds going into park. Makes a terrible rattling noise in reverse. Feels good in drive. After checking the linkages and connectors and fluid ATF+4 we pulled the tranny back out and everything looks OK, torque converter was installed properly, nothing looks broken. Called the company, asked for help, and and they are sending another rebuilt unit. I am going to put the new one in but I have a funny feeling it's not going to go as smooth as I'd like, Mitchell says a quick relearn procedure must be done with a DRBIII. Nothing on identifix or on the Jeep forums. I admit I might have fallen off the turnip truck a few times but I never heard of a tranny not working in Park and Reverse due to a computer issue. Shift points I can understand, but Park? Usually limp mode is P/R/N/ and one forward gear. Maybe the rebuilder forgot something when he assembled it, that's all I can hope for. For the record we used this company for years with no problems. Anyone seen this?

old topic but we just had the same problem. Another shop removed the original torn axles and put in "new" ones on a Subaru. Gravy job turned bad, it picked up a bad vibration on acceleration. They balanced the tires and replaced the axles under warranty. Same problem. Sent it to us frustrated. We identifixed it and sent back the new "new" axles and traded them for new "reman" axles, problem solved. Customer normally would have been screwed $115 per side on the cores as the originals were gone but lucky for them we had some laying around in the junk pile. We don't rebuild axles or replace boots anymore either, the reman axle with lifetime warranty is faster to install and cheaper in most cases.

we offer a 12/12 warranty but nobody reads it. If they have a repeat failure within a year they come back anyway and we fix it. If they have a repeat failure anytime we do our best to make it right for them regardless of time/miles. If it's caused by neglect or brother in law tinkering too bad the customer pays, If it's a parts defect we take care of it and try to get a labor claim. Technician workmanship problems usually show up quickly, like immediately . Bigger jobs like transmissions come with a 3 year manufacturers parts and labor warranty (at a reduced rate of course), we build it into the estimate. Usually if a part has a recurring failure something else is wrong and we learn from it. Some customers expect too much, like they never check tire pressure and never rotate their tires never fix the loose tie rod and broken springs and cry when they don't get the 60k miles they were promised. We don't give charity. Customer supplied parts come with zero warranty - we try our hardest to talk them out of it but if all else fails we accept their diagnosis, install their parts, and take their money, that's it. Funny story we installed a starter for a guy on a F150, he supplied it. Didn't start before or after, just a loud click. We offered to check into it but He knows it all so he had us put in another one. Same result. He really is an expert so he had us install a 3rd one. Before pulling the 3rd junkyard starter I gave some free diagnostic labor and it turns out the AC compressor was locked up solid.Removed the belt and the starter was good again (I can assume the 1st one was good too along with the new battery he installed and a host of new easy to replace parts under the hood someone put in). He was mad we charged him to R&R 3 starters I'm soft so we made a deal but I shouldn't have.

I've been trying to get a 2nd tech that is experienced and have had no luck. Tech school kids are good employees but require a ton of supervision to build them up where they can actually work independently.

they called me a while back and had me hook up the integration. The issue is I do all the work for them, plus pay Mitchell $4000 a year or whatever it is, and I still have to pay to see a carfax on a car I want to buy at auction or on trade in, so they take and don't give back.

Figure out what you are really good at and advertise that service. Once you get a good reputation the rest is easy. We are good at diagnostics and from word of mouth we don't have to advertise at all. Other shops bring us their diag work. We are also good at being honest and doing the right thing. If we break something we fix it free. Example - we changed an alternator on a Toyota and broke the cam sensor, that was our fault so we ate it. Customer had to leave the car an extra day but he keeps coming back. We also admit defeat and send some cars to the dealer if we can't diagnose them. Customers appreciate that as well. Anyone can do brakes, and like the owner of this website says it becomes a race to the bottom on who can do it the cheapest and go bankrupt first. So what works for us is customers bring their car in for a check engine light, it gets fixed with no additional "guessed wrong" parts, then they like us and bring us their car for brakes and tires and all the other easy stuff. Treat your customers right and stand behind your warranty even when it hurts and you will stand out.

This last winter was extremely busy for us, mostly snow tire installs and maintenance issues. Come the end of February and beginning of March and it was as if someone hit the off switch. No tires, no oil changes, nothing. We made it through 2 weeks of no phone calls by luck, a couple transmission jobs came in which took up the time. (Normally we don't do tranny r&r's but any work is better than no work) You could play hockey on the road in front of the shop, nobody was doing anything except trying to keep warm. Propane shot up to $5 a gallon. Then like the switch turned back on we are backed up 5-7 days again, phones ringing off the hook. The story is the same with other shops in my area. Feast or famine for all of us. I'm optimistic for 2014 as a whole.

We burn waste oil for heat. The oil change itself is break even but it keeps the customers happy and my garage warm. We don't push anything extra on lof jobs unless it's literally an emergency safety issue. it's why people come back. State inspections are the same way, a loser on paper but it keeps the clients happy.