AJFA

Unbelievably the first inspection of this year the car had dark tint that would not pass the meter test. I called the customer & she said the police had told her the same. I charged $150.00 to remove all side window tint. We needed to razor blade the sticky glue off, it took about 2 hours total. Not a bad job but I will charge more next time. Dave

I am not an advocate of different levels of Christmas bonus as long as the employee has been employed all year I feel they all contributed to the success of the shop so they all deserve the same bonus. Actually doesn't the $10.00 an hour guy deserve it more because he is making you more money per hour? $500.00 to my techs this year. Dave

I am not an advocate of different levels of Christmas bonus as long as the employee has been employed all year I feel they all contributed to the success of the shop so they all deserve the same bonus. Actually doesn't the $10.00 an hour guy deserve it more because he is making you more money per hour? $500.00 to my techs this year. Dave

I buy cars customers do not want to fix all the time for $100 - $200 then scrap them out & make back my money & then some. We remove converters, fuel, electronics as needed & other parts we think we can use. It gives us work when slow. We have fixed some up & sold them at a profit. Just something to think about..... Dave

NAPA, and the sensors are readily available. Dave

The not willing to learn is a challenge. I leave the trade magazines in the shop & I find very seldom do they get looked at so I make copies of the articles I think they need to read & hand them out. Dave

I go for 25.00 to $35.00 per tire mark up with an alignment, higher mark up if no align but we sell a lot of tires. Tires & align is the most profitable job you can do in a shop per hour. 1.0 to 1.5 hour job for most cars if you have lower paid techs to do the job. Dave

Agree with Redline. Yes, we fix cars & make a ton of money with it. Use it almost every day. Start at 1.0 labor charge for smoke test plus for the initial code check then go from there for repairs. Dave

I do NOTHING with out documentation, either a signed RO or documented phone call date & time. Every customer knows what they will pay when they drop off, no It is not easy but there are no 5 oclock arguments over price. Yup it sucks that is how we make money, NOTHING for free. I always say try to go to your next restaurant meal & ask for a free apple pie, whats that cost them, $1.00 & sells for $5.95??? GOOD LUCK. So why do we give away a free align? or anything. Dave

OMG, we need to improve the species. Training & certification is the only way. I have been an ASE master since the beginning & I am proud of that. I am disappointed when so many perspective techs apply & admit they have NO training or certification. I can not hire them & wait to see if they know the basics, that's crazy to wait to see if they screw up repairs then fix them yourself. It is up to us to improve techs & turn a profit while doing it. We as shop owners should be encouraging certification & training, even online FREE training that there are tons. Check out iATN you could read for days with professional training. I am NAPA Autocare, Bosch Car Service & AAA approved & they ALL REQUIRE ASE certification. I believe it helps get customers. Dave

We have been very busy the past few weeks. Make sure you are addressing customer concerns & beyond. 27 point check on every car with constant tech training as to what you expect, this is next weeks work & I have proven it over & again. When checks do not get done we are slow. I tell my guys there are $100.00 dollar bills under the wipers, you just have to grab them! We sell between I would say $75.00 to $3000.00 & up on almost every car, you need to present all issues to the customer & explain to them. Dave

I was into cars since 15 years old, took shop in high school 3 years, went to tech college 2 years for an AAS degree, worked at a large Chevy, Subaru, BMW, Volvo etc. dealer for 34 years as tech, foreman, manager then had enough when it was bought out for the 4th time & I spent all my retirement money 13 years ago to buy an established shop. 47 years repairing cars! I think my next business will be a candy shop, NO unhappy customers! Has not been easy but I am making way more money than if I was still at the dealer environment & I have an investment. DEALERS USUALLY SUCK. Advice: charge enough so you are happy, 60% GP works. Dave

Yep, we sell a lot of maintenance up sells by doing an inspection, oil change past due, tires worn & need rotate, brakes etc. Make sure your techs are doing a proper NY inspection & service check over, that is key. Most of the techs I have hired need inspection training as to the rules, do it in shop meetings. Do not forget the easy inspection failures like wipers, we sell a lot & many times the customer says they forgot how bad they were. We get lots of check engine light repairs & they pay accordingly. Dave

Unbelievable we are suppose to perform this law with no increase in fees but that is Albany. Buy a cheap tester so you can show it to the inspector & carry on. Charge for removal to the few cars we see with dark tint & recoup the cost. Dave

Very simply, charge enough to be profitable, pay employees enough, buy equipment, subscribe to professional repair sites & take a vacation! Waiting for World Pac 2017 cruise. Just remember, there will always be customers who think you over charge..... let them go. I do. Dave

We did not get much of a winter here, winter kills cars so we were very slow as a result. We are paying the bills with profit to spare but not as much as we have had in the past. It is IMPOSSABLE to hire anyone let alone get an applicant worth our time. We are in a population of 30000 and there is not anyone looking to get in this business as we all know. We just returned from the World Pac Texas training & one of the instructors said she had something like 110 applicants for a beginner tech job, I don't think I have had 110 applicants in 12 years total!!! We spend a few hundred dollars on an ad & get 2 applicants if we are lucky. Thinking of putting in a car wash..............! Dave

Don't forget on the "vehicle" page there is a customizable drop down in the center that you can use the label "new customer". Access the report under the "management" tab then " referral - inv sources", yea its a little tricky like everything Mitchel. The challenge is to make sure everyone on Mitchel uses the labeled buttons otherwise it is meaningless. I wish Mitchel let admin pick the defaults so no one forgets to input correctly, but it doesn't. Dave

"what a nightmare" is an understatement. We have been using Mitchel for 8-9 years & every day I complain about it. It is too difficult to change & learn another program at this point for us. As far as parts sales you would use the "counter" button & choose to put the customer name/addy in or not. It is much better if you have the part numbers & pricing loaded into the system. There are A LOT of hidden features in the program I do not like such as LABOR RATE is a button labeled "type", what's wrong with making the most important thing we do - charge labor at the correct rate - an obvious label & make it show up so no one misses it?? The only help I can give is you need to spend time on the trainings & forum resource to learn some of the idiosyncrasies. I have had difficulties with new employees & I find I need to go over everything they do to correct mistakes in write up. Dave

The light is available aftermarket from Dorman on World Pac for $158.50 my cost, your cost may vary, maybe you could have made more margin or given a discount vs dealer list. I guess if someone wanted to see a receipt & I charged list I would show them also but I doubt most of us charge list when you have to get the part from the dealer & they only give 15% to 20% off to us. All this light repair drives all of us nuts I'm sure. We did a 3rd on a Hyundai, do not remember the model, you had to remove the seat back & package shelf to get to the bulb, 1.0 hour job, of course a big customer argument when they came in after agreeing to the repair because they called the dealer and the uneducated service writer said it should cost $20.00. How about the Acura model that you that you need to remove the bumper cover for 2.0 hours & the customer laughs at you as he leaves saying he will fix the lamp himself!! Dave

I would suggest open a candy/ice cream shop, people always leave happy & if they are not so happy when they come in you just give them a free sample! Dave

My 2 techs each received 1 weeks pay, my office staff (wife!) & I got to go to Hawaii on the World Pac cruise this year se we are good till taxes are done! Dave

Yep, no doubt waiters are a pain but I find it is a manageable & temporary pain. We do the same complete inspection & full oil service. I explain to the first time customer who might question why we are looking their car over for extra work that it is done just as much to protect them from any safety issues. It also is to give us a base line that may resolve the "since you" issues after we touched their car, much better to tell them about that oil leak before they say it wasn't there before the oil was changed. (like we never have heard that before!). I find we can not turn anyone away now days and we can many times turn that BMW owner that has been going to just any shop into a good customer with a little information/knowledge & hand holding. I believe getting the waiter in is what keeps our ARO high, many do return for further work, some don't & it will always be that way. I am continually amazed at the customer that wants to repair everything we tell them the car needs & they are happy we did that, at the end of the week I am happy they did all the work$$. Of course a lot of this depends on your shop size, we have 6 lifts for 3 techs so it is easer to juggle cars. Dave, I keep telling myself nobody said it was easy...........

So what do you say to the tech that says " I have to work longer hours the week before to get a holiday off?". I can see a mutiny in some shops!! If it works for you, great. Dave

First time customers absolutely have an estimate authorizing time spent to diag. I'm sure we all get the "diagnosis is FREE or not charged" if I fix the car question. I document every phone call on the back of the RO, who called, time & date & gist of conversation with dollar amount authorized, that is sufficient in the eyes of the law if it was to go that far. Dave

What I have read I agree with mostly, we do not charge a labor time for wipers, I build it into the price, the good Bosch blades start at $12.95 & go to $21.95, we make $$$$ on lots of wiper installs, you better make $$$$ too. We aren't Wal-Mart nor do I want to be. We charge for light bulbs installed at flat rate time, we always suggest to replace headlight bulbs in pair$$$$, have you ever put a headlight bulb in a Civic, you better look up the flat rate time first! some of them you need to unbolt the bumper cover, 2.0, We always look up flat rate time first. CEL Diag. time, if they are a difficult customer & only want the codes read starts at $45.00, no diag. no time spent, only open hood & look at obvious, keeps them happy. Then we tell them what needs to be done next. More $$$$. Dave