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A grandson to carry on the family name was born this morning at 3:00 a.m. My son was a proud papa after having three girls.

Congratulations! It will be a lot of work but it was also be the beginning of a new adventure. By the way I do not know if I have ever said this before but I think you have a really good website. It is better than most of the sites I see although I would like to see more information about you.

There is nothing wrong with free food. Don't burn all the bridges with them because there may be a point that you want to use them. You may want to load up on oil or something when they run a special.

Go to Google maps. Go to get directions. Type in Japan as the starting point and China as the ending. Look at direction 43. http://maps.google.com/

Housewife's letter to PPG:

My wife and I both voted a straight ticket this morning at 6:08 a.m.

AZ and Advance in our area do free scans but O'Reilly doesn't and this should be in their favor.

Joe, my wife and I will be at the polls between 6:00 and 6:30 a.m. tomorrow morning and we will vote. I intend to do something I have rarely done and that is vote a straight ticket.

Consequently the shop owner is underpaid and so are the techs. It is a shame for me to say but if I knew 11 years ago what I know now I would never have bought this franchise. I have earned a living but I could have made more money doing almost anything else I would have pursued. When we bought this franchise I did not imagine that I would always be an owner/operator. I thought maybe an owner but other business circumstances and the fact the business wasn't profitable forced me to be here day to day. The bottom line is that I have worked very hard and put in countless hours and while the business is now successful there will not be a big financial payoff until the property is paid for and money is going into our pocket and not the bank. However, by that time I may be too old to benefit from it a lot but I guess my kids will.

Obviously this is a way of dealing with the Autozones and Advances of this world. If it works I think you are on the right track. Many times we can turn the price shopper into loyal customers once they come to know us and trust us. However, I know that we give away too much diagnostic time and I need to work on changing this but it is hard to overcome custimer perceptions. My question is do you think there will ever come a time that the consumer we wise up and realize the difference in a $8.00 per hour counter salesman who knows almost nothing about cars and a $55,000 ASE certified technician with a $10,000 scan tool?

Great story Gonzo! I would give this one 5 stars. A few years ago we had a customer drop off his Chevrolet S-10 pickup at our shop. He asked us to find out why the AC wasn't working. We took one look at it and found the problem. It never had AC. When the guy came back in and we told him he said that must have been why it was so cheap. He had bought it in the dead of winter, just assumed it had AC, and never checked.

Here is something worth watching:

The Bush years were none too hot but there was not the blantant socialism of this administration. I think we should vote every incumbent out of both parties and start over with a clean slate. If we don't get real representation of the people I truly hope the dissatisfaction will allow a viable third party to emerge be it Liberterian, Tea Party, or whatever.

I can no longer buy the Goodyear Gatorback belts since Autozone has quit carrying them. No one in our market sells them and we consider it to be the best belt around.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN-LFK6fa44

After reading all of your stories I wonder if the "last stop before the asylum" isn't working in your shop. Gonzo, we have an auto electric shop here that we use sometimes and that I enjoy going in. The people who run it are really good people but there is one thing that cracks me up. The shop founder is a throwback hippy about 5' 7" with shoulder length hair and a little scruffy looking. His son who works with him is 6' 2" short hair clean shaven and neat as a pen. If you ever see them you would think the son runs the place. It always cracks me up when I go in there and see the contrast.

A Guy Fairy Tale Once upon a time, a Prince asked a beautiful Princess... Will you marry me? The Princess said NO!! And the Prince lived happily ever after and rode motorcycles And went fishing and hunting and played golf And dated women half his age And drank beer and scotch And had tons of money in the bank And left the toilet seat up.

If this prediction is accurate I think it is good for us in the short run (the next five years). However, what you say about the dealers is true. They are becoming more aggressive and competitive. To me a big question is is what will the drop off in new car sales and the dealers offering extended warranties (power trains, etc.) mean to our businesses on the longer horizion, say 10 years old. I am uncertain.

This is an interesting piece by Mitch Schneider on diagnostic charges: http://www.autocarepronews.com/Article/80377/mitch_schneider_at_any_rate.aspx

This should be good news for our businesses. Reproduction for publication is encouraged, with the following attribution: 'From Aftermarket Insight™ by Jim Lang, President of Lang Marketing Resources, Inc., www.langmarketing.com.'

Doesn't stuff like that just drive you crazy. That poor design caused the body shop and you to take all of that time to find what I call a "Mickey Mouse" problem. Who winds up paying for all of those hours? It is hard to convince a customer that it took four hours or $200 or whatever it was to find a blown fuse. We recently had a car that drove us mad with a very intermitten running problem. When the issue was finally solved it was with the battery.

Welcome to the forum! Sounds like you have had great success. Find the time to be off & watch your kids grow while you can. Before you know it they are teens and they won't care if you are around or not.