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This is a good article. Why to intelligent people who have money drive around with unsafe cars? Can Blood and Guts Save Brake Repair? Changing Customer Fears of Losing Their Money to Losing a Limb Sorry...

Thanks for the tip. We haven't seen this as yet. This is something I read that may be of interest. Have you ever had a VW/Audi with an Electronic Parking Brake? I haven't saw one of these yet. Rear Caliper Damage...

Not a problem here but we do not have emissions testing here so we do not probably do as many as you do. The converters that are failing are they universals or direct fits? Is it different manufacturers or just one. The only time we ever go to the dealer for a cat is if we have to have a direct fit and there are no after market cats available yet. We use to do a lot of exhaust so we have a pipe bender, torches, mig welder, etc.

Had the police arrest one of my guys once while he was working but I ain't never had an experience like that! What hasn't happened to you Gonzo? Another entertaining story!

Truck Owner Takes Repair Shop to Court for Unauthorized Service Unauthorized Service...

In my opinion there are two types of people that are primarily attracted to free diagnosis. First, is those people who want something for nothing. They only do the minimum to keep their car moving and no amount of time spent with them converts them into what I consider to be a good customer. Some in this category only want to know what's wrong with their car they don't intend to fix anything. Some only want to know what's wrong with their car so their "regular mechanic" can fix it or so they can fix it. You know the story. The other type of customer is the customer who watches their cash closes either out of habit or necessity. They will pay for reasonable needed repairs they can afford but they are deathly afraid of being taken advantage of and they feel like paying for the diagnosis fits into that category. If you work with the second type you can win their trust and have a long term customer.

My gut level response is this type of advertising and the response to it is all because a segment of consumers do not want to pay for or see the value of proper diagnosis. The whole mess has been fueled by Autozone's "FREE" Diagnosis. Unfortunately the public doesn't understand the difference between reading a code and doing diagnosis. Autozone uses the code reading to sell more (often unneeded) parts and shops like Aamco are using it to try to sell more time and repairs. To me neither is much different and both approaches are somewhat deceptive but it is always the service chain or facility that gets the black eye in the media. If we offer free scanning we need to educate the customer in the difference of scanning and retrieving codes and understanding the running issue that is causing that code/codes to appear.

Last week my service manager's wife went to the quilting convention in KC. He was complaining because his wife had called him up wanting the money to trade up her machine. It seens there was an upgrade she needed. It was like $5,000 for what she needed but all it was going to cost her to trade for a brand new machine with the feature was $6,900. He moaned about it all week.

Good for you! It is about time! Enjoy and don't worry!

They are saying a dirty sensor caused by the air filter was the problem but you don't know if that was really the case or the excuse the dealer used perhaps to give Jiffy Lube a black eye. We removed an air filter that was too small from a car last week and it was installed by a quick lube. We once used a universal oxygen sensor on a Jeep. A few months later the wiring splice was damaged and shorted causing damage to the ECM. We would up replacing the ECM for free. We almost never use a universal oxygen sensor anymore.

Do Men And Women Speak A Different Language? http://www.tirereview.com/Article/73778/do_men_and_women_speak_a_different_language.aspx

Wrong air filter causes breakdown, $494 repair bill: Jiffy Lube slow on reimbursement - Chicago Tribune

CALCULATION OF BUSINESS VALUE METHOD #1 Calculation of Average Sales for most recent 4 years Year Sales 2006 0 2007 0 2008 0 2009 0 Average 0 These averages sales are evaluated according to the following calculation criteria. You are given a high end and low end value to assign to sales. Select the number you feel most comfortable with. This is for the calculation of goodwill: Calculation Criteria High End Low End $350,000 $450,000 $0.30 0.20 $450,000 $550,000 $0.60 0.45 $550,000 $650,000 $0.90 0.65 $650,000 plus $1.00 0.75 Calculation of Goodwill (Multiply the Sales figure in each range by the end value number you select. These go where the zeros are. This is from a spreadsheet that I could not attach.) This is shown using high end valuation number. Sales Range $350,000 $450,000 $0 $0.30 $0 $450,000 $550,000 $0 $0.60 $0 $550,000 $650,000 $0 $0.90 $0 $650,000 $800,000 $0 $1.00 $0 Sum is total goodwill evaluation Sum Value of Goodwill $0 (total of number above) Book Value of Equipment $0 Value of Inventory at Cost $0 Appraised Value of Land $0 Appraised Value of Building $0 Total valuation $0 Supply the figures where there are zeros and add them all up to get a business evaluation. If someone can tell me how to attach an Excel spread sheet I will do it for all three methods, or I will email it to somebody who can attach it , or send me an email address and I will email it to you personally. This is one method of three different evaluation methods that I have. Hopefully you can understand this

You can hire an independent appraiser to place a valuation on it or you can hire two different appraisals and use an average of the two. You both could just agree on a price. I also have three different formulas which can be used to place a value on an automotive business. When I get home this evening I will post those formulas for you. They are on my computer there.

Besides my relationship to God the other really important thing in my life is my wife, children, and grandchildren. My wife and I will be married 37 years in July. Now I am not that old. We got married when I was 20. We have three children and seven grandchildren but we now have the news that number 8 and number 9 are on the way. My son and his wife have one on the way in October. He has three girls and wants a boy really bad. Then this week we learned that our youngest daughter is having her second. Our grandkids are a blast. We are excited and happy and consider ourselves blessed. Forgivge me for bragging but I married a very beautiful and talented woman and our kids are all talented musicians and singers and it looks like the grandkids will follow suit. When I say talented I mean that our youngest daughter has the looks, the moves, and the voice to make the top ten on American Idol but she won't do it but pursues Christian ministry. She is good enough that she has recorded work out CDs for Curves and has performed live at Curves business conventions in Atlanta, SanFrancisco and Chicago. Here is my youngest daughter and her husbands websiste: Criag Jones Ministries Worship Forgive me for bragging guys but I am very proud of my family and I am really excited to have a new grand baby. My wife and I really value family and have always hoped to have ten grandkids. We are now getting close because 9 is on the way. Of course, the down side is Christmas, birthdays, and taking everybody out to eat is breaking me up.

Especially in cases of multiple codes we always explain to the customer something along the lines of: We have only recommended and completed today the most obvious repair/repairs of known identified problems. There is the high probability that this may be your only problem/problems and that any other codes in the system were triggered by this issue/issues. We have only fixed this issue/issues to minimize cost to you because we prefer to take a conservative approach with your money. We have cleared the codes. However, the possibility exists that we can have other issues. Please drive the car and if you have further problems or the light returns in the next few days please bring it back into us. When you return we will not charge you to rescan the car at that time and we will see if we the same code/codes return or a new code. At that time we can determine if further repair/diagnosis is needed.

Great story Gonzo! I really like this one!

Consumer Reports says that consumer prefer independent repair shops: http://www.moderntiredealer.com/News/Story/2010/05/Report-Consumers-prefer-independent-repair-shops.aspx

This article was interesting. How much of an issue has employee theft been for you? http://www.tirereview.com/Article/73708/employee_uses_roof_to_hide_stolen_tires.aspx

The journalists that I have know are not people I am especially impressed with as a rule. The few times I have given interviews it has been amazing how much stuff is not reported correctly. Yet, these people with their biases, incompetences, and political leanings to a great deal determine public perception about our profession. I certainly wouldn't encourage anyone to pursue journalism as a career. There is very little money to be made being a journalist unless one rises to the upper ends of the profession. My observation is that it is a profession that attracts idealistic people who are good with words but sometimes not much else. The newspaper journalists are certainly going to be a dying breed because a lot of newspapers are going to go out of business due to internet competition.

Sorry Joe! It seems that all our industry receives is bad press. Most of the journalists don't have a clue about anything mechanical and it is popular with the media for them to pick on us. They sometimes make things which we think are good practice like machining brake rotors sound like a rip off. However, it does sounds like the shop told the guy they would charge book time and then they may have inflated it.

This column by Mitch Schneider is interesting on this topic: Mitch Schneider: How to Pass the 'Reasonable Man' Test Reasonable Man...

Newspaper Columnist Tackles Book Rate vs. Actual Time Complaint Book Time...

We had a problem with new axle on Subaru in February. It was away from us in Maryland so I am not sure what went wrong. Our Certified Auto Repair Warranty covered the repair.