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Throughly inspect, detail the estimates, honestly present the need, and leave it the customer to decide. Do not decide what the customer can or cannot afford. The results will surprise you.

I have a good friend who is having to close his shop and it hurts me because he is a wonderful guy and I feel for him and his family. More shops fail from not charging enough than from charging too much. Low prices result in a lot of work on junker cars that have multiple issues that the owners do not want to pay to fix or cannot afford to pay to fix. They only come into the shop as a last resort and then then if you fix one thing they want to blame you for everything else that is wrong on the car. This results in a lot of wasted time and energy. Owners who also spin wrenches are finally so exhausted they are completely burned out, over worked and under payed.

My supplier furnishes one tank, pump, and hose reel. My other bulk oils are stored on a rack in totes that I own. It is all gravity fed. We currently have four products in those. We probably do about 2,000-2,500 gallons of all products annually.

Most bulk oil jobbers will supply equipment to their customers as a part of supplying the products.

Well said and sometimes help someone fix they're car who cannot afford to fix it. Recently, a church pastor age 51 died from a sudden heart attack. He was a customer and a great guy. He left a widow with a couple of small children and limited resources. I had her bring her car in and we fixed everything on it we could find at no charge. Two new headlamp assemblies, one tail light assembly, rear brakes, one interior door handle, hood shocks and lift gate shocks, valve cover gasket, spark plugs, oil change, repair broken wiring in the door so the locks and windows would work. We are not the first or last shop that does something like that. There are plenty of shopowners who are wonderful caring human beings although sometimes not the best business operator.

Thanks Joe and Merry Christmas to you. Did you see that I beat your Christmas post by about 5 minutes. You know what they say. Great minds think alike.

I would like to wish everyone a politically incorrect Merry Christmas and if you do not celebrate Christmas I hope you still enjoy the holidays and that 2017 will be a great year for you.

Car-x corporate provides our website and we do not operate another page. We do have a Facebook page. http://www.carx.com/evansville/900-n-burkhardt-rd/

Our business has been non-stop. One of our strongest Decembers.

For every customer who doesn't like text I have ten who love it.

Is language and an attitude like that really necessary?

Does anyone use the orange sensors. Local tire wholesaler is selling them for $29.

This is a great place and I for one am happy to have you on board.

That is a whole hearted endorsement for RO Writer. Vast is the software used by all of the Monro stores.

Way to go. I would love to have it.

$350 to those who have been with me all year.

How do you handle snow and ice melting off vehicles in the winter time?

If we only could all be together and sing it!

The cheapest tires available to me in that size are a TBC tire at $43.50 and a Kenda at $47.78. Till I see the tire markings it is hard for me to tell where they are made. The MC's are $55.90 for me. It seems to me that some of the chinese and far east tires are just as good or better than the low end american tires. Is that just me or does anyone else thing that.

All the wholesalers tend to have some line of Chinese tires: Westlake, Crosswind, Goodride, etc.

In 2014 i attended a meeting sponsored by Jasper Engines and Transmissions with a presentation by the CEO for independent shop owners. Upon registering Jasper asked for the labor rate at every shop and reported the results at the meeting. We are here in the hinder lands in the mostly rural Midwest/southeast. The shops represented were from Southern Indiana, Southern Illinois, and Western Kentucky. The reported labor rates ranged from $48-$109 per hour. The average was $78. If one had excluded the shops from the smaller towns I am sure the average would have been in the low to mid $80's. Our current labor rate is $90.00 and I plan to raise it in January. You should not feel guilty about what you charge now. You should feel guilty for not charging enough before. You were actually short changing yourself and your family.

It was my privilege to have an elderly gentleman as a customer who was stationed on a submarine at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked. He was fascinating to talk to and was in his nineties. I believe he has now joined his fallen comrades.

NAPA, Advance, OReilly, and two independents all sell Monroe (our ride control product of choice) in this market. We can usually find them if they are available. Loaded struts are only available for the more popular vehicles.

Sounds like you should close on Saturdays.

Today I had a customer throwing a fit on the phone because he said he was charged for a coolant overflow tank but it was never changed. When he came in I asked him to show me what he was talking about. He pointed to his old washer fluid bottle not his new coolant overflow tank. You can't fix stupid.