xrac

Gonzo have you ever noticed how pristine clean those cars and shop areas stay. There is no dust, no grease, no rust, nothing like that.

* My wife has been missing a week now. The police said to prepare for the worst. So, I had to go down to Goodwill to get all of her clothes back. * A man calls 911 and says "I think my wife is dead". The operator says, "How do you know?" The man says "The sex is about the same, but the ironing is piling up!" * I was devastated to find out my wife was having an affair but, by turning to religion, I was soon able to come to terms with the whole thing. I converted to Islam, and we're stoning her in the morning! * Went to our local bar with my wife last night. Locals started shouting "pedophile!" and other names at me, just because my wife is 24 and I'm 50. It completely spoiled our 10th anniversary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=5748lK9HpOg&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D5748lK9HpOg%26feature%3Dyoutu.be&app=desktop

That is pretty much what we do and then tell the customer to bring it back when it gets worse.

Tell them what it needs and give them a quote. We had this situation and sold $2,000 worth of work about 6 weeks ago.

Has anyone taken a look at this program? It is pretty impressive. http://www.omnique.com

Here is one that wasn't fun to deal with Interstate National Dealer Services.

Here is my take on franchises. If you know how to run a shop and are successful to join a franchisee would be to give up profit and is not something I would advise. However, if you are inexperienced a franchise can help you learn the ropes and get started. In some markets certain franchise brands are strong. Some franchises are better than others. Some franchises make their money by selling franchises and don't really care if you sink or swim. We had a guy open a franchise in this market. He invested all of his 401k money and bought and refurbished a building. It was a very nice set up with good equipment. Trouble was he bought a building at the end of a street with no visibility or traffic. Our corporate franchise management would have taken one look at that location and rejected it. Anyone who knew anything about the business knew he wouldn't make it there as a new business with no traffic and no existing customer base. He lasted less than a year and had to go back to his old job minus about $250K in 401k money. The franchisor walked away with his $40K franchise fee.

Some companies are pure gold on extended warranties (AUL, GE, GM, Toyota, etc.) and some are almost worthless.

If you have a clean facility, great customer service, quality repairs and timely turn around you should be able to upgrade your customer base and gradually move away from having to deal with the bottom feeders. To my way of thinking the fastest way to fill up a shop with bottom feeders is to keep prices low and to offer cheap oil changes. I refuse to offer a $19.95 oil change because of the type customer it attracts. Now maybe if a shop is less than 2-3 years old one needs to do it to build traffic but it can be very counter productive in my opinion.

My least favorite nationality of customer just because they are so hard to deal with.

Time to raise you labor rate again.

I agree with Jeff in that I think regularity of the oil change is more critical than the brand of oil. Personally I have no problem using the bulk oil we sell in all of my vehicles and have never had a problem. However, I know that frequency of oil change and weight of oil can be critical on the newer vehicles with variable valve timing. We recently fixed a Nissan 350Z that was running bad by changing the oil. You wouldn't have had this on vehicles a few years ago but it can happen today. More and more we are seeing driveability problems related to neglected oil change intervals.

We are a Car-x franchise. I am an owner with no automotive repair background. We are 14 1/2 years old.

"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the Government take care of him, better take a closer look at the American Indian." --- Henry Ford

I had a 1988 chevy pickup towed into the shop on Friday that was really, really ragged out. I was totally relieved when the towing company came back a couple hours later and explained that they had dropped it at the wrong shop. Whew! What a relief. I am glad my competition has that one.

I am currently looking at Mitchell, Omnique, and Bay Master. Does anyone use NAPA?

Thanks! I didn't know that and learned something today!

Is $90 higher or lower or about the same as most shops in your area? We are at $87 which is about as high as anyone in our community except the dealers and euro specialists.

You can buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Hey-Look-Found-Loose-Nut/dp/0881444308/ref=sr_1_1/189-0583179-7126902?ie=UTF8&qid=1382823415&sr=8-1&keywords=Scott+gonzo+weaver But you can get Gonzo to sign it here. http://www.gonzostoolbox.com/index.html

Wes we have always used a house brand. The margin in oil changes is thin and it is hard to stay competitive. I use the stuff in all my vehicles and never have a problem.

Joe, have you had any of the Tough One branded electrical parts? If so how has that been for you?