xrac

Glad you are back. I was suffering withdrawal.

Our winter has also been exceptionally mild. I am sure the body shops miss the fender benders,

I will not do anything on Valentines Day but I am taking my wife to dinner on the evening before. We are going to the Bonefish Grill. I have also purchased her a massage/facial package as a gift along with a card. I want to take her out of town overnight but it didn't work out.

Thanks for the valuable advice.

I read the article in the magazine it was excellent. That is a very good magazine that is very worthwhile reading.

Toyota has went to 0W20 also on the new vehicles.

Gary, welcome to the forum. Good to have you!

Gonzo, I enjoyed the story. It is much different than how I got in to the business. One day I had a temporary moment of insanity and I bought an auto repair franchise.

This is a pretty cool commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LHNgyZMqlYc

We seeing quite a few vehicles witgh variable valve timing having problems from lengthy oil change intervals.

We have recieved a number of very positive on line reviews that have resulted in us receiving a lot of business from it. I can't help but brag a little by posting this unsolicited review. by Jeff 10/05/2011

Weather here has also been very mild.

Fortunately we have more good guys in this business than we do carpet shop owners.

The shops that specialize in certain makes of cars have an disadvantage and advantage when advertising. The disadvantage is that conventional means of advertising radio, TV, newspapers, coupon books, etc. are too broad. You are paying to reach people who drive vehicles that you do not service. However, the advantage is that if you can identify your clientele and market directly to them you should have a much higher rate of return than the generalist does with advertising. If I were a speciialist I think that I would advertise exclusively by purchasing mailing lists of my target market and using direct mail. The challenge is identifying good list providers. Once you have a good list you are sitting on a gold mine.

I tried pizza boxes once and received no response. On the coupon book were you looking at a page or half page and how many are going out. WE use Reach and have good results.

Wow! I have never drawn a gun but I have called police three different times when someone would not leave.

Occasionally I have had to do that. Sometimes it just becomes we are too busy to get you in today but maybe we could do the second Tuesday in next week.

I am convinced that a professional, honest shop that does competent quality repairs and stands behind their work is the best bargain that any consumer can find. By trying to do repairs on the cheap with cheap parts most DIYers or people who use shade tree mechanics to do their work wind up with cars that never quite run right, that never quite handle right, that have neglected repair, and they wind up having to get rid of the vehicle before it would have be necessary and get further in debt with a different vehicle. Here are examples. A DIYer came to us who had been going to AZ and having the vehicle scanned that was running bad and buying and installing parts accordingly. He told us all of the parts he had installed. I estimated he has spent $350-$400 in parts, not counting his time, gasoline at almost $4.00 per gallon, and his labor. We repair his vehicle for $50.00 it was a vacuum leak. The entity that profited in this business was AZ who offered free code reading which most DIYer's think is diagnosis and sold $350-$400 worth of parts that were not needed. A person recently had a leaking water pump on a Toyota Camry. He told us that within the last 90 days his friend who was a shade tree mechanic had put a timing belt on for him but never once mentioned also replacing the water pump. Now he was looking at doing the same thing all over. How about the customer whose "brother" tried to change a headlight on a Subaru and wound up doing $200 worth of damage by taking thingss apart and losing parts. How about the Jeep that her sister's boy friend who was a "mechanic" charged over $900 to do a repair to fix a coolant leak. He charged more for the repair he was suppose to have done then we would have. However, it didn't fix the vehicle. We found a leaking freeze plug on the back side of the engine that he had tried to fill with JB Weld. Evidently, he misdiagnosed the problem and did an unneeded repair and in the process discovered the true leak and tried to fix it will JB Weld. This woman wound up paying over $1600 for a repair because she tried to save money that should have cost less than half of that. How about the countless people who can put on brake pads but do not understand why there are minimum machine to and minimum discard specifications. Have you saw the car with brake calipers over extended because the rotors are too thin? Have you saw the car with bad ball joints and tie rod ends because the brakes have pullsated so bad for so long that it has literally shaken the front end loose. Also a lot of DIYers wind up tear up and losing as much stuff as they fix. The list is endless. It is my opinion that these people wind up spending more in the end for less and have a car that is never right.

My problem with Mudlick is their minimum. I think one of the problems they have is they originated in the Atlanta market where you are dealing with a much greater concentrated population then some of us are.

Can you buy a list of VW and Audi owners from the department of motor vehicle or is that a privacy thing?

The business model for AZ and Advance is changing as the DIY market declines. It is declining because the younger generation knows less about cars and is less inclined to try to work on them. The second problem is as the cars become more complicated there is less and less that can be done without proper tools and training.

-Our shop will exceed $1,000,000 in sales for the first time. -Gonzo will begin to see his writing and speaking engagements expand at a much more rapid rate. -AutoShopOwner participation will double. -I will exceed 1600 posts.

Welcome! If you are serious about opening a business I would strongly consider getting as much training as possible and also working for another shop for a few years. The type of things you have been doing (swapping engines) is not preparation to run a shop. I recently hire a guy who knew how to rebuild engines inside an out. Trouble was he didn't know much else. He didn't last.

Gonzo, I have never turneds wrenchs so I didn't know the difference.

Gonzo, I enjoyed reading this one and you are absolutely correct.