Dr.Dave

I,m exactly not sure what to do. I have a small shop just getting by okley. Our town is mixed income but alot of lower income people , closing the resturants hit us hard ,alot of our customer are in the hospitality buisness or older, No one knows heare in Maryland how long were going to be shut down or if its going to get wost. Thers only 3 of us .My son and another tech Ive known for 20 year or so , I have been thinking about telling the guys im laying them off so as to get unemployment while I wait to see what fedral and local goverment is going to do , I can keep working and my son can volenteer? Just to keep us open until aid happens , I'm only a week or so away from not making payroll. Any input good bad ?????? I'm feeling alone

Help i need shop keepers insurance now. I have no claims in the last 3 year and 1 for $400 5 years ago. We went thru a rough time and paid the premium on the last day of when they sent notce. They won't renew .on going through Keller Stonehenge for pen n national .I have a 2 bay shop for over 10 years what a shock

Thanksfor that input,as I said I'm new to the game.I spent alot of time working at dealerships and w/ all the training I got I think the same way.I am a small shop I just opened and on a very limited buget.Flush does require keeping some stock.What I really need is some advise on what to keep on hand.What few flavors will cover most cars? What should I pay for it? Do you have a guide or source or somthing you have put together your self that that describes what vechile takes what? I have mitchell on demand but on antifreeze I see a part # but it may take some research to find out what it is, don't always have time to do that.If you read the back of the jugs they somtimes say what cars they recomend to be used in.Should we not pay attention to that?As an example when I worked for Suzuki just a few years ago we started using Zerox GO5 in most of the japanees made cars,But that was inside info and haven't seen it public beside the label on the container.So with all that being said I,m not trying to be a hack shop I just want to keep a managable effecient stock of coolant and I'd like your help please if possible. Thanks, Dave

Hey one of the antifreeze's I have been considering for my flush program is Pride Universal Gold.Has any one any thoughts on this brand?Its not one of the major brands I,m used to seeing

Hey guys I new to being a owner,but been a Tech over 30years. I just got a coolant flush machine.Working for dealerships most of my carreer has made me very careful about what fluids we used.But with the price of coolant ,I'm thinking of keeping drums.What should I keep.It seems like I work on almost alittle of everything,but not to much new hi end euaropean cars.Any sugestions.

What do you do to protect your machine? Will stop leak ruin your recovery machine? How to protect it?OTC has a filter I bought it but not sure where to install or if it is recomended.I have a CPS Mach 7 I'm not sure if recover is only from the low side? The machine recovers so slow now I hate to slow it down more........And what if you use a refridgerent identifer to see whats in a customers car and it fails the test .What do you do then? will stop leak or air make it fail ?

Im a new shop .A co. called PTI approach up they have a service tat runs railroad personal back and fouth.They want us to maintain ther fleet .I filled out a bid sheet with prices it explained how they pay and who to contact.the manager came in and said thhey want to use me.I did talk to the district manger and he told me that all is well just call him to get authorazation first unless it for tires you can do it and get a purchase order after.My question is should I get somthing from them that says they promise to pay as of now I only have a phone call and a hand shake.I guess I mean to say what is standard operating proceedure

What can you recomend as far as shop suplies.What % and on labor or on total ticket ? I do try to charge for small things like hose clamps and fuses and 1 can of brake kleen w,/ a brake job right now I charge 6.2% of total ticket up to $29 but I m thinking about making that on labor only to be competive and may be fair what do you think?

I think most of us agree we deserve to charge for what we do and diag requires expensive equiptment and trained personal.Now I,d like to hear more about how the succesful shops are selling it.The last post I saw about giving the initail scan away in order to win the customer over is a good thought. But I,d like to see amore modified version where I,d charge alittle or give a rebate for work performed.I don't know about your area but where I am people for some reason( ADVANCE AUTO)think they can fix a check engine light them selves armed with the code. The economy is bad peolpe around here don,t care if the ck engine light is on until they have ti go through emmission testing.The problem it they need to know whats its going to cost to fix. So I thought for a small fee I could be able to scan and get a rough est on what it may cost but I need help with a sles pitch

Hey a few months ago I was having a problem with markup and list an matrix at my new shop.I am still having problems as far as setting up a matrix I can trust.I,m new all the customers are new I need to win them over before I can start to be concerned with the numbers ...to a point.Now now I,m nusing tracs and I am a Napa Care center.Some one sugested that I have the Napa store adjust my Tams to 40 or 50% I,m not sure how this works and is it a good Ideal.I have a real problem making estmates fast ,sometimes most new customers will ask how much somthing will cost before dropping off I hate the live accsess feature in tracks to get the cost so I know how much to charge for the part.I,d love to just use the list that comes up on the first screen.I was wondering if setting the tams will get me close to want I want?

Thanks I'm getting closer to getting my pricing together i got some fluid from a distributor .i AM STILL AFRAII HAVE BEEN DOING MY OWN MARK UP AFTR LOOKING AT THE COST ON EVERY TICKET BUT THAT IS TIME COMSUMING AND i WON'T BE ABLE TO GET ANYBODY ELSE TO MAKE ESTAMATES UNTIL I HAVE A PRICE FORMULA IN PLACE .CAN ANYBODY POST SOME IDEALS FOR A NEW BUSINESS MATRIX USING NAPA?

That is a great artical with some new and reinforced ideals, think I'm almost there.But I need some more help selling it up front .It seems like poeple have a hard time paying for what they don't know,or they got burned before,seems they think most shops don't have the experience that it takes.I have experience and equiptment and Idenifix that seems to stream line diag time but still I know somtimes it can take a while to get into some weird problems.As a tech we always tryed to keep the diag open or first we need to fix this symtom/system first type approuch ,but dealing with costomers/money I'm not sure of the best way.My shop has a advance auto that checks obd11 codes free.Somtimes I think I should start with the 1.5-2.0 hrs to cover my time and somtimes I wonder if I should start with .5 hr to just look and let them know that I can get them a direction and hopfully sell the diag. now that I what the poss causes are and what I might be looking at as fars as tests.Any input guys

Hey has anybody used the new Snapon Verdic yet?I'm test using one for a week.I had some issues.I think some of the screen I con are small and hard to see thy are hard to use w/ you fingers somtimes the pen seems to work better.It should be on all the time because booting up time isn,t made for flat rate tech.I like all the features it has .But it has some issues hooking up to some chrysler products.You can't get the data screen to say up.I called tech line and I got the immpression that snap on has got kinda erregant in its old age.I was ready to spend big bucks on what I wanted to beleive in.The Rep that visited me left me feeling like oh well I m sure it works on everything else and the'll probly fix this.And it isn't supported by Suzuki,Saab,volvo why? but Landrover is in it.I,d think that the adverage shop would see a Suzuki or volvo before a land rover can't they ever explore the possibility? They want and claim to be the best they should act like it ,at least make me feel like there trying .I was really going to buy it,but if I,m not getting support now what can I expect down the line.Id like to hear from some of you maybe I can be swayedI know one scanner can't do every thing but..so close..

Hey guys I know we have gone over this before but I'm still having a hard time.I have been open for 3 months now I;m in the middle of a small communty on the edge of a small city/town.I am a Napa Care Center,I use Tracs.I am a mechanic/tech by trade so this is new to me.I went to one of Chubby's seminars and agree I was not marking up enough and need to start thinking like a shop owner.I was bouncing around the 40% gross profit,I now try 50% for smaller parts.Chubbys matix seems too high for me only because all my costumers are first timers.Chubbys methods seems its more for established garages.I also think that Napa's prices on some things to me are high,And things like fluid ATF oil can,t be marked up 69% if your needing say 7 qt Dex Merc would be $18 a qt to the costomer if I bought from Napa....really? I need a matrix I can trust I,m adjusting prices on the fly I can't teach anybody how to do tickets like this.Please does anybody have a happy medeuim?

Hey anybody have any input on the new Snap On scanner Verdick?

I just got it about 2 months ago I just opened my shop about 3 months .I'll tell you its well worth it I'll say at least twice a week it has saved me hours of time and pointed me in the right direction.Ive found you must use mitchelle or all data to back up the diag because some of the test proceedures are too breif and in descript.But its great as a first line of attack

Hey guys its been awhile since I posted I finally got my shop up and running,so I've been real busy learning the ins and outs.I need to get help with some ideals for selling diag/computer /ck engine lights.I know its not ideal work ,but hears the deal for some reason i.m getting a flood of "can you check my ck engine light?"now being new I don't like to turn away customers ,there all new customers and I have had alot of expeirence and luck fixing them knock on wood.Buy I'm not so good that it doesn't take awhile i try to be through so it takes awhile .I need a up front pay menu and stradagy alot of these car have multple code and multi problems the people arn,t getting them looked at right away.Somtimes I fix one system and let the costomer take it and a diffrent code comes back but now the fix is more obvious,those people didn,t get a another diag charge just the fix charge and they were ok w/ that.Is that Is anybody rnning into this and or have some Ideals I could incorperate?

The list price is just a guide ,which way high or low or no telling which way?Do you hope your matrix is higher or lower than list say on parts from cost $35 to $100? Or is there no certainty? And pick a solid matrix

Please that would be helpful I'm running in to a constant battle of what to charge for parts is bogging down the estimating process.I,m new its a old tight neighborhood I have AZ and Advanced within a block of me.Somtimes I think that Napa is cost is high but the list sometimes is real high it seems.I wonder is it a manufacture suggested price that no one is really going to pay.I want to make costomers as much as I like to make money and I want to be fair and I need a method that I can feel confedents to stand behind it and do it fast not have to fidget with every price and every RO .Please any and all advice is welcomed..I sighned up for Napa Care and I think the parts are pretty good so I'd like to work with that. Thanks Dave

Can anybody clear up the mark up on parts issue I'm having?And what about matrix?I,m using Napa and tracs I didn't know what to program the mark up to be.So I'm using lists but I'm seeing I'm having to drop the price to sell the job the list prices are wildly inflated.My book keeper sugested 30% mark up but on the 0-$5.00 I think I can mark it up more?Some input in this area is going to be a load off thanks

Thanks I'm starting to get some of the questions answered by support.I'm starting to write cheat note to help remember.What I really need to know how what kind of mark up to program into it and how to do it.I can get help doing it monday but what would you sugest to be the markup formula.I have it at Napa list but I see the list is some far off made up price that is turning people away because the parts are too high I spending to much time analizing prices

Hey guys I'm a new owner .I've been a tech all my life.I just opened I just got Napa Tracs .I'm very good at doing labor est by hand and I'mm getting better at looking the parts up.But I'm having a tough time learning Tracs.Having a tuogh time with small parts fluids clamps ect. I'm having a time looking up labor on a ticket when there are combinations,I,d like to put my own labor in quickly. I,m not sure why I still have purchase orders open.And I need to know how to put non Napa parts on a ticket on the fly.Do you print a job ticket out for the costomer to sign and ok some time in anvance?

Thaks you for your input all this is much as I expected.Can I get a hint from you on brake pads?I need to be competable but I don't want problems.And if you have any sugestions for tune up parts wires and plugs?thers so many options.

Hey guys I will finally open my shop at the last week in June.I have a Napa store a advanced and a auto Zone and car quest very close to me.Ive been buying some parts from all except carquest.It looks like Napa is much more expensive and the list is almost twice Advance and AZone.Are the parts better is the coverage and service better,is warranty better.Has anybody run into this?Can anyboby recomend a line of parts that they recomend from each of theser stores.Are advanced and AZ have lesser quality parts .I know I just go some trashy tune up parts from AZ the cap archs right through the side and the Dualast wires did the same.I also got Ac plugs from Pep Boys after 1 week 3 plugs out of 8 were miss firing bag.Nothing wrong with the engine it was a maintance tune and changing the plug location changed the miss location putting 3 new ac fix it.Can Ac plug be diff quality ?I noticed I pulled out OE Ac and the ac I put in it had a extra letter A C I think. Please can some one recomend a formula or a rule of thumb so I can advoid trouble and added expense Thanks

I recently bought two scanners one a cornwell OTC Nemecises and a used snap on solus pro .The snapon is one update behind .9.2.It can record and has 3 diff options on how to store a recording SD flash or internally.It is a pain to use all the diff keys,Its makes it slow to use and I don't usally use it for a quick check.Also I noticed that alot of specal tests like activating sol.ect are hit or miss.And air bags is a joke unless you just what to check a code or clear a code,data list is the joke most the info in the few vechile I,ve checked was totally worthless.After my experiences I can give you this word of advice DO NOT put your hard earned money out unless you can get a in depth demo and a week test drive and pay attension to details.Good Luck