TheTrustedMechanic

Yeah, it's pretty bad when the lube tech is paid the same as the top tech or the janitor or the service writer. That is my desire. My problem is work load. This last three months I have been slammed and should have hired someone but with winter coming on I did not want to without knowing how it would go. I generally stay fairly busy int eh winter but it doesn't take much to keep a one man shop busy, between writing estimates (lots of price shoppers after Christmas), talking to consumers who stop by to "see what you think" and then go home and throw more parts at it. I know it is irrational but I can't expect anything different than what I have now, but with what I make in the year, hiring a decent tech I'd basically be working for free. Yep, another person should increase productivity and therefore revenue, but you never know. I tried hiring a tech on the recommendation of the Management consulting company I was counting on for Success and the last week he was here we billed 12 hours. Hardly enough to pay one guy, let alone two. However I had been open only a little over a year at that time. Then the next year I hired a gal for the office, BIG mistake. She had supposedly taken the "Automotive Technical Academy course at the local vo-tech center so I expected her to know something about cars. On her first day she asked about as many questions as she did her last day, and the questions weren't much different either. It was so bad I actually asked her if she took the class to learn about working on her car or if she took it to meet boys. So I tried twice and got burned both times and I guess I'm a little gun shy because of it. But where I am at now I basically am working my butt off and getting little more than older. So short answer is YES, I want to hire and grow. I just don't feel I've established a steady enough work load to support someone else, yet.

Joe, I am with you about being sick of the double standards. But I see things differently. I see the republicans giving Cain a pass, and then dredging up Clinton. As I remember your buddy Newt was a vehement proponent in the get Clinton campaign that was the circus in congress about impeaching him. Was Clinton wrong? Absolutely, and his legacy is still tarnished by it. But Newt was a huge push behind impeaching Clinton over his indiscretions, sure the umbrella the republicans used was the lying under oath, but what was the the impetus that solicited that lie? It was Newt and his buddies pushing and pushing to try and disgrace the President. And then afterwards what do we find out, Newt was a multiple philanderer. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. And talk about double standards. Now from your political posts I know you to be a right-winger. And I lean slightly left of center but have an eye towards fairness and equality. Why is it that the republicans were and are again all up in arms about Clinton but want to give a pass to Cain? Double standards. I see it almost everyday in political stories in the media. The republicans did, but that was OK. The democrats do but that is a mortal sin. Double standards every day. And yes it works with both parties, but as of late the neo-cons have amnesia about their past behavior and are screaming about anything the democrats want to do. Mr. Cain visited Traverse City, and one of the tea-bagger city commissioners was quoted as saying he hoped no one brought up the sexual harassment issue because that would be "inappropriate." But where was that understanding when Congressman Weiner was being forced out of office? And this city commissioner was also quoted as claiming the harassment issue was "essentially a he said, she said..." issue. Excuse me, with Clinton it was an it said that she said he was enjoying her favors. Maybe coerced at first, but still consensual. With Cain it is a she said & she said & she said AND SHE SAID coercive situation. Similar, maybe, different, VERY, pertinent, somewhat but not as important as other issues. Personally I really don't care what happened in the '90's in these guys lives. What I care most about is what they are going to do TODAY. But the republicans only care about hammering the democrats about their past and crying because it's not front page above the fold in every newspaper everyday until they come up with another faux crisis. And they also cry foul and double standards when the media and the democrats do exactly the same thing, to the same degree to republicans. There is a clear double standard, and it lies prominently with the republicans. Hammer them and treat us with kid gloves.

I checked out Muclick. VERY hard sell in my experience. Plan on them calling and emailing you to death, at least until you tell them flat out, unequivocally NO, stop contacting me. And they only wanted to mail a minimum of like 10,000 pieces. NOT a good fit for a small operation. But their program did sound like it was pretty good, if you were big enough. I am sure they aren't the best, but I use CustomerLink for my CRM. Only you will be able to determine what is the best fit for your operation. They are fairly reasonable and have a lot of filtering options. You can check them out at www.customerlink.com. If you are an ASA member they have a discount. Good luck.

As a one man shop I do not use a time clock. I've thought of getting one to check my proficiency and productivity on jobs vs total time spent when there are phone calls, visitors and customers dropping off/picking up. Example, I can not seem to complete a disc brake job (tear down, clean brackets/hubs, machine or replace rotors, test lateral runout, lubricate where appropriate, torque all fasteners to the factory specifications and test drive) in less than 2.5 hours during the day. But one night I knocked out all but putting the tires back on and test driving in 1.25 hours. So why the difference? Being a one man shop I have distractions and interruptions. But back when I was an employee I had both ways. I was told the time clock was simply for insurance reasons, to be able to prove I was there if an accident happened as opposed to simply writing myself in at a later time. Personally I think that was hokey. But at one job I was writing myself in and out. I never got to leave for lunch right on the hour but I would make sure to return 1 hour later. Rarely was there someone else there to verify when I left but it wasn't a problem until we got a new service writer who thought she was the "manager." All of a sudden there were little comments made by the management (working at the new shop the boss had bought) about how I would return late from lunch. All it took was two days of calling the bookkeeper (who thought she was general manager and the owner's right hand) before I left to tell her, "Cindy, it's 12:XX and I leaving for lunch now, I'll be back at 1:XX." And then calling her when I got back at 1:XX to get the remarks to quit. And the owner had a company meeting shortly after that to set the record straight as to who was in charge and what the order of seniority and authority was. So a time clock would have been very nice, but ultimately was not needed. And then he closed that shop a month later. Because, "It was too stressful running two shops." During the fall and winter he had the two shops he spent two weeks in Florida playing with the hotties on the beach and one full week and two separate long weekends in the U.P. snowmobiling. Yep it was pretty stressful for him I gotta tell you. I wish I had that much stress.

They may have misdiagnosed the problem or may be more expensive because of a higher labor rate, but all the extras they found were legit, because every car that comes in needs at least $300.00 worth of repairs don't ya know? And I recall one of ASO's members quoting that. And if you listen to the so-called management guru's you will hear basically the same thing, the money is out there, you just have to find it, by doing "world class" inspections. And they will tell you that EVERY vehicle that comes in needs more work than you are selling, so you can make your average RO on every car, if you do a good enough inspection. If this is true, then why is the dealer wrong for recommending the work that was needed, the owner just didn't know? I am not super articulate so I maybe didn't express myself well regarding the BS we are all fed about how we leave so much money on the table so please forgive me. My opinion is, and no one will ever change my mind,that each customer's car will need what it needs nothing more. You may find it all, you may find very little and leave other needs undiscovered, but that vehicle will only need certain repairs whether they are the totality of the customer's concerns or more than what it was brought in for. You may spend 15 minutes inspecting it or you may spend 3 hours inspecting the car. The simple truth is, if you follow established industry and ethical standards you will only find so much but they will all be legitimate. And no matter how much you want to meet your average RO on every car, nothing you can do or say will make that oil change need anything more than it does. If it only needs an oil change and a pair of wipers, nothing the management gurus quote you will make it need $300.00 worth of stuff to make your average RO (or what ever you ARO $$ is). But that is what you will find as the underlying issue with the dealers and the big chains. They are managed by numbers, not by relationships and real people interacting. You have some bean counter in an office looking at reports saying they need more sales. So all of a sudden 3/32 on rear shoes is worn out and needs a brake job when the factory spec is 1/32 and new the shoes only measure 5/32. But because they need to make their numbers, all of a sudden your 50% left is now almost worn out. And I know of many independent repair shops that are run the same way. The numbers say, so it must be, now go make it so. And all of a sudden standards drop, guidelines widen and what was marginal is now impending catastrophe. I am a terrible businessman because I don't believe in adjusting my standards or changing my procedures because I'm off my numbers. I do what I do, I treat my customers with the utmost integrity and honesty, some months are good, some are terrible, but I can sleep at night and I don't have to worry about what my customers might say in front of my children. I trust God will provide and so far my trust has not been broken. Could I be doing better, sure. Is it because of my poor business skills? Probably in part. Am I in peril of failure? Not based on historical trends but it's always possible. But when my days end and I stand before my maker, making my numbers won't matter much. How I treated my fellow man and how I acted in business towards those who placed their trust in me will matter far more than how much money I made. I will continue to try and adapt as times and conditions change, but it certainly won't be for such a fleeting, short-term reason as my numbers are too low and it's the third week of the month. Thank you for reading my diatribe. Time to go spend some quality time with my pillow.

In many sources of literature and online I've read there has been one consistent theme, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS UNIVERSAL COOLANT! The old green stuff contained silicates. Dexcool is supposed to be silicate free and uses HOAT additives while Ford and some Japanese brand vehicles use OAT additives. HOAT is not compatible with OAT. So if you are trying to use a universal coolant you will not be meeting the requirements of some or all of the vehicles you squirt the cheap stuff into. The best way to truly serve your customers' needs is to find out what chemistry the OE coolant is and use an equivalent either aftermarket or OE supplied. If your customers are too cheap to take care of their cars properly either you need better customers, or you need to be prepared for that dreaded customer, Everett Sinchu. IF you do not have the regard for your profession to do the job right, well we have discussion lamenting the hack shops every week. But to answer your initial question, no I have never heard of Pride Universal Gold coolant. My fluid and chemical suppliers do not pitch stuff like that to me because they know I do my work one way, the best I can. And to do that I need to research and use the proper fluids for the vehicle. I lost an oil change on a Cadillac SRX once because I refused to use generic conventional oil in it when AllData listed the engine required oil meeting GM spec GM4718M and continued that oils meeting that spec were usually identified as synthetic. She refused the $70.00 price because, "Well, the quick lube will do it for $35.00." Then let them buy her a new engine. Once you lower your standards it's really hard to return to excellence.

"...your "mechanically inclined" part is broke, and I'm not qualified to fix things like that… even with a scanner. " Classic, I'll have to remember that one.

I too charge for diagnosis. I don't charge enough most times but I always try to anticipate how long it will take to figure out a problem. Like Gonzo wrote, it's a good way to pre-qualify the customer type. I struggle from time to time with diagnosis but I usually figure it out in a timely fashion, that's why I don't charge enough, I try to empathize and charge what it "should take" to figure out that problem, not what it took me. Part of my dilemma is that I'm a one man shop and get interrupted and have to "Get back in the groove" so my 3 hours maybe should have only taken 1.5. That is in no way the fault of the customer or their car so I feel they should not be responsible for the inefficiencies of my business. Like many have said, I lose consumers at the front desk. If they don't want to pay I don't do the work. I had one just last week, wanted to know if I had free inspections. I asked what I would be inspecting,he said his car wasn't running right. I told him the equipment, information and education to competently "inspect" or more accurately diagnose his problem was not free so I had to charge for my use of it for his benefit. He decided he didn't want me to find the problem for him, apparently he would keep going to the parts store and throwing parts at it until he ran out of money. I wonder if part of the reason why the consumer doesn't value our time, skill, equipment and commitment is because we make it look too easy. Or maybe why they value the medical testing more is because they are personally, physically involved where with their car it's behind-the-scenes. With medical, they feel the pin-prick, they see the massive, expensive MRI, there is big drama with the x-ray and the tech running off to the radiation free zone, etc. With their car, they drop it off and come back when it's done. No muss, no fuss, no pain, except in the wallet. But unfortunately as long as there are low-ball, low grade low-equipped shops out there doing it for cheap, we will never achieve the level of respect or compensation that our years of masochism deserve.

That is why I'm not the fastest with my diagnosis. I want to see the failure, not assume it's there. I had a similar issue with my personal car. when I bought it it had a code set for the RF wheel speed sensor. Like your tech I knew this was probably a wheel speed sensor issue so I wasn't too concerned with it when negotiating the purchase price. But when it came time to actually fix the car I did the due diligence and tested the WSS and sure enough it was open so I replaced the wheel bearing only to have the code still present. Like you a further inspection revealed the harness had a break in the wire not far from where the control arm attached to the sub-frame. Even though I did test and confirm a failed component with a pattern failure history, like you wrote, "Never assume; when we see pattern failures over and over again..." Luckily it was my own car, that would not have been a happy second phone call to the customer. But it still begs the question, when you find a fault, when you've tested and verified a fault, how much further should you go "just to be safe?" I only ask this because, like in the situation with my car there was more than just one failure. But if you do additional testing every time you do diagnostics you are potentially wasting time and losing money.

We recently had a 17 yo kid sentenced to prison (short sentence but still) for an accident this last winter. It was in the country, snowing and the roads were slippery. The kid slid though the stop sign and hit another car, killing the 62 yo driver and injuring his granddaughter who was a passenger. Why is this pertinntt to the discussion? Because the kid was driving his truck with defective brakes. He had taken a pair of vice-grips and pinched off the brake line to the rear. He later retrieved the pliers from the impound yard. The kid's attorney, typical no-ethics or morals, story was well the kid was young and did something stupid. He was inexperienced and just made a mistake. No biggie, my bad. But the reality is the young lady is emotional scarred, a family is left lost without a provider, a husband, father, brother, grand-father all because this kid didn't care enough about others, or himself, to make sure his truck was safe to operate. Sure, given the road conditions the accident may have still happened, but you can't justify the kid's actions in any way. And even if Michigan had safety inspections the kid may have fallen in between inspections when the accident happened, but if we had safety inspections the innocent driver may still be alive. Awareness of vehicular safety may increase. Now I'm being delusional.

I guess I'm the only one doesn't have a long term memory problem. The things Obama is blamed for ALL started well before his time. Two unfunded wars. Unregulated bankers and traders in search of ever increasing short term profits. Seems like the drunk driver who crashes the car and then trades places with the sober passenger. Oh, and let's not forget the outsourcing of middle-class jobs to any other country but here, leaving minimum wage/no benefit jobs. To be sure these problems were not all the fault of king george's regime, but they certainly are NOT solely the fault of President Obama. But there is no sense arguing with those who want so bad for it to be so that they will ignore the truth in order to live in the fantasy their party wants them to believe.

Unless you sell gas, that's irrelevant. Oil change, even with synthetic oil about $75.00. And no car needs a detail, could use one sure but needs on no. Besides we are talking auto repair shops, not detail shops. If you want to cast the net wide enough you could say every car "needs" $1000.00 worth of stuff. But once again I evidently misunderstood what you were writing about. I foolishly thought you were referring to AUTO REPAIR, not anything and everything under the sun related to cars regardless of whether you sell that service or not. So since I clearly don't know what you're talking about, please ignore my posts.

Now that is a statement I take exception to. That is the management consultant's line to get you to lower your standards and hopefull make thier benchmarks so you think they are actually helping your business. When the reality is, in order to make those numbers you have to cheat the customers and eventually it will come back around. Because to take that attitude and apply it to every car that rolls through your door, to meet that statistic you must lower your standards. Okay, so maybe the only thing you can find on this otherwise pristine car is the brakes are at 3mm, manufacturer's specs are at 1.6 mm, so you recommend brakes even though the customer still has life left but you need to make that magic number. That attitude is exactly what turns a good shop into a 60 Minutes expose. Sure the brakes were close, but not at the end of their life according to the vehicle manufacturer. The numbers change but the notion exists that there is XX BILLION dollars worth of unperformed services every year. That's a great notion but that does not equate to reality. How many of those services would be sold if they were presented? Maybe half at best. And what about the new cars coming to you for their oil changes and are still under warranty? To make a blanket statement and then live it as gospel is disingenuous and deceitful. The simple fact is it is impossible for your statement to be a reality. And to make it true you must be dishonest and unethical. The average may meet your threshold, but not every car that comes in. And not every customer that comes in will buy what you try to sell them, because of the reputation auto mechanics have because of philosophies like yours. So that statement, that attitude, that practice ultimately hurts the whole profession, and makes it harder for us to care for our customer's and their vehicles because there is perpetually a tinge of distrust. Now if I misinterpreted your statement, I'm sorry. But your statement was matter-of-fact with no ambiguity, and wrong.

Now if that is why Saturday is a feeder for your next week you have a definite reason to be open on Saturday. But just to be there to take in quick, low $$ jobs and hope for stuff to roll in for Monday then that's another story. I am glad to here that Saturdays work for you. You have reason to be open.

To all who I may have offended, you have my sincerest apologies, I did not intend to insinuate that anyone on this board was dishonest, or deceitful. I was trying to make a point of either you compete on price with the slimeballs out there or you invest significant money in marketing a service with very little profitablility. Now marketing those services to your current customers is a whole different issue. I too inspect my customer's cars from bumper to bumper. My major problem with oil changes for my regular customers is fitting them in. As a one man shop, even with two hoists I find it hard to do walk-in oil changes. And that is not likely to change soon. And in my area the only way you can sell an oil change for more than about $35.00 is if it is with full synthetic oil. Otherwise there are too many of those "get 'em in and get the wheels off" shops marketing the at cost or below oil changes. And as for building your business by saying yes instead of no how far do you go? I am not meaning to be argumentative or a jerk, I am just playing devil's advocate here. A customer rolls in at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon and wants a brake job done before the holiday weekend because "it just started grinding" Do you say yes knowing that your people are going to stay late to handle the customer's disrespect of you, of their car and of other's safety? What about when you are locking up on Saturday and someone rolls in and wants an intake job done on their GM 3.4L minivan? Do you say, YES we can fit you in on Monday? Because that is saying NO we can't do it for your today because we are closing so we can (selfishly) go home and spend time with our families. My point is, unless you are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year, at some point you are going to say "No" because unless you give the customer exactly what they want, right when they want it, you are saying no in some form. It is nice little management consultant speak to make your statement but it doesn't hold up to scrutiny. But how you have implemented the intention has worked very well for you and that is good. And as for tire rotations many of the tire shops around offer free rotation for life so why would they pay me to do it and why would I do tire rotations for free on an oil change that I'm already losing money (as opposed to full rate) on? Batteries are easier to sell in the fall and early winter, and unless I sell wipers at cost they will just go to WalMart and buy them themselves. I do full inspections with every oil change and try to upsell everything I find, but I find it hard to convert those estimates into sales. Maybe it's just the clientele I attract. But I am speaking more of the first time customers and then it probably because they are so gun-shy because of all the other scam shops out there. But ultimately I thin we are talking about two different types of customer here. You are talking about marketing your oil changes to your regular customers but when I think about marketing or pushing oil changes I think about new customers as the audience. And the new customers coming in for oil changes rarely are quality prospects. For you Joe, Saturdays work very well. I may try them this fall, but for now I am still a one man shop, I have a 9 yo and a 14 yo so I like to spend time with them. And most of my regular customers treat with that respect. In fact one customer chewed me out Friday because I said I was going to come in on Saturday and finish his van. He told me to leave it and spend the weekend with my family. Some day I want to grow, but I won't kill myself doing it. And when my kids look at me Saturday morning with that "You look kinda familiar" look because I get home as they are going to bed at night, I need time with my family, because after all, they are only little a little while. So if my business fails because I am not open on Saturday so be it, my family is more important than that. But the bottom line appears to be, we are speaking of two different customer bases when pushing, advocating, marketing, advertising our oil change services. And when it comes to Saturdays, each business has its own experience and unique situation.

As someone who is very concerned about my own personal information I would be furious to find out this kind of information was being released without my permission. As a cynical business owner I would fully expect Mitchell to quietly change their privacy policy to allow them to take your information and sell it to carfax. Don't think it can't happen. As businesses constantly look for new profit methods and ways to maximize profits, ethics often disappear. And one of those ethics that is constantly diminishing is respect, respect for others privacy disappears when a data aggregator sees a profit potential. And that is how we developed the slime-ball industry of data miners.

I think he explained it pretty well. All of the gravy work is taken to "their mechanic." And if you are making money on oil changes, how? We discount here, discount there and always placate ourselves with "its building business," or "I'm building work for the rest of the week," or "any money is better than no money." Well think about it, if you are only using Saturday to schedule work for the next week, why didn't the customer just call on Friday or Monday? Was Saturday the only day their phone worked? Do you really bill full retail for the labor and make your GP on parts for a simple oil change? Unless Saturday is holding it's own as a contributor to the bottom line, it is a losing proposition. And it serves very well to irritate the employees. I do not promote oil changes because I will not compete on price, not when we have a couple national chain stores preying on the ignorant with an oil change price of $18.95 or $24.95 hoping to get the tires off and bilk the customer for unwarranted brake repairs. I've done second opinion brake inspections several times where the pads were at 30% or more and the national chain told the customer, "Oh you really need to get your brakes done, they're totally worn out." Or a local car dealer that aggressively promotes a $16.95 oil change but then their employees are forced to sell every legitimate and every illegitimate wallet flush the quicki-lube can do. If they don't sell they are fired. So how so you market your full rate oil change and compete? Your GP on the oil change can not possibly meet that of regular repairs. So unless you are big enough to warrant a dedicated lube tech how do you justify a $35 half-hour oil change when other work should be generating at least double the profit? I find with my regular customers oil changes are valuable for you point of keeping them coming in periodically. But the vast majority of my oil changes are not that valuable. I do the oil change and find a legitimate up-sell. They have become conditioned by all the stories of rip-offs, and those shops whose only interest is their bottom line, not the customer's legitimate needs. You all know what I'm referring to, your average R.O. You have to make in on EVERY car, regardless of what the car came in for or what it legitimately needs. They decline the repairs at that time, take my estimate and shop it around, pick the cheapest shop without regard to quality. So in reality I've lost the revenue possibility of the time dedicated to the oil change in hopes of getting work that rarely materializes. It harkens back to the saying, "If you're losing money, you can't make it up with volume."

I think you hit it right on the head. The narcissism of today's society is really appalling to me. It used to be I'm here, I'm ######, deal with it. Now it's I'm here, drop everything and wait on ME, to Hades with everyone else, those who got here before me, those who scheduled appointments, everyone but me. I'm here, I'm the only one who matters because I'm ME. No I am not ###### or ####ophobic, and I'm also not of the drop everything because I'm here crowd. I simply used the play-on words to illustrate my point that I believe Joe is right on the money with what is wrong with society in regards to how we can serve them. And those are the customers you'd do very well do be without, if it were not that more and more of today's "constantly connected" society are getting that way. I'm a little different being a one man shop with two hoists and a flat bay, but I do almost everything by appointment. Even though today I am sitting here looking at an empty schedule and I would gladly take a walk-in. I think that a successful shop, if there were enough employees to even out the work would do like the brake and alignment shop I sublet my alignments to. They have six or seven techs and always have two slots each day dedicated to "Walk-ins/work-ins." I don't know if that is one hour each or two hours or how long but they built into their schedule two opportunities each day to accommodate customers who "it just started making noise." Or my doctor's office does the same thing. If you call first thing in the morning they have 3-5 appointments available for same day care. Either place can used unscheduled time as a buffer if the run over and those slots aren't filled, but it also isn't a large percentage of their available productivity so they don't hurt too much if they don't schedule those slots and they aren't filled by walk-ins. But the alignment shop has 6 or seven techs and my doctor's office has 7 or 8 doctors on staff, and late hours (til 8:00) too, talk about patient CARE! So if you have only one or two techs, one or two hours a day could be a substantial chunk of your productivity but if you have 6 or 8 techs, then it becomes a much smaller percentage and probably very manageable.

I agree with you that machining is a more cost effective and responsible option. The $24.00 rotors were just the last ones I had to replace. The rotors I typically replace are more than those too, so I resurface as many as I can to ethically serve my customers. I know I'm a bad businessman since I care more about serving my customer's than my own pocketbook.

If you are interested check out your NAPA dealer. The second quarter Real Deals sale flier lists the ProCut 9.2 for $9708. I'm not sure what is included versus what you were quoted by the ProCut salesman, but it may be worth checking into. I still don't think it is worth the investment unless you are servicing a lot of captured rotor equipped vehicles. Now if you were replacing a bench lathe then it may be worth it, but if you have a decent bench lathe now, why turn it into a big paper weight? I just thought I'd post the NAPA Real Deals sale price on it and maybe save you a few hundred bucks. I accept cash and check http://ecatalograck.genpt.com/pdfcat/RealDeals_2Q_2011_Linked/WebProject.asp?CodeId=7.4.1.1&BookCode=r2q11flx#

Agreed, we talk and complain about the bottom feeder shops weekly, about the shops that want to be the cheapest because that will get them lots of business and the think that will make them boatloads of money. We all know that isn't true, it will get them business but not the type that keeps the doors open. Every trade charges what they do for a reason. Why do you think a lawyer charges $250, $500, $2000 an hour? Because that is what they need to charge to pay for the law books, research staff and a good living. They get it because they all charge it. That and they all have to meet a certain standard for their profession, a little thing called the Bar exam. Likewise plumbers get to charge what they do, because they all charge similar amounts and I assume that like electricians they must apprentice and journey and finally "graduate" to a certain status by law, statute or ordinance. But we allow these cut rate shops to operate because we as an industry do not require higher standards of ourselves. Why do we allow this, because heaven forbid that if we were required to meet minimum standards there would have to be a governing body, maybe even (gasp) The Government to oversee and enforce those minimum standards. But we as an industry have no interest in establishing those minimum standards and the trade organizations that supposedly foster improved professionalism, integrity, and certify competence really are all voluntary organizations that do little to advance our profession beyond those of us who voluntarily adhere. But those cut-rate shops, do you think they adhere? No, that's part of how they can charge less. So yes Joe, you are right, it's our fault that our profession is not held in higher esteem. It's our fault because we are not willing to impose minimum standards on our profession that would earn us the esteem we want and many of us deserve. Rebels without a clue. A truly phenomenal marketing feat that is for sure. But like crapple products, it's what's "cool" not what's intelligent, smart, reasonable or prudent. But it would be nice to sprinkle some of that pixie dust on our profession and elevate the image, and value. But what else are we supposed to sell the customer? They have a need for the coolant leak on their car to be fixed, or the grinding brakes to be replaced. What else are we supposed to sell them? How else are we supposed to sell them? I think part of the problem is education. So many people simply know to turn the key and if it starts, DRIVE IT! They don't know that the premium brake pads will stop stronger, shorter, and more reliably than the $19.95 brake pad in the $99.00 brake job. All they know it that 99.9% of the time they step on the brake pedal and the car stops. It's that .1% of the time that the 10 foot shorter stopping distance will be the difference between driving away, heart pounding and riding away in an ambulance. I used to try to sell my brake jobs with premium parts that way, most people stopped listening after premium, in their minds premium simply equaled more $$$, nothing else, not better quality, better performance, more safety, just more money. I helped a guy tie down a heavy load in his pick-up one day and told him to place the load as far forward as possible because he could control how fast he had to accelerate but he couldn't control how fast he may have to stop. He gave me this deer-in-the-headlight look like I was crazy. But the next time I talked to him he thanked me for insisting he do that, because he had a kid blow a stop sign and he had to slam on the brakes and heard the load tilt forward and tap the front of the truck bed. If it had been all the way to the back like he wanted for easier unloading he would have at least broken the rear window in the cab as the load broke free and slid forward. He finally got it, but if he hadn't had that pseudo-emergency, just like the other 99.9% of the time, I would still be crazy for wanting him to work harder to load and unload his cargo. So maybe it isn't entirely our fault that our profession is regarded as the physical work we perform, not the experience, care and concern we have for our customer's and their family's well-being manifested in a job well done with high-quality parts and top-notch labor that will provide a long term solution to their need for reliable vehicles.

I used a ProCut at the last dealer I worked before I opened my shop and I was NOT impressed. And the excuses you got from the salesman simply show that he is not in touch with his customer base. As for disconnecting the driveshaft, that's no big deal, and yes you have to do it on some rear/4wd vehicles. To tell you that you have to cut new rotors too is simply ignorant. I am very picky about my brake jobs and I measure and index the rotors for minimum lateral runout and I rarely have an undamaged new rotor beyond .001" LRO (if it is beyond that the rotor is waaaayyyy beyond, like .005-.008") and the ProCut machine I used couldn't consistently achieve less than .001" so why would you cut a new rotor just to have the same LRO? Your salesman was an idiot. And I'm not sure what you guys think is cheap for a rotor but when I can sub out my rotor machining for $9.00 each (I don't anymore because I have a brake lathe, but I'm just saying) at $24.00 cost per rotor, like the ones I'm installing this morning, are a whole lot more expensive. I guess though the way some shops bragged about their loss leader $149.00 all inclusive brake jobs on ASO awhile ago it would be more profitable to replace than to resurface rotors. But when a rotor comes in and measures .040" over machine to how can you ethically or legally recommend replacement when from all appearances a routine resurface is all that it needs? Rotors aren't $15.00 anymore like they used to be so even if you charge fairly for pad replacement and for rotor resurfacing, adding a pair of new rotors can up the bill sometimes by quite a bit. I mean even slapping on new rotors you still have to clean the hub and measure the runout so it's not a labor free operation to just put on new rotors either. As for an on-the-car brake lathe, if you see a lot of captured rotors it would be well worth the money, but otherwise get a good brake lathe, and a top notch chuck. Scratch cut the rotor twice to make sure you have it mounted square and you should have no problems.

I wish I knew where you guys are buying rotors so cheap. I look at the price of rotors, even at my cost and most times it's not economical to replace. That and if the rotors have enough material to machine it is unethical to replace them if that means more cost to the customer, not mention I would think is is unlawful too (illegal is a sick bird isn't it?). So for those who operate their shops in the interest of the customer a brake lathe is valuable. But the ProCut is expensive. When I worked at the dealership before I opened my shop we had a ProCut 9.2. It was OK at best. Supposedly it would compensate for runout in the hub and turn the rotor with .0000" LRO. I used it at least 3 times a week and maybe 20% of the time would it compensate completely the first or second time I tried. Usually the machine would fault and claim it could only compensate to .001" and sometimes it would take two or three times to get it to even compensate to .002" LRO. I was not impressed. I always tightened the adapters with a torque wrench to assure they were not distorted. And I complained and the machine was inspected/serviced with no improvement. Would I buy one? Maybe, but I would want to check out any other O.T.C lathe first, like Hunter had one for awhile, I don't know if they still do. Good luck, just don't buy everything the salesman tells you, make him PROVE it.

Oh, and another piece of advise, always leave the mast tilted forward and fully lowered or else remove the forks, otherwise they may be a trip hazard o r a head knocker. If you have to raise the mast always install a safety chain around the mast frame and lower the mast onto the chain BEFORE reaching into the mast. We really don't want to refer to you as stumpy, or posthumously.

As a former "Industrial Material Handling Equipment Maintenance and Repair Technician" (fancy talk for forklift mechanic) the best advice I can give you is NEVER put anything you can't live without between the machine and the floor/wall/heavy or immovable object! Forklilfts are very unforgiving, not to mention heavy. You will be well advised to have special jacks that are capable of lifting the weight of the machine. The average forklift with a load capacity of up to about 8000#, especially traction tire (indoor) machines will weigh approximately what their capacity is, example a 5000# truck will normally weigh 45-5500#. Otherwise what are your questions? I can't help if I don't know what you are wanting to know. I can't guarantee I will be able to answer your questions but I will be happy to try.