MattW

This isn't just extended warranty companies either .Customer of mine had an 09 BMW, needed a radiator and was replacing the thermostat too. They had "breakdown coverage" on their insurance. Said lizard-represented insurance company that rhymes with psycho wanted me to come down on my labor hours across the board. "I show this many hours for this, and this many for this. I found the thermostat for $88. I can get a genuine BMW radiator for $100 less. We may have to ship in that radiator overnight." He kept me on the phone for a solid 25 minutes while I told him "No, no, no, no, no" and just kept working while I had him on speaker. Eventually he gave up and let me get the work done, but he was really trying hard to do whatever he could to get the prices down. Customer had a $250 deductible and said they've been paying $70 a month for this service for the past 4 years and didn't even realize they had it. Anyone wanna do the math on that?

Take a cheap #2 phillips head screwdriver. Cut the end off and weld it back to the screwdriver at a 90 degree angle so that you have about a 1/4 inch offset. You've just made the tool to take out a Lexus RX300 blend door actuator without removing the dash.

Anyone stock and use a "universal" transmission fluid? I've started buying bulk oil from Commercial Lubricants, and they stock "Service Pro Global ATF" that is supposed to work for anything except Type F and CVT's. I don't do all that much transmission service, so I don't care to stock 15 different fluids for that off chance I need one, but not sure if this is the better way to go.

One reason I like Herman Cain, maybe not for a presidential candidate but definitely for a vice-president. Just my two cents.

Definitely agree. It's not the insurance company that gets blamed for a faulty rack and pinion. Nor does the insurance company reimburse you for your labor if the rack and pinion is bad. I think you took the perfect course of action in explaining the situation to the customer and taking it from there. My step-dad always had a saying "Don't put yourself in a position to be questioned and you'll always be fine." In this case you avoided being questioned at any point from any problem that may or may not have come from installing the used part.

Just started my website. Still got some work to do for SEO. Hopefully everyone likes it. Matt's Automotive

Back in school we had a couple of Vantage Pro's, A Solus, and a Modis. The Modis is the last Snap-on scanner I'd use. As Snap-on progresses with their scanners it seems they focus more on form and less on function. "Oh, shiny" is nice, but I'm looking more for power and efficiency. I'm strongly considering buying a scan-tool from AutoEnginuity, and being able to hook it up to my shop laptop. And a PicoScope 4423 automotive kit as my diagnostic multimeter.

Neatest thing I've found with my smoke machine: A/C leaks. Had a customer bring me a 1996 F-350 diesel, A/C wouldn't hold a charge for more than a day or two. We don't have an electronic A/C leak detector at my shop, so I took one of the cheapie 12 inch A/C charge hoses from the parts store, cut off the end that goes to the can, stick one end to the car and one end to my smoke machine hose, smoke pours out from behind the compressor clutch. I thought it was neat, but usually only works on rather large leaks. Just make sure that the A/C system is empty first. I also find oil leaks by pressurizing the crankcase with it (usually through the crankcase breather hose). Most recent one I found with this was a porous valve cover. Also, you can find those annoying wind leaks if you have a diffuser. Pressurize the passenger compartment by turning the blower motor on high bringing in fresh air. The diffuser will spread the smoke and you can move it over body seams (around door weatherstripping, etc) and where the wind leak is air will be blowing out of the passenger compartment which will blow the smoke. Just a few neat tricks. By the way, we use the Vacutec EvapPro 2000E with the roll-around cart. Great machine, and comes with great accessories.

So I've been running my shop for a little over a year now, taking in whoever I could at whatever rate I could, regardless of profit margins. Recently I've started becoming more selective and strict on my markups and margins, and lo and behold I think I get more business now than I did catering strictly to the customer's wallet. So now that I'm more set on my prices and have a matrix setup for parts markup, I figured I set up some generic specials on oil changes and things of that nature. I read someone's idea on here about advertising factory scheduled maintenance instead of just oil changes, and I thought that was a really good idea, so if it's okay with Junior I'd like to run with that idea in my shop. Now on to the problem. I think I'm taking these flat cost services too far. I have one set up for standard service/oil change (4qt/5qt, conventional/high mileage/synthetic) and I have a flat cost for EGR delete kits on a couple of the newer diesels. But wait, I can set up one for CV Axles too! And everyone has a brake special! Maybe a set price for timing belts on most 4-cylinders! Oh wait, transmission services too! See where I'm heading with this? At what point do you differentiate between a flat cost service and quoting on a vehicle-by-vehicle basis?

Hi everyone. Found the site while Googling for information on parts markup, and have found some great information here, so I decided to register and hopefully contribute some. That said, my name is Matt and I own Matt's Automotive in Douglasville/Whitesburg, GA. Nice to meet everyone.