bigdonstang

$85 Charleston, WV

It appears the greatest generation bred the worst generation who ultimately gave America the choice between Stalin in a pants suit or a pumpkin spice Hitler.

Who else here has heard a lions share of life stories from clients? We sure have. I think if you've earned there trust and you're a mechanic then they feel like they could tell you anything. Should we charge therapist rates instead of labor rates? Because I think our bottom line would improve lol.

Send em to us.

We stopped using carry in parts a few years ago. Best decision ever.

Funny story. We had an elderly lady come in on a hook a few weeks ago. 1999 cavalier. Quick evaluation revealed a locked up engine. After explaining to her that the cost of a replacement engine would far outweigh the cost of the vehicle. Especially when you consider the rest of the car was roached out and full of issues. So we advise her to have it towed to the boneyard in the sky. Still she insist that the engine could be somehow cheaply fixed. Long story short we didn't charge her a dime. Mainly because it was a super quick diag for me and also I'm a softy for old folks. So the tow guy gets to the shop to pick it up and she tries to get the driver to haul it to autozone so they can do there free diagnostics. Obviously he refused and also tried to explain to the lady that this is not how any of this works.

We have a term for these vehicles. We call them "good ol' neighborhood cars". Sometimes I think we are stuck inside the fence and the gate already has been welded shut. Countless times we've declined to touch them because you end up marrying them.

Sometimes I feel like we are fighting an uphill battle in this industry. Smh

Oh that's $12.78 if it passes. It's $11.78 for a fail. It is a loss leader for sure. We get approved to do the repairs approximately 50% of the time so that helps. But even so you are right. We lose money on the 1/2 hour one of my bays is tied up plus all the paperwork associated with the inspection.

For the life of me I can not understand why every state does not have annual safety inspections. If they only knew how dangerous some people would let there cars become. Thank God our state does an excellent job with the state inspection program. My only problem with it is we aren't allowed to charge more than $12.78. However it feels nice to slap a rejection sticker on some death trap with no brakes, bald tires and rotted out frames. Especially since these folks are the hardest to deal with. They leave here sometimes cussing and calling us crooks. Totally hilarious.

It was an issue with the client. He was wondering why it was so high. We worked things out with him and he's cool with it now. They are on pace to do $200,000 with us this year so we bend over backwards to make them happy. I was worried I may have been overpricing them.

We had an issue with one of our important accounts about the price of an air filter of all things. 2014 Dodge Charger. Air filter price installed was $51.00. Our price was $25.48. This is for a premium filter as the economy grade was not in stock anywhere and this client demands a quick turn around. Our pricing on filters is based off a pretty standard matrix and we do not charge labor. One of my techs inadvertently got into the debate and tells me how "down south" (he worked in North Carolina for a stint) they only mark filters up $10 and don't charge labor on filters either. Seems unrealistic to me but nonetheless I still would appreciate actual shop owners input on this subject. Am I too high, too low, or in the ballpark? How do you guys price smalls such as filter, blades, etc.?

All you need is a small PA system. Mixing board, amplifier, speakers and a few mics. You could even use a channel for a shop stereo and another channel for phone ring.

Both insurance and OSHA. We have the yellow chains as well. Some people climb right over them like they weren't even there. I tell them the chains aren't there to us in.

Had one of these yesterday!