Buisiness; Hot and Cold after a Tough Winter

[Joe Marconi]

It's been a long tough winter for many shops. Now that we are in spring, some shops are doing good, and for others, not so good. It's hard to determine if there are any trends. Usually after a tough winter, business rebounds and sales are up.

 

How are you finding business so far this spring? And what are your thoughts about business and the economy?

[alfredauto]

This last winter was extremely busy for us, mostly snow tire installs and maintenance issues. Come the end of February and beginning of March and it was as if someone hit the off switch. No tires, no oil changes, nothing. We made it through 2 weeks of no phone calls by luck, a couple transmission jobs came in which took up the time. (Normally we don't do tranny r&r's but any work is better than no work) You could play hockey on the road in front of the shop, nobody was doing anything except trying to keep warm. Propane shot up to $5 a gallon. Then like the switch turned back on we are backed up 5-7 days again, phones ringing off the hook. The story is the same with other shops in my area. Feast or famine for all of us. I'm optimistic for 2014 as a whole.

[CARMandP]

We have had a terrible winter. April was a little better but we are already off almost 50k from what we were this time last year. Car count way off. Doing everything that I can to get cars in but not feeling very optomistic even about staying in business this year

[ScottyP]

We had a brutal winter, weather wise, but business was good. From March forward we have been slammed, and April has been nuts! We did 165% of our projected sales!

[xrac]

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[Gasanddiesel]

March was amazing for us. We picked up several engine jobs from people not keeping antifreeze in their engine over the cold winter.

 

April was slow. We barely broke even.

 

May is picking up, but not nearly what i want it to be. Still too much standing around time and doing jobs i don't want to do.

[ncautoshop]

March was amazing for us. We picked up several engine jobs from people not keeping antifreeze in their engine over the cold winter.

 

April was slow. We barely broke even.

 

May is picking up, but not nearly what i want it to be. Still too much standing around time and doing jobs i don't want to do.

March was real slow for us. April was up 40% from last April and now customers are lined up out the door!

 

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