alfredauto

When someone is unreasonable before any work is done, money traded hands, and they haven't been inconvenienced by longer than promised wait times just imagine what they will be like after the fact. Yikes! You can't please 'em all.

In NY a person can legally pass inspection, get a sticker, and get ticketed by a cop for equipment violations as soon as they pull out of the driveway. Its really rediculous the traffic code and vehicle safety regulations don't match. For example, there is no fail item for exhaust. It is not checked except for the presence of a catalytic converter. But a loose gas cap will sideline that vehicle.

Az sells rolls of copper brake line now. I was taught its a no-go, but the sales guy says its dot approved. I'll stick with coated steel.

I feel for you Marksas, this is the reason why so many shops close up. The customer is at fault, but wants to make it your problem. 77mph pulling a 40' horse trailer in the hills is hard. The egt's were obviously through the roof causing the damage. If the driver was paying attention he would have noticed the temp gauge and the trans temp climbing and pulled off to put some water in. The duramax holds 6 gallons so its not like it instantly burned up. Engine life expectancy of the LLY is 350k miles anyway, less if someone had a tuner on it. So add it all up and its your fault. The way I feel is if I break it I buy it unless it was already broken.

That's what we call "since ya" as in "ever since ya did my tires my heater doesn't work right".

I'm not questioning the costs of the little things, but if I was a retail customer and got charged $14 to put on a pair of wipers that would be the last time I entered your shop. Its simply not customary. Why not just charge (cost of blade + $7) each for the blades with free install? Same with air filters. But if all the shops charge labor in your area to do these things then by all means charge. I do like the 5 minute rule. The flat rate guys might complain if there's no tenths they don't work but remind them if there's no customers there's no job for them.

In NY mobile mechanics are regulated as repair facilities. I doubt it will work here, as the only mobil facilities I know do big truck emergency repairs. There definitely is a market for that, price out what it costs to tow a semi and you'll see why they pay the guy $150/hr to swap parts on the highway to get it rolling to the garage. But overall the idea of a mail order mechanic fixing anything in the housing project parking lot is stupid. Who even calls these people? I don't want a stranger dumping oil in my driveway. Got my gator socket and metrinch kit, good to go. Oi!

I'd love to rent a lambo or Ferrari, its so worth it! I didn't know anyone rented them.

My parents and guidance counselors pushed me to go to a university. I enjoyed auto shop much more than English lit, but I gave in and went to Uconn. Besides the girls I met it was a waste of my time. I dropped out after the 1st semester and signed up for tech school. It was a good choice for me. I really liked fixing cars so I studied hard and applied myself andf graduated at the top of my class. There's no shame in doing what you love, even if its a "lesser" career. The guidance counselors fail to understand that the world needs smart mechanics, smart plumbers, and smart HVAC technicians. Besides auto shop we had a world class metal shop sponsored partly I assume by Pratt & Whitney. My class of 1992 was the last class to use Bridgeport millers in high school. They auctioned the whole metal shop off that summer. Its pretty sad that there will be no machinists created in my hometown anymore. I still have the toolbox I made in 9th grade, it started as a sheet of metal. All the spot welds are still good. I recently ran it over with my tractor when it fell out of the bucket. Its still good. Try that with harbor freight.

Do any of you just say no to certain jobs that are a guaranteed nightmare? Maybe Ztec timing belts or F150 exhaust manifolds to give an example. I do but I feel bad. I've done manifolds on newer trucks, booster comes off to drill out the studs, engine jacked up to drill another one, its just something I don't have any interest in doing. I have the tools, experience, and skill to repair pretty much everything, but some jobs are just not worth it to me. I can't count how many times both arms are coated in grease up to my shoulders and after ten hours its not even close to being done. Why did I take this job? I hate to be a gravy tech or a gravy shop but if I'm turning down 5 brake jobs to do one rusted manifold what did I accomplish? Man card credit? Ego boost? Pride? No thanks I'll pass.

I charge a flat diag fee, it equals 1.2 hours. The reason for this is to eliminate time wasting customers at the counter. Check engine light on, its $$ to find out whats going on. If they agree (about 90%) we are off on the right foot. In one hour we can determine what's causing the check engine light every time. Hold on, how is that possible? I didn't say we fix them in one hour, we just determine why the light is on. Say we determine a broken wire somewhere is causing an injector to not open, the diagnosis is complete and I call the customer with the diagnosis. You have a broken injector wire, to repair it will cost $xxx. I know by experience how long it will take to either find the open/short or run a new wire. Its not exact but if I charge 3 hours to fix an electrical problem I'm making money and the customer is saving the expense of 4 oxygen sensors AZ wants to sell them. If by chance we spend 3 full hours and still can't find the problem I rethink the problem. It means I was wrong, I'm not doing a proper repair, or the vehicle is a basket case that defies traditional logic. Some techs don't get the whole picture, if there's a shorted wire its pretty easy to isolate what general area where the problem lies. Why spend hours or days trying to disassemble the whole harness when guaranteed its at a splice, connector, or loom that chafed through. Wires don't normally break inside protected conduit (weirder things have happened). Wire repair is not diagnosis, its a repair job. I also urge all you folks to invest in a .99 squirt bottle, or repurpose your windex bottles. I can find a cracked ign coil or faulty plug wire faster with a squirt bottle than I can with my scope. Sometimes we guess. What? Yup, we simply guess. Take a hemi that intermittently stalls driving down the road, then restarts no problem. No codes. Fuel pump pulls acceptable amps, everything else looks factory fresh. I'm going to guess and throw in a cam and crank sensor. Its a known problem, and trying to find the glitch on a scope is usually impossible. Idetifix and Mitchell confirm 200 times out of 201 its the problem, I'm not going to relive the 1st guys diagnostic nightmare. Which sensor is bad though, the cam or crank? It's a moot point, I can change both in less time than it takes to determine which one is bad and the parts are cheap.

Its such a touchy subject. I agree with trusted mechanic, not giving a phone quote scares them off. Sometimes I'll offer a general price, like "typically we are about 20% less than the dealer but we do use the same genuine parts", or " I can put brakes on your car for $69 but I guarantee they will squeak". What I'm getting at is spend the time on the phone befriending the person on the other end and try to gain their trust. Throwing out a number gives the next guy a number to beat.

I don't have a lot of patience for that either. We can talk politics, we can talk about eastern Europe, we can talk about their car all day but the minute they suggest my techs time is worthless the conversation is over Its really quite simple - this is broke, it costs this much to fix it. If they "weeelll the guy down the road said..." I lean into the shop and say "put it outside and bring in Mrs smiths car" thanks have a good day. I'm busy, I don't have time to play lets make a deal. "How much cash no tax?" Yea right call Albany and apply for a tax # and ask for a refund at the end of the quarter.

When you give a price over the phone you encourage mindless price shopping. Get them in to see what they really need. I quote tires and oil changes, they also get "the lowest price tire is not the one I prefer to put on your car." Or "cheap oil is too expensive we put the right stuff in. We have free Starbucks coffee on Thursday I can squeeze you in at 8:15" The folks that just want the cheapest I don't really want in my garage. Maybe when its been snowing for a week and we're cleaning the oil drains but even then its a toss up.

I must be an outlier, my business has zero debt. Of course I have 30 day accounts for parts but that's it. My thoughts are if the business can't pay for itself something needs to be done immediately. I went through some lean times, the cause was trying to become too big. I slimmed down to bare bones; one tech and myself. Most "experts" would say I went in the wrong direction but I disagree. Both my guy and myself take 4 weeks vacation every year. I do my own payroll, with one guy its simple. I stopped doing non profitable jobs, easy to say no to the b.s. work when there's only one guy to feed. Honestly I make more profit doing half the amount of volume. I can keep one guy busy cheaply and easily, trying to keep a crew busy was a major stress which involved major cash outlays to keep everything going. The only drawback really is I'm changing flat tires and mopping the floor on a regular basis. I'd be doing that for someone else if I kept going like I was.

Frightening

We sell road hazard on awd cars all the time. On our main line tires the customers cost is zero for the 1st 2/32" which greatly benefits the customer. They really only care about road hazard in the 1st year anyway. Once one tire is worn past say 4 or 5 32nds we put a new set on and adjust all four, or give them a used one for nothing. I keep the 3 good ones in my used tire stacks. Its a wash for us, and keeps the customer happy. I'm curious about the green diamond tires, once in a while I condemn them as garbage recaps when they come in flapping.

Lol we had a guy a while back thought our calipers were too expensive. Did them himself over the weekend. Had to get his truck towed in because he couldnt bleed it no matter what. He installed them upside down, bleeder on the bottom. I should have taken a picture of the empty 5 gallon pail of DOT 3 in the bed.

For some people money is the only thing that matters. They all have the same issues, that is no matter how much they have its never quite enough. So they keep finding ways to make more, and the faster easier path to riches is cheating. Some folks don't have integrity, they are not held back by ethics or morals. My advice is forget about these crooks, they have been around since day 1.

Be careful of what you wish for. Higher car counts mean exponentially more headaches not directly linear with more profits if you don't have time to fix them all. $550 aro with >50%gp is good, trying to double car count without double the qualified help will net you a decrease in gp. One bay isn't best, so jumping up to a 5 bay shop is a wise investment. That by itself will increase car count as customers relate to shorter wait times. Add another tech to handle the flow, then add another tech/sa as the car count increases. Advertising helps a little, but by far your reputation is what will drive customers into your bays. Give your customers outstanding service and ask them to refer their co workers, its the cheapest and the most effective form of advertising.

Employee issues cause me more stress than everything else combined. I solved the problem my way. I have one tech, that's it. I run the counter, my guy does the work. He does a good job and has been with me since I opened. When it gets really busy I wrench too and customers talk to me in the shop. My tech also can run the counter. It means we get backed up a week or more sometimes but its really better for me. Net profit with one employee is higher than with 5. If he quits I'll be a one man show before I babysit another group of good enough workers. Don't get me wrong, I'm going to start recruiting andesauto's way with IQ tests to hopefully find some qualified staff. Until then no more handouts my heart can't take it.

ASE tests are a good indicator of a tech that knows his stuff, no doubt. If a guy can't pass the test then the tests have trick questions, or theres 4 right answers, or they didn't correct it properly. Lol I heard it all.

Lol AJFA your post reminded me of the time I was in court fighting a traffic ticket. The guy before me was contesting his DWI with a Heineken t shirt on. How can that even happen? Same as playing profanity and attempting to be professional. Huh.

I agree there should be a technician license one must get to go to work. Like an electricians license in many states - pass the exam, pass the schooling, pass the apprenticeship program and then go out into the field. There's too much liability for learning impaired people to be tinkering with peoples brakes and steering systems. I've seen "professional" mechanics put 20' of rubber fuel hose in cars secured with hose clamps. Not on a 50's 2psi Studebaker but a 2007 65psi system. This particular case had the lines tie strapped 1/2" from the cat. Of course it flunked inspection but that kind of ignorance reflects on all of us. I'm not suggesting the mechanic test be as difficult as a MD exam because not everyone has the means to succeed at that level, but something is better than nothing.

I was in Montenegro a while back and a guy asked me "een Amereeka eef you have no insurance they let you die een the streets?" He was bewildered by the lack of compassion we have for each other here regarding health care. It explains why we kill each other every day. The # of guns in this country isn't the problem, its the lack of love for one another.