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Is this poltical correctness gone too far? A service shop owner in Limerick, Ireland, (stop laughing, it’s a real place) was ordered by authorities to take down his nudie calendars or be shut down. Nudie Calendar

Oh by the way I forget to welcome you to the forum . WELCOME! Tell us a little more about yourself and where you are located!

I do not know what your overhead is but my overhead is such that if I went to a 20% parts markup I would soon be out of business. In my opinion that is too cheap. For example on dealer parts shops are usually able to buy at a 25% discount over the general public. In my mind that is a bare minimum that should be charged on any part although on most things we try to do much more. The way our shop pay is structured at 25% I am breaking even on a part. I think one of the biggest mistake that small shops and start ups make is to not charge enough. This leads to a lot of issues. The owner has to work way to many hours to be profitable. You establish a reputation for being cheap and attract a clientele that are all price shoppers. The whole pricing structure is not profitable enough to allow investment in technology, equipment, more qualified personnel, better buildings, and locations. You do not have a great enough return on your investment. We have been working on our pricing because we have just not been profitable enough. As far as the $9.95 oil change it will attract a customer you may not want in the long run. While you are doing the $9.95 oil change the shop at $70 an hour will be fixing the cars of people who want their car FIXED. The $9.95 oil change customer is often the one who says just change my oil and DON'T look at anything else. How about offering something like an oil change and tire rotation for $25.95. That is the promotion I favor. It is not too cheap but it is attractive to someone who wants to take care of their tires. This is a customer more than likely to take care of the car.

While Government 'Acts,' Dealers Take the Reins Here is an article that I found informative. While we sell very few used tires (only the very best of our take offs) we do sell about 40% of our takeoffs to a local used tire reseller. We get $2-$3 each which saves us disposal fees plus makes a few bucks. However, in the current economy and with the rise in tire prices we are seeing more and more calls then ever about used tires.

It does seem like overkill to me!

GeeZ, welcome to the forum. Those are all valid points. What is your involvement with healthcare and how are you involved in the automotive business?

Ben it sounds like you are well on your way! I am glad that you do not have a partner. In the long run you will find that is for the best. Congratulations! Good luck and welcome aboard!

Me three!!!!!! With Joe gone we have lost the life of the party!

A few years ago a woman in her late 40’s to early 50’s walked into our shop with a friend asking to have a tire repaired. As I studied her face I could see she looked tired and drained, as if she carried a great load. I had the car pulled in, went out into the shop returning a few minutes later with the news that the tire was unrepairable and that she needed four tires on her car because they were all bald and worn out. The woman’s friend stepped in a quickly explaining that the woman’s husband had just died from cancer. All her money had been spent on the funeral and she had no money and no job. All the husband had left her was medical bills, debt, and a car with worn out tires. He said friends and family had been helping out as much as possible but they were tapped out. When I heard this I offered to install four good used tires the size the woman needed for only $20 each (they were in very good shape). The woman said she would be back on Monday but would only replace two tires because it was all she could afford and she couldn’t get the $40.00 until then. My heart was sad as I listened and watched this scenario. The woman was slump shouldered and she left the shop. She did come in on Monday and got the two tires. What disturbed me most was this thought: When she was married her husband was this what she saw as her future? Was this the plan? Was this the way her husband had intended to leave her? Did he want her to remember him only for leaving her with a pile of debt, no way to pay the bills, no income, and four bald tires on the car? I have said all of that to remind all of us that we need to be sure that we have plans in place to take care of those we love when we pass from this earth. I am so happy that about four years ago I took out enough life insurance to make certain my wife of 36 1/2 years is taken care of. It hurts every March when I come up with the premium but I tell myself this is a guarantee that my wife will never have to work at Walmart. I strongly encourage everyone of you to take a serious look at what you need to do in this area of your life and business.

That is better. Thanks!

This is not my website but it belongs to some friends who use to be Car-x Franchisees but withdrew in 2006. What do you think about this website. I really like it: Welcome to QC Auto Service - Brakes, Mufflers, Tires, Suspension, Alignment, Oil, A/C, Engine Diagnostics & Transmissions

Bye Bye American Pie http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/810.html

Since this thread is about Tequila I thought I would drop this one in here:

Phone quotes for undiagnosed problems are truly a waste of time for everybody. As often as possible I try to talk the caller into the shop. I do this by using humor, showing interest and compassion about the customers problem, educate them on the complexity of vehicle problems, and indicating that potentially the problem may be less than what they think. Often this will work or will invoke more information such as the dealership told me this is what I need but I am trying to find a better price.

Great story you never know what you will run into in this business. Tuesday we replaced a blend door actuator motor on a Mercury Mountaineer and it was back in Thursday because it still didn't work right. We found the problem to be that mice had stuffed the passage from the blower motor with shredded tissue. We removed the tissue and fixed the problem.

My first reaction would be a disgruntled former employee, relative, or competitor.

Gross, parts and labor. This month we will turn about $13,000 per bay which is our best month ever.

Lucky dog! Have fun! You deserve it!

Wow that is a scary story. What do you think prompted this scenario? What if you were like me and just bought a load of inventory from a shop that closed. There is no paperwork on those converters.

Have you calculated what all of your fixed costs are: taxes, insurance, telephone, utilities, rent, etc. How much are wages, employment taxes, any health insurance, etc. What is the bare minium you need to have monthly to survive? As a rule of thumb you should be able to generate $10,000-$12,000 per bay per month with proper staffing.

Joe, we never used the $2.00 environmental until the last year and it seems to work o.k. for us. We have had no complaints. The idea of selling the coupon book is a good one. What kind of deal do you give them if they buy the coupon book?

I dislike cheap oil changes because of the type of customer it usually attracks. There are some good ones but if it is cheap enough you will attrack a lot of bottom feeders. I never want to offer the cheapest oil change in town. What we now offer is an oil change with a free tire rotation. That has attracked a better quality customer for us. If you offer a cheap oil change you need to have cheap filter, oil, etc. We use to offer a basic oil change and also had a full service oil change at different price points. The problem with the basic was people wamted their air filters blown out and wanted windhsield wiper fluid, etc. We only offer one oil change now and we add a $2.00 environmental fee onto our oil changes.

No problem. I posted it because I thought it could be useful to someone. We get them printed 2,500-5,000 at a time for about 5 cents each. We probably used 15-20 per day.

Joe, Attached is a flyer we used for our seminar. It doesn't quite fit the border with the changes in my program but it has the information we used. CARE CARE AWARENESS SEMINAR.doc

Here is a form that we developed and used. We have used preprinted forms and more complex ones but did not find them effective for us. Service Sheet.doc