xrac

It appears that consolidation is occurring within the service sector of automotive repair. Both Ichan and Monro are being very aggressive in acquiring service and tire centers. I think you will see many of the small independent groups with 5-25 stores disappear in the next few years. Just like we have seen with the parts stores.

Having sold insurance in the past I would check this possibility out. You may be able to secure coverage for four months for less than $1000. I don't what that market is like today but short term use to be super cheap. Personally, I did not pay my last month of premium before I was Medicare eligible. The mandate was fulfilled if you were covered 10 out of 12. If I had gotten sick during the last month I would have paid the premium and been covered since there is a 30 day grace period. If you want to do that you only have to look at it as covering 3 months. Of course, the mandate is going away so coverage doesn't matter from that aspect.

Unless there are health issues that preclude it you should consider short term health insurance coverage until April 1. You could enjoy a considerable savings.

At least the deductible is modest. I am Medicare as of December 1. My premium (medicare & supplements) drops by over $400 per month and my deductible went from $7,500 to less than $200 otherwise I would still be sweating the health insurance thing.

That is $18,000 to cover your family. That is crazy! This insurance stuff is the biggest fraud ever pushed upon the American people. This is our premiums that were suppose to go down. This is the Democrats on crack and the Republicans as gutless wonders and neither side cares about anything but staying in office and nothing about the people. Sorry for the tirade but people are in such a ridiculous situation. What is your deductible?

I never felt like we could justify their suggested list since it is quite high in my opinion.

In this town we have: O'reilly Autozone Napa Auto Plus Parts Plus We pretty much have to deal with all of them or windup waiting on parts since we are a fairly small metropolitan area. We get hit with shipping by WorldPac because everything comes by UPS or Fed Ex. They do nit have delivery here

Goes to show there is more than one way to achieve an objective. Brains and creativity can go a long way to resolve some issues.

I imagine that the batteries sold through Advance will have some dual branding. Will make it harder to sell Interstate as a premium product. The customer service and quality of Interstate caused us to switch to NAPA a number of years back and we have not looked back.

Mine has stayed between 1.6 and about 1.8 for over six years. That is why I don’t look to change. Every other processor I have used played games. Some of them were out right thieves.

GOnzo you sound like an important guy.

Most consumers do not understand that the quality of the workers and knowledge of automobiles is probably lower at the quick lubes than anywhere else. However, for many consumers all the information they are getting about their cars are coming from these places. Do you think that most if these places have much understanding of VVT systems, BCM issues, PCM issues, etc. how many times have you been told that the guy at xxxx lLube told me xxxxx which was totally erroneous. Do you think very many master techs want to work at a Jiffy Lube? The whole concept of a quickie service on a vehicle is flawed in my opinion.

Here is a link to a question on Quora that I supplied an answer to and so far it has gotten over 3,700 views and 75 upvotes. Thought that you might be interested in reading it. https://www.quora.com/Is-it-dangerous-to-fall-asleep-in-a-parked-car-with-the-engine-on-if-the-car-is-parked-outside/answer/G-Frank-May?srid=ht1dc

All I can say is two (2) good men starting down different highways. My advice is have fun and realize none of us are getting out of this alive so enjoy the ride. Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Jeff, I wish you all of the best. What does this new position entail?

Comments? https://www.cheatsheet.com/money-career/how-jiffy-lube-got-a-reputation-for-ripping-off-people.html/?a=viewall

Amex is through Amex. Car-x has a national account deal with Amex.

A very good point. Too many people have no clue about business overhead costs.

.02% is only .0002.

I have been with this provider about 7 years and fees have stayed stable. The switched to chipped cards has created some increase in costs related to security. I suspect that is across the board with all vendors. One of the things is every month they run a security scan on our system to see if we pass. This is through something called Trustwave.

Here is cover page of the October statement.

We have the same person to talk to any time we call and he is very helpful. We also receive all of our equipment for free and have no contract. We average about 1.74% versus the 2.2% you are paying. That is .46% which means at least $460.00 more for every $100,000 in credit card sales. For us that cost would be in excess of $2,000.00.

Everything sounds great. I have been through the experience of opening a brand new shop and it was nerve wracking. However, one question I would have is why did you have to turn 15 cars away?

Happy Thanksgiving Simon! ASO members are the best! Happy Thanksgiving to all but especially Alex, Joe, and Gonzo.