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We operate much the same as Joe does. Two things that I would mention is that we have found useful is first we use color coded plastic pouches for our customer information/repair orders. We have red and black ones that can be hung on the vehicle mirrors or on lift posts. The red ones are for waiters and the black one are for drop offs. We have green ones with no strap that the RO's are transfered to once the customers are notified. We also have a cash drawer (not register). Our is a very nice drawer mounted under our counter. It was picked up used off of Ebay on the cheap. We keep $300 cash on hand to make change with. The highest percentage of our sales are also by credit card.

Cool! It is a good idea and it will work well.

My son-in-law is a minister so they don't have a lot of money. They come to dear old dad for almost everything that will wait until they get to Indiana but I should hook them up with you. There names are Craig and Janna Jones. Craig works for Norvel Hayes Ministries. Craig and Janna even have their own web site. They are both tremedous singers and musicians. They met at Lee University in Voices of Lee Craig Jones Ministries Worship

This happened about five years ago and that lift was only 6 years old. As far as we could tell it was simply a manufacturers defect. If there had been a significant lose I think we could have easily won a settlement with an attorney who litigated that product liability cases. Maybe I should have done something anyway just on principle. The biggest problem with the two posts are 3/4-1 ton pickups with longer wheel bases. This was a 3/4 ton.

We ask vendors for door prizes to give away. We had stuff like hats, T-shirts, flashlights, jumper cables, road side emergency kits, etc. We registered all of the women and drew names through the evening plus we had give aways for everyone who came. My wife made hot spiced apple cider and we served cider, cookies, and coffee. We had four people speak during the event: myself, my service manager, a technician, and the main vendor who donated. We talked about basic stuff, needed maintenance, and how to keep from getting ripped off. We also took them out in the shop and showed them how to check the oil and fluids, how to check tire pressures, and how to changing a tire. We used an SUV that had to have a tired lowered down and told them hey needed to find the location of these on their vehciles. It was all very basic stuff but presented in a friendly entertaining manner. There was no selling. We had a great evening and everyone loved it and we picked up business from it. We intended to do 3-4 per year but we dropped the ball and haven't done one since. I don't really have an outline or anything.

I do not know if it was cracked and we could have picked it up before hand or not. I really doubt it. The really hilarious part was this happend in the afternoon of a day they were were going to have our first and to this point only women's seminar at our shop. About 45 minutes after we got this truck down and got things under control we hosted 37 women at our shop for refreshments and a one and one-half hour seminar on how to care for their vehicles and not to be taken advantage of.

These are the asymetrical 9,000 lb or so two posts. The part pictured broke while the vehicle was up in the air and stationary. My guy had just gotten out from under it. It was definitely a part failure. Rotary was very interested and I sent pictures and a local guy came out but they never said or did anything. The truck was barely damaged and my total cost was only about $2,000 so it wasn't worth pursuing further from a legal stand point. All my lifts are Rotary.

Here is what caused it.

Ever had anything like this happen?

Here is a challening situation. Last week we did an intake gasket job on a Chervolet Malibu along with other work around $1,000 total. The customer was told to watch for any fluid leaks or so forth and to bring it back in 500 miles to double check everything (that is standard practice for us). Yesterday the woman's 17 year old son called to say the car was smoking. My service manager told him to have it towed in and gave him the number of the towing company. He did not tell his mother this but instead chose to drive it in. It completely overheated and quit about 2 blockes form the shop. When he walked in to tell me what was going on I asked him why he did not have it towed and he said "I had to be somewhere". Anyway it looks like that the problem was that after we got the system back up to operating pressure by replacing the intake the water pump had failed. We did not replace the water pump and it was not leaking when the car was in the shop. Now it looks like we could have a car with a blown engine or best case scenario a crack head. What would you do?.

The problem is as I see it is that once it becomes common the tire dealers will give it away like they do a lot of things to sell the tires. I personally think that nitrogen is like TPMS mostly just a big headache for everybody. It may become something we HAVE to invest in to stay competitive but I personally don't think there will be that much demand for it by consumers or money to be made by the shops. I could be wrong but I don't think I am.

At a class that one of our tech attended recently we were told that on certain late models of the Infinitis and Nissans that the throttle body needs to be removed from the car prior to cleaning. The spray used on the throttle body could get down into the throttle body motor and damage it if the cleaning is done on the vehicle.

I found this news interesting. Any opinions as to how successful this will be? Does this mean Sears is launching into full-fledged franchising? From a business stand point this may be a good move on Sears part.

Then maybe I could be a NASCAR fan too. Wait a minute I forgot what a tight wad I am.

You may be right. I have been given tickets to the Brickyard 400 and to Bristol but I have always given them to my guys who are really big fans. They like that! Besides I am not a beer drinker and is that a requisite?

I agree with you Joe. It is a good idea but it hard for me to see how we could make it work. It would also involved reminder calls and/or a phone call a day ahead of the appointment. To me it seems it could be more trouble than what it is worth. For example on my dental appointments (I go 2-3 times per year) and I wind up rescheduling about 40% of the time. Also if we have experienced a influx of time consuming jobs I may not want the car right then!

You are correct and we owe a debt to the people who provided us with these products. However, milking cows at 5:00 a.m. and 3:00p.m. seven days a week was just not very appealing to me.

CARMandP I too grow up on a farm although it wasn't a dairy farm but I did work on my brother-in-law's family dairy farm for a couple of summers. I have ground a lot of feed, cleaned out dairy barn stalls, and milked cows. In my opinion being a dairy farmer and milking cows twice a day is definitely less attractive than working on cars.

Joe, I really enjoyed your article. You do a very good job writing. I don't see how you do it with all of the other responsibilities you have. Concerning the term "grease monkey" you may find this interesting. Prior to opening our shop in 1999 I spent ten years working as a professional in the environmental consulting/contracting business. I held a CHMM (certified hazardous materials manager) designation and work on a lot of large projects almost from coast to coast. I have held contractors license of one type or another in nine (9) different states. Joe, I have also served as an expert witness in environmental litigation and I prepared Phase I & II reports for banks, lawyers, etc. My wife is from Appalachia and when here family learned that we were opening a repair shop (Car-x Auto Service Franchisee) her mother and brother were both saying that they couldn't believe that Frank was going to be a grease monkey. They never said this to my face but to other family members. This went on until my son got married and everyone came to the wedding and I took them to see our shop. It was a brand new modern brick building on a prime piece of commercial property with seven bays and five technicians working for me (we invested about $700,000 in 1999). It was obvious that they thought of the little old 2-3 bay garages that they were use to down in the mountains. They didn't have a concept of what we were trying to do until they saw the building. They never used the word grease monkey again.

All I can say is usually the older the car the harder they are to work on due to rust, corrosion, brittle parts, etc.

In case you don't get it or see it there is a great article written by one Joe Marconi:

We were up in January about 2-3% but on one less business day. Last year January-March was a strong period for us. However, we were one man short of the staffing I had last January so we actually wound up turing a few cars away. If we hadn't had to do that our car count would have been up. I have added another guy starting in February.

Our January car count was the same as last year although we are seeing some new cars mostly through referrals.

I don't know that it really matters a lot. Very rarely do I get asked what our labor rate is. Your labor rate needs to be what you need to be profitable and in line with your market. Our is currently $78. CARMandP where are you at in Tennessee. My daughter and son-in-law live in Cleveland, TN.

We have never used an odd amount labor rate. Currently our rate is an even dollar figure although we have used figures like $62.50 in the past. I do not know of any local shops that used uneven labor amounts.