xrac

I agree but we are sliding down the socialist path at the hands of our elected officials. What do you think about this. FOCUS THIS WEEK: GM On eBay, A Glimpse Into A Changing Dealer Future "Last week, over 225 California GM Dealers began selling new vehicles on eBay. While many Dealers have been offering used cars and light trucks on eBay, this is the first mass effort to sell new vehicles through the world's largest electronic marketplace." "If this four-week trial succeeds (GM sales are very weak in California) and the eBay new vehicle program spreads nationwide, it could lead to a dramatic restructuring of Dealer networks. The aftermarket implications of such a development would be enormous. Following are Lang Marketing's speculations on what the future could hold." Jim Lang

I sometimes think we have already went too far and that we will eventually end up in anarchy with a different government. I have thought about politics including running for office. However, I live in a different county from my business and don't have the contacts in my county that I do in the adjoining. I am considering becoming more involved.

Well said! At least you and I are sane!

Obviously, I am passionately against this reform. Here is portions of an email I received:

This is a GREAT story about an 89 year-old woman and the car she has owned for 45 years. She has driven this car 540,000+ miles. She drove it to her 70th High School reunion and really knows how to protect herself... Glad I didn't sell her any lifetime parts. http://growingbolder.com/media/technology/...oad-259598.html

YouTube - John Stossel & 20/20 Take On Health Care Reform - President Obama's Proposed Health Care Obviously, this post and the previous post indicates something about my views. Basically I believe in the free market and I do not want the government controlling health care or making health care decisions for me. Everything the government runs is filled with fraud, sloth, waste, and don't care attitude. Eventually this whole think will add to our tax burden. SS and Medicare are both slated to run out of money and instead of fixing those this administration wants to take on more programs and expenses.

http://www.heartland.org/custom/semo.....;/pdf/25813.pdf Example from the study: Obama’s CEA Spills the Beans A recent report from President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors (CEA),21 which he has touted as showing how his plan would reduce health costs, describes explicit and comprehensive government rationing of health care. Looking systematically at what works and what doesn’t in order to provide more high value care and less care that is of low value. For many types of medical conditions, a patient may have a choice of several methods or treatments, each having different benefits or risks. Systematic examinations of the merits of different treatments and dissemination of the results of these examinations to patients and providers is one mechanism for promoting high value health care. 22 (bold in the original) In other words, a health care bureaucracy in Washington, DC – not you and your doctor – would decide what health care works and what doesn’t, what is high-value care and what is low-value Care. Of course, this bureaucracy would not know you or anything about your illness, as your doctor does. But like all good central planners, the CEA and President Obama assume the Government is omniscient. 21 The President’s Council of Economic Advisors, The Economic Case for Health Reform, June 2, 2009. 22 Id.

What are you Saturday hours? Sorry but you post elsewhere answered this question. Has Saturday hours increased your sales?

How long have you ran the extended hours and how much has it benefited you. What are your hours otherwise?

Good to have you. Where are you located?

The problem we face is the customer's ignorance. Our shop has a modest basic diagnosis charge but all the time we hear that _______________ does it for free. The ________ is a local shop that does FREE diagnosis and then gives a long shopping list estimate of repairs that are needed. I saw them sell a fuel pump because the pressure was marginal to fix a lack of power. Then the guy brought the car to our shop still complaining of a lack of power. You know what we found? The brake calipers were seized and the guy was driving around with the brakes on. Then you also have to deal with the "free diagnosis" from Auto Zone or Advance, a $7.50 per hour kid with a $300 code reader. Yet the public is sucked in by all of this. Recently we had a guy with a Ford pickup who had spent $400 just in parts not counting time, labor, and mileage chasing parts trying to fix a running problem. The guy had a $50 vaccum line repair problem. Much of the general public has the perception that they are getting nothing when we charge diagnosis time. I don't know if we will ever overcome that issue.

A friend emailed this to me. Have any on you saw these rims? "Plastic Rims! We are getting more calls about wheels with plastic fronts found on some GM, Jeep and Dodge products. Please see the following link for some detailed information on the rims (thanks to Ben for digging this up). They have a plastic fascia bonded to an alloy rim. The plastic is chromed so it not visually obvious. They sound hollow when tapped. You can see them at http://www.wheelsandcaps.com/Chrome_Clad_Wheels.html We have some preliminary notes on handling them. Balancing: These wheels must be back cone mounted. The front is not structural and we have already had reports of cracking the plastic on the front of the rim from front coning. A pin or fixed finger is highly recommended and may be mandatory on some styles. Plus, on some rims a standard cone will go through and strike the plastic center before seating on the structural taper. A short cone should meet the need on these wheels. Tire changing: When breaking the rear bead, the bead loosener pads must be in good shape just as with any chrome rim to avoid scratching. Having the tire square against the pad for support and making sure the BL blade does not touch the rim are also critical. Duckhead clearance is critical. On some rims, the plastic sits high so the “high spoke” plastic grey Duckhead (8184432) is highly recommended or required. With a steel head, set the clearance higher and out further. This means adjusting the shaft lock at the top which most techs are not prepared to do. Having said all that, this is a sales opportunity against a center post style tire changers. Putting a cone down through the center will easily crush this plastic. Clamping the back of the rim eliminates this risk."

Joe, I have an advantage on you. I don't know how to fix cars so hence I have to be surrounded by qualified people. My place runs as good without me now as with me maybe better. We are now exploring opening a second location which will present different challenges.

Anyone care to say what kind of gross margin you run? Also what kind of pricing markup matrix on parts? How about tires? We are taking a look at ours.

We are open 7:00-5:30 M-F and 7:00-3:00 on Sat. The only repair shops in our town that run any extended hours are Firestone store, PepBoys and the Buick dealer. Extended hours are a great way to utilize fixed assets but it is hard to find anyone who wants to work them.

We are doing transmission flushes and fuel services. The transmission service is the easiest sell and produces the most sales. The fuel service is very effective but people aren't informed about the need so one has to educate and sell.

To me this program is a way to lose money. Just my opinion.

Staffing levels are always a concern. I can't stand to have guys standing around but then I cut back and we get busy and can't handle the volume. Too bad this business is not steady as she goes. Lately our business has been a real roller coaster although we are ahead of last year on the month.

This is true. I have a menu board that shows services we provide. I use to have pricing on which said starting at. For example it would say pricing for a tuneup starting at $39.95 or a muffler starting at $29.95. I took the pricing off because the dumbings coming in couldn't understand pricing STARTING AT and wanted a tuneup on a V-8 for $39.95 or the muffler for a Mercedes for the $29.95.

What's risk? It is the potential cost to the individual customer if he/she makes a mistake. It's not just the money, although that is part of it. It is also the social, psychological and emotional cost that your customer will pay if your choice isn't the best one. The lower the risk of the decision, the more likely your customer will say "yes" to you - regardless of the price. Become comfortable with this concept of risk first, and then use it in your sales efforts. In order to really understand risk, you must first see this issue from your customers' perspective. Try to put yourself in their shoes, and calculate the amount of risk that you expect your customers to take when you offer them an opportunity to say "yes" to you. Make sure they know and understand that all your work is 12 months - 12,000 miles (or whatever your warranty is)!

These are all good points. There are little things that I have learned that seem to work well. Often a new customer is very guarded. They are afraid of being overcharged or sold something they don't need. They don't know you and your business. Whether on the phone or in person for the first time I will joke with them in some light silly way. Sometimes when they ask what do you charge for brakes I will say "all we can get" and then I laugh and say I am just kidding. They will laugh too because I have touched on something they are nervous about. It helps relax the conversation and shows them that I am a real person who isn't hard to deal with and who enjoys life and people. I have also found that the greater interest I show in their problem and them the more likely they are to either come into the shop and/ or be a satisfied customer when they leave. Sometimes if someone asks about a tuneup and they don't know how long it has been I will suggest why don't they bring it in and let us remove a spark plug and see if we think they need one or not. This isn't possible on all cars but it is on some. Customers love it because it shows we are interested in providing service, to truly help them, but not ready to sell them everything that we can. Sometimes little things mean a lot.

This type of headline is never good news for any of us: California accuses 22 Midas shops in 'massive' bait and switch scheme http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/06/30/c...t-and-switch-s/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj01Sqi0zic

Did the local coupon books not work for you? They seem to be inexpensive and fairly effective for us. What do you think about this marketing campaign? http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/dat...e-crm/3566.html

Joe, how much do you tend to spend on advertising if you don't mind sharing. Concerning telephone books we have cut back on our advertising but we use a lot of print media (Advoc, Reach, etc.). The Car-x chain is recommending that to everyone. They are moving to internet based marketing.