tirengolf

Has anybody got any oil change store recommendations?

We have been looking in southern Florida at putting in some free-standing oil change facilities. I have had an automotive tire shop since 1961, I started with them in 1974. I became the owner 20 years later. I have watched and have a great plan to build  3 to 5 quickly. If anyone has any input, please let me know. Thanks, David

I have done them for 2 years. My experience is like most, not any return customers. If you do decide to do it make sure you start your pricing at 350.00 or more per installation and watch out for the pushbutton starts, they can be difficult. 

Repair is good, Tire sales are in the tank. My Michelin rep came by this morning and verified this. I thought it was just me.

I have a 9 bay store we have had since 1961 . Going strong after my 45 years guys I am getting a little worn out. I am 61 would love to work to 66. The question I have is how can I advertise this business without all my employees going crazy. I know there are a lot of people coming to Florida it is booming. Anyone got any idea how to advertise it in other towns and cities. Thanks DM 

The few gas issues we have been through not much change except in the 70's uner Carter Admin

On 4/26/2018 at 7:16 PM, Truett said:

Happens every day and no my supplier does not change their price. Wish they would. 

Last Black Friday walmart sold Goodyear Eagle LS’s for $15 les then I could buy them to the general public.

With online and big box stores ties sales for the dealers are in the tank.

Tire company’s don’t care as long as the numbers stay up. But they sure want us to do their warranty’s even walmart tires....

When my father retired in 97 he told me the big boys would be my competion. he nailed that one. 

Thanks guys for all the advice. I close on the place on 24th of this month. I sincerelly thank all you guys for taking time to  respond. I will keep you posted as we move forward. 

Hope all are doing well, I have been absent for a while , life gets in the way at times. I have ask you guys questions many times and the answers have always been superb. This is not a question more like a huge decision I have to make. 

 My store was built in 1958 , just a square building with 4 outside bays across front with large roof system  and tech shop we added 10 years ago in the back with 5 stalls and 3 lifts. I have been there since I was 15 years old and now I am 60. We have always been squeezed with our corner lot, well 2 weeks ago the business next door which has 290 feet on the highway plus a very old body shop and a very old house that is liveable came up for sale. I have a contract on the property for 250k. But dang I wish I was 50 and not 60 years old. It lays out perfect where I could add 2 more open stalls and give anoher tech 3 new stalls down the side and tons of parking, I have none. We are busting at the seams,I need the room. no parking heck I cannot get all the work out of there daily. I can get some residule income from the one house, already had 2 guys ask me about rent on it. We have just had a huge brand new county jail built 2 blocks from us, Prettiest jail I have ever seen ,LOL, anyway guys I am having a hard decision on pulling the trigger , one thing is my age second thing I assume those  5 bays will help my bottom line tremdously. As you know with that comes a few more employees, new writer and probaly 2 new techs. Maybe I am apprehensive because I have never expanded like that. Has any of you guys done this or better yet gone through it, if so tell me the good the bad and the ugle. My employees are great but I will need at least 1 writer and 2 or 3 oil/tire/ tech trainy. Techs are hard to find today , I never thought I would be stealing other techs from other stores but I guess it is the way of th world. Any advie or help would greatly be appreciated. Thanks Guys, David

I was looking for some input into advertising. I have really not done any the last 25 years. We are rebranding or should I say changing directions a little. Going back to tires, brakes ,alignment and maintence. When I did it last other than the phone book we did a little newspaper. I think those have basically gone. So many options out there, I just do not want to throw a bunch of money away on the wrong advertising. Any help would surely be appreciated. Sincerely David

Anyone willing to share their experience with the Tire Pro's program. Is it as good today as it was 3 years ago. I have looked at the program but have not convinced myself that is the way to go. Thanks for any feedback. David

I am glad I ask. thanks so much .DM

19 minutes ago, Stevens Automotive Service said:

I use NAPA ADO brake pads when I can never had an issue. Delphi AC and Ford fuel pumps etc.   What I am getting at is always try to use OEM supplier parts. Again OEM supplier parts not your local dealership all though if you look some of there pricing is right at or sometimes better than others (yes rare) but it happens.  

How do most shops price OEM parts. There list to cost ratio is so low.

On 7/18/2018 at 9:21 AM, Wheelingauto said:

The vendors who are my current suppliers are an AC Delco/Motocraft warehouse, World Pac and my local Bumper to Bumper store. I have no idea what is available to you locally but my thoughts are that you need to spend your time not attempting to fix manufacturing problems but spend it finding suppliers who can get you quality parts. Warranty? I am curious why discussion is what warranty a supplier has? Any supplier I have has some sort of program with a warranty attached. Bumper to Bumper has a 2 year nationwide warranty. Great if they break down more than 50 miles from me, but if they do not and I have to fix it they pay up to 3 hours and a discounted rate and supply a new part. I dont have time to chase labor warranties. IMO you will waste a lot of time chasing down discounted labor dollars that could be spent chasing down retail labor dollars.

When you do a job and give a warranty to the customer, who's warranty are you giving, yours? or the vendors? We offer a 3 year/36k nationwide warranty on all of our repairs. We do this because we do things right, we don't cut corners and we use quality components in our service. Our warranty costs are built into our pricing and we have less than a 1% warranty rate and most of it is customer satisfaction anyhow. I have not written a labor claim in years and I don't plan to. When I have a part that fails I usually get a new one no questions asked. My vendors know how I do business and I've already told them what I expect if they would like my business. I take care of it and move on. When I run into a manufacturing problem I may tell my vendor about it but if my guys dont like something we find a new line to deal with.

Keep in mind the cost of a line that we like is not put up against a line we dont. For instance of Centric brake parts are 20% more than Wagner but we have next to 0% complaints or defect from centric and 10% from wagner WE DONT USE WAGNER. We also dont complain to the vendor who sells Centric that we can get shit parts a lot less. We do negotiate discounts from our vendors if we are loyal to a certain line.

 

 

Wheeling , Would you mind sharing with me who you are purchasing your Centric pads from. Thanks

11 minutes ago, Stevens Automotive Service said:

I have 7 parts suppliers that I choose from and order about 99% myself per job in Mitchell. I always go for top quality and have very few issues.   

I have the hardest time identifying the good from the bad anymore. I have actually got some very aggressive dealership parts companies in my area, I have been buying factory alternators and AC compressors. I have heard they are now carrying 3 lines, Good Better Best. I guess the China guys will figure it out in the end but dang this has been a nightmare. 

Tyrguy, I was surprised ATD did not see this coming, they acted completely off guard. I saw where Moodys has a bleak forecast for ATD. I did get a email from Michelin addressing this issue. They said they would be picking up the lack of product for the others. This is going to be interesting. I would assume me and you will be next. They are all gearing up for direct sales to the customer, which I think will happen although my shop is living off those old good clients we have worked so hard for. I always remember 20 years ago when my dad was retiring he looked at us one day, pointed to a tire label and said that will be your competition before it is over, I am afraid he was correct !!! 

This a serious issue with me also. It has gotten so much worse the last 5 to 10 years. I installed 3 calipers on a 13 Accord, all 3 of them were leaking, they came from Oreillys. I am in the Panhandle of Florida and really do not have any other options for my parts. I was using World Pac some although when the change occurred they cut my salesman off and basically just told me to call the 800 number, then the freight was a issue. Any ideas od some good wholesale internet parts houses would be appreciated. I am afraid this is just the beginnings of these problems.

Good morning, I received a call from a lady contacting me about a school in my area. I have never been to one of there training schools although I have heard of the company ATI.  I am always open to anything that helps me increase my knowledge of our profession. The school is called  ATI Shop Mastery, it looks new and there is not much info on the web about it. The price she offered me was net zero at the end of the day. Any info would surely be appreciated. David

Hope everyone is having good week with great sales. I am in the process of renegotiating my employee’s uniform contract. It is sorta the same old thing start low then get higher. Could I get some feedback on how you guys are handling this. I have looked at buying uni’s for my guys. In my area it is expensive and they do not want to update my guys. Just lchecking some ideas . Thanks guys. David

1. I just felt I had a reason to tell this story if it helps 1 person in here. I was a frequent user of Auto shop Owner 2 years ago, I have been absent for a while dealing with another issue for the first time in my 40 years. I have been in the situation with a 16-year assistant manager who I would have trusted with my last dollar. I thought i ran a pretty tight organization, I am fortunate enough to have a brother who spent 25 years in the business do a lot of the hard CPA type stuff and works very closely with our CPA. Anyway, some issues came up on Quickbooks at the year-end my CPA was not ok with. He called my brother and looked at some of the data issues, my brother in turned told me we need to come back up here tonight and look at a few things. After doing audits for 1 year, long story short my trusted employee thought he had figured out a way to beat the system until it all collapsed on him. It has been the most trying 1.5 years of my life. After a 1 year investigation, they arrested him last week, 2 felony counts with more to come. Trusted employee, friend,  church-going guy. Not a drinker or druggie, Law Enforcement says it is a disease, guys it is rampant in today's business world. What are people thinking today, the computer will catch you. If I could prevent just 1 guy from going through this it is worth my time to write this. It is hard to catch a guy that you trust like family, in a way it was bittersweet although the scheme and coverup is what just gets in my craw. I was not my computer program " Quickbooks"  or anything like that it was just a good guy who turned bad. I beg you guys to watch everything and run the business like a big corporation. As we all know and here the trusting guy or gal is always the one to get you. It happened to me, we turning the page now. See ya 

10 minutes ago, autorepairuniversity said:

Thx for all the feedback. I spoke in depth with the dealership. According to their master tech, the radiator hose was installed backwards (“s” shaped hose). My tech claims to have not removed the hose, just removed the radiator end (makes sense). So, who had the radiator hose off last.... who knows. Anyway, I feel partially responsible since we didn’t catch this. After a lot of thinking, I offered to pay for the tow back. I also offered to split the motor swap. She was very grateful. All in this will probably cost me $2000 (or just over), so I decided just to eat it and not get insurance involved. If this were a more expensive vehicle, I agree getting insurance involved sounds like a good idea. Thx for the responses to this, so helpful to hear how others have handled similar instances. Another reason to strive to MAKE MONEY on every job we do.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Like they say don't look back, move forward. Good Job !!

I have a couple young techs that have been with me for 4 to 6 years. I am in the Panhandle of Florida. I am looking for some training classes, other than the Snap-on, Napa pizza parties. I would like to get them away a few days for some knowledgeable with general info and basic training, I am just not aware of any in the Southeastern USA. Thanks Guys  

AS most already said, if nothing else at least put your insurance company on hold. I would have it towed to my shop if you felt like the customer was ok with it and not trying to make you rebuilt the 200k mile car. It should be obvious what happened. Sometimes the dealerships love to throw independents under the bus. If you think the customer is salvageable and reasonable about what to do. Want hurt to look at it. GoodLuck. 

I am in the process of purchasing some new equipment. One of my vendors that I have bought from for years has a Teco tire machine, has anyone had a good or bad experience with this brand ?? I have narrowed my tire balancer down to Hunter.  Any ideas out there on Teco

New customer calls pricing tires and wheels, tight margin items. After we get to the closing of the sell they say, oh by the way, do you have military discounts. What would you offer.