CARMandP

I had someone do that to me on google. Reviewed me negative and had never even been here. I noticed this summer though google makes you log into your google + account before you can review so it puts your name up there. Keeps people from anonimously placing reviews.

Welcome to the site. Its good to have you here.

Welcome to the site Joe. Good to have you here

Great article. I can relate to so much of that and I don't have near your "experience"

Those look really nice but not heavy enough for what I need next. I need a 12k or 14k lift and they don't make one that big in that design

Of course not. It was the "genuine" hat. LOL

Close family only after hours. Personal vehicles when it doesn't interfere with the shop work.

I personally charge shop supplies on every ticket. It covers the brake cleaner I use to clean the block with, the rag that I use to wipe it clean with, the rag I use to check the oil with, covers my oil stickers, covers the crush washers that I use. You can't charge individually for all that.

It is a monthly subscription to a site where people post repairs or known fixes to problems. I didn't start using it myself until about a year ago and wish I had done it years ago. If you have a question about something you are working on, 95% of the time someone else has seen it and posted the fixes. (ex. A/C inop on a 06 Ford Fusion--system mechanically is perfect--told to check for codes and found bad temp sensor in dash--over 40 responses to this fix for a problem I had never seen before) This monthly subscription has saved me countless wasted hours trying to diagnose a problem. They also have posted a lot of the actual factory diagnostic and pictures if you need it. Works much better than my mitchell a lot of times. Identifix is tied in with the iATN network but has a lot more detailed information.

$31.97 up to 6 quarts with the standard filter.

Welcome to the site. You will find that there are a bunch of "seasoned" shop owners on here that are more than willing to lend a hand when they can. We are all in this hard business together. I will agree that finding good help is very hard. Anyone that is truly good already has a great job and those that normally are looking you don't want by your side. I personally am a master technician turned shop owner. I can tell you that working on cars is the easy part for me. Running the business is the hard part. I am not sure how well you know the business side but I bet that most of your long time customers will be willing to work with you. I look forward to hearing how your business turns out. It WILL NOT be easy nor will it happen with 40-50 hrs a week. I routinely but 60-70 hrs a week into this shop. I am finally getting the business growing enough that I am looking for someone to add that can help with this but it takes time.

First off, welcome to the site. Its great to have you here. As a "younger" shop owner I look forward to getting to learn from your knowledge base. I don't track my numbers much and I am in the process of growing like crazy so I can't really compare numbers much due to this fact. Not complaining about anything except for the long hours and not much pay.

I switched to drum last year from quarts. One you don't have to deal with the mess of the quart bottles. I actually switched to Pennzoil because I wanted to be able to offer a good known brand not just "cheap" oil. You will need to price it but I can tell you it costs much less to buy in bulk. If you are planning to buy a lot each month your local supplier may be able to supply you with the displensers and pipework. Make sure you call around to get the best price. I am buying Pennzoil at $3 a quart instead of the $3.99 for the oreilly brand.

I'm driving from Nashville to Chicago so my mother-in-law can by my soon to be 8 yr old daughter an American Girl doll and then driving back. So it will be 8 hrs up one day there and 8 hrs back. Oh boy I would rather be doing the golfing and grilling (you can have the beer)

I personally use an older Hunter and when I get ready to replace it I will only buy Hunter as we have a really good local repair rep for the basic maintenance. You get exactly what you pay for. I like using a company that has been around a long time with a good name.

I have company insurance that would cover it if the vehicle is properly secured. If its parked outside, the break-in would be no different than if it was parked in the lot at the mall. I agree with XRAC. I would charge him the storage fee if he expects you to pay for his stereo replacement. $10-15 a day for 2-1/2 months would cover most stereo replacements. Otherwise, I hope he had insurance on his stereo equipment. Of course, if he couldn't pay for a repair, I bet he doesn't have insurance at all.

I get a lot of customers that search for auto repair in the area and come to me due to the fact that I have a bunch of reviews.

Used it a bunch of times myself. Doesn't really seem to help much for my area. You need to really make sure that you show up at the top of the search for your area, not only on google but bing, yahoo and such. You would do better to make sure you have some good customers place reviews on the google places page. Make sure your business has the google place page with the correct information.

Closed saturday's anyway so closing Monday is just easy for me. I will be out of town anyway so it makes closing the shop even easier

$100 will buy you a code reader only. Something the auto parts stores will do for free anyway. I have one of these for very fast code reading when I need it and I have a $4000 Snap-on scanner for when I actually need to do some diagnostics.

I had one like that when I worked for a Honda dealership. The customer stated that they had an intermediant problem with the brake pedal going soft. The car was an 06 or 07 Accord. Finally found that Honda had a problem that year with the ABS module sucking air into the system. Just a thought if you look at it again.

No surprise at all. GM didn't fix the problem. Just wasted a bunch of money like eveyrthing else the government doesn.

I started with the email blast and used a "facebook" special. Students around here are already in school so I have been doing this for about 2 weeks.

My only complaint with Mitchell is their search engine sucks. I have been told for about a year its supposed to be changing.

I got an email from Mitchell about this one. Very interested in more info.