CARMandP

How much did you charge for that event or did you give everything away? I love those kits but at $70 each to give away would get kinda expensive. We had a car care event last weekend. Unfortunaly since it was our first event, we didn't have very many cars. Pretty disappointed in that but the good thing that happened was we were here to lift a car off the neighbor who was trying to change his oil his garage and had the car fall on him. Thankfully he wasn't seriously hurt.

Losing employees is something most of us worry about unless you have added the processes to be always recruiting. You need your shop to be the location that techs want to work for you Like you I have a shop that has those numbers. Its been a struggle but I have been quickly implementing processes to strengthen my shop.

Been there done that. I had one of those days a few weeks ago

I haven't experienced that car but I would recommend the factory drums. I know on my Honda Odyssey if I use anything else, it will make noise. Put factory shoes and drums on it and if it still makes noise, there isn't anything else you can do.

Just enough difference in the compression to cause the computer to pick up the misfire. Crazy. Thanks for sharing.

Took one in Nashville a few years ago. Superb training for Mitchell. Hope they bring another one in this area of the country.

How are you paying them? Maybe you need to consider paying them with some kind of insentive. And Jeff is correct. You need a handbook if you don't have one with exactly what you expect from them and what they can expect from you.

Love the new design. I view using Firefox and haven't had any issues. LOVE the View New Topics at the top of the page.

Up by almost 20% over last year. Of course, I added a dedicated service writer that I didn't have last year which has made a huge difference for us here.

I will watch the championship game but don't have the time to get caught up in the brackets

Insurances and rent are my biggest expenses (beside payroll). Unfortunately these expenses aren't easy to change

Excellent advice. I am learning how to do this for my shop now.

We charge the same as we don't do a lot of tires. I have considered charging more especially on the vehicles you have to reprogram the TPMS sensors so the car knows where the tires are after a rotation.

Saw this last week and posted it on my facebook. Very funny. I love the salesman's reaction at the end. "Can we go again?" LOL

Welcome to the reason why I left the dealership and why I won't pay my guys a straight flat rape scale. As a shop owner I don't mind training "new" comers to the business. I have two of them myself right now. The nice thing about training my guys is I don't have to break too many bad habits I will warn you though, the jump from tech to business owner is HUGE. I would strongly recommend getting business training as well if you haven't done so already before you leap into it. I wouldn't have been so quick to do it myself if I had someone tell me that.

I am interested in information like this as well. I have an older machine that takes 10 minutes just to set up so quick check isn't an option and since I definately can't afford to replace the machine I won't be offering that anytime soon

When I started my business I tried to specialize in Asian import cars. The problem that I ran into was most people don't own all of the same kind of car so you would run into only getting half of the work the customer had to offer. Also my customer base for this area wasn't big enough to specialize like that so I needed up just going to a general repair. You may want to focus on letting people know that you have specialized training in these vehicles and trying to get more customers with those type of cars.

Welcome to the site. Don't be afraid to ask questions. The more seasoned shop owners on here are more than willing to help you learn.

If you want to make that a requirement, do it for going forward hires to help weed out the ones you don't want. Not everyone will be able to pass them. You know the tech and his ability and I think you already answered that question for yourself.

As a shop owner, what can you say is your why behind your shop? Why do you continually put up with the hassles in this business?

Welcome to the site. Its good to have you here

We have a superwalmart in our town and I have gotten several repairs from things they messed up We have gone over and talked to the manager about sending us more work but they are technically not allowed to refer anyone

I am starting this in my shop for the same reason. I personally have had the certifications for years and want my guys to have the same pride for these tests.

I use State Auto for my shop insurance here in TN. Reasonably priced for what I needed here.

I just wish that there were more active of those 1000 members...