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OTPAuto last won the day on March 14 2018
OTPAuto had the most liked content!
Business Information
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Business Name
OTP Automotive LLC
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Business Address
90 East Candler Street, Winder, Georgia, 30680
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Type of Business
Auto Repair
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Your Current Position
Shop Owner
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Automotive Franchise
None
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Your Mission Statement
90 E Candler Street
Suite C
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OTPAuto's Achievements
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Mistakes happen. Small, sub-$200 stuff, I'll eat if it's a once every few months kind of deal. I tell my techs when I hire them - If they damage a customers car, or break something due to their negligence - first time, it's on me. 2nd time, it's on you. If there's a 3rd time, you won't be here.
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OTPAuto started following Oil vendors & pricing? , Broken Parts , [Brand Choice] Automotive Oil Filters and 2 others
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[Brand Choice] Automotive Oil Filters
OTPAuto replied to Alex's topic in Automotive Parts & Suppliers
We use a variety of filters, depending on vehicle. We stoke a lot of Mann/Mahle/Hengst filters where they're OE for things we see often, mostly Euro & GM cartridge filters. Microguards from Oreilly for the random generic vehicles that aren't picky. Motorcrafts for the ford stuff, AC Delco for the LS & truck filters. I stock filters for vehicles we know we see often. Most of the rest comes from either Worldpac, or Oreilly. 95% of what we stock comes from Worldpac. Why? Price & availability, why else? -
My thought on that though - who uses Indeed to find a job? I never have, and don't know hardly anybody in our field who does. But I suppose it's worth a look. Same theory I have with the local Chamber of Commerce. As a regular consumer, I've never dealt with the Chamber before, and neither has anybody I've ever asked, so whats the use?
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I'm trying to hire, and literally cannot find anybody. Ideally I'm looking for a full time parts hanger. Somebody that has little or no diag experience or isn't comfortable with electrical work, but can do the basics on their own. Where do I even try to look? I've tried CL and Facebook to no avail. I've called both of the local community colleges with automotive programs, and it's just crickets. I don't even want to pay them flat rate, I'll more than happily pay them hourly. And PLEASE, for the love of god, I don't want to hear the lecture on 'you need to hire nothing but master techs'. That doesn't help me, nor fix my current problems. I know what I need. I just need help trying to figure out how to find it. Nobody becomes a mastertech without doing basics first anyways.
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I sell parts at cost to my guys, or if they need to pay by card plus 5%.
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Euro syn oils are rated to a different standard, and typical US API certifications don't apply. Most SN oils will breakdown in no time in a lot of European engines. The BMW's, for example, are more like old American stuff. They use bucket lifters with direct cam>lifter contact, so they need a higher ZDDP oil than say, a Toyota or a GM thats a full roller valvetrain. It also requires a more shear-stable oil. A3/B4 oils typically have an HTHS rating of 3.5 or higher. M1 5W-30 will shear to a 20 wt in a matter of miles in a BMW engine that sees redline once in awhile. They also run, for the most part at least, a larger sump and higher oil temps, and see heavy rod bearing loading (sometimes with an inadequate rod bearing - but thats a typical for a whole other discussion. Also of note - not all Euro ratings are the same either. Most of the manufacturers have their own specs, but most of the Euro rated oils are similar. Beware - Euro gasoline & diesel, like the US, are a completely different spec, except they aren't nearly as cross-compatible as US ones are. Rotella can be ran in damn near anything and be happy. An LL-04 BMW rated diesel oil, otoh, isn't the case. Lubrizol is an additive manufacturer, and has a really nice tool to let you compare most of the oil specs on the market and how different their areas of focus are. https://www.lubrizol.com/Lubricant-and-Fuel-Additives/Engine-Oil-Additives/ACEA/Relative-Performance-Tool
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Thanks everybody. It seems that VP has a new line of oils coming out, and we have a local distributor with VERY competitive pricing that seems very easy to deal with. 6-gal boxes of syn blends for $1.87/qt, high mileage for $2.42/qt and full syn or Dexos syn for ~$2.70/qt. We'll stick to the Motul for the euro cars, and I'll keep looking for vehicle-specific ATF's.
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Thanks, yes this is absolutely a COGS discussion. I have no plans of using a no-name, unknown, untested oil in my customers cars. As I said in the initial post we use Motul 5W-40 in our European cars where it's required, and educate our customers on the benefits of top quality oil in those vehicles. I mentioned Mercon V because we can get it for a good price in the 6-gal boxes from Worldpac. We run Redline & Motul gear oils,a nd am investigating other quality options. I run brake fluids from ATE, Motul & Textar. We use quality oils, and only use factory spec'd fluids, none of the universal 1-size fits all (especially the ATF's, such a good way to burn up a torque converter, if not an entire trans). This isn't a question of quality, this is a question of suppliers, pricing and options. So lets keep this on topic please. Thanks.
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Quick update: I've called around to most of the oil distributors that I can find on Google. Some of them are out of their minds, and a few have decent pricing. There doesn't seem to be as much economical advantage to the e-boxes as I would have imagined vs quart pricing though.
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Unless the price is just absolutely spectacular, drums are out for me., I just don't do enough oil change work to justify having that much cash tied up in a single weight.
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Who and where does everybody get oil from, and what are you paying around the country? I'm still somewhat small and don't use tons of oil. I was buying single quarts and 5-quart jugs, and still do for some things. Have started getting 6-gal boxes of Mercon V from Worldpac, and 20l jugs of Motul 5W-40. The rest has typically been able to be filled in with great oil sales that I find at the parts stores. Typically spend ~$1k or more every christmas at Autozone scooping up all of the $2/qt synthetic or syn blends or HM oils on clearance. Where do you buy? Do you have price limits, while still trying to maintain quality?? For generic synthetics, $3.00/qt is where I try to stay under, but will sometimes grab some of the Napa syn when it's on sale ($3.49/qt lately) if I'm running low on something. $2/qt max for conventional or blend/high mileage. I stock Motul 5W-40 for most of the euro stuff that we work on, and thats obviously a bit more, and those oil changes are of course priced accordingly. The deals are getting harder to find though, and I have a supplier that stopped by the other day with a flyer for decent case pricing, but requires buying 20 cases. Figured before I dump money on that I'd check and see what others are doing. I also like the boxes, I'd love to get one of the racks to store them all on too, saves a ton of space and so much less waste in plastic. FWIW - I contacted Valvoline about bulk purchased, but never heard back. So they're most likely out....
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In this town we have: Oreilly Autozone Napa Auto Plus Parts Plus (which just got converted to a CarQuest I see, I don't really buy there either). And Advance. I have no major issue with Advance in general - I just can't stand the commercial manager here. There's WAY too many options to deal with his condescending bs attitude. Even so, I do 15-20% of my business with Oreilly and the other 80% of my business with Worldpac. I just wish they'd get better about deliveries. IMC won't deliver here either, as much as I'm trying to convince them they should.