A busy year coming?
Posted by: PTEN editor
I’m curious about your business. Not in the general meaning of the car repair profession, but your particular shop. The reson I’m curious is that recent news reports and studies point to factors that seem to indicate repair shops will be seeing an increase in business in the near-term. Reports show gas will likely be at $4/gallon by Spring, that Americans are holding onto their cars longer and more.
The gas price news stories always have a line that says something like, “With prices so high, most drivers are making sure they are up-to-date on maintenance to keep their cars at maximum mpg.” But are they? Or are the gas prices getting so high they are deciding on a full tank and putting off the oil change for an extra two weeks? What have you seen in your shop as far as increased maintenance service?
The fact that cars on the road are older also indicates Americans will be spending more time with regular maintenance. But again, are they? Or with the rising prices of everything and the constant news we are either in recession or about to be in recession, are car owners not buying new cars and driving their older cars with white knuckles hoping nothing breaks?
As I said, I’m curious about the specifics of your shop. How’s business been, really? What are you expecting over the next few months? This year?
March 6th, 2008 at 11:40 am
I find that poeple are putting off the work needed on there autos because they have to get to work. Fuel pump repairs are on the increase because of the lack of money to keep gas in autos. Hard to sell 32.00 oil changes when it cost 75.00 to fill tank.
I am an ase master tech in tacoma WA.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Viewing from the amount of business that has ramped up over the last two weeks,things here in Vermont are right on track. A winter with fangs has ruined our roads enough to beat the P-wadding out of suspension components. Now that Tax time is nearly passed, people are loosening their purse strings to do whatever maintenance that they have been putting off through winter. We haven’t run into too many people that are hampered by rising gas prices, it’s more of a point to bitch about than anything else. We have no choice up here, there is no mass transit. We have to drive. I am already experiencing $4.00 a gallon fuel costs, resulting in a fill up cost of $125.00 per week. My oil changes for the same truck are over $100.00. What are you going to do? My personal solution will be to put a lot more miles on my motorcycle this year, and drive my F350 as little as possible. We all have to work with what is happening remembering that the customers vehicles are not going to stop breaking down or wearing out. Our services will always be required. We’ve survived alot of changes over the last 20 years. Just keep up with the changes and keep smiling.
April 11th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Business this month has really sucked! We had record breaking sales in January & Febuary due to a winter that refuses to go away. Our market area here in the midwest has always been of the UAW mentality,”if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. Well during the harsh winter months when they came in broke that was our opportunity to sell the maintenance that needed to be performed. Now my service writer is getting writers cramps from all of the estimates he has to prepare.We need April 15th to pass & some spring like weather to get those car windows down & get those air conditioners running.I am speculating an overall good year for auto service as gas prices are not going to stop people from abusing their most expensive appliance.
April 21st, 2008 at 10:39 am
We all need to use our common sense and market our services to the new reality our customers are faced with. Such as: promote fuel saving services, such as simple items like air filter replacement. I put a $50 bounty out for the tech who upsold the most air filters the last two weeks of April and within one week had $800 worth of dirty air filters stacked up in a box. This from a shop with only 4 line tech’s and 1 express service tech. Best $50 you’ll ever spend, plus customers get a genuine benefit from it, unlike nitrogen in the tires. Our business will continue despite the oil price driven inflation that we are dealing with. We need to adjust our marketing to reflect these changes.
May 10th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Our business seems to be really down, but I hope and pray it picks up the last two weeks have not been that bad but in general this year has been way down in sales dollars. I am not sure what the gas price increses are doing to us. I do agre it is a marketing tool we should really use.
June 8th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
My customers are looking to me for what is the next best move. It is time to stop worrying and start doing something to keep your business growing. Get out of the back and come out front and talk with every customer about why proper service is more important that ever.
Explain to your employees that great customer is top priority. We can’t do much about gas prices, so concentrate on the fundamentals and ask yourself how bad do you want to succeed. Before you laugh me off try it for 60 days then see were you at.
June 22nd, 2008 at 10:07 pm
I just wanted to speak briefly on the comment already posted by Steve Williams (April 21). He suggests the changing of air filters is better for gas conservation that filling tires with Nitrogen.
If you consider the fact the fuel injection systems compensate for air flow volumes as filters get dirty, then we must understand that mileage will not significantly improve with a filter change. On the other hand, Nitrogen stabilized the fluctuation in tire pressure (by removal of O2 and moisture) and there by reduces the daily change of a tires air pressure.
Base on many tests, including a recent Consumer Reports study, nitrogen also looses 4 to 5 times less air per month/year. Since a 5 psi loss on a tire reduces fuel mileage by up to 10% and more than 80% of all tires on the road are under inflated (lazy drivers), Nitrogen beats air filter changes in all comparison tests. Another simple and inexpensive way to improve mileage is to put a ceramic magnet inside each oil filter before installation.
The technology principal of oil filter magnets has been studied and endorsed by the SAE, they estimate at least a 3.5% improvement for the average vehicle. With an installed cost of only about $5, every customer will recover 2 to 3 times their outlay just from the mileage improvement alone.
If shops are going to get only certain sales during this period of limited disposable income, we need to pick and promote those that most benefit the consumer. New technologies are developing daily, so it pays to research and try those that have documented proof of success.
I like what Eramirez (June 8th) says, “do something to keep your business going”. You can only accomplish this by educating and selling them the new technologies and the real benefit of preventative maintenance.