yea I tried recently to abandon my coffee addiction, that shit is fail so far. I just regulated on 3 cups.

You know I also think that in a way the dealerships almost create the market for independent garages by there costs. There are a lot of consumers who are willing to forgo the warranty coverage, wait a few more days to get there car back in order to pay less money. Kind of like flying coach vs first class, which is not to say you cant get superior service at a mom and pop place either.

 

Again, I reiterate the fact that the Flat Rate system is antiquated, and is not the best for all parties involved. It is, however, the majority when it comes to management systems and pricing.

My shop uses a combination of three labor guides and my own experience to price the job. Generally, the average is found and that is where it is at, but on jobs that are not a "by the book" one, which is increasingly becoming the norm, that is where actual OTJ experience is required to be able to accurately bill the job. There are many factors that affect it not being a standard book job, such as additional accessories, fasteners corroded or broken, accident damage, or my favorite, other people trying to fix it and fucking it up lol.

Flat rate on the tech end used to pay the techs on the experience side, meaning if they were good they would be able to flag a lot of hours in a week and make some good cash. I routinely would hit 80-100 hours a week when I was on flat rate in a 50hr week, but when I started putting my mentality toward being a true diagnostician, they were cut in half cause I would refuse to give up or take a shortcut on testing to make sure I was correct in the repair.

All my techs are paid an hourly wage, which in essence will make anyone in a production type setting lazy, so to speak. The techs all are in a profit sharing of the total revenue of the shop, which means they are all aware of where we stand and bust their ass to get the jobs done right, on time, and out the door. It is a nice in-house policing also, cause any fuckups that come off the bottom line affect everyone, not just me as the owner.

As for the EBCM shits, I learned that from Obama.

 

Good point. I know that I will match or beat an independant shop every chance I get if it means I get a big ticket and good hours when it's slow like it is now.

 

The funny thing is, the suffering that OE dealers are going through now was brought on by themselves over the last 20 years of piss poor management on the sales side, which in turn made the service side have to gouge to make up for it. Now, service is carrying the whole burden. Which is a very good reason there are a fucking shitload of dealers folding every week.

Shit, I have bought out half a dozen Ford and GM dealers that went out of business in the last year alone!

I am curious as to his stance on indies also.

 

yea I have used that a couple times to get a gf or family members car into a dealer/manufacturer affiliated shop for major work, sometimes its just good to know that if shit goes wrong you have the ability to make a warrenty claim or complain to corporate

edit--I completely agree with HatefulMechanics above post. I think that service has been carrying many dealerships thus the increased pressure to derive revenue placed on the service department, which in turn over time has driven away customers and added fuel to the competing independent garages who do not have a dealer side to support with their revenue

 

Yeah, to an extent. I wouldn't say that because it's slow dealers are trying to rip people off in service. You don't retain customers that way and it's just stupid, I know that at my dealership we are doing everything we can to keep customers, even if it means giving discounts we normally wouldn't. To be honest, it may actually be a little better for our customers now than it was when sales and other business was good. They know it's slow, so they don't hesitate to try and cut a deal on anything and everything. lol

 

your dealership being one of the smarter/better managed operations

 

True. I'm speaking for dealerships that do good business I guess.

 

which are few and far between.


My guess is your dealership is not a chain dealer, most likely a single line or maybe 2, and is probably an import dealer.

amirite?

 

Interesting. Where I thought the book would have you remove the TB, they call out removing the cooling fan assembly instead. You don't have to remove either.