Tuneups March/April 2016
Book Your Hotel Now for NACE | CARS Have you heard the expression, “Get a room!” That’s what the planners of NACE | CARS 2016 are advising you to do – the sooner the better. This year’s edition of the…
Columns
The Positive Power of Teamwork
Hello, ASA members! It’s been a busy first of the year for the ASA board, our operations committees and our awesome ASA staff. You’ve probably heard that we’re launching new regional training programs. We had a great time recently in…
Tune Ups - Jan/Feb 2016
Recycled Rides: In the Spirit of the Season ’Twas the season for giving. And ASA members across the nation were donating their time and money to ensure that needy people have transportation. LaMettry’s Collision restored a…
A Sobering Thought
Why you don’t want to double down on a first-time hiring mistake. Regret “giving away” that Joe DiMaggio rookie card? Investing in that spaghetti farm? Getting married? We’ve all made a bad decision or two in life. And, hopefully, we…
The Real Math
What does it cost your business when employees don’t do their jobs? You won’t believe it. Many shop owners look at operating expenses and attack that topic as the main cost-reduction plan to increase their bottom line. The fact is,…
Game Plan: Toyota MR2
The first shop gave up. So did the second, third and fourth. So what did we say when it wound up in our shop? Bring it on. A sporty little MR2 like this showed up at…
Instead of paying his collision repair bill in full, this customer wants to pay it out in installments of $100 a month…
...What would you do? The following comes from a collision shop in Central California. This shop is located in a small town where almost everyone knows one another. The shop says: “A repeat customer had his Mustang convertible towed into…
EPA Finalizes New Ozone Standards
How will it impact automotive repair shops? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized its new air quality standards for ground level ozone. The level had been established at 75 parts per billion…
Data Driven Decisions
Armed with smartphones, Google and Amazon.com, customers are repairing their own rides. Sometimes, experience-based information systems can help diagnose a vehicle. I said sometimes because these systems can lead a technician down the wrong diagnostic path. As independent repair professionals,…
Supplier vs. Partner
Two simple actions you can take now to boost your ROI and virtually eliminate returns and comebacks. As we begin the year, it’s a perfect time to talk about this issue’s service readiness topic: parts! Most of you know I…
Get Out and Learn
It’s hard to believe it has been 64 years since a visionary group of independent shop owners founded the Automotive Service Association. We’ve seen a lot of change within our industry over the past six decades, and that pace of…
$75,000 Grant Funds
Aluminum-Repair Training More than 50 collision school instructors will convene in the Chicago area in March 2016 for intensive aluminum-repair training, thanks to a generous grant from the Alcoa Foundation. As the philanthropic arm of Alcoa, a global leader in…
Generationally Speaking - November/December 2015
See what makes us different ... and the same! In this issue, we feature Richard Martens, owner, and Jordan Troxel, technician, of Ron’s Auto Repair Center in Ames, Iowa. Richard Martens Baby Boomer What is one piece of advice your…
Basket Case: Silverado
Our shop specializes in diagnostics. The only advertising we do consists of looking for vehicles that have been difficult for others to fix. As a result, we see our fair share of work that comes from the do-it-yourself (DIY) sector.…
A customer agrees to expensive testing to solve his shifting problem, and then refuses to pay…
...What would you do? The following scenario comes from an ASA member with multiple shops. A longtime, good customer with a 2001 Lincoln LS that had 68,000 miles on it came in with an oil leak. It was determined that…
GAO Releases Vehicle Safety
At the request of U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently conducted a study of state vehicle safety inspection programs. The GAO did a similar review in 1990 at the request of John Dingell, D-Mich.,…
Chew on This
Curious tech sinks his teeth into a start-stop problem with a Prius hybrid. My check engine light came on in my Prius,” one of my customers told me. “Is it OK to drive it home?” “Is it running OK?” I…
Huddle Up, Team
How to harness the power of other people as go-to resources It’s easy to understand why your business might not be service ready 100 percent of the time. In some instances, you thought you were ready but ran into an…
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