The Car Care/Repair Menu

[bloard]

I have lurked around here because it's the forum I have found closest to the topic (particularly your Lube forum) I'm interested in but I know that Lubes are about as far as this forum goes into the car repair business, but I need some opinions and hope you can share yours.

Assuming you had the equipment and a competent staff to perform any of the following, but wished to limit your menu of offerings, which would you chose:

Quick Lube
Tires
Brakes
Air Conditioning
Shocks/Struts
Exhaust
Alignment
Hand Wash/Detail
Other

Here's the background. I own a building that presently houses a muffler shop and has been one for 30 years. The muffler business here isn't carrying the weight and the present business owner has expanded into all of the above plus fairly substantial repair jobs. It's now a muffler shop plus a mechanical shop. It's about to close and isn't doing well enough to keep the same model. It relies on the owner's particular mechanical skill.

I like to compare one of the problems to a restaurant. They might have all of the ingredients to make a meat loaf, but if meat loaf isn't on the menu, the restaurant isn't going to serve it. This present shop is making way to much meatloaf on demand.

I'm trying to decide with a clean and blank slate (ignoring the competition for the moment) what are the best things to have on the menu in today's environment. Since I own the building and overhead is minimal and can buy the equipment right, I'm eying this as a test case to find a recipe that is repeatable. Thus, it can't be something that is dependent on the exceptional skill and reputation of a particular mechanic.

So, if you don't mind, share with me your vote for a limited menu from the above that you would build an identity around given current margins and economics in the auto repair industry.

If you know of a forum where this topic would fit better, please direct me there. Thanks

 

[TheDoc]

I don't think you're on the wrong board as many of us have been involved in or are operating other related profit centers that would include some of the services you've listed.

Here's my opinion on mechanical services. You should be very aware of what you want to offer, what is currently offered by competitors (including dealerships) in the area and to what degree the type of technicians you would need to employ.

The mechanical service repair and maintenance business is going to GROW over the next few years based on the economic stresses for the motoring public. The years of buy & flip every 2-3 years are gone. If you are tied in to the automotive business like I and others are, you will begin to recognize that dealerships are currently Expanding their service departments by adding more service hours and or bays to accomodate growth.
With that in mind, the competition for heavier service repair and maintenance work will be stronger than ever and the dealer has a much larger ability to market themselves.

I AM in some degree in favor of a well run fast lube that offers all of the usual services plus the higher ticket items like transmission flushes, serpentine belt replacement, all types of wiper blades, cabin air filters, etc.

I would not ever get in to the tire and brake business. Too much competition, liability issues, qualified technicians and other problems with vehicles nneding to be stored for at least a day for servicing.

My hat is always tipped towards ANY detailing you can offer and this segment will continue to grow for at least the forseeable future.
The bonus is, low start up, easy training of technicians, low cost of service, easy to sell/easy to perform and so on.

I'm not exactly sure where you're located in your state, but I would be happy to chat with you about some ideas.

Best of luck!

Steve "Doc Simo" Sause

 

[dclark3344]

I think you have to choose a few services and do them very well with exceptional service and record keeping for the customer. The jack of all services and master of NONE will not make you the big bucks.
Quick Lube
Tires
Brakes
Air Conditioning
Shocks/Struts
Exhaust
Alignment
Hand Wash/Detail
Other
As Doc said "research YOUR market" compare prices and SERVICES and specials.
I think the tires, brakes, shocks and struts, and Wheels could be a good business in the right market and would be enough to keep several people busy.
Quick lube, trans and differential flushes, radiator flushes, belts, hoses, filters, airconditioner Service, etc is a total different business.
Exhaust shop is a business of its own
Carwashing, detailing and auto accessories (pin striping, custom grafics, Wraps, window tinting) is a whole business of it own that really should not be mixed with the dirty nature of the other businesses.

 

[bloard]

Thanks for the two opinions. This particular market is missing your typical midas, carx, meineke, or a modern tire shop but could very easily support one. The only modern franchise type businesses doing car care work are the two newer, cleaner quick lubes.

Thus, my intention was to create a franchise-looking place and try to create my own brand to figure out the economics and right niche hoping to rinse and repeat a few times in similar markets. My problem was figuring out if I needed the quick lube angle in order to get the regular traffic in the store and get the regular examination of the car.

We don't have a single tire store besides Wally World that my wife would walk into. She would drive 30 miles away to a franchise to get tires. No one in town advertises brakes and except for local mechanics, I'm not sure where the average consumer would even think to get their brakes done. Shocks/Struts are the same story. (Is there much demand for shocks/struts?)

The temptation comes in saying, if we do tires, brakes and shocks/struts then why not go ahead and do lubes, or air conditioning, or alignments and the rest of the list. But with 4 bays I think the better marketing approach is to do 2 or 3 things really, really well.

The problem I see with tires is overhead. Either you are a tire store or you aren't. If you are, you better sell some times and stock some tires. But it lets you do the rotations to check for the other stuff.

 

[soapy]

My family and I were tire dealers for over 30 years and got out of it 15 years ago for several reasons. Most tire manufacturers will not deal direct with an individual tire dealer anymore. Unless you have power to buy millions of dollars worth of tires direct you will have to get them through middlemen. This will drive your price up well above your competitors. Even then they all tell you that you should not plan on making any money on tires but rather the related service. Tires and alignments go hand in hand. With out tires I would not get into alignments. Tires also require a huge investment for inventory because of proliferation of sizes in todays market not to mention fianancing requirements needed when selling them to your customers.