Changing Oil and Changing Times – The Independent Auto Repair Service Dilemma
If you see fewer auto repair shops in your town then you are witnessing a trend that is spreading throughout the auto repair industry. The small independent auto repair shop is getting squeezed by both the dealers as well as the ‘backyarders’ creating shrinking margins and putting many auto repair independents out of economic.
The global problem may be the auto repair and service market has been shrinking in the last ten or fifteen years. Technology has made cars much more reliable with fewer breakdowns, repairs and scheduled maintenances.
Many manufacturers offer kind 100,000 mile warranty which means that the independent will get little chance to improve that car for the first 5-10 years it is owned.
As new car sales margins have gone down, VW, Chevrolet, Toyota and other manufacturers are looking to their service departments to make up the difference.
Additionally many dealers such as Porsche and Saab already been adding other value added benefits such as being a loaner car while repairs are being made. Independents think you are forced to give courtesy rides to customers in hard work to keep lets start work on the dealers since customers now expect this service.
Furthermore dealers for Mercedes and Ford are now directly offering specials on services making their dealer prices for you to independent repair shop prices.
But it’s but not just competitive pricing that is worrying the independents.
The battle for skilled labor is also being won using the dealers: the dealers often competed for skilled labor and may have become a lot aggressive. With fewer folks entering effect on repair profession and opting instead for careers like health and technology, overall talent pool of the most skilled auto technicians is shrinking.
Increasingly appeared becoming harder for independents to rent and retain these highly skilled employees. Being an automotive technician, would you rather are employed by Audi or Joe’s Drive way?
The dealers are collecting the best ‘mechanics’ or as they are known today, ‘technicians.’ A top end dealer technician can make $100,000 a whole year with benefits while an unbiased shop owner would ought to gross during a $1,000,000 every year to make that and have absolutely to purchase their own benefits and social protective measures.
Because from the economic realities many independent owners are at this moment closing their shops on and on to be suitable for GM, Nissan and other dealers.
This puts the independent auto repair center at a definite disadvantage when diagnosing and repairing difficult drivability, fuel injection, electronic and computer related crises.
Additionally, each time a diagnosis appeared and a part of needs replacing the dealer will achieve it in stock, not only verifying diagnosing but greatly speeding up the repair as well as increasing service delivery. Big advantage Cadillac and Rolls royce.
But it’s not just a skilled employee conflict. Techs cannot fix cars without information and there has been a long and ongoing dispute from the dealers/manufacturers and independents over technical information access and diagnostic tools.
The manufacturers claim that their technical facts are proprietary individuals independents claim the information should build up to anyone that owns or fixes help to make of automobile.
Excel Auto Repair & Sales
94 E Falmouth Hwy, East Falmouth, MA 02536
(508) 444-2777
