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 business.
The global problem could be the auto repair and service market has been shrinking in the last 10 or 15 years. Technology has made cars much more reliable with fewer breakdowns, repairs and scheduled maintenances.
Many manufacturers offer some sort of 100,000 mile warranty particular person yourself the independent will get little chance to handle that car for their early 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 the difference.
Additionally many dealers such as Porsche and Saab already been adding other useful benefits such as being a loaner car while repairs are being made. Independents are now being forced to give courtesy rides to customers in an effort to keep up with the dealers since customers now expect this service.
Furthermore dealers with regard to Mercedes and Ford are now directly offering specials on services making their dealer prices in order to independent repair shop prices.
But it’s not just competitive pricing is actually worrying the independents.
The battle for skilled labor all means being won by the dealers: the dealers have always competed for skilled labor and will have become even more aggressive. With fewer conserve entering the auto repair profession and opting instead for careers such as health and technology, the total talent pool of methods to use skilled auto technicians is shrinking.
Increasingly is certainly becoming harder for independents to hire and retain these highly skilled employees. Being an automotive technician, would you rather work for Audi or Joe’s Drive way?
The dealers are collecting the best ‘mechanics’ or as yet known today, ‘technicians.’ A premier end dealer technician actually make $100,000 twelve months with benefits while a self-employed shop owner would require gross a lot more $1,000,000 1 yr to make that as well as have to reimburse their own benefits and social equity.
Because from the economic realities many independent owners are usually closing their shops and going to work for GM, Nissan and other dealers.
This puts the independent auto repair shop at a distinct disadvantage when diagnosing and repairing difficult drivability, fuel injection, electronic and computer related health issues.
Additionally, any time a diagnosis appeared and a part of needs replacing the dealer will buy it in stock, not only verifying the identification but greatly speeding inside the repair period and increasing customer care. Big advantage Cadillac and Rolls royce.
But it’s not only a skilled employee struggle. Techs cannot fix cars without information and you’ll find a long and ongoing dispute between the dealers/manufacturers and independents over technical information access and diagnostic applications.
The manufacturers claim that the technical results are proprietary while independents claim the information should be available to anyone that owns or fixes create of automobile.
Excel Auto Repair & Sales
94 E Falmouth Hwy, East Falmouth, MA 02536
(508) 444-2777