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Extend The Life Of Your BMW With Proper Care

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No one likes to have problems on the road or stuck in traffic. If you take your car in to a BMW automotive repair shop for regular preventive maintenance, those issues can be very rare. Having items checked like brakes, gaskets and even your cooling system can prevent costly repairs in the future. Your car is like your child. You always take you child to the doctor for his well-baby check-up.

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BMW’s are truly special cars and the individuals who own them are very particular. Allowing an inexperienced mechanic or technician to service a Beemer can do more harm than good. Although well-intentioned, this novice may not be educated in the intricacies of some foreign engines and in particular BMW automotive repair. Indeed, a car repair shop may advertise that it services foreign cars, but it is wise to ask about the education and experience of the individual who is to service your BMW.

For generations men (and women) have worked on their American cars in their driveways on the weekends. A BMW is not a do-it-yourself type of project. If all you need is a scheduled or half-interval oil service, the details are not the same as on a Ford pick-up or Chevy Impala. A qualified BMW automotive repair specialist will know the difference.

So many owners have taken their cars into repair shops only to be told ‘it could be this’ or ‘it could be that.’ Hundreds or thousands of dollars later the auto is not repaired and it turns out that the initial work was not needed because it was something as simple as a sensor. When you take your car to a BMW automotive repair specialist, the shop will have special diagnostics and computers that are made exclusively for these models. Once hooked up to your system the exact problem is pinpointed. There is no guesswork.

Just imagine the expense if a well-meaning technician told you that you needed a new transmission and your BMW warranty had expired. If you are not at a specialized BMW auto repair shop, thank the technician and tell him you will think about it. Like going to the doctor’s office and he suggests you have your gall bladder removed, you want a second opinion.

Take it to a shop that specializes in BMW’s and let them tell you what the problem is. It could be that you do not need a new transmission at all; you just need to replace a sensor or part. But if it turns out you do need to replace the transmission, you will be assured that the BMW automotive repair specialist will have gone through extensive education and training and your repair will be the quality you need.

Mobile Oil Change Companies – How Much Should You Be Paying Your Automotive Technicians?

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Right now all small businesses are really watching their costs and they are also watching their receivables and cash flow. They have to. If they don’t they’ll be out of business, because a recession makes life tough on all small businesses. What about the mobile oil change business, it must be doing good because people have to change their oil right?

Well, people are supposed to change their oil, but when they don’t have enough money to buy food, pay the bills, or they are getting behind on their rent or mortgage payments, they often allow their vehicles to go past the proper interval for oil changing. The reality is every small business is affected by the recession, and nothing, or that is to say no small business is completely immune, or recession proof.

Not long ago, a mobile auto service business entrepreneur went to one of our websites, noticed that we were in the mobile automotive sector, and asked me about employee pay. He stated;

“I pay only $8 hr at this time. I am thinking I need to give some type of incentive to make them work even harder because of course they are not working as hard as me. Is there some type of solution there. I have enough work to keep me really busy.”

Very good question isn’t it? Sure it is, and don’t forget he asks this question in the middle of a recession right, so there are plenty of people who want the job, so let’s take his question to mean; “What incentive Might I Use?” That is to say; “What can I do to improve my employees’ efficiency to get them to work harder?”

Now then, we know the question, the second set of questions are the right questions, even if the entrepreneur asks; “how can I MAKE my employees work as hard as me?” The reality is you can’t make anyone do anything, if you MAKE them do it, you are not an employer you are running a prison, or you are a slave driver, and in this day and age that definitely will not fly, see that point.

Luckily, for this individual in the mobile oil change industry there have been many car dealerships which have lost their franchise license from their parent companies of Chrysler or General Motors. That means there are a lot of automotive technicians that are out of work and will work fairly inexpensively. However, even Jiffy Lube pays more than eight dollars an hour, as well as the Wal-Mart supercenters which also now do oil changes (only $12.99 can you believe it?).

Most mobile oil change companies service fleets, and if you are doing fleets one thing you can do is give incentive pay. In other words, give those employees a little stipend for each vehicle they complete, and you will note that they go faster, and don’t lollygag. Indeed, hope this advice will sink in, and that you will think on it.

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes it’s hard to write 20,000 articles; http://www.bloggingcontent.net/

Give Your Automotive Technician Some Respect

Posted by dayat on

There is a dark cloud that seems to hang over the automotive repair industry. It is unfortunate that there is still a large part of the general public that thinks every repair shop is out to get them and that their expertise is over rated. Even in the industry itself, the stigma is played upon. Competitors accuse others of wrong doing to make themselves look good, and in the end are simply hurting themselves. There are automotive self help web sites that bash the professional technician.

Let’s spread a little subjective light on the subject. Run a search on the internet though any search engine for home dental work. It is not very likely the results you yield will give you step by step instructions for filling a cavity or performing a root canal in your kitchen. You will not find dental tools at the local “Dental Zone”. These things don’t exist because you would only have a trained professional work on your teeth. The tools available to them are not for general public use. The same is true for automotive repair, but the general public seems to think otherwise.

Professional automotive technicians spend a lot of money on tools that are not found at the local auto store. A tech may spend $2500 every year in tools for his or her entire career. That is a personal expense so that they can perform repairs effectively and efficiently. They make that investment out of pocket so that they can be the best at what they do. The tools that they use to repair vehicles is constantly being updated and adapted to the technology that goes into vehicles. These technicians spend their money on tools to fix cars, and the companies that employ them spend money to train them on the new technologies. I am pretty sure that dentists are spending a good amount of money on new equipment and have seminars to stay current on advances in dentistry. And this is not the only similarity.

The work that your technician does also has some pretty serious impact. Just as a dentist that does a procedure incorrectly and causes injury, a technician not performing his repairs correctly can cause injury. It is important for both of these professionals to know what they are doing. If they do not, people get hurt, or on a lesser note, miss work, lose money, and are overall inconvenienced. There are many similarities to the importance, training, and equipment that go into these two professions, but what about the differences?

There are many differences. Let’s start out with the fact that the technician has to work in environments that are hot, cold, dirty, and sometimes pretty close to unbearable. I ask how many of us would like to stand under a vehicle with a hot engine, arms straight up in the air for 30 minutes at a time in a shop that’s 90 degrees? Or how would you like to go and repair an ignition problem when its 10 degrees, and have to do it outside because the vehicle cannot be towed in to the shop? The rest of the day you can spend bent over burning and cutting your hands while you use that new $300 tool you paid for.

When you go to the dentist for a routine check up, you don’t argue after being checked that “he just looked at my teeth” and since he didn’t do anything you should not pay. But everyday in automotive repair shops, customers argue that exact point. The dentist charges for his time as a professional. He charges for the chair you sat in and the tools he used to look at your teeth. He charges for the schooling and experience that make him qualified in his profession. The automotive repair shop does the same, only customers feel that they can argue the point.

It seems that there a are a whole lot of people who know everything there is to know about car repair and the business. Yet with all of their automotive knowledge, they choose a different profession. Maybe it’s the long hours, the hard working conditions, the constant learning, or serious personal investment that it take to be an professional automotive technician, but I think it might also be that they don’t know what they’re talking about.

There are many repairs that the mechanically inclined “back yard mechanic” can perform. The simple repairs are fine to do yourself with the right reference material and general tools. When it comes to diagnosing vehicles with problems and repairing complicated systems that require special tools, the money you pay for that repair is justified, well justified. So give your technicians the respect that they deserve for performing a professional service that most of the public is not even capable of doing, even if they invest $10,000 in tools to get the job done.

Tim Scully, President, Scullyz, LLC.

Consumers Benefit From Automotive Technician Certification

Posted by dayat on

Perhaps years ago any backyard auto mechanic would do, after all cars were simpler then, less complex and anyone with a good mechanical aptitude, a know how of how the engine works and a set of tools and the skill set to use them could fix a small problem or even a big one. Today, that has all changed. With today’s high tech vehicles, the margin for error is dramatically less and the cost of a mistake is significantly more, so it makes financial sense to protect your investment in your vehicle through maintenance and service performed by qualified professionals.

Contrary to popular belief automotive trade is not a compulsory trade in many parts of North America – it certainly is not in British Columbia. This means that anyone can open and run an auto repair shop without having a single certified automotive technician on staff.

While they may be the exception to the rule, unlicensed mechanics are employed throughout the continent, often in small one and two man shops or in specialty shops such as radiator repairs, used auto parts yards, and, belief it or not, at brake and wheel alignment shops!

One way to differentiate between automotive is to look for or ask to see their certificates. In Canada, we have the Red Seal of licensing Automotive Technicians. This certificate will be tan in color and will have a red seal in the top right and bottom left corners and a Provincial logo in the center. This will not be a certificate from a trade school, college or auto parts company. Once a technician writes and passes the Red Seal exam he is certified for life.

Another certification body exists and it is called ASE. ASE Certificates can be identified by a blue gear shaped logo with the letters ASE in it. The ASE is an equal standard but has two advantages to it: it requires re-certification every five years and it is voluntary therefore, those techs that choose to write the exam show a strong commitment to their profession that is above and beyond the average and that they are commitment to keeping up with the changes in technology. Further, employers who support their technicians’ efforts to become certified can be counted on to be concerned about other aspects of their business.

Another thing about modern vehicles that bears discussion is how almost every system of the car is inter-connected with another system. This fact is often overlooked by those working in the above mentioned specialty shops. The brakes on the car are connected to traction control, cruise control, stability control, and other systems of the car. The specialist may have been repairing brakes for 30 years but automotive technology has changed more than just a little over that time and a repair that seems simple can often have complex side effects if performed incorrectly.

In closing there is a reason for certification and most established auto re