[Philip Fournier]

Craig, where is your shop?  I would agree that your results have been very disappointing, but if you are in an area with a very low population of hybrid vehicles, it might just be the way it is.  I have had many disappointments over the years in trying to diversify, as I have watched improved vehicle quality erode away at my car counts.  Hybrids have been the one area where I have had mild success.  I wish I could say it was overwhelming but that would be an exaggeration.  However, I have done well enough to get a name of having some expertise by advertising on my website and on Ebay.  I will say though that the hybrid population in my home town is too small to give me much business beyond service work. Most of my repairs of transaxles, battery replacements, and other significant work has come from out of town.  The trouble with that is those are one time customers, for the most part, and that is not a great way to build your business.  But right now, I’ll take what I can get.

[Philip Fournier]

Larry,
I was on the same panel as you, as I’m sure you recall.  Tom has eloquently laid out the troubles with a government-run licensing program. Someone else has responded that Delaware is going to do it right.  I’m afraid the gentleman from Delaware is going to find out that the anarchists are going to sabotage his high hopes for a successful program.

I would indeed like to hear where Tom came up with the $20k in costs for the Michigan program.  That is an OUTRAGEOUS amount of money.  We could easily afford to build a MPC&L program with that kind of money.  The trouble is that without government charging the fees on EVERYONE, that is never going to happen.  But if the government is collecting the fees, they will want to build the bureaucracy to squirrel the money away as Michigan has done so efficiently….if we want to call squandering money efficient.

But really at the root of the whole thing is the general public’s idea that no one should have to budget for auto repair,  That being the case, every expense is unexpected, and cost becomes a factor so great that the back yard guy becomes the resource of choice.  In your high-rent district of Silicone Valley, I know that there are lots of tech-savvy and high income individuals plus your very considerable business skill that has built you a profitable and successful business.  In my neighborhood, where those living below the poverty line recently cleared 78% of the population, the non-registered (never mind licensed) shops do a marvelous job of sabotaging our already limited ability to earn an honest living.  I don’t think it is fixable.

[Philip Fournier]

I entered that address in my browser and got a message back that it is an “untrusted site”. I didn’t continue as a result.

Who is doing the hybrid training? I am skeptical of claims to keep you on the first page of search engines because obviously everyone cannot be on the first page.

[Philip Fournier]

Aaron,

What I try to do with these kinds of situation is draw a benefit for the future. What went wrong in the diagnostic procedure? Is there some way we could have avoided the problem? If not, could we have avoided putting the heads back on the second time?

I have had situations like this at least twice that I can remember; combustion gases in the radiator, a heating up situation, and a diagnosis of head gaskets or a cracked head. However, when the head gasket looked fine and no cracks were found in the heads, it should/could have been a stopping point, but in both cases, like you, we simply forged ahead with wishful thinking, and both times we got completely flogged. The first time, we ate the head gasket job completely and got paid for a motor replacement. The second time, we ate the whole thing because the owner decided to trade the vehicle in.

It sounds like you will come out ok, but see if you can’t parlay the bad experience into some useful lesson for the future.

[Philip Fournier]

Hi, Dave. I feel for your position. I have been there myself. As my business adviser once told me “we only change when the pain of staying the same outweighs the pain of changing.”

I tried to save a guy who continually made mistake during his 8 months with me. The guy had certain attributes that I liked. He was a recovering alcoholic so dedicated to keeping away from booze that he wouldn’t eat my wife’s chocolate Kahlua cake, even though I told him the cooking would surely have driven the alcohol out of it. I admired that about him. Also, he always seemed sorry for his mistakes, some of which cost me literally thousands of dollars. But at last I realized that whatever his good intentions were, he did not seem to be able to break the pattern and it was time for him to move on.

Your guy is losing or has lost his driver’s license, on top of all of the mistakes. You can’t have a tech on staff who cannot drive a car and your insurance is not going to cover him. You need to let him go right away, before it costs you more money.

Then, consider your objectives in having employees. What are you trying to accomplish? More income? Lighten your own load? Could you do that another way? Like by cutting down on the unprofitable and time-consuming jobs and concentrating on ones that you enjoy and that make more sense for you.

You have to rewind yourself to the point of realizing what you are doing and why. If you don’t know, it makes it really hard to go forward. You might consider getting some consulting help.