Secrets On Verifying Needed Auto Repair
Posted: Sunday, December 03, 2006
by Mark Gittelman
certifiedmastertech.com
I am sure you have heard this line before from your friendly neighborhood auto repair center. While we were working on your car we noticed that other repairs are needed.
In most cases this is not the auto repair shop being nice and looking out for your best interest or for your safety but instead a way of increasing the shops A.R.O.
The mechanic and service advisor work together on this project because it also increases the amount they both make along with the auto repair shop.
The way it works is the mechanic finds profitable repairs to be done like a brake job and brings it to the service advisors attention.
The commission based service advisor then hard sells this repair as a needed safety repair.
I can’t help but break into a story about one of the sharpest most evil service advisors I ever met. This man would go through your vehicle and find out as much as he could about the vehicle owner.
He would look for bank statements past due bills and any thing he could get his hands on to find out what your financial position was. He would go through the trunk, the glove box under the seats he was relentless.
One time he came out to my bay and started going through a vehicle and I asked him what he was doing. His reply was making us money. Then He yelled out bingo. I said what did you find.
He said the best thing of all a baby seat and baby toys. He then said this vehicle needs brakes. I said I didn’t look at the brakes yet. He said it didn’t matter what it needed it only mattered what they were getting.
Now in this case the brakes were about 25% remaining so selling brakes to this person didn’t hurt anyone. But the service advisor asked about the baby to set up the sale for family safety reasons.
If the customer hesitated to buy, the service advisor would explain it was for the safety of the baby and how if she performed an emergency stop the vehicle would take longer to stop with worn brakes and he was looking out for her baby. This guy was a shark and pulled down more than $100,000 a year just for selling service.
I tell you this story so you can be on guard if you run into a shark. The shark will start asking you personal questions while you are waiting for the vehicle to be brought into the auto repair shop.
Not because he cares about you. He is trying to paint a picture of you so he can find the button he needs to push to make a sale. And don’t forget to clean out the inside of your car including the glove box. You must protect yourself!
Now how to defend against the mighty shark. Lets use a common scenario as an example. You bring your vehicle into a chain type service center for an oil change.
The mechanic talks with the service advisor and he starts clicking away on his calculator. Then he calls you over and says you need front brakes and an air filter. Lets start by asking questions and controlling the negotiations.
First we should ask if we can go to the vehicle and be shown what is needed. Even if you don’t know what you’re looking at you still want to act like you do know what you’re looking at.
If the service advisor says your not allowed in the auto repair shop for insurance reasons or safety reasons this is a red flag that they may be hiding something. The auto repair shop may have policies against customers being aloud in the shop but you still have the right to inspect the needed auto repairs.
If the auto repair shop flat out refuses to show you then instruct them to just finish the oil change and you will get a second opinion from another shop. Even the most cold hearted service advisor will have trouble pointing to what he knows is an obviously good part and calling it bad.
If they take you out to the vehicle ask to see the air filter and try to verify its out of you’re vehicle and it does look dirty.
The service interval for air filters is about once a year or every 20,000 miles depending on your driving conditions. If the filter looks dirty and it’s been awhile then approving the air filter replacement should be ok.
Mark Gittelman Is an ASE Certified Master Technician with more then 23 years of experience in the auto repair business. His new book A Mechanics Secrets Revealed was created to protect the auto repair consumer against rip offs and scams. The book can be found at www.certifiedmastertech.com
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Yes i would like to see more info on this subject
Yes, I know some of this stuff but can ALWAYS use more input. I hope you have a whole series of articles up your sleeve and in your pen to help people like me. I can drive a car but don't know very much about how it works or what to do. Your writing style is very fluid, it was easy to read everything, almost like walking downhill . . . effortless. I've got to read more . . . Thanks for the information!
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