what do you look for in a performance car shop

[greathuskie]

rockford il

 

[i1nk83]

i have worked at a "so called " performance shop and the major things i noticed are : 1. dont bullshit your customers, such as telling them you know what your doing when in fact you have never done it before. 2. keep your shop clean and neat 3. not good but a reality is that your hardly ever going to beat online prices and make any money whatsoever so make your customer service and quality of work bring people to you. 4. i would look into a motor distributer for b series honda motors, and someone w/ knowledge on the swap. thats what i have learned from working in a shop. oh yeh you will just barely make it above water for about the first year. paying off loans/ equipment etc..

 

[m1nd64m3]

you ever thought of also doing parts and installs for gm 3.8 supercharged cars?(GTP,Regal,Bonniville,Monte Carlo,Riviera,Impala SS) alot of people mod them out and the only shops are in ohio i think, so you would have that whole market in the surrounding area coming to only you.

 

[swing lo]

1. Have parts in stock cause people hate to wait on parts.

2. Turn around time on mechanic work must be fast and efficient.

3. For the local gear heads to know that your shop does quality fabrication is always a good thing.

4. If you can price match or beat prices at a substantially lower cost you might lose a little at first but you will eventually break even or ahead because of more sales.

5. Be innovative and offer something that has never been seen before and puts your shop ahead of the rest.

 

[1990greenGSX]

It's not a shop unless it has a Miss NGK poster.

Damn it.... we dont have one of those.. ut oh..

Mark
SBR

 

[P8ntBalla]

1. Have parts in stock cause people hate to wait on parts.


4. If you can price match or beat prices at a substantially lower cost you might lose a little at first but you will eventually break even or ahead because of more sales.

Doesn't work that way. Its either small inventory, low prices, or high inventory with alot of overhead to cover. If he buys a ton of parts that don't sell and doesn't charge more for the ones that do, he loses alot of money and eventually the business will fail.

 

[greathuskie]

im gonna stick with p8ntballas idea, stock a few shiny parts and good stuff that people might want and call it a day

 

[swing lo]

Doesn't work that way. Its either small inventory, low prices, or high inventory with alot of overhead to cover. If he buys a ton of parts that don't sell and doesn't charge more for the ones that do, he loses alot of money and eventually the business will fail.

I understand where your coming from but i meant the universal stuff that people mentioned earlier.

 

[Quasimondo]

A lot of shops sell their parts online, so it doesn't make much sense to have a large inventory on hand if you have distributors that can get it to your door in a week or two. Besides many shops are made or doomed by the work that they do on the customers' cars. Not every tuner is a DIY'er like the majority of our community. What customers want is if they show up with a clutch, you can install it and it works for the life of the clutch. If you install a SAFC, it doesn't wreak havoc on the rest of the car's electrical system. If you install a turbo kit, it won't be blowing oil through the lines and your customers won't call you two weeks later screaming about how their engine blew up because you tuned it too lean. If you check this board and the boards of the local clubs, you'll find that more 'Bad Guy' posts were written about the bad customer service of a shop than there were about parts availability.

 

[project_tsi]

I recently went into an autozone and asked for a valve cover gasket for a "turbo 4g63 6 bolt" The kid behind the counter drove a riced up honda and had no idea what i was talking about and said " a what" i repeated myself and he said "sir, ive never heard of that kind of car before" Before i told him it was for a 90 eagle talon, i decided to play a little with him. Since he drove a honda i said, "well i need a set of plugs for a B16" Wow he knew about every part number from the top of his head. Oh these plugs are better stuff like that w/out even looking it up on the computer. Then I siad i need a water pump for a chevy 350. He knew they were the same and just immidieatly went and got one. Then i told him i really didnt need those last two things and had to wait about 5 minutes for him to completely go thru the computer about my car. After i said turbo 4g63 6bolt again, he asked me if it was turbocharged! Then asked me if it was FWD or AWD, I told either one it doesnt matter and he said "well the part number might be different so i need to know. Right about then I said forget it and left, then went down to Chet Nichols Auto Parts.

Basicallly what im saying is that you need to have a wide range of your cars and know what your talking about in order to keep customers. Just letting people know that you know something about their car will keep them happy, I know it always has w/ me.

 

[P8ntBalla]

I recently went into an autozone and asked for a valve cover gasket for a "turbo 4g63 6 bolt" The kid behind the counter drove a riced up honda and had no idea what i was talking about and said " a what" i repeated myself and he said "sir, ive never heard of that kind of car before" Before i told him it was for a 90 eagle talon, i decided to play a little with him. Since he drove a honda i said, "well i need a set of plugs for a B16" Wow he knew about every part number from the top of his head. Oh these plugs are better stuff like that w/out even looking it up on the computer. Then I siad i need a water pump for a chevy 350. He knew they were the same and just immidieatly went and got one. Then i told him i really didnt need those last two things and had to wait about 5 minutes for him to completely go thru the computer about my car. After i said turbo 4g63 6bolt again, he asked me if it was turbocharged! Then asked me if it was FWD or AWD, I told either one it doesnt matter and he said "well the part number might be different so i need to know. Right about then I said forget it and left, then went down to Chet Nichols Auto Parts.

Basicallly what im saying is that you need to have a wide range of your cars and know what your talking about in order to keep customers. Just letting people know that you know something about their car will keep them happy, I know it always has w/ me.

So instead of being a simple in-and-out customer and telling the guy what car you had, you were a pain in the ass and gave the guy a very uncommon engine code and expected him to know what car it belongs in? And you got mad at him for it?