I would guess that most people have no idea of what a DOT number is on your tires. This is perhaps the most important number associated with a vehicle tire, even more important than the price, it’s the age. Watch the following report from ABC news before you kill your family or friends trying to save money and time:
Posts Tagged ‘automotive’
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Tuesday, November 10th, 2009Where do labor guides get their repair times?
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009The most popular labor guides such as Alldata, Chilton and Mitchell’s purchase repair information from the manufacturers. The factory sets a time for every repair to the vehicle. They come up with most of these labor times by formulation not by actually dismantling the vehicle. This means that some labor times can vary from actual time, but the overall labor time is fairly accurate. The idea is that the more experienced the technician is, the faster the repair time. This is called the technicians efficiency rate and most shops like to see at least 130%, which means the technicians billable time net about 30% profitability. If the technician is given a job that is rated at 10 hours and does the job in 7, then he is available for more work that will overlap that 10 hours. This leads to profit because the technician will also work faster on the 7 hour job. Auto repair shops sell parts and time not repairs, which is why consumers have to be careful when analyzing estimates for repairs. An estimate for repair to your car has very few components, labor time, parts and sales tax. Other fees such as shop supplies, hazardous waste or any other fee is added by the shop to cover a specific cost the shop may incur while performing repairs to your car. These fees however are sometimes abused and are simply added profit.
Effect of Cash for Clunkers on Auto repair shops
Thursday, August 20th, 2009The Cash for Clunkers program seemed to help the failing auto sales industry, but at what cost? Auto repair shops rely on older cars to survive. The honest repair shops make an honest living providing repair and services to consumers that allows them to keep their cars well after the payments stop. This is in line with what most economist would like to see American’s do, get out of debt! By repairing and servicing a car it can last for a long time and the overall cost of ownership is significantly cheaper than having car payments. The “Cash for Clunkers” program takes these cars off the road and replaces them with newer vehicles under warranty for repairs. This mean that the finance companies gain revenue, the dealership gains revenue, but the repair shops lose revenue. The normal rate for vehicle turn over is out the window now, causing a sudden impact on the repair shop industry. Under normal conditions people often by cars if their is no longer economically viable to repair and this turn over process take place over a period of time. What the Government has done is cause an instant change in the landscape that is affecting repair shops and eventually consumers. If repair shops no longer have cars to work on all at once they will go out of business, then when these “cash for Clunker” cars come out of warranty there will be far less repair shops around to provide service and repair. Adding the fact that these cars will all come out of warranty at about the same time, this will mean there will be a greater need than supply for auto repairs and service. The rule of supply and demand will kick in and people will be forced to pay a lot more to have these “Cash for Clunker” boomers worked on. Now, since the auto repair industry employs 3 times as many people as the manufacturing industry, the impact on the economy will be more dramatic than the sales industry. Maybe there would have been a more equitable solution that would not have an adverse affect on the repair industry. Perhaps a “Cash for Clunkers repair” program allowing people to have their vehicles repaired to bring up the fuel mileage.