Re: what does one look for in an after market shop?

[Riley McDowall <roog@telus.net>]

At 12:05 PM -0500 3/5/01, Yarrow Thorne wrote:
>how does one evaluate a shop, what are your prioritys, what is your ultimate
>shop experance, if you where to start one how would it be different from
>others?

Hm.... interesting question!  First and foremost, to me, is the quality of
work the shop does.  Actually, not so much the quality of work the shop
does, but the quality of work of the guy(s) working at the shop.  And I'm
not talking about who's had what published in what magazine - before I'll
let someone work on my car unsupervised, I'd want to see what he's done in
the past and talk to people driving cars he'd worked on.  That's priority
number one.  It's really the only priority... things like prices can always
be negotiated (and the longer you stay with a shop, the better your prices
get).

If I were to start up a shop, I would make sure I had someone talented (and
meticulous) working for me, and I would try not to make the same mistake so
many other tuners have made - trying to grow too big too fast.  Nothing is
more frustrating to a customer than to have to wait a week to get in for
something minor, or for 6 months to get in for something major like an
involved engine swap.  When tuners start trying to do too much with too
little, things get fucked up.  Parts get lost, or dont' get ordered, or get
ordered wrong, or don't get shipped, etc.  The quality of work suffers as
the pressure to move more cars in and out builds.  Eventually tuners start
depending on parts sales and mail order to keep the cash flowing, and
that's when a tuner turns into a distributor.  Seen it happen a lot up in
Vancouver...



--
Email LIST problems to: scirocco-l-probs@scirocco.org.
To unsubscibe send "unsubscribe scirocco-l" in the message to majordomo@scirocco.org