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Archive for July, 2009

You made it past the clunker police, so now what. You can turn your clunker into classic with a few automotive accessories that will change your vehicle appearance without sending you to the poor house. Start with the automotive ?interior, that’s where you spend your time and will get the most driving pleasure. Car mats should be the first thing to replace. If you are on a budget a nice universal set will freshen the interior just fine. For a little more money go with custom fit?car mats. It is a nicer look and these mats are less likely to slide around.? Most suppliers are willing to send color samples for color verification, if you ask.

Seat covers are another automotive accessory that seems to really pay dividends. With the number of patterns and materials that are available,?you are sure to find a seat cover to please. There are universal fit seat ?covers available but they are generally not a good choice. A universal seat cover has play in it and is not as eye-catching as a custom fit seat cover.

For the automotive exterior, work on the paint finish to get your most bang for the buck. Most car paint finishes can use some help in the paint luster department. Over time the sun, acid rain, and road debris act to lessen the glow of your paint finish. A good auto paint sealant will change all that. Spend some time preparing the paint surface with a good nonabrasive rubbing compound then apply a true paint sealant. A wax or polish are short lived. A sealant will bond to the paint surface and create a paint luster that will last a long time.

Any of these three automotive accessories will add value to your vehicle. Do all three and, who knows, you could go from clunker to classic.?

Most of our auto repair shop clients have been in business for well over 10 years. The working assumption is they’re good at their job that they provide quality auto repair service for consumers.

I believe everyone can track the logic: Good work = stay in business.

Why aren’t they as busy as they would like to be?

Maybe a better question would be: Would you change a flat tire with a spatula?

I hope the answer is no. Because changing a tire with a spatula would be insane. It’s the wrong tool for the wrong job. It would be like flipping pancakes with a tire iron or doing spinal surgery with a cantaloupe.

So why, in the name of everything holy, does auto repair advertising constantly resort to coupons? When we interview shops for our program, we always ask what they’re currently doing to bring in new business. Over 90% of the time, they tell us they are using coupons.

But what happens next blows our minds even more… they begin to rant about price shoppers.

Auto Repair Advertising Tip #1: Just Bought A House? Here’s a Free Oil Change.

Do you remember when you were a kid in school? What would you do if somebody offered you a cookie? They’d say, “Here, eat this, it’s good!” What did you do? You looked at the cookie and instantly said, “What’d you do to it? Did you drop it? What’s wrong with it? If I eat this, are those five people behind you going to start laughing at me?”

You just knew there had to be something wrong with that cookie. That’s because free is too good to be true. Welcome to what your customers think of your free oil change/tire rotation coupons. They know you put those out there to hook and drag them in. And they know you’re going to try to up sell them. Even auto repair advertising firms selling these services admit they get the most customer complaints from auto repair shops and their “welcome to the neighborhood” free offers. Read the rest of this entry »

Washing cars doesn’t sound like a glamorous job but when your clients own some of the most expensive motors including Bugatti Veyrons, McLaren F1s and F1GTRs, it makes the job worthwhile.  MSN News has reported that “an entrepreneur from Derby is charging more than £7,000 for his car cleaning service”.

The eye-watering price tag might seem crazy to most of us, but for people who own these expensive cars their philosophy is, pay more and know your pride and joy is in the hands of a true professional.  Vintage means value, but if you’re valued classic car isn’t kept in good condition the vehicle could depreciate. Sometimes it pays to pay more.

The “accountancy graduate has turned his love of fast cars into a booming cleaning business, charging each client a substantial amount for each bespoke valet”, according to the Daily Mail website, which is understandable when you hear that he pays over £8,000 for a single tub of wax and uses more than 100 different cleaning fluids.

This guy takes attention to detail to a whole new level with his 250 hour cleaning regime per vehicle, which includes polishing and buffing every inch of the car inside and out five times! The 30 year old doesn’t like to boast and keeps his high profile customers a secret, but he has revealed that the list includes Premiership footballers, lawyers and actors who say that “the costs of his service is peanuts compared to the value of their cars”, according to the Daily Mail website.

Separating your work from your home life can be difficult for some people, and in the case of this young accountant it must be even harder as his cleaning routine takes place in the garage at his parents’ house where he currently lives. He has even confessed that “the first time I cleaned a Ferrari Enzo it took a week and when I tried to sleep all I could see was Ferrari red”.

Ironically this successful entrepreneur, who spends his days cleaning other people’s cars, doesn’t have a shiny motor of his own. I guess you could say that’s one less car to clean.