As electric vehicle (EV) adoption continues to grow, independent service providers are racing to build the necessary expertise and infrastructure to cater to this new segment of the market.

Eccles Auto Service in Dundas, Ontario is one such shop that has been proactively preparing for the EV revolution.

Scott and Bruce Eccles share their experience of getting up and running, from installing charging stations to getting training and educating the consumer.

While Eccles Auto doesn’t have a dedicated EV bay at the moment, Scott noted that the volume of EV work simply doesn’t warrant that level of specialization yet. The majority of the work they’re getting and the issues customers are finding are similar to those found on most any other vehicles, including internal combustion engines.

Common issues they’ve encountered include rapid tire wear, suspension component failures and even 12-volt battery problems — typical wear and tear issues that may surprise some EV owners who assume their cars require no maintenance. They don’t realize their vehicle has a typical car battery that needs to be checked.

It’s often a mixed bag of people who understand routine maintenance is still a thing versus those who don’t.

“There’s people who always maintain their car, have done their research and understand that these cars need maintenance. And then there’s those who have been sold the idea that an EV needs nothing,” Scott said. “And educating them is what we need to do — trying to get them to understand. The only thing that changes is how the car moves. Everything else is the same.”

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Automotive aftermarket professionals are naturally concerned about their job security as artificial intelligence capabilities grow. An industry expert recently put minds to ease, explaining that AI is set to boost efficiency in the industry without slashing jobs.

Attendees raised concerned about the impact of AI on job functions within the automotive aftermarket at the MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers Vision Conference earlier this year. In a session focused on AI’s role in the industry, Neury Freitas, partner at advisory firm Roland Berger, acknowledged the interest around the concern and offered insights into how AI can enhance efficiency without significantly reducing the workforce.

“We see that AI is going to definitely help companies improve their efficiency in general,” Freitas observed.

But, he clarified that increased efficiency does not necessarily equate to a massive reduction in jobs within the industry.

“There are clear use cases — you have your service, when you have within the chats or you have your customer center, this is an example [of how] AI with chatbots, they can really help,” Freitas explained

He further added that time to complete work can be reduced at the lower-skilled jobs because AI can help speed things up.

Freitas aimed to demystify the implications of AI on employment, highlighting the demand for more specialized roles. “Yes, in the world, like in the U.S., we will have demand for more specialized jobs, including data scientists. But we as the aftermarket … that’s knowledge proof.”

In other words, there’s a lot of specialized knowledge in this industry. There are many specialists and that’s knowledge that artificial intelligence can’t replace.

He explored what aftermarket companies will need to think about. Freitas specially stressed the importance of a strong IT infrastructure rather than hiring an extensive team of expensive AI specialists.

“You need to have a strong IT infrastructure, you need to have a strong IT group. Again, you do not need to go and hire 20 very expensive data scientists that specialize in AI,” Freitas said.

He cited the high costs associated with AI experts, noting, “The last information I got is like the signing bonus of like an AI expert is around like $1 million. This is what we are talking about; like it’s insane. This is not something that we believe most of them are going to be able to afford.”

Freitas concluded by emphasizing the importance of partnering with specialized experts to effectively implement AI without overwhelming costs. “We need to go in and hire and then finally, openness that they have hired those experts,” he said, advocating for a balanced approach to integrating AI into the automotive aftermarket.

Image credit: Depositphotos.com

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The latest issue of CARS magazine tries to pull back the curtain on how technicians and service advisors in your shops are feeling and what they’re thinking in their day-to-day activities.

The cover feature takes the pulse of those on the front lines as they balance the needs of the customers with the business and how they do their jobs. Technicians and service advisors share their thoughts on this rapidly changing field in a candid manner. Some of the answers may surprise you.

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We also have insights from Greg Aguilera who looks at the challenge of trying to do everything yourself and explores the powers of delegation and other ways to minimize the stress.

Erin Vaughan continues her series on the road to acquiring another shop. She looks at making sure your shop can run without you being there. Your attention will be divided with a second location so she explores how to make sure things continue to run smoothly.

Talent challenges are all prevalent in the automotive aftermarket but Zakari Krieger looks at proactive measures you can take to try and get ahead of the challenges before they become overwhelming.

We were On the Road for Automechankia in Frankfurt, Germany, and the AARO Trade Show and Symposium. We have highlights from both events.

And we have our usual sections, including Letters, News, Class Act By the Numbers and more. So grab your copy or hit this link for the digital edition.

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A recent global survey highlighted how social media is significantly influencing young trade professionals’ passion for their careers, despite ongoing social stigmas and lack of parental support.

The survey, conducted by Dewalt and WorldSkills International, reached out to young trade professionals from 69 countries and regions. It found that social media plays a crucial role in shaping their passion for skilled trades. The survey, which polled participants of the upcoming WorldSkills Competition 2024, aimed to understand the motivations, inspirations, and challenges faced by the new generation entering these essential career paths.

Chris Nelson, chief operating officer at Stanley Black & Decker, parent company of Dewalt, emphasized the importance of this data in advocating for skilled trades.

“We know that if we want to continue to advocate for these essential career paths, we must understand the next generation’s aspirations, motivations, and challenges,” he said. “This data will be vital to those efforts, particularly our Grow the Trades program, which funds vocational training and reskilling programs in construction and manufacturing to support the tradespeople of the future.”

Despite their enthusiasm, young trades professionals still face significant barriers. About four in 10 (42 per cent) of the respondents identified persistent social stigma as a major obstacle, while more than a third (35 per cent) pointed to a lack of parental support.

However, social media is emerging as a powerful tool for changing these perceptions. Three-quarters of the young professionals expressed a desire to use online platforms to raise awareness and visibility for skilled careers, recognizing its potential to inspire others to view these trades as fulfilling and rewarding.

The survey results also underscore the deep passion young professionals have for their trades and their eagerness to share this enthusiasm. This drive is complemented by a strong sense of independence and altruism among younger generations. Almost half (44 per cent) acknowledged that social media played a role in inspiring their career choices, with many being influenced by specific influencers or brands.

Additionally, nearly 70 per cent of respondents reported that their primary motivation for choosing a specific skill was the desire to work with their hands. Forty-four percent cited the desire to make a positive impact on the global community, while 42 per cent noted a willingness to start their own business. Cost-effectiveness and earning potential were also significant factors, with 45 per cent and 53 per cent of respondents respectively highlighting these aspects.

David Hoey, CEO of WorldSkills International, highlighted the need for innovative approaches to connect with young people.

“The findings from our survey highlight that to connect with young people, we need to be innovative and creative on how we present skilled career options,” he said. “It is essential to create diverse role models young people can relate to, use the power of social media to challenge outdated perceptions, and at every turn demonstrate that skilled careers are exciting, viable, and rewarding.”

Image credit: Depositphotos.com

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AAPEX and the SEMA Show are underway in Las Vegas as part of Automotive Aftermarket Industry Week and the Auto Service World team is there.

In what promises to be an exciting and busy week as always, the team will keep this page updated with news, information and other notes as we come across them. Many companies are unveiling new products, making announcements and otherwise showing off their latest tools, technology and services for the auto care industry.

Many training sessions are scheduled for pros of all stripes, from solving vehicle issues, diagnosis strategies, selling strategies for service advisors and management advice for owners. You can check out our preview of both shows for some of the highlights of what’s taking place.

We’ll update as best we can here on this page — it’s a busy time with a lot happening so there may be delays.

You can also head to our Instagram page. Give us a follow there for more highlights straight to your feed.

Tuesday, Nov. 5

After last night’s opening reception, AAPEX’s opening day started off with the morning keynote. Bill Hanvey, president of Auto Care Association, and Paul McCarthy, president of MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers, kicked things off with an industry update and another push for right to repair support.

NFL broadcaster Erin Andrews took part in a Q&A about how she got into broadcasting, being a woman in a male-dominated field — “If you’re a woman in this industry, you have to love it.”

Andrews then hosted a panel discussion with Ashlee Arnold, vice president, Arnold Oil Company, Brad Beckham, CEO, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Randy Breaux, group president, GPC North America, Philip Daniele, president and CEO, AutoZone and Shane O’Kelly, president and CEO, Advance Auto Parts.

They talked about lessons learned, insights on how to be successful, the importance of putting customers first, dealing with change and more.

“This industry has changed and it’s incumbent on us to change,” said Daniele.

”The pace of change will never be slower than it is today,” O’Kelly, adding that change requires telling the people who are executing change and are impacted by it the why behind the change.

Breaux noted the opportunities AI brings, calling it another tool in the workshop.

Once the clock hit 9 a.m., the doors opened and attendees hit the show floor.

Tood Campau from S&P Global Mobility gave his annual chat on aftermarket trends, covering everything from buyer ethnicity trends, new vehicle inventories, prices, EV trends and more.

A joint forecast looking at EVs and another at e-commerce in the aftermarket were released during the show.

Canada Night was once again held but at a new location: Outside on the Palazzo pool deck. The industry gathered to celebrate, network and hangout.

Wednesday, Nov. 6

The day started off with two big events. The MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers hosted its media and member breakfast and Women in Auto Care held its annual breakfast.

At the MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers, the morning after the U.S. election, politics was a hot topic. Ann Wilson, its head of government relations, noted that vehicle repair costs are tied to concerns over cost of living — and all that ties into right to repair. President Paul McCarthy noted other issues like tariff evasion and further discussed right to repair.

Nathan Shipley from Circana took to the stage for the second general session for his annual Aftermarket Outlook presentation. One item he highlighted was to pay attention to work from home rules from companies and how it may impact leisure travel.

The Women in Auto Care held its awards reception where recognition was given to top women in the auto care industry. Julie Holmes, CEO of Virginia Tire and Auto, won the Women Shop of the Year. RepairPal’s Sheila Sarkozi won the Outstanding Leadership Award. The Lifetime Achievement Award went to Tina Hubbard, president and CEO of HDA Truck Pride.

Thursday night saw an 80s night themed party for the Young Automotive Newtowrking Group. Those under 40 from the aftermarket got together for the biggest meetup the group holds. YANG Mentors were also in attendance, partaking in food, music, dancing and good times.

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Two federal bills key to the automtoive right to repair movement are set to become law in Canada, according to the Automotive Industries Association of Canada.

“AIA Canada is celebrating the passage of Bills C-244 and C-294, which are poised to become law imminently after being adopted by Parliament yesterday,” the group said in an announcement.

The two bills are not specific to automotive right to repair but do make amendments to the Copyright Act. Bill C-244 would allow end-users and third-party repairers to maintain, repair and diagnose products by bypassing digital protection measures but avoid breaking copyright laws. This, according to law firm Torys, would “bolster sustainable consumerism and facilitate accessibility in seeking aftermarket repair.”

This bill was introduced in October 2023. It was initially introduced as Bill C-272 in 2021 but was scrapped that same year due to a fall federal election despite passing first and second reading.

Bill C-294 focuses on allowing different technologies to work together without breaking copyright laws.  

“Both bills amend the Copyright Act and represent a historic step forward in the right to repair movement,” AIA Canada’s statement said.

Copyright and privacy expert Michael Geist has noted that Canada’s exemptions in the act previously didn’t go far enough to allow for a level playing field.

“Canadian anti-circumvention laws (also known as digital lock rules) are among the strictest in the world, creating unnecessary barriers to innovation and consumer rights,” he wrote soon after the introduction of Bill C-294 in 2022.

In mid-October, members of Canada’s auto care industry urged for the passage of both bills during testimony to the Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Commerce and the Economy, citing the importance for Canada’s automotive aftermarket.

As neither bill directly addresses automotive right to repair, the association continues to push for legislation directly tied to the issue.

“These two bills are a step in the right direction and are viewed as a necessary precursor to any right to repair legislation, however standalone legislation will still be needed to help reinforce a manufacturer’s requirement to allow access to diagnostic and repair information, which would address systemic issues around data ownership and ensure consumer choice,” AIA Canada noted.

Image credit: Depositphotos.com

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Whether it’s cost of living, desire for more space or the slower pace, people moving out of cities and into suburban communities has benefits for the automotive aftermarket. However, those living in cities are still key clients for the industry, an industry expert observed.

During the Three Dragons session at this year’s MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers Conference in Detroit, Greg Melich, senior managing director at Evercore ISI, provided the Wall Street perspective of trends taking place in the auto care sector. One of the trends he highlighted was the one that accelerated over the COVID-19 pandemic and saw people leave large urban centres for smaller suburban ones.

To Melich, whether people are driving their personal vehicle or using a ridesharing problem like Uber or Lyft, there’s a vehicle still accumulating mileage and that vehicle still needs to be maintained and repaired. However, people moving to the suburbs means more of a need for a vehicle as consumers generally have to travel farther per trip, be it for work or errands. So customer makeup could be different.

That said, while vehicle usage increases in suburban areas, Melich noted that incomes are generally lower than in urban areas. That means households with more vehicles in their driveways actually have less income than those in urban centres with fewer cars — so lower-income families are spending more on vehicle repair.

“This is one of those unique consumer categories where consumption of units doesn’t go up where incomes are higher in these more densely populated markets,” Melich observed. “So this is an area where having affordable cars that people can drive to get to work is such a key part of the equation.”

As for a tail risk, he pointed to electric vehicles. He noted investors are nervous when it comes to investing in the aftermarket because of the uncertainty of EV lifespan — making these essentially disposable vehicles — and issues around right to repair and if the industry will even be able to repair EVs.

“Because if we can’t fix the electric cars, and we don’t find a way to rebuild them … there’s a risk in 10 years that this industry,” could shrink.

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A new report points to significant hurdles for electric vehicles (EVs) in appealing to the majority of pre-owned vehicle buyers. This could potentially prolong the lifespan of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and boosting the ICE aftermarket well into the future.

The  Lang Marketing report, EVs Lack Appeal for Many Pre-Owned Buyers, Boosting the Long-Term ICE Aftermarket, highlighted the challenges facing EV adoption considering that 80 per cent of vehicles on the road are pre-owned vehicles in the U.S.

Buyers of such vehicles are not as enthusiastic about EVs as new-car buyers, raising concerns about the long-term viability of the used electric vehicle market, Lang noted.

“”Without a strong market of secondary buyers who will purchase an increasing number of pre-owned Electric Vehicles, sales of new BEVs face strong headwinds, likely causing Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles to remain on the road longer than is common today,” Lang’s report said.

Here’s a rundown of what its report found.

New vs. pre-owned EV buyers

While EVs, particularly battery electric vehicles (BEVs), have gained traction among environmentally conscious new-car buyers, they remain largely a niche product.

Many new BEV owners are willing to overlook the operational limitations of current EV technology, including range, charging issues, and long-term reliability. However, these factors pose significant barriers to entry for pre-owned buyers, who may not have the flexibility or resources to navigate these challenges.

Range anxiety and charging infrastructure

One major obstacle is range anxiety. Many pre-owned vehicle buyers place greater importance on driving range than their new-car counterparts. While current BEV owners tend to drive fewer miles annually, this is not the case for most used-vehicle buyers. Furthermore, as the report notes, over 75 per cent of new BEV buyers charge their vehicles at home—an option that may not be available to many pre-owned buyers, particularly those living in apartments or lacking the necessary charging equipment.

The report stressed the need for a nationwide fast-charging network to accommodate the growing number of all-electric vehicles.

“Construction of an efficient and convenient charging infrastructure is a massive challenge, and even with strong government support, it will likely not be achieved for many years,” Lang said.

Reliability

Another major concern highlighted in the report is the long-term reliability of BEVs, particularly the cost of battery replacement. With battery replacements potentially exceeding US$6,000, many older BEVs may be scrapped rather than repaired. This is especially concerning to Lang given that the average vehicle on U.S. roads today is nearly 13 years old.

Moreover, some BEVs, like Tesla, may suffer from operational issues linked to relatively minor body damage, a problem that could disproportionately affect pre-owned buyers.

The future of ICE vehicles

Given these challenges, Lang Marketing predicted that ICE vehicles will continue to be a staple of the automotive landscape for many years to come. Their ability to meet critical driving needs — such as long-distance travel, ease of refueling, and performance in extreme weather conditions — ensures that many consumers will hold onto their ICE vehicles for longer.

The report further noted that while EVs will continue to increase their share of new vehicle sales, they may struggle to meet the needs of the pre-owned market. This could pave the way for a “Golden Age” of the ICE aftermarket, expected to extend well past 2040.

Image credit: Depositphotos.com

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A team that knows the value of a customer, puts them ahead and ensures they are what’s important to the business is invaluable when you’re an automotive repair shop.

That’s why Motorcade Industries St. Catharine’s branch is the 2024 Jobber of the Year Award winner.

The customer-centric approach is key for branch manager Shannon Black. She has set a standard for what automotive parts distribution can and should be.

Running a successful automotive parts business is about more than just selling parts, Black explained. It’s about putting the customer first and fostering a family-like atmosphere where employees and customers alike feel valued and respected.

“The big picture is the same: Your customer is the most important part of your day,” she said. “Getting them the parts they need affects their business. And they’re more than just your customer.”

The store has expanded to 15,000 square feet to house the plethora of automotive parts shops need — and drivers make two trips every day to Toronto to get anything else their customers need.

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And to stay focused on their key customers, they don’t accept any retail requests — everything is wholesale.

“Our customer base is on-hoist orders for automotive shops and we don’t really deal with retail at all,” Black explained. “We have a few people we may have dealt with a long, long time ago that might have been at a shop at one time, and maybe they have their own business. But besides that, it’s just professional and wholesale.”

Black’s team of 30 inside staff, seven company drivers and 27 broker drivers serve the entire Niagara region, a large geographical footprint with Lake Ontario to the north and Lake Erie to the south. Being able to serve a diverse group of clients with a large variety of needs means the store has to be able to accommodate all sorts of requests.

And those requests often are fulfilled in six minutes. But they also have to manage expectations.

“I teach these guys to under-promise, over-deliver, but I also teach these guys that and they have rapport,” Black explained. “I’ve probably been talking to a lot of these customers for 30 years, so and I have people on the desk that have the same amount of experience.”

This long-standing relationship with customers is a point of pride for Black, who sees them as more than just clients.

“My main business philosophy is that that person on the other side of the phone is your best friend,” she said. “They are the person that pays your paycheck. They take care of us. We need to take care of them.”

That’s just a preview of the full story — the November issue of Jobber News will soon be released and you can see the full story and read all about what makes Motorcade St. Catharines stand out from the crowd.

Image: Shannon Black, centre, is flanked by sales reps Dan Kovacs, left, and Mario Torelli, right

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Nhu Nguyen has always felt the support of her male colleagues, instructors and mentors during her career as an automotive technician, which is why she goes out of her way to make men’s health a focus every year.

She is a classic Porsche technician and has been a passionate supporter of Movember for more than a decade, raising an impressive $21,000 to support men’s health initiatives.

“I’ve been a Mo-Sister ever since I got into the trade,” she says in this episode of Auto Service World Conversations. “For the last 12 years, I’ve been baking cookies, raising money and awareness for November.”

Last year, Nguyen held her first “Nhuvember” event in Toronto, a car meet mixed with a car exhibit that featured live painting, live vehicle repairs and more. It raised more than $8,000 for the cause.

The event will be held this year at Pfaff Tuning in Woodbridge from 6-9 p.m. on November 16. It is sponsored by Canaweld, which will donate 5 per cent of total purchases from the Canaweld website using the promo code ‘Nhuvember’ through the month of November.

Nguyen’s passion for supporting men’s health is rooted in her experience as a woman in the male-dominated automotive industry. She explained that she has been fortunate to receive tremendous support and encouragement from her mentors, teachers and coworkers, and she wants to support those who may not be speaking up for themselves.

“I’m in this male-dominated industry and I know that a lot of women have a tough time — and have had and continue to have a tough time — in this industry. But my personal experience has been one of great support, warmth, encouragement,” she says. “I understand also what this industry is like for men in this industry, what society is like for men in general. I just feel it’s really important for those not speaking up for themselves to have a voice.”

For those looking to support Nhuvember, either by sponsorship, to buy cookies or otherwise, contact her directly through Instagram at @dear_nhu.

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A new report highlighted just how much cheaper electric vehicles need to get in Canada to reach mandated sales levels.

Unless policies or technologies change, the purchase cost of EVs needs to decrease by 31 per cent for Canada to reach its sales target of 60 per cent EVs by 2030, according to a new report released recently by Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) Yves Giroux.

“In the absence of a government mandate and regulations forcing manufacturers to sell at least 60 per cent of zero-emission vehicles, that’s the price differential that one would need to meet these targets,” Giroux said in an interview with CTV News Channel.

Last December, the federal government unveiled its Electric Vehicle Availability Standard, which outlines zero-emission vehicle sales targets for automakers. The standard requires all new light-duty sales in Canada to be electric or plug-in hybrid by 2035, with interim targets of at least 20 per cent of all sales being EVs by 2026 and 60 per cent by 2030. Automakers who do not meet those targets would have to pay into charging infrastructure.

The most recent statistics show that electric vehicles accounted for nearly 11 per cent of new vehicle registrations in 2023, but there are concerns that driver demand is slowing down. Growth forecasts for auto companies have plateaued, and concerns about charging infrastructure persist. The price of EVs has also pushed the cars out of reach for many consumers. According to the Canadian Black Book, the average cost of an EV was $73,000 in 2023.

However, the PBO acknowledged that consumers could save thousands of dollars in the long run by switching to an electric vehicle. According to the report, the ownership cost, which includes the price of a car and operating costs, of an EV over eight years would be $62,920 if the car was purchased in 2022, while the cost would be $71,680 for a gas-powered vehicle.

“It means that the relative price has to go down for EVs. It can be done by bringing the cost of electric vehicles down, but it could also be by increasing the cost of all the other alternatives, which is the gas- and diesel-powered cars and trucks,” Giroux said, according to CTV.

Some provinces offer their own EV incentives, many will wind down by the end of 2026. British Columbia is limiting the vehicle models that will qualify for rebates, while Quebec is cutting rebates by 60 per cent next year and phasing them out completely by 2027.

The new PBO report also assessed public charging stations. While it said the federal government’s EV sales target would increase the supply of charging ports in Canada by nearly 39,000 units, it does fall short of demand. 

“We estimate that by 2030 the market provision of public charging ports will be somewhat less than what is required according to a needs analysis commissioned by Natural Resources Canada,” the report stated.

Image credit: Depositphotos.com

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You’re in the people business. You just happen to fix cars, a shop coach told a room full of shop owners, technicians and advisors.

“You are not at the shop to fix cars. The purpose of any business is to create and keep a client,” said Rick White, president of 180Biz, during the presentation Business Boss Leader: From Creeper to Leader at this year’s Mid-West Auto Care Alliance’s Vision and Hi-Tech Training Expo.

And it doesn’t matter what the business is — everyone has the same purpose. And for this industry, it’s done by fixing vehicles.

He noted that the average shop loses 17-21 per cent of its clients every year. Reasons can vary from a customer buying a new vehicle to death to a family member opening a shop and the business going there.

Nevertheless, if a shop isn’t measuring how many clients they’re losing compared to how much they’re bringing in, it could spell trouble.

You want to get to know your client. White said to have “discovery conversations” with clients. You do this by making them feel seen, heard and appreciated — the ingredients of connection, according to professor and author Brené Brown.

So advisors have to learn to connect to the client by having a real conversation with them. “It’s about them, not about me,” he said.

He also advised to always have your antenna up and be able to read the room quickly.

“So it’s teaching them to always be looking and listening. And it takes time. It takes commitment and dedication,” White said.

And the function of any business is to run without needing the owner present. Think of it as raising a child. You birthed it, you helped it grow, you put it on the right path and you one day watch your child become their own person and live life without you watching over them.

“That is what a business is set to do. You are there to teach it and give it values and show it how to do things, and then you let that business go,” White said. “But we don’t do that.”

He brought it back to the fact that your business is there to create relationships.

“What I’m doing is using cars to create relationships. Because I’m in the relationship business, not the car business. And the sooner we understand that, the healthier our business becomes,” White said. “Because when you have a relationship with somebody, they’re not going to go to another shop to save $50.”

Image credit: Depositphotos.com

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It’s been a year now since Nick Brunet took over as the president of Bestbuy Distributors.

At the company’s annual Buy & Sell event, held in Vancouver this year, Auto Service World Conversations host Adam Malik sat down with Brunet to reflect on his year at the helm and more.

Brunet gives his background on how he made his way to lead Bestbuy, which included a tenure with 3M and what was meant to be a pitstop but grew into more within the mattress industry.

Now back in the automotive aftermarket, he talked about challenges facing the industry, how distributors like his are adapting to change and how the aftermarket is shifting.

Brunet highlighted the “magnetic pull” of the industry, noting the wealth of knowledge and veteran experience. He emphasizes the importance of exposing younger generations to the opportunities in the aftermarket.

“There’s an opportunity for growth within our own industry for those who are interested in a future in automotive,” he said.

He explored challenges around inventory management, a big one over his first year, trying to make sure vendor fill rates in managed fill rates going out.

“With having very little control over that piece of that supply chain, so a lot of learnings there,” he said.

He also explored the “shocking” breadth of products, with “a million active SKUs” in the system that can’t just be eliminated due to the wide range of products in this industry.

Regarding growth, Brunet noted its shareholder base has grown and is trending upwards. He attributed the success to the “communal feel and family” within the shareholder group.

“We’re truly friends,” he explained. “People have seen their kids grow up with each other and it’s infectious when you bring in a new shareholder.”

Looking ahead, Brunet predicted continued consolidation in the industry — and with those that have been acquired, they may be looking for change as they may not fit in well with the new owners and that could lead to new opportunities for growth for Bestbuy.

“So we’re going to see some probably discontent within those who are being acquired,” Brunet said.

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Digital natives, those who have grown up with personal computers, cell phones and the Internet, are set to significantly influence the future of the automotive aftermarket, according to a recent report.

In Lang Marketing’s Digital Natives Are Rewiring the Aftermarket’s Future, it noted that this demographic shift underscores a transformation in how automotive parts and services are researched, purchased and utilized.

In contrast to digital immigrants — those who adopted digital technology later in life — digital natives are inherently inclined to use the internet and various digital devices for making buying decisions. This generational divide is reshaping the aftermarket industry, with digital natives preferring online interactions over traditional face-to-face engagements.

By 2030, Lang estimated, digital natives will account for about 50 per cent of light vehicle aftermarket product volume.

“Digital natives and digital immigrants differ in three significant ways that affect their aftermarket behavior: Use of the internet as the primary source of aftermarket information, preference for online transactions as opposed to face-to-face purchases and the growth of platform buying,” it said in the report.

Internet, the primary resource

Digital natives instinctively turn to the Internet as their first resource for diagnosing vehicle issues, estimating repair costs, and locating parts or repair services.

This online-first approach contrasts sharply with digital immigrants, particularly Baby Boomers, who are more likely to seek information directly from repair outlets or parts stores through in-person visits or telephone calls.

Online transactions

Unlike digital immigrants who often see a distinct difference between in-store shopping and online purchases, digital natives perceive little disparity between the two. The speed, variety, and often lower prices associated with online transactions outweigh any advantages offered by in-store experiences.

Consequently, digital natives are less likely to value face-to-face interactions with parts store personnel or repair shop technicians when making purchasing decisions.

Platform buying

Platform buying has become particularly appealing to digital natives due to its efficiency, wide range of options, competitive pricing, and convenience. Platforms like Openbay, RepairPal and Amazon provide consumers with access to multiple repair outlets and parts choices, allowing for a comprehensive comparison of prices and services.

Amazon, in particular, has become a trusted platform for digital natives.

“Many digital natives are figuratively joined at the hip with Amazon. They love and trust Amazon,” Lang said. “It has become a powerful search engine that provides buyers with a wide range of automotive products and a growing array of automotive repairs.

This trust in Amazon offers a level of confidence that individual repair or parts outlets struggle to match.

Implications for the aftermarket

The increasing influence of digital natives is expected to drive profound changes in the automotive aftermarket. As noted, by 2030, digital natives will account for approximately 50 per cent of light vehicle aftermarket product volume. Their growing reliance on digital platforms for research and purchases will likely lead to a continued shift away from traditional retail models.

The report also noted that the volume and diversity of online-to-offline (o2o) purchases are rising, showing how consumers’ increasing use of the Internet is changing, especially with platforms, to make a broad range of buying decisions. That, Lang suggested, shows digital natives will continue to expand their use of platforms like Amazon to research and purchase vehicle parts and services, fundamentally altering the landscape of the automotive aftermarket.

“It’s inevitable that digital natives, driven by their values and purchase preferences, will increase their use of digital platforms (such as Amazon) to research and purchase vehicle parts and services in the future,” Lang said.

“This has profound implications for the future of the aftermarket as Digital Natives rapidly expand their share of the light vehicle aftermarket.”

Image credit: Depositphotos.com

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Today’s vehicles aren’t necessarily going be enough to attract young people into this industry and so a different kind of approach is needed, a shop coach recently advised.

Rather than trying to rely on young people developing a passion for automotive repair on their own, explain to them—and their parents—that a career in the trade is viable and stable while showing them just how they can be successful.

As the automotive industry grapples with attracting new talent, Jeff Furrow, owner of Wellsboro Automotive, addressed the challenges and solutions during a training session on apprenticeships at the Worldpac Supplier and Training Expo.

He highlighted the disconnect young people feel with modern vehicles compared to older generations and emphasized the need for structured career plans to draw them into the trade.

What’s shifted young people from coming to work on cars? Furrow suggested looking at what’s in a school parking lot.

Older generations had hot rods, Camaros or Mustangs that were easier to understand once you popped the hood.

“We worked on him at night, on weekends. But we can do that ourselves — we have the tools, we can find the knowledge,” he said.

Today, however, the complexity of new vehicles like the modern-day Mustang or offerings from Lexus, Tesla and BMW makes them inaccessible for DIY enthusiasts.

“They can’t work on this. There’s no way they can work on them,” Furrow explained. “So how do they fall in love with something they can’t do? How can they fall in love with an industry when they’re not able to be a part of it?”

So it means taking a different approach with young kids and their families. He offered a blueprint to show that there’s a viable, structured career path in auto care. By providing a clear plan the industry can begin to attract and retain the next generation of automotive technicians, he said.

Furrow noted that many parents are focused on the four-year university path without a clear plan, but they feel that a piece of paper after that time is nevertheless worthwhile. Suppose you go to those parents with a specific career path that you’ve created for their child that shows how they will progress and the career they will have once they get the education and training. In that case, you’re making a real difference to attract young people to the automotive service trade.

“Once I told them, ‘I have a plan for your child,’ they started listening to us,” Furrow said. He stressed that the plan must demonstrate structure and a real pathway to a career, and it must be in writing.

Luke Murray, a Worldpac Training Institute instructor, agreed.

“The attrition rate is terrible,” he said in the same session. “And when polled why [apprentices] left, the top two reasons [were] lack of a mentor … and lack of a career path.”

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Despite a rapidly changing automotive landscape, Canada’s vehicle fleet remains steady.

Canada has about 26.7 million light vehicles in operation. That’s up from 26.3, or 1 per cent, from 2022, according to Stats Canada data. Meanwhile, the U.S. VIO number has grown about 2 per cent since 2021.

A growth number that low indicates that at the least there’s no contraction of vehicles in Canada. But it’s not expanding a whole lot either, meaning the number of vehicles able to be maintained and serviced by the aftermarket isn’t growing.

Todd Campau, aftermarket practice lead at S&P Global Mobility described this figure as a neutral indicator at AIA Canada’s National Conference.

“It’s not growing real fast, it’s not shrinking real fast. But there are some external stimuli that are causing it to kind of stay flat,” he observed.

Campau highlighted a significant shift in vehicle preferences across North America, with a marked trend towards light trucks, including crossover utility vehicles (CUVs).

“We are seeing a rapid shift towards light trucks across North America,” he explained. “Passenger cars are essentially falling kind of off the cliff.”

Because there’s a low volume of passenger cars, that segment is aging rapidly. On the flip side, light truck age growth is staying more muted because they’re gaining more and more market share every year.

Turning to vehicle registrations, Campau provided a positive outlook, though not quite where they used to be just yet. After hitting 1.48 million unit sales in 2022, sales crept up to 1.66 in 2003, according to DesRosiers. Canada was on pace for 1.68 million units sold in April and that number has only grown to 1.78 as of September.

Slowly, numbers are going up to historical norms, Campau said. He noted that the Canadian new vehicle market showed resilience during both the pandemic and the Great Recession, outperforming the U.S. market.

“Actually, it’s a little better than what we saw in the U.S. The Canadian new vehicle market was pretty resilient,” Campai said.

Campau emphasized the importance of new vehicles entering the market for the health of the aftermarket sector.

“This is our pipeline. I know a lot of times we feel like it’s us against them; It’s OEMs versus aftermarket. And to a degree, we do battle on how to repair the vehicle,” Campau acknowledged. “But without the vehicles coming into the market, our pipeline dries up. And if our pipeline dries up in five or six years, that’s really bad for us.”

However, Campau pointed out that scrappage rates in Canada remain high, affecting the overall fleet size. Scrappage meaning any vehicle leaving the vehicle fleet, such as by end of life or exported.

“We’re still seeing pretty high scrappage. That’s a large number of vehicles that are leaving your fleet every year. It does seem like it’s recovering. But still, I’d like to see obviously a lower number to maintain that fleet growth in the upward direction,” he said.

Image credit: Depositphotos.com

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Industry leaders testified before a Senate committee, pushing for swift action on bills adjacent to the right to repair movement last week.

J.F. Champagne, president and CEO of the Automotive Industries Association of Canada (AIA Canada), Chris Kinghorn, vice president of strategy and growth at UAP and Daryll O’Keefe, president of Fix Network Canada testified before the Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Commerce and the Economy, advocating for the passage of Bills C-244 and C-294.

Bill C-244 addresses digital locks that currently restrict consumers from repairing or maintaining their products. By amending the Copyright Act, the bill would allow Canadians to legally bypass these restrictions without fear of infringing on copyright laws, giving repair advocates a significant victory.

Bill C-294, on the other hand, focuses on enabling compatibility between different systems and devices. This would allow for repairs and interoperability between various technologies, all while remaining within the confines of copyright regulations.

While these bills are not specific to the right to repair of motor vehicles, they do mark a significant step toward securing the right to repair in Canada and ensuring consumers’ ability to choose where and how their vehicles are repaired.

The trio separately urged the Senate to push forward on these bills and right to repair overall as they are critical for consumer choice. Champagne noted other countries as making progress and noted Quebec’s forward movement on right to repair.

Last fall, Quebec passed legislation to allow vehicle owners in the province to have protections in being able to choose the vehicle repair facility of their choice. It forces manufacturers to repair certain goods at “a reasonable price” to avoid having the consumer discard them entirely.

“It is critical that vehicle owners have a choice when it comes to where they get their vehicle repaired and serviced. But this choice could soon disappear if they don’t have access to their vehicle data,” Champagne stated during the testimony.

He further stressed that enacting this legislation will help ensure that independent auto care businesses continue to play a vital role in servicing Canadian vehicles, preventing a monopoly by automakers over repair data and services.

Both bills represent an essential step toward empowering consumers and supporting competition in the automotive service industry, AIA Canada outlined in a recap of the testimony.

However, the group has made it clear that their broader goal is the implementation of standalone legislation specifically for the automotive sector.

“Standalone legislation would affirm that vehicle data belongs to the consumer, granting them full control over where they choose to have their vehicle serviced or repaired,” AIA Canada observed.

“It is crucial that vehicle owners, not automakers, retain ownership of this data. This will ensure that consumers can continue to make independent choices while helping auto care businesses throughout the country remain competitive and serve as vital providers of essential vehicle services to Canadians.”

Image: AIA Canada’s J.F. Champagne speaks to the Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Commerce and the Economy on October 9

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What was once the Automotive Fellowship Society is now the Aftermarket Guild armed with a new vision for the future while making sure to honour the trailblazers of the past.

The group last met in 2019 and reunited Oct. 3 in Toronto, with major changes. With a new name, the group opened its membership to women — a group once barred since the original society was founded in 1960.

It’s an invitation-only event and admittance to the group requires 20 years of service in the aftermarket in a ‘responsible’ position.

Greg Stone, decades-long chairman of the group and sporting his Hockey Night in Canada sport coat, spoke to attendees — made up of members new and old, and members of industry press for the first time — about the group’s history and the change with the times.

He emphasized that the changeover from AFS to Aftermarket Guild isn’t a downgrade of any kind — the guild is still the important group that it always has been.

It is an area where competitors can gather together in a non-competitive setting and take in an atmosphere of fun. As the group states on its new website (more below), in the the AFS, “There would be no rules; no dues; no board of directors; no by-laws; no lofty aims; no Guests; and really, not much sense.”

Stone also announced a $10,200 cheque was being sent to Shad’s R&R, the longstanding aftermarket charitable golf tournament.

New members of the guild were also welcomed during the three-hour event, which included dinner and presentations.

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Hall of Fame

The capper on the night was the start of a new tradition: The induction of 11 aftermarket visionaries to the Aftermarket Guild Hall of Fame.

Part of the mission of the group is to ensure that the names and memories of the architects of the Canadian automotive aftermarket are honoured and remembered for all time, preserving the heritage of the industry.

Members of the inaugural class were:

• Don Chase
• Don Hannah
• Ed Coates
• Emmett Grant
• George Clark
• Greg Stone
• Fred Shaddick
• John Grant Sr.
• John MacDonald Sr.
• John Vanstone
• Tom Saxton

Presentations and bios were provided for each member. For those who have passed, family members or close friends accepted the honour on their behalf.

New website

The group announced a new website: www.aftermarketguild.ca where the Hall of Fame members are commemorated so that years from now, new and young members to the industry and look back on those who built the Canadian aftermarket. The website has more information about the inductees and background on the former AFS, how it came to be, how the Guild was formed and how new members can join.

Please see the photo gallery below and Instagram reel for more highlights.

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If a customer calls Jeremy O’Neal in search of a quick oil change, he will politely ask them to move on.

It’s not that the shop owner and coach with AdvisorFix won’t do an oil change — he’s just not interested in only doing an oil change. He’s interested in larger-picture vehicle maintenance that includes oil changes as part of keeping his customers’ vehicles healthy and running for a long time.

So when the customer calls with the simple request, he will tell them that he helps them maintain their investment in the vehicle and will complete a whole vehicle inspection. But to properly service the vehicle, it will need to be in his shop for four hours. And then gives them options for what time to come in.

“The customer who wants a quick oil change is not my target market for my business,” he said at the Worldpac Supplier and Training Expo in Nashville. “I love repairs.”

The way he sees it, his customers — and yours — should be adhering to a repair and maintenance schedule that has been created specifically for them. So when they come in for their next service, there’s a series of items that need to be completed. And an oil change can be on that list.

It’s the same reason why he won’t expand into mobile services. During his session, he played a commercial from Ford that touted its mobile vans that can do an oil change, battery service, health checks and more wherever the customer is located. It’s a strategy that baffles O’Neal. He’s sure the company has done its homework and found people want this service. But that doesn’t mean it’s good business.

Doing the small stuff means you’re missing out on the big stuff, he said during the session, The Essential Laws of The Profitable Shop Manager. And oftentimes, a vehicle’s issue can’t be figured out in the owner’s driveway. That’s why he wants his customers to bring their vehicles into his shop for a proper, full inspection.

“They’ll start on a car, can’t figure it out and leave it undone. I’m dead serious. Happens all the time,” he said about mobile service providers in his area.

Image credit: Depositphotos.com

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There are four generations in any given workplace in the automotive aftermarket, creating a widely varying dynamic when it comes to getting business done.

You have the Baby Boomers, (born from 1946-1964), Generation X (1965-1980), Generation Y, or Millennials (1981-1996) and Generation Z (1997-2012), many of whom are just getting their feet wet in the working world but making big impacts.

Each group prioritizes different things in the workplace — you can read more about it here and read the full study results here.

And you can tune into the latest episode of Auto Service World Conversations to hear from Jeff O’Hara, chair of the Modern Industry eXpertise (MiX) Council, a leadership council for the next generation of aftermarket leaders that is part of MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers.

He dives into the survey results, key takeaways for employers to work with the four generations and how each generation can help the other grow and succeed.

“People are willing to stay and grow within an organization, but people are craving that path — what is it going to look like for me?” O’Hara said on the podcast. “And how can companies, especially larger ones, how can you help provide that path to folks with the understanding that you can’t always get everything from an employer — and there are many different paths. But how can you get, especially the younger generation on board with growing within a company?

Tune into the conversation by clicking the banner above or choose your platform of choice below to hear this episode and find the full Auto Service World Conversations library.

Choose your preferred platform:

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If you’re hiring a technician, advisor or counter person in the hopes they will get better at the job, you may be in for a world of hurt, a shop coach warned.

It’s tough to find talent, yes, but when you bring someone on and it’s clear that it’s not working out, the onus falls on you to challenge them and get the best of their abilities to shine through, urged coach Rick White, president of 180Biz.

It’s not about what you hope for them to do, it’s about whether they want to get better at the job and you push them to reach their goals, he explained.

“One of the mistakes we make is we hire people and wait for them to get better. You have to be the catalyst to making them better — your expectations, your belief and confidence in them,” White said during the presentation Business Boss Leader: From Creeper to Leader at the Mid-West Auto Care Alliance’s Vision and Hi-Tech Training Expo in Kansas City.

Think about this this way: Be the person in their life who, when they look back 50 years from now, point you out and say you’re one of the five people who made them what they are today.

“How many of you have people in your life that have done that? That ‘I see something in you that nobody else saw’ and they demanded it from you?” White asked the audience. “It’s your turn to be that person. See things for others.”

You can help staff accelerate their growth by giving them higher targets. If you aim higher, you’ll hit them harder. He gave the example of a boxer. They are trained to not aim directly for their oppoent’s face when they punch — they aim for six inches behind their target. They end up hitting their actual target harder.

Think of that when setting goals for your staff. Put them a little higher — if they hit, great. If they miss, they still hit a pretty high goal. So you can set a goal of 10 per cent growth and hit eight per cent or go for 20 per cent growth and hit 15 per cent.

“So go big or go home,” White urged. “Dream big as if you could not fail. Because again, failure is not an option here.”

Image credit: Depositphotos.com

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Tesla’s dominance in the EV market has been a double-edged sword for the company: On one hand, they have the top market share in North America; on the other, their vehicle owners are plagued by long wait times and dissatisfied customer service.

That means the automotive aftermarket has a chance to swoop in and take some of their business, noted Carolyn Coquillette, owner of Earthling Automotive in San Francisco and founder of Shop-Ware.

It’s helpful that Tesla has such dominance. The overwhelming number of EVs being Teslas means “it gives us room to actually learn one specific platform, and then be able to drive a market around that,” she said at Worldpac STX this year.

She pulled out her crystal ball and figured it’ll be around 2030 when you see EVs outpace hybrids in sales, pushing the need for the aftermarket to be on the ball and prepared.

“And this, of course, assumes that the cars are going to sell the way they think they’re going to sell them,” Coquillette added.

Nevertheless, many EVs are a decade old, such as the Tesla Model S. While that model hasn’t sold as well as the Model 3 and Model Y, both are also aging, creating a growing aftermarket demand.

“But even the 3 and the Y are now five-plus years old. So obviously, that’s when the aftermarket kicks in,” Coquillette said.

But Tesla has been a victim of its success, in a way. While Tesla has been pumping cars out of its dealerships, it hasn’t been as on the ball when it comes to service and maintenance requests from customers.

The dissatisfaction among Tesla owners with dealership services is palpable, presenting an opportunity for the aftermarket.

“They haven’t been very good at fixing cars, which means the dealership experience is terrible,” Coquillette highlighted. “Basically, you can’t get a hold of them, it takes forever to get in there, their parts are not available.”

It’s part of a trend from dealers of all stripes. There’s a reason the automotive aftermarket is a flourishing industry.

“If the dealerships could have put us out of business, they would have put us out of business already,” Coquillette said. “They obviously haven’t. They keep screwing it up, they’re going to keep screwing it up, including Tesla. So that’s great.”

Image credit: Depositphotos.com

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The combined actions of U.S. and Canadian dockworkers are expected to delay goods movement and increase costs for both businesses and consumers

*Editor’s note: A tentative agreement is in place with U.S. unions; more details at the bottom of the original story

Ports across North America are facing widespread disruptions as dockworkers initiate strikes on both the U.S. East Coast and at key Canadian facilities and the aftermarket is raising concerns over the events.

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) has shut down all ports from Maine to Texas, while workers at the Port of Montreal have begun a 72-hour strike. These coordinated actions threaten to severely impact international trade and exacerbate existing supply chain challenges.

The ILA, representing U.S. dockworkers, rejected the United States Maritime Alliance’s (USMX) final proposal, leading to their first coastwide strike in nearly 50 years. Picket lines were set up at waterfront facilities, affecting all Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports.

The Auto Care Association, which represents the automotive aftermarket in the United States, released a statement warning of the disruption labour unrest will have on the industry. It further called on the U.S. government to put an end to the strikes.

The group noted that a significant portion of the auto care industry’s imports and exports ports are handled in the East and Gulf ports. Auto Care warned of billions of dollars in losses and delays in goods movement, impacting repair shops’ and distributors’ abilities to meet demand.

It also noted that estimates show that a day of disruption takes five days to recover. The announcement stated that almost a quarter of aftermarket parts come through the East and Gulf ports.

“Each day that this strike continues, not only does our industry lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars in business, but the nearly 300 million Americans who drive are more at risk on the road as access to service and repair of their vehicles diminishes,” Auto Care Association president Bill Hanvey said. “We are calling on the Biden administration to take all possible and appropriate steps to facilitate a resolution between the two parties so that Americans across the country can get back to work safely.”

The union’s primary demands include significant wage increases and protections against automation, which they argue is threatening jobs and driving unfair practices by foreign-owned shipping companies.

They accused companies of “gouging customers,” noting that the cost of shipping a full container has skyrocketed from $6,000 to $30,000 in recent weeks.

On the other hand, USMX said it had increased its offer to the ILA, proposing nearly 50 per cent wage hikes and better retirement benefits. They called for an extension of the current contract to allow for continued negotiations and avoid further disruption. Despite this, the union remains steadfast, saying the offer falls short.

In Canada, the Port of Montreal is grappling with its own labor unrest. Workers at the Viau and Maisonneuve terminals, which account for 41 per cent of container traffic, initiated a three-day strike on Monday, halting operations at two of the port’s busiest terminals. The Syndicat des débardeurs du port de Montréal (SCFP) union said it was frustrated over failed mediation efforts, saying their efforts to avoid the strike “have not borne fruit.”

The Montreal Port Authority kickied in a business continuity plan, hoping to minimize the broader impact of the strike. However, the port’s CEO, Julie Gascon, warned of the significant disruption to the flow of goods.

“Nearly $6 billion worth of goods are expected to arrive at the port in the coming weeks. The uncertainty surrounding our activities will have a domino effect on importers, exporters and the general public,” she said.

Small businesses are particularly concerned about the impact of these strikes. Jasmin Guenette, vice president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), highlighted the risk to Canada’s supply chain infrastructure, noting that this is the third strike at the Port of Montreal since 2020. He wants to see federal intervention to make ports an essential service.

“It’s simply irresponsible for the unions to take strike action yet again,” Guenette said.

These strikes come as the holiday season approaches, adding to concerns about supply chain disruptions. Everstream Analytics, which tracks supply chain risks, noted that the current situation could lead to widespread congestion at ports, especially as diverted cargo overwhelms the West Coast.

Update

A tentative agreement on the wage portion of the ILA’s contract has been reached. Ports along the U.S. East and Gulf Coast implemented restart plans following the strike. However, negotiations must still take place on issues such as automation and benefits. The deadline for those talks have been extended to January 15, 2025.

“We must now wait to see how quickly the returning workers are able and willing to deal with the huge backlog of ships waiting to offload thousands of containers carrying billions of dollars of goods,” analyst Peter Sand of Xeneta a market and analytics platform, told the Maritime Executive.

Sand further explained that he believes supply chains around the world will feel the effects of the stroke for weeks to come. However, The Maritime Executive noted that many ports that saw closures operated through the weekend and extended hours to help clear backlogs

Image credit: Depositphotos.com

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A recent paper has found that Canadians have little knowledge of data access and control in their vehicles.

Fewer than a third (29 per cent) of drivers say they clearly understand who has access to the data their vehicle produces, while most (63  per cent) want to know who controls that data, according to the study, Data dynamics: Exploring vehicle owners’ data awareness, ownership and sharing, published last week by AIA Canada.

The study highlights the growing awareness of the amount of data consumers leave behind as everyday actions — such as shopping, watching videos online and driving habits — produce data valuable to stakeholders for various purposes.

Through a survey of vehicle owners, AIA Canada, in collaboration with Quorus Consulting Group, explored behaviours, attitudes and preferences related to in-vehicle data, including data ownership preferences and expectations, self-assessed awareness of the types and amount of data produced by their vehicles and data-sharing preferences.

The survey allowed the research team to analyze responses across key demographic categories such as age and gender, region and various vehicle profile variables like type, age and warranty status.

Three-quarters of respondents believe the vehicle owner should own the data. Only 10 per cent said the vehicle manufacturer is entitled to it…

In addition to wanting more clarity on who has access to their vehicle’s data, more than half (51 per cent) of respondents said they want a better understanding of how much data is produced. Meanwhile, 39 per cent said they wouldn’t know where to find their vehicle’s data.

Three-quarters of respondents believe the vehicle owner should own the data. Only 10 per cent said the vehicle manufacturer is entitled to it, and just four per cent said the company that developed the technology collecting the data should have ownership.

More than three quarters (78 per cent) of respondents believe vehicle manufacturers have a responsibility to do more to educate owners about vehicle data ownership.

When it comes to sharing data, 74 per cent said they would wirelessly transmit certain vehicle diagnostics to their regular service provider to help keep them updated on repair and maintenance timelines.

Nearly half (46 percent) said they would send their driving behaviour data to insurance companies to adjust premiums accordingly.

The report acknowledged that knowing how much data is left behind and tracked from everyday actions can be concerning or overwhelming for consumers. While some may embrace data tracking by staying up to date with the latest devices and apps, others may not be aware of the extent of data collection or may be concerned about the privacy of their personal information.

The report is free for AIA Canada members or $199 for non-members.

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Automotive repair has long had a stereotype of technicians purposely looking for work in a vehicle to sell to the customer. But when done for the right reasons, it’s what every shop should be doing.

Jay Huh, a business coach at Shop Fix Academy and owner of CarMedix in North Carolina, encourages all shops to have their techs thoroughly inspect each vehicle that comes in so that both the shop and customer know of anything that could need work down the road.

He used his wife as an example — the only maintenance she does on her car is gassing it up. He would rather his shop be the one that is looking over that car top to bottom and ensuring it’s in proper, safe working order than the one that only does the oil change and moves to the next vehicle. The risk with the latter is that you could have an angry customer a week later when their vehicle suffers a failure and they give you an earful about how you didn’t catch a particular problem earlier.

It’s not about making more money — it’s about ensuring any vehicle that goes back on the road from your shop is safe.

“I want my wife to go to a shop that checks over the car and tries to sell her on the repair because I want my wife to be safe. I want my kids, my five-year-old and seven-year-old, to be safe,” he said during the session How to Run your Shop Stress-Free in Kansas City at the Midwest Auto Care Alliance’s Vision Hi-Tech Training & Expo.

That’s the mentality he pushes in his own shop and wants every shop owner to have in theirs. This isn’t about pushing a sale, especially one that isn’t needed.

“Just look over the car to make sure it’s safe for the customer,” he emphasized. “So stop putting words in our mouths and saying it’s unethical business. We’re looking over the car.”

Yes, there is money to be made by going through this process. It’s secondary but also important for your business. As many shop coaches have repeated, Huh told attendees that profit is not a dirty word.

“Every one of us here should be in business to make a profit or otherwise we’ll open up a nonprofit,” he said. “We’re here to make money.”

Image credit: Depositphotos.com

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According to a recent survey, the priorities of those working in the automotive aftermarket vary widely by generation.

The Defining Culture Survey shed light on what each generation in the auto care sector prioritizes, what they want to see in the work environment and how they view their peers.

The study was conducted by the Modern Industry Expertise (MiX) Council. It’s a group of industry leaders dedicated to working with the future generation of automotive aftermarket professionals. It was designed to find out how different generations in the industry view the workplace and asked how they view rewards and recognition, diversity and inclusion, technology and more.

Baby Boomers place the highest value on rewards and recognition, and by a wide margin. Almost a quarter (24 per cent) of respondents picked this as their top category, with just 10 per cent of Millennials, 11 per cent of Gen Xers and 4 per cent of Gen Z agreeing.

But Gen Z did put collaboration and teamwork as their top pick (29 per cent) with one in five Gen Xers and 19 per cent of Boomers choosing it. Only 15 per cent of Millennials agreed.

There’s more to come! Stay tuned for a podcast episode dedicated to this topic with Jeff O’Hara, chair of the MiX Council

The Millennials’ top choice was a supportive environment (23 per cent) but even that was lower Gen X (30 per cent) which also picked this as their top category. Even though 19 per cent of Gen Zers picked this category, it was the second highest for them.

But Where Millennials came out ahead of everyone was in the growth and innovation category, though just 13 per cent chose this one. They were followed by Gen Z (10 per cent) and Boomers (5 per cent) No Gen Xers picked this.

Gen Xers were tops for flexibility and adaptability (20 per cent). While 15 per cent of Millennials and 6 per cenf of Gen Zers agreed, no Boomer did at all.

Comments

When asked to comment about the impact other generations have on the workplace, there weren’t many compliments, if any, to go around.

For example, one Boomer comment blasted younger generations’ worth ethic, saying the older cohort is better.

“Seems like younger workers don’t want to get their hands dirty and only want a paycheque,” one Boomer wrote.

Something similar was noted by Gen X. “Younger generation wants the reward but [not] willing to put in the risk and time needed for overall success,” one commented.

Another Gen X noted that hiring bas become difficult because “some younger generations have different thoughts on long-term careers.”

For Millennials, they called out the older generation for being stuck in their ways. It was bought up multiple times that older workers cling to a “things are done this way because this is how we’ve always done it” mentality.

For Gen Z, they noted the need to move towards a different workplace environment. “Getting back to employee-centric is what upcoming generations are trying to do,” one commented.

While another Gen Zer appreciated the in-person work experience, they noted that “Millennials have streamlined the workplace with a heavy focus on technology making work faster and more efficient.”

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New data from Statistics Canada highlighted a significant increase in zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) registrations, reaching 12.9 per cent of all new vehicle registrations in the second quarter of 2024.

Stats Can noted that 65,733 new ZEVs were registered in Q2, a 30 per cent increase from the previous quarter. When hybrids are included, more than 106,000 low-emission vehicles were added.

Meanwhile, data from S&P Global Mobility line up with this strong growth. Its Q2 2024 Canadian EV Information and Analysis showed a ZEV market share increase, now sitting at 13.4 per cent (BEVs: 9.9 per cent; PHEVs 3.5 per cent), up from 12.5 per cent in the first quarter.

According to Stats Can, The majority of these registrations were battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), which made up 73.8 per cent (48,489 units) of the total ZEV registrations. The data show that BEVs are up 42 per cent from the last quarter and 36 per cent year-over-year.

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) accounted for the remaining 26.2 per cent (17,244 units, a year-over-year increase of 43 per cent). BEVs alone represented 9.5 per cent of all new vehicle registrations.

S&P’s findings show that the charge of internal combustion engine registrations continues to trickle downwards with ICE vehicles making up 75 per cent. Still a dominant number but down from 82 per cent at the start of 2023.

“Comparing ZEV penetration between Canada and the US, Canada continues to outpace its southern neighbour,” S&P’s report said. “Over the past four quarters, the US has maintained an average ZEV penetration rate of 10 per cent, while Canada proudly stands at 13 percent”

This sentiment was echoed by Erik Johnson, a senior economist at BMO.

“I was expecting it to look a lot more like the US, where we’d see flattish numbers for battery electric vehicles,” he told Yahoo Finance. “And we saw the exact opposite of that, where Canada hit the highest number of units they’ve ever had in the quarter, over 48,000.”

According to Stats Can, Quebec led the nation in ZEV registrations with half the total amount and 25,693 (new BEVs registered in the province. Ontario followed with 10,469 new BEV registrations, and British Columbia reported 9,370 new BEV registrations. Manitoba also showed growth, with 440 new BEV registrations and 296 PHEVs, up from 248 and 212, respectively, in the first quarter of this year.

By percentage, according to S&P, 21.5 per cent of new vehicle registrations in Quebec were BEV, more than half of all sales in Canada (52 per cent). B.C. saw 17 per cent of its vehicle sales be battery electric. The Yukon (8 per cent), Ontario (6 per cent) and Prince Edward Island (4 per cent) rounded out the top five. Ontario accounted for nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of all BEV sales.

S&P expects that ZEV market share will reach 16 per cent by the end of 2024, climbing to 21 per cent in 2025 and 30 per cent by 2026.

“Nonetheless, achieving the 2024 forecast could be challenging,” it noted. “Considering historical volumes, seasonality, and industry trends, a more conservative projection pegs 2024’s final ZEV market share at around 15 per cent.”

It also pointed out that long-term projections face additional clouds as Quebec will begin the phase-out of ZEV incentives starting next year.

“This reduction from $7,000 to $4,000 for BEVs and from $5,000 to $2,000 for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) could dampen demand as cost savings
for consumers diminish,” S&P’s report said.

This comes as EV inventories dropped 43 per cent in July compared to January, S&P noted. Hybrid (40 per cent decline) and PHEVs (38 per cent decline) inventroies have also fallen. Meanwhile, ICE vehicle inventories are up 22 per cent over the same period.

And there are few EVs that are in the aftermarket sweetspot — the average age of a battery electric is three years. PHEVs are, on average old, at 3.8 years. Hybrids are the oldest of the group at 4.9 years on average. ICE vehicles have an average age of 10.6 years.

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Vancouver played host to Bestbuy Distributors’ annual Buy & Sell event where shareholder members and vendors got together for a few days of work with some play.

With 200 people in attendance for the event from Sept. 15-18, the event kicked off with a welcome reception at the River Rock Casino & Resort, the home base for the event. Attendees networked with each other for the night on the resort’s marina as the sunset.

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The next day featured different activities for the group. One set headed to the Richmond Golf & Country Club while the other took a day tour through downtown Vancouver, Stanley Park and the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park.

Tuesday morning was dedicated to meetings between shareholders and vendors. Then the whole crew headed to Grouse Mountain for the group night out. Attendees got to take in scenic views of the Vancouver skyline during the cable car ride up to the mountain. They had dinner, networked and enjoyed each other’s company 3,800 feet in the sky in the chalet

The event wrapped up on Wednesday where more meetings were held before everyone headed home.

Check out the Instagram reel for highlights and the photo gallery below for more.

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It’s not often, perhaps even rare, these days that a technician sets off on their own to open their own shop.

But that’s the plunge Rui Silvestre has taken, opening My Neighbourhood Mechanic in Toronto’s west end.

The 2017 Canadian Technician of the Year from CARS magazine was the lead tech at Master Mechanic High Park, the 2021 Shop of the Year. But after the shop was forced to close, Silvestre set out to be on his own, rather than work for another shop.

It was important for him to stay in the community — after years of searching, he found a location just a couple of kilometres north of his old shop. And he was able to bring the entire team from his previous shop to his new one.

But things are different. He went from working at a location that was highly visible at the corner of Dundas St. West and Howard Park Ave, just north of Roncesvalles to being smack dab in the middle of a residential area at the top end of the West Toronto Railpath.

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He opened the doors on August 1 and took some time to chat in this episode of Auto Service World Conversations. Silvestre talks about his journey to being a shop owner, the changes he’s faced, how he’s staying connected with the community and how he’s looking to grow both his shop and the profession.

“It’s not as mainstream as we once were before, but I don’t think it matters,” Silvestre said of once being at a major intersection to now being in the middle of a neighbourhood. “The whole focus is community. So why not right in the middle of one? To us, that’s perfect. It’s right where we want to be.”

Tune into the conversation by clicking the banner above or choose your platform of choice below to hear this episode and find the full Auto Service World Conversations library.

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As business evolves, shop members of the Automotive Aftermarket Retailers of Ontario got up close to the latest changes and challenges taking place.

They gathered in Mississauga, Ontario, at the Hilton Garden Inn Toronto Airport West for the AARO Trade Show & Training Event to hear from industry leaders and get both business management and technical training.

The three-day event starting on Sept. 12 kicked off with Alan Beech from Beech Consulting and an occasional contributor to CARS magazine. He gave a training course on handling the busy season and the chaos that comes with it. He dove into strategies to improve your business and be better prepared for the fall and winter by offering strategies for better inspections, tire sales, customer service, labour rate and more.

After lunch, Murray Voth from RPM Training talked about the management process shop owners need to undertake. He gave insights during the program into how to take a measured approach and ensure processes are in place to meet customer expectations, including 14 points for management to run the business successfully. He outlined expectations for techs and service advisors — but also what they expect from their boss.

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Once that wrapped up, it was on to the tradeshow, which featured Cam Capriotto of Remarkable Results Radio as the opening speaker. Attendees then got to visit the booths exhibiting and take in the latest in products and offers.

The next two days featured Lindertech training. Scott Shotten gave two sessions, one on engine mechanical diagnosis with electronic equipment and a second on efficient and effective network diagnosis.

The final day on Sept. 14 featured Brenden Steckler, whose presentations included a focus on a streamlined approach to diagnostic dilemmas.

Many attendees commended the training program with some noting it was some of the best they’ve received in some time.

Check out the Instagram reel highlight above and the photo gallery below.

AARO Training & Trade Show 2024

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If a shop owner considers themselves integral to the daily operation of their business, they will have a tough time finding a buyer, warned an industry advisor.

Hunt Demarest, accountant and business valuator with accounting firm Paar Melis, couldn’t stress this point enough while speaking at a recent conference.

“If you have a day-to-day job in the business — you are a service advisor, you are a technician — there is going to be a group of people looking to buy a shop that will no longer be interested in your shop,” he said during the session Transitioning Your Business at the Midwest Auto Care Alliance’s Vision Hi-Tech Training & Expo in Kansas City. “Period, end of story.”

Those looking to buy a shop are looking for an investment. They want a turnkey operation. Otherwise, from their point of view, they’re not buying a business. They’re buying a job.

If the shop’s owner is working the front desk, has built a relationship for decades with customers and has decided to retire and sell, that could greatly alter the dynamic of the shop with that person gone. The success of the shop may be heavily tied to the shop owner being in the shop all the time.

After they leave, buyers will wonder if the shop will maintain the same level of excellence.

“So when you leave and you retire, I have to hire someone else or try and find someone on this, is this [level of success] going to be anything similar?” Demarest said, posing as a prospective buyer in this scenario. “You have 30 years of trust. You are probably the most trustworthy person here because these people have been dealing with you coming back here — am I going to have the same value of trust when you leave? Probably not.”

That’s why the owner removing himself from the day-to-day — and even the business entirely — is so important, he added. By not being there, the owner has put the business in a position to be sold. But that doesn’t mean they have to.

“If you get your business to a state where it’s profitable enough and you’re building this business to sell, it doesn’t mean that you have to sell,” Demarest pointed out. “The magic dream is … get your kids to run it, make them make all your profit, and you can just ride off into the sunset and live in Florida or whatever.”

If the kids aren’t an option, apply that thought process to a general manager, he added.

“If you can work yourself out of the business … then you can truly be in a position where someone comes to you” looking to buy rather than you searching for someone, Demarest said. “You can say, ‘Hey, everything’s for sale for the right price.’”

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Artificial intelligence can unlock the future of the automotive aftermarket, transforming business operations and boosting profits, according to an industry advisor.

Neury Freitas, partner at Roland Berger explored how AI can revolutionize automotive aftermarket businesses during the MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers Vision Conference. Highlighting four key areas, he told attendees about how AI can drive revenue growth, cost savings and quality assurance in the industry.

He started with improving revenue. Can it happen with AI? “We think that yes, you can you can gain market share — if your competitors are not doing the same thing,” Freitas observed.

AI tools enable businesses to better identify customer needs and stay abreast of industry trends, he emphasized.

“You can use AI tools and use cases to be really on top of everything that’s happening in the industry. And that will allow you to create personalized aftersales. You can better serve your customers,” Freitas explained. “And in doing so, you can also understand better the end consumer — why are they really wanting? Why did they are looking for?”

Freitas pointed out that many companies are not optimizing their demand forecasting processes.

“When we talk to a lot of few of you in the room, it’s shocking for us. A lot of companies have a very, very simple process of doing the demand forecast,” he said. “A lot of times [they] use historical data, without any real additional steps or machine learning. [There are] tools that are available right now like additional intelligence for demand forecast. So go and deploy those … they are going to help you there.”

Discussing cost savings, Freitas highlighted the potential of AI in commodity procurement during the session, Profitable Deployment of AI in the Automotive Aftermarket, based on insights from MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers 2024 Landmark Study.

“Can we save some money on our costs? Absolutely,” he said. “So the first thing that a lot of companies are deploying right now is commodity procurement. So you will know when to buy, what to buy [and] what’s happening with the trends. You will be able to track more information than a human is able to. And again, use cases they have been developed — it’s something you could go and deploy right now.”

Quality assurance is another critical area where AI can make a significant impact. “When you are producing parts, you can deploy visual AI tools to help make sure that you have the right parts. And then you can go in, identify if there is a problem, what’s the potential root cause and then go back and solve that,” he said. “So you start having issues and you stop having scrapping of production.”

Freitas acknowledged that not all AI use cases will be relevant for every business but urged attendees to look for areas where it can help.

“But off the bat, there will be a few use cases that you can go and deploy and be able to save some money or be able to capture some additional market,” he said.

Image credit: Depositphotos.com

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Canadian vehicle owners are facing rising costs for maintenance and repairs as inflation continues to impact the automotive aftermarket.

The J.D. Power 2024 Canada Customer Service Index—Long-Term (CSI-LT) Study found that the average cost of a dealership visit has climbed to $465, up from $432 a year ago, a 7.6 per cent jump. Similarly, visits to independent shops have increased, but at a lower rate to $273 from $262, up 4.2 per cent.

The study observed that macro-economic conditions and higher interest rates are not only driving up costs but also prompting owners to keep their aging vehicles longer. According to the study, 40 per cent of visits to dealerships and 24 per cent of visits to aftermarket shops were for repairs, compared to 31 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively, in 2021.

This trend, J.D. Power noted, indicates that more owners are choosing to invest in repairs rather than purchasing new vehicles.

“With inflation pushing auto repair costs upward and interest rates making larger-ticket items like mortgage payments and new-vehicle purchases more expensive, owners are being hit with a ‘double whammy’ and have to make different decisions in order to balance their budgets,” said J.D. Ney, automotive practice lead at J.D. Power Canada. “As more owners opt to fix their vehicle instead of buying a new one, auto repair shops have an opportunity to attract more lucrative business in this $13 billion market by excelling in the service factors that drive customer satisfaction, mainly saving time and convenience.”

The study also noted that saving time and convenience are key factors affecting customer satisfaction. Completing service within 90 minutes and a speedy send-off, including paperwork and key pick-up, are the two performance indicators that have seen the most significant increase in importance year over year.

Dealerships continue to dominate the auto service and repair market, holding nearly half (48 per cent) of the market share. Independent shops and quick lube locations capture 27 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively. These market shares have remained almost unchanged from 2023, the report noted.

Average annual visits also remain steady, with 1.6 visits per year in the dealership segment and 1.3 in the aftermarket segment, up from 1.2 in 2023.

With an average cost of $465 per visit, dealerships account for 61 per cent of the auto service market’s total revenue, while the aftermarket segment captures the remaining 39 per cent. These proportions have remained consistent since 2023.

On a 1,000-point scale, Great Canadian Oil Change (838) ranked highest among aftermarket service facilities, followed by Jiffy Lube (834) and Midas (813).

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The Young Professionals in the Auto care sector is the gathering place for the industry’s youngest professionals.

But there’s plenty of room for it to grow.

YPA chair Kari Hann sat down with Auto Service World Conversations host and YPA committee member Adam Malik to talk about her journey into the aftermarket, into the YPA — or as it was known when she first joined, the Young Executives Society  — and what her goals are as chair.

Hann also dives into what the YPA community means for the aftermarket and its young professionals. She discusses the opportunities that are there and why employers should support their younger staff to join.

But the community needs the support of the industry as well. Aftermarket companies should also rally around the group, Hann urged, to provide not only greater chances to network but also learning opportunities.

Listen in as she dives into the value of the YPA, her goals and what’s possibly ahead for the community.

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Despite a growing demand for skilled trades, Generation Z remains hesitant to pursue blue-collar careers due to societal stigmas and misconceptions, according to a new report.

As the U.S. grapples with an aging workforce and increasing labor shortages, the report, The Annual Blue-Collar Report: Gen Z and the Trades Need Each Other, reveals that Gen Z is wary of blue-collar careers, even as these jobs offer stability and growth. It looked into how Gen Z navigates education and career decisions, highlighting the need to overcome stigmas associated with blue-collar careers.

According to the report, 76 per cent of Gen Z respondents agreed that a stigma exists around attending vocational schools instead of pursuing a traditional four-year university degree.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that employment demands in trade industries are often outpacing the 3 per cent average growth rate of all occupations, signaling a widening gap in the workforce. Despite this, the report found that many Gen Z members are interested in blue-collar careers but they just don’t realize it yet.

The traditional and so-called “American Dream” is being reevaluated by Gen Z, especially as concerns about the economy, job stability and the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) grow. One-third of respondents believe white-collar jobs are less stable today compared to their parents’ generation, and 41 per cent worry that AI will reduce future job opportunities.

Despite these concerns, Gen Z identified attributes commonly associated with blue-collar jobs, such as flexible work hours (73 per cent), job stability (61 per cent), and overtime pay (58 per cent), as appealing.

The report also highlights the influence of parents, schools and media on Gen Z’s career choices. More than half (51 per cent) of respondents cited family as the most significant influence on their career decisions, yet 61 per cent said their parents have not discussed vocational school as an option. Furthermore, only 17 per cent reported receiving education on the benefits of vocational training, a figure significantly lower than for bachelor’s degrees, community colleges, military service, and entrepreneurship.

Media portrayals also play a role in shaping perceptions, with 35 per cent of respondents saying television shows and movies influence their career interests. Nearly half (47 per cent) believe that trade professionals are generally depicted negatively in these media portrayals.

The report also noted the need for greater gender balance in blue-collar careers. Nearly half (48 per cent) of respondents agree that women are discouraged from pursuing trade careers from a young age, and 58 per cent believe that women face more discrimination in these fields compared to other professions.

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Members of the Ontario Aftermarket Retailers Association and the Ontario Automotive Aftermarket hit the links in support of AIA Canada’s High Fives for Kids Foundation.

When the day wrapped up, $10,500 was raised by more than 100 golfers at the Shelburne Golf & Country Club in Melancthon, Ontario, northwest of Toronto, on Sept. 5

The day saw pros from across the aftermarket come out, from shop owners to jobbers to manufacturers and supplier reps. They played 18 holes on a beautiful sunny day and then headed into the clubhouse for dinner and raffle draws.

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Bestbuy’s Andy Murphy hosted the post-golf dinner. High Fives’ chair Ray Proulx from KYB highlighted that the foundation’s goal is to raise money for various charities that support children, often those that don’t get government funding.

There were 43 hole sponsors, plus a hole-in-one competition hosted by Federated Insurance, though no one took home the prize.

The day itself raised $9,000 with Federated adding $1,500 to the fundraising pot. Rob Hollinger gave $450 of his 50/50 winnings back to the foundation.

Check out the event reel and photo gallery below

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With a more complex supply chain due to more players and reduced reliance on China, the question was asked of supplier leaders if customers would be willing to pay more if it led to a stronger supply chain that was more reliable.

The question was tackled by Gino Amador, president of Snap-on Equipment, and Eric Sills, CEO of Standard Motor Products during the MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers Vision Conference. They emphasized the critical balance between cost and resilience, highlighting the lingering impacts of past supply chain crises and the evolving expectations of customers during the session The Race to Mexico … and Beyond.

“Nobody will pay for theoretical resilience. But everyone will pay for actual resilience when the other guy can’t show,” Amador asserted, capturing the practical reality of customer expectations.

He then impressed upon the industry to build strong resiliency measures by paraphrasing an old proverb: “The people that are resilient don’t pray for an easier time, they pray for stronger shoulders.”

Sills empathized with consumers, understanding why supply chain resilience is a hot topic.

“I think it’s because there continues to be a certain amount of PTSD still coming out of [how] the supply chain was in the last couple of years,” he said, referring to the pandemic that left the aftermarket with empty shelves at times.

This ongoing concern drives customers to seek assurances from suppliers about their ability to withstand future disruptions, Sills added.

Customers, he further noted, are increasingly wary of relying too heavily on China.

“They’re expecting us to reduce our reliance on China. We’ve been talking a lot about supply chain diversification, the ultimate source of supply, so on and so forth. And so it’s clearly top of mind for them,” he explained.

This presents an opportunity for suppliers to demonstrate their supply chain strategies.

“We do satisfy a lot of what you’re expecting,” Sills said.

However, Sills acknowledged the challenge of balancing resilience with cost competitiveness.

“As the shelves get replenished … they may be willing to pay a little bit more, but not a lot more,” he said.

Customers expect suppliers to remain competitive while mitigating risks associated with low-cost products from China.

“It’s an ongoing dialogue with all of our customers. And I think that there’s receptivity to it. But it’s still going up against the low-cost product and people will take some risks with that,” Sills said.

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CARS magazine is launching a new survey to get the opinions of automotive technicians and service advisors from shops across Canada.

We want to know what you think of your job, how your employer supports you, what you think about certain trends, what needs to change and more!

Take the survey by clicking here or using the form below.

The goal is to share your thoughts in the October issue of CARS so your bosses, employers and industry partners what’s on the minds of the people who keep their businesses going.

This is an opportunity to be open and honest as all responses are anonymous to help drive change where needed, reinforce what’s working well and share your thoughts about the industry.

The survey is broken up into separate sections: General questions, questions for service advisors, separate ones for tech and the more general questions to wrap things up.

Please set aside some time to complete the survey. We look forward to hearing from you!

Thank you in advance for your time.

Sincerely,

Adam Malik, Managing Editor

CARS

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It’s that time once again — CARS magazine is looking for your nominations to select the top shop in Canada.

So if you know a shop that has stood out in the last year and is going above and beyond for its customers, click here or fill out the form below to nominate them for the award, sponsored by Milwaukee Tool.

We want to recognize an auto repair shop that has captured the imagination of the community with its unique approach to customer service, dedication to excellence, training and improving the image of our industry.

The annual award is presented by CARS to recognize the best automotive repair and service shop in the country over the last year. The winner will receive a prize pack from Milwaukee Tool.

Last year, Art Turney’s Garage in Peterborough, Ontario was selected as the winner. Read about their story and why they were chosen.

Tell us the story of your pick — how are they demonstrating high performance in the bays and showing innovation and creativity, be it through training, marketing, customer communication and/or sales? Historical success is always a contributing factor.

We also place a close eye on contributions made to the industry and how nominees give back to their local community.

As the sponsor, Milwaukee Tool will present the winning shop with a prize pack.

So if you know a shop that is above the crowd, tell us. This is a peer-to-peer award. We’re looking for nominations from within the industry. We want to hear from jobbers, counterpeople, shop owners, technicians and suppliers.

Nominations are now closed.

The post Time to pick the Shop of the Year! appeared first on Auto Service World.

If you haven’t picked up your latest copy of CARS magazine, here’s what you’re missing out on.

TPMS manufacturers warn about the fact that shops are not updating their tools. They first raised concern during AAPEX in Las Vegas last year and we recently caught up with representatives from the companies to dive into the problem in this issue of CARS.

They speak to the challenges shops are facing when they don’t keep their tools up to date, from lost revenue to safety issues. We take a deeper dive into the issue.

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Many of us have been there — the jobber you were tight with has been bought out. There’s a new owner or it’s now a corporate location. Zakari Krieger explores the challenges of keeping that relationship.

Oil changes are one of the top maintenance procedures many drivers ignore. Brian Michel of Grease Monkey looks at how to turn that attitude around.

Want to grow? Want to add a second shop? Erin Vaughan lays out the challenges. But once you clear those hurdles, then you can really start to think about it.

Greg Aguilera offers some guidance on getting your shop where you want it to be. You need a pathway. Here’s how to get started.

We know finding talent is difficult. Alan Beech gives some insight into how your search process can be better to find the right person.

And there’s more like Letters, News, By The Numbers, Class Act and more!

So grab your copy today or read the digital edition here!

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With the rising prices of new vehicles, car owners are placing greater emphasis on maintaining their current vehicles. To help, they’re reaching for premium brand products, according to a recent survey.

A survey of 2,000 American car owners, conducted by Talker Research on behalf of Pennzoil, found that 73 percent of respondents are taking better care of their vehicles as new car prices continue to climb. This trend is driving a significant preference for brand-name products in vehicle maintenance, with 57 per cent of car owners opting for well-known brands over private-label alternatives, which only garnered 34 per cent of the preference.

Nathan Shipley, executive director of industry analysis in automotive at Circana, showed data at AAPEX 2023 from the last three years and it all suggested that numbers are flat in the private label area.

“But there’s not some major shift to private label like I think a lot of us would expect as we have gotten into a little bit tougher economic times this year,” he said during his session, Aftermarket Outlook 2024.

He noted that higher-income consumers are frequenting the aftermarket more often. Retailers, he said, need to account for that when thinking about their product offerings.

The survey noted that vehicle maintenance products are among the most regretted private-label purchases, ranking in the top three across all product categories in the past month. This finding further underscores the importance consumers place on trusted, high-quality brands for maintaining their vehicles.

Motor oil, in particular, is a key focus for many car owners, especially those who rely on professionals for maintenance services, known as DIFM (do-it-for-me) consumers. Nearly two-thirds of these consumers are willing to spend more on motor oil to protect their vehicle’s value over time. Brand familiarity plays a critical role in their decisions, with nearly 60 percent of DIFM consumers stating that it influences their purchasing choices.

The survey also found that consumers believe premium brands perform better over time and are more trustworthy compared to private-label products.

“Consumers are recognizing the long-term benefits of investing in premium products for their vehicles,” said Amanda Luce, Pennzoil Brand Manager. “This survey underscores that consumers see the tangible benefits of choosing premium brands … knowing that their investment will help to drive value for their vehicle over time.”

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Used car prices continue to decline as availability increases and new car prices have stabilized in the Canadian automotive market, according to analysis from AutoTrader.

The Canadian automotive market has experienced notable shifts in both the used and new car segments as used car prices continue to soften and new car prices eased their upward trend over the last few months.

Starting in the third quarter of 2023, the demand for used cars began to soften year-over-year, the AutoTrader Price Index for June reported. Along with the decrease in demand, an increase in used car supply — credited to strong new car sales and trade-ins — has led to a decline in used car prices. In June 2024, the average used car price dipped by 1.1 per cent from the previous month, settling at $36,342, an 8.3 per cent decrease compared to the same period last year.

That’s a higher decrease than reported by DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, which reported a 4.5 per cent drop in purchase price of passenger vehicles in June 2024 compared to June 2023.

New car prices, meanwhile, have shown stability since the beginning of the second quarter of 2024. Average new car prices in June were $66,807, a 0.8 per cent increase year-over-year.

AutoTrader noted that the stabilization of new car prices is thanks to manufacturers bringing back incentives, including more competitive interest rates, making new vehicles more affordable. In June, AutoTrader reported, interest rates on new car loans dropped to 5.3 per cent, down from 6.2 per cent in November 2023.

And interest rate cuts have helped as well. As more cuts are expected — two or three more before the end of the year — AutoTrader expects to see a boost in sales in the second half of 2024.

Demand for new vehicles should be met by adequate supply, AutoTrader expects. The group noted that ongoing pent-up demand from the pandemic will lead to gains in subsequent months.

AutoTrader’s Vehicle Affordability Index, which measures affordability in relation to average weekly wages, showed improvements in both new and used car segments. As of June 2024, it takes 29 weeks of average earnings to purchase a used vehicle and 54 weeks for a new one. It noted that these figures are higher than what was seen pre-pandemic, they’re down from 34 weeks for used cars and 56 weeks for new vehicles

BEV update

Prices for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) continued to drop, down year-over-year 14.7 per cent for new BEVs and 13.7 per cent for used ones.

That’s being driven by greater BEV inventory — AutoTrader reported that its website has seen a combined 109.4 per cent year-over-year growth for new and used BEVs. But there’s been a decline in demand, with EV purchase consideration dropping from 68 per cent in 2022 to 46 per cent in 2024.

Looking forward, used car prices are expected to continue normalizing, while new car prices are likely to remain stable, AutoTrader reported. The group believes vehicle prices for both new and used cars likely peaked in 2023 and a return to pre-pandemic levels is not anticipated in the near future due to various factors.

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It will be a long time until electric vehicles equal the number of internal combustion engine ones on our roads but a recent industry expert gave his best guess to try and narrow down a window.

With about 1 per cent of the share of vehicles in operation, EVs don’t make up too many vehicles on roads today. So the automotive aftermarket doesn’t need to worry too much about them just yet, noted Todd Campau, aftermarket practice lead at S&P Global Mobility.

“EV sales have slowed. I would not say they’re shrinking, but they are not growing at the rate that we’ve been used to,” he said during the Three Dragons session at this year’s MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers Conference in Detroit. “They’re still coming. This is normal. Don’t get too concerned about it just yet, but it certainly slowed a little bit.”

Beyond the fact that there’s a relatively small share of EVs, they’re also very young.

So to answer the question of how long until both vehicle types are on a level playing field, he looked at another automotive trend that has taken place over the last couple of decades.

“So I compare this to the shift from passenger cars to light trucks. Twenty years ago, passenger cars dominated the vehicle fleet at a rate of about 57 to 43 [per cent],” he explained.

Over the next few years, the gap narrowed and got closer to 50-50. It was around 2012 when we reached the point where light trucks took off and now passenger cars make up only a third of the vehicle fleet.

Bottom line: It’s going to take a long time for EVs with 1 per cent market share to get to about half.

“Even if you’re going to sell all EVs tomorrow, it will take us a decade or more to get to 50 per cent,” Campau said. “We’re not selling 100 per cent of these tomorrow. So there’s a long time for your internal combustion parts to [satisfy] the market.”

When pressed for a year, Campau pointed to 2045 as the earliest date for parity. That’s 21 years away. There are 300 million vehicles in the U.S. right now — that means 150 million vehicles or more will be sold in the next 20 years.

What’s stopping it from happening sooner? Prices are a major stumbling block.

“With the price of an EV, we already know that the majority of new vehicle purchases … are purchased by upper-income households. That’s only going to get worse with electric vehicles,” Campau said.

However, prices are also going up for new ICE vehicles. So if prices stay out of reach, that’s continued good news for the aftermarket.

“So you’ve got a whole segment of the marketplace that literally cannot afford some of these prices,” he said. “And so I think we could see elongation of the lifecycle in the ICE fleet. So I think we’re probably 20 years away [from EV parity].”

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While not handling much of the electrical, battery and other underhood components, tire dealers have been keeping busier as electric vehicles grow on North American roads.

Speaking at this year’s MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers Vision Conference in Detroit, John Baldwin, senior vice president of product at Discount Tire, shared insights into the unique challenges and opportunities presented by electric vehicles, particularly Teslas since that’s the most popular EV brand these days.

Specifically, the company had to learn a lot when electric vehicles became more common because these are heavier vehicles than internal combustion ones. For example, low-rise lifts — tire dealers need to ensure that their lifts are adequate to handle EVs, he said during the session, Voice of the End Customer.

“The lift points, the load capacity — all of those things — we have gone out of our way to learn,” Baldwin explained.

He noted that Discount Tire has become a go-to service provider for Tesla owners in many regions due to the overwhelmed state of Tesla service centers. “We get a ton of Tesla business. I would say, the majority of it, because their service centres are overwhelmed. And I don’t know that their service centres are excited to do tires, either.”

The company places a strong emphasis on in-store training to handle the particular needs of EVs.

“We do a lot of in-store training,” Baldwin pointed out, highlighting the need to stay ahead of the learning curve.

Chris Gardner, MEMA, hosts a Q&A with Discount Tire’s John Baldwin during the MEMA Vision Conference 2024

The company has also learned about its customers. “Most Tesla [owners] are pretty finicky about their vehicles. We have found that to be very true,” Balwin said.

However, EV owners seem to be taken aback by just how quickly tires can wear out on their vehicles.

“We do see a difference in mileage wear. Especially if you think about it, when Tesla first came out, they were not designed with tires in mind and their alignment wasn’t great,” Baldwin explained.

The high performance of EVs is a significant contributor to tire wear. “A normal EV can be a rocket. We’re not used to that,” Baldwin said, before humorously adding that “you can still roast the tires in 8,000 miles if you so desire. Harder to do in a Fiesta.”

Baldwin also touched on the behaviour of first-time EV buyers after their tires need replacement so soon after purchase.

“What we see [with] the first-time buyer, when they get their first set of tires replaced at about 8,000-10,000 miles [then they see the price tag] they get religion on ‘Maybe I don’t need that hammer every time I’m coming off the line.’ So that helps,” he said.

When separating out the heavy-footed behaviour with more conservative driving methods, Baldwin did note that EVs are wearing out tires at least 10 per cent faster than tires on an ICE vehicle. So EV owners are in their shops more often.

“So yeah, we’re big EV fans, if that’s what you’re asking,” he said tongue-in-cheek.

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Worldpac executive vice president Bob Cushing speaks during Worldpac STX 2024 in Nashville

The future of Worldpac is now clearer following the long-awaited announcement about its next owner.

Advance Auto Parts announced on Aug. 22 that it has agreed to sell Worldpac for $1.5 billion in cash to funds managed by global investment firm Carlyle. The transaction is expected to close before the end of the year.

Worldpac was put on the block in November last year after Advance president and CEO Shane O’Kelly said he’s been working with the board and management in reviewing the business.

Read more: Experts offer their thoughts on the sale

Advance’s Canadian business, Carquest, was also said to be for sale though no announcement or updates about it have been provided.

“The sale enables our team to sharpen their focus on decisive actions to turn around the Advance blended box business,” O’Kelly said in an announcement. “Proceeds from the transaction will provide greater financial flexibility as we continue our strategic and operational review to improve the productivity of the company’s remaining assets and better position the company for future growth and value creation.”

He went on to thank the 5,000-plus members of the Worldpac team over the last 10 years, when Advance acquired Worldpac.

Carlyle is no stranger to the aftermarket and automotive as its portfolio includes the likes of Axalta, specialty chemicals company Nouryon and Allison Transmission.

“We are excited to partner with Worldpac, a great business operating in attractive markets,” said Wes Bieligk, a partner, and Katherine Barasch, a senior member of Carlyle’s Global Industrials investing team. “Our proven track record in executing complex carve-outs position us uniquely to support Worldpac and its team as an independent company.”

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The news of Worldpac’s sale to a private equity group was met positively by industry observers and experts, seeing it as a good deal for both Advance Auto Parts and Worldpac.

On Aug. 22, Advance announced a $1.5 billion deal to sell Worldpac, a wholesale distributor of automotive replacement parts, specializing in import vehicle components, to a private equity firm, Carlyle.

“Advance has been struggling with operations and integration and they needed the cash,” observed Kumar Saha, columnist for Jobber News and U.S. vice president and Canadian managing director for Eucon, a global automotive data firm. “Worldpac had remained largely independent in their operations, so the sale was the easiest plug-and-play.”

The sale to private equity was not much of a surprise as many speculated that to be the ultimate path.

Former Worldpac executive and now-retired aftermarket veteran Joe Mercanti figured this was the best result for Worldpac, which was resource-starved as part of Advance and there being a mismatch in business models.

“It just didn’t mix,” he said about the two models. “They tried to mix it, but it just didn’t mix. So I think it’s going to be good.”

“Worldpac had remained largely independent in their operations, so the sale was the easiest plug-and-play.”

Ken Coulter, president of Ontario-based Specialty Sales & Marketing Inc., was encouraged by the sale, expecting it to lead to greater internal investment.

“Since the announcements of a pending sale last year, no doubt many initiatives at Worldpac have probably been slowed down or on hold,” he told Auto Service World. “With a path forward now in place, one can expect to see some investments forthcoming in logistics, human resources, etc.”

However, Saha thought Worldpac could fill the needs of a traditional aftermarket company, given its specialty within the import market.

“I am surprised that a strategic buyer did not target Worldpac, considering its import focus could fill holes for the likes of an AutoZone or Canadian Tire,” he told Auto Service World. “But PEs make the most compelling offers and may have made the most financial sense for Advance.”

Bob Cushing, Worldpac, and Shane O’Kelly, Advance Auto Parts, speak to the media at the 2024 Wordlpac STX event in Nashville

To that point, Coulter figured that other aftermarket networks probably checked in — and maybe even placed a bid.

“On a purchase such as Worldpac, it would have to make sense to an existing network in all aspects — strategic, financial, logistical, etc.,” Coulter observed. “If it fit all categories with an existing network, we would probably be reading a different news brief today.”

Mercanti said he didn’t hear about an aftermarket company being included in the process but figured if one ultimately closed the deal, they’d face the same integration problems Advance had because of the different, and unique, model that Worldpac is.

“You can’t mix the two. It’s two different things,” Mercanti said in an interview. “I think it’s great that it’s an equity company and they’ll see that Worldpac makes money.”

“I think it’s great that it’s an equity company and they’ll see that Worldpac makes money.”

And there doesn’t seem to be much of a concern about a private equity owner — any fears that the company may be slashed to either improve the bottom line or spun off again weren’t there for the experts we spoke to.

Coulter called it a good move. “Carlyle is extremely diverse and not oblivious to our aftermarket historically or currently,” he said, pointing to Axalta as being a market leader.

Carquest was also mentioned at the same time back in November as being for sale but no deal has been announced, neither has an update been provided. Coulter doesn’t believe there’s as much urgency to sell Advance’s Canadian operations.

“Carquest Canada is still a viable entity today with decent corporate store capacities and an extremely loyal associate following,” he pointed out. “There are also different means in which Canada can contribute to the transitions taking place with Advance/Carquest south of the border.  That does not mean to say that if someone came along with a cheque today [that] a sale would not take place.”

But Carquest will be a harder sell, Mercanti predicted.

“It’s going to be hard to separate it from what they have now,” he explained. “I mean, their computer systems are all hooked into Advance and a lot of other things. I think it’s not going to be an easier sale.”

He noted other large groups could be interested in Carquest, like LKQ or NAPA — but they’re so big already that they don’t really need it.

“So who’s going buy? I mean, someone can buy it just get rid of a competitor,” Mercanti said, adding that it could instead be an entry point for an American company to move north.

“Once key elements have been addressed, look for aggressive marketing and sales strategies in an attempt to garner growth and market share in the coming years ahead.”

Now that one of the biggest deals has taken place, what will change in the aftermarket?

“Private equity corporations don’t buy companies to stay the same or hum along as they were,” Coulter explained. “Canada is different, so we will probably see a different approach here, as opposed to the USA.

“Once key elements have been addressed, look for aggressive marketing and sales strategies in an attempt to garner growth and market share in the coming years ahead.”

Mercanti agreed and echoed Coulter’s earlier sentiments about Worldpac now being able to grow with this chapter now closing.

“They’ll put all kinds of resources into it and then grow it,” he predicted. “Because even when I was there, I know we were being starved of growth. I know if they put in 10 more locations, they can double their business.

“Their business model works. That’s the thing. The business model works.”

The post Industry reaction to Worldpac sale appeared first on Auto Service World.

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There are two ways to draw clients into your auto repair shop: You can hunt them down or farm them, according to a shop coach.

Hunting would be akin to reactive marketing. Shops were busy during the pandemic — but what happens as business levels off? You’re looking at your schedule and realizing you don’t have the same business you did the last few years.

“And then we scramble,” observed Rick White, president of 180Biz. “And here’s the problem with that: I call that reactive marketing. It is the most expensive and least effective marketing you’re ever going to do. It’s dialling for dollars. This is where you’re calling declined repairs, you’re doing this, you’re doing that to just try to get something in that day.”

And it doesn’t often work successfully. It’s the hunting mentality where, to use a caveman example, the hunter goes out in the morning and hunts down food or else they’ll starve. To use an example in the auto repair world, someone comes in with their vehicle and the service advisor tells them they need $4,000 worth of repairs. The client walks out and the shop forgets about them.

The industry needs to get better at farming where the seeds are planted for tomorrow’s harvest.

“So we’ve got to get really good at follow up where someone says no,” White said during the presentation Business Boss Leader: From Creeper to Leader at the Mid-West Auto Care Alliance’s Vision and Hi-Tech Training Expo in Kansas City.

He pushed for greater exit scheduling.

“Nobody should walk out of your shop without their next appointment,” he urged. “Sometimes two: One for the repair they need in two weeks and then the service in six months. But they’re going to have appointments every time.”

Because when there’s nothing on the docket for the day, the fear builds up. White called it “fear stack,” which happens when the shop owner worries about the lack of cars coming in, then the lack of money to make payroll, then fearing staff are going to leave, the shop will shut down and so on.

“And it’s because we want to plant the seeds today and we want to reap the harvest today — and nature doesn’t work that way,” White said.

He suggested this solution: Keep a panic button at a set number of days out. Don’t wait until you’re zero days booked out to panic — do it at five days out, or whatever set number makes sense for you.

That means marketing and doing things to attract customers all the time. Send mailers. Make calls to those you haven’t seen in a while. Do something to keep business constantly churning.

“If you do that you’ll never be slow a day in your life,” White said.

The post Are you hunting customers or farming them? appeared first on Auto Service World.

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The future of the relatively new trade agreement in North America is in question as trade concerns and the shadow of China relations loom large, an industry government relations expert warned.

Ann Wilson, senior vice president of government affairs for MEMA, shed light on the impending renegotiation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and its potential implications for the automotive aftermarket. During the Advocacy Town Hall during the MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers Vision Conference in Detroit this year, she highlighted the intertwined issues of USMCA renegotiation and the growing presence of Chinese suppliers in Mexico, emphasizing the complex dynamics at play.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was renegotiated and transformed into the USMCA, which came into effect on July 1, 2020. The USMCA was designed to include updated provisions to address modern trade issues, ranging from digital trade to intellectual property to labour standards.

The deal is up for renegotiation in 2026.

However, Wilson noted the critical intersection of this renegotiation with the increasing number of Chinese suppliers in Mexico. “You see how these two issues are going to be interwoven. And how this government — the Biden administration, the Trump administration, Congress — is going to find lots of different ways not just to tariff products from China, but potentially prohibit the importation of those products overall,” she said.

While the content dispute resolution that the U.S. lost to Canada and Mexico early last year was primarily an OE issue, it has broader implications for the automotive sector, Wilson explained.

“Canada, the United States and Mexico had to have a dispute resolution [last] year, where they talked about the amount of content that would be considered USMCA content so you don’t have to pay tariffs on it. And this was for motor vehicles. The United States lost that battle because they wanted more U.S. content,” she explained in a simplified version of the conflict.

There is growing sentiment in the U.S. political landscape that trade might not be beneficial for the country, Wilson noted.

“And what we’re trying to say is, we’re pro-North America,” Wilson emphasized.

She argued that the North American auto industry is vital for competing globally against regions like Europe and Asia, including China.

A contentious renegotiation process for USMCA in 2026 can be anticipated, according to Wilson, and it may involve complex political agendas from all three countries.

“It’s going to be a fight. It’s going to be a fight within the United States. The ambassador from Canada, they have their own political agenda here, too,” she said.

Wilson noted that the renegotiation could potentially open up significant changes, especially for Canada. “So I think all three countries are preparing for a massive new look at USMCA in 2026.”

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In the fast-paced world of automotive service, trust and timeliness are two keys to customer satisfaction, an industry coach emphasized.

Those were just a couple of key items a customer wants out of their automotive service experience, Greg Bunch, a trainer with Transformers Institute and a multi-shop owner explained at the recent Worldpac Supplier and Training Expo. During the session, Superior Service Advising: The Art of Trust-Based Selling, he outlined that service centres need to focus on trust, timeliness and quality of service when a customer enters the shop.

Bunch stressed the importance of defect-free service.

“Service with no defects,” he explained, highlighting the anxiety customers feel about the quality of repairs.

“When they bring the car into a shop, they have anxiety that their car is not going to be fixed right. Most of them have had a bad experience somewhere,” Bunch said, adding that simply getting the job done right is an expectation, not a bonus to the customer.

Bunch underscored the role of service advisors as project managers once a sale is made.

“Service advisors, are we not the project manager once that sale was made? Now I know some shops have a dispatch person. [But] at the end of the day, if I’m promising Miss Jones that the car’s fixed correctly, I’m owning that. When that car is not fixed right, who is she going to blame: The guy in the back or you?” he asked, stressing the importance of accountability.

Timeliness, Bunch noted, is both a perception and a reality that needs careful management. Customers who drop their cars off early often expect immediate attention. In their mind, being at the shop right when it opens at 8 a.m. means their vehicle is being pulled through the bay doors at 8:05 a.m.

“Unless you ask them what their expectation is — and then manage it with what the reality of the situation is — you may have an irked customer on your hands,” he observed. “It’s on the shop to set the expectations of timeliness.”

Transformers Institute’s Greg Bunch speaks during a class at Worldpac STX 2024 in Nashville.

Bunch further pointed out that the perception of how long tasks should take has been skewed, with many customers conditioned to expect very short wait times for an oil changes thanks to quick-job facilities.

To manage these expectations, Bunch advised clear communication.

“Now if I reset that expectation and say, ‘Hey, Mr. Jones, we think [the job will take] an hour, an hour 15 minutes, but here’s why we do it: We have an ASE certified technician inspect your vehicle from bumper to bumper. We’re going to give you a complete health report. We are not just a place to change his oil. We look at the whole car.’”

This approach allows customers to decide if the service fits their needs and if they are willing to wait, he added.

Another critical aspect Bunch highlighted was the importance of customer service: Someone who is nice to them.

“Can you believe that? The gall of some people — they want people to be nice to them. Unbelievable,” he said tongue-in-cheek, underlining that being personable and kind is a top priority for customers.

“People buy from people that they know like and trust,” he added.

Bunch also emphasized the value of building long-term relationships with customers.

“People that know you are going to come back to you. They’re going to give you repeat business. Hopefully, nobody here works in a shop where their policy [calls for] a one-hit-wonder — cars come in, hit them as hard as they can and we don’t care if they ever come back,” he said.

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Three stores in Newfoundland are now part of the Vast-Auto family.

The Montreal-based auto parts supplier announced it added three new Parts City Auto Parts company-owned stores. Formerly known as Browne’s Auto Supplies, the stores are located in Mount Pearl, St. John’s and Bay Roberts, Newfoundland.

In the announcement, Mauro Cifelli, president of Vast-Auto, welcomed the new team members to the company, noting it serves as a springboard for the company to expand further in the province.

“The stores will continue to operate at their current addresses and their phone numbers remain the same. The team members are excited to continue to serve their customers’ auto parts needs as members of Parts City Auto Parts,” he added. “Our priority will be to capitalize on our high-quality parts, exceptional product availability, strong distribution network, and outstanding team members to deliver excellent customer service.”

These new locations add to Vast-Auto’s two distribution centers and seven satellite warehouses — five in Ontario — that support company-owned stores, independent partners and service centres across Eastern Canada.

The company added its latest warehouse in May in Oakville, Ont. The company noted the addition as part of its growth strategy, a move that was indicated following its acquisition by O’Reilly Automotive at the end of 2023.

“This is a significant milestone and fantastic opportunity for Vast-Auto and will be a catalyst to accelerate our expansion throughout Canada,” president and CEO Mauro Cifelli said in December in an announcement about the acquisition.

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What’s it like to take a road trip with an electric vehicle? We hit the road to find out in the latest issue of EV World.

With concerns about range, charging infrastructure and general anxiety, EV World editor Adam Malik decided to take an EV for a road trip to Detroit to see what it’s really like. He details his experience, what he learned, the issues he ran into and whether the trip was full of anxiety or adventure.

Elsewhere, we have experts from Bosch looking at the shop of the future that will serve EVs. While bog moves may not be needed now, it’s always good to start thinking about preparing.

 

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After attending the EV & Charging Expo in Toronto, long-time aftermarket executive Martyn Johns wonders why the aftermarket isn’t at the table to help drive the narrative around what’s important in the electrification transition.

This is a digital-only magazine, so click here to read the Summer edition of EV World.

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Despite rising sales, electric vehicles struggle to penetrate aftermarket product volume. As a result, according to a recent report, EVs have yet to make a significant impact on the aftermarket.

While they have made strides in the new car and light truck market, Lang Marketing noted that the presence of EVs in the aftermarket remains minimal. Despite a growing share of new light vehicle sales, EVs contribute only a small fraction to the volume of aftermarket products, it said in its report, EV Aftermarket Impact Barely Flickers.

Several factors contribute to this disparity, the group noted. First, more than 96 per cent of aftermarket product sales, excluding tires and accessories, come from vehicles at least four years old. Older vehicles, particularly those eight years or older, generate significantly more aftermarket product volume per mile than their newer counterparts.

Electrics haven’t been around long enough and there aren’t enough on the road to have a meaningful impact on the aftermarket sector.

Tesla remains the dominant player in the EV market, capturing nearly 60 per cent of BEV sales in 2023. However, for EVs to gain a significant share of new vehicle sales, other nameplates must attract more consumer interest — a shift that has yet to occur, Lang noted.

Internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles still overwhelmingly dominate vehicle inventory, with ICE vehicles comprising 98.8 per cent of vehicles in operation (VIO) in 2023 in the U.S., down only 1 per cent from 2016. The characteristics of the aftermarket, where vehicles under four years old contribute minimally and older ICE vehicles generate disproportionate sales volumes, have kept EVs’ share of the light vehicle aftermarket below 1 per cent in 2023.

A vehicle typically does not generate substantial aftermarket volume until its fourth year on the road, with significant product use occurring in vehicles aged six to ten years.

“Consequently, it will take many years for EVs to impact the aftermarket significantly, even if their sales continue to rise—a prospect that is becoming uncertain as their 2024 sales growth slows,” Lang said.

“While EVs capture headlines and new vehicle market share, their journey to meaningful aftermarket influence remains a long road ahead.”

The post How big is the impact of EVs on the aftermarket? appeared first on Auto Service World.

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Improperly valuing how much rent you charge to yourself as the landowner and shop owner can mistakenly impact your financials when looking to sell your business.

Rent considerations are essential when looking to either buy or sell an auto repair shop. It could be the make or break of a deal.

A shop owner who also owns the land is likely giving themselves a large break on rent. This can cause significant issues, warned Hunt Demarest, accountant and business valuator with accounting firm Paar Melis, which deals exclusively with the automotive aftermarket.

The shop owner could be charging rent at a land value that was done 10, 20 or 30 years ago. When was the last time the shop owner had an appraisal done? Land values have shot up in recent times so that rental payment that was figured out decades years ago may be out of whack today.

Because if a shop owner is serious about selling, they need to figure out the fair market value of renting that property if they keep the land in the transaction. The buyer’s rental payment could double. So that information needs to be in the financial documents, Demarest said during the session Transitioning Your Business at the Midwest Auto Care Alliance’s Vision Hi-Tech Training & Expo in Kansas City.

“So even though it looks like his business was profitable … it was severely, severely diminished” once the proper rent calculations are added in, he explained.

If it ends up that rent should be doubled, the buyer will now be paying that new amount. The shop’s profitability going forward isn’t what was thought to be believed from the onset of negotiations.

“From a tax perspective, nine times out of 10, how much you pay yourself in rent does not save money on taxes, does not make you money on taxes, it has no bearing in mind,” Demarest said. “You are literally taking money out of your right pocket, putting it in your left pocket.”

What a shop owner should be doing is paying rent at fair market value at all times. This is more attractive to the buyer because they see what the rent’s been for the last five years and have a good idea of what their expenses will be.

Furthermore, shop owners typically build their businesses to make enough money to cover their expenses. So if a shop marks down its rent as $150,000 when it should be $300,000, there’s a gap that’s not being covered.

And if the rent is kept low for the new buyer, the seller isn’t getting proper value for their shop.

“So if I’m a new person, I’m coming into the shop, I’m buying a shop that does $1.5 million a year that I have to commit $300,000 of that to rent, [that’s] 20 per cent,” Demarest said.

The post How rent can disrupt your shop’s sale appeared first on Auto Service World.

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Jobber News is excited to announce the launch of a new survey aimed at gathering the opinions of counter professionals at jobber stores across Canada.

We want to hear from you about your job satisfaction, the support you receive from your employer, your experiences with shop and retail customers, the industry trends affecting you and much more.

Our goal is to feature your insights in the September issue of Jobber News, providing jobber store owners nationwide with a glimpse into the minds of their frontline employees.

This survey is your chance to be open and honest. All responses are anonymous, ensuring your feedback helps drive necessary changes and reinforces what’s working well.

Please take a few moments to complete the survey, which is available through this link and in the form below We look forward to hearing from you!

Thank you in advance for your time and participation.

Sincerely,

Adam Malik, Managing Editor

Jobber News

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The top job of a service advisor is to get a customer to come through the door when the auto shop’s phone rings, even if that customer is just trying to get the price of a repair.

Jay Huh, a business coach at Shop Fix Academy and owner of CarMedix in North Carolina, called it “curb selling” during the session How to Run your Shop Stress Free at the Midwest Auto Care Alliance’s Vision Hi-Tech Training & Expo in Kansas City.

The customer is calling to get a price on a job. But it can be impossible to offer a proper quote over the phone. The customer may think the water pump is the problem. What happens when you quote them the price for a water pump replacement, they bring the car in and it turns out to be an issue with the head gasket?

“And then the quote goes from being $800 over the phone and then suddenly it’s $4,000. You think the customer’s going to be happy?” Huh asked.

Or, say the problem is indeed the water pump. But the customer tried to work on it themselves and every single bolt is stripped. “What then? Are you still going to charge them $800?” Huh wondered.

So never price over the phone, he urged.

But never discount their value as a customer. Just because they asked for a price doesn’t mean they’re a bad customer. They’re not going to ask if your techs are Red Seal or ASE Certified.

“What’s the only question that our customers know how to ask? It’s the price,” Huh explained. “We automatically write them off” when they ask about price.

Rather than dismissing the customer outright, the service advisor should be asking follow-up questions to get the customer through the door. If they say it’s the water pump, ask them how they know that. Suggest to them to bring the vehicle in to make sure.

If they say another shop said so and they’re doing price comparisons, tell them to bring it in for a second opinion. Offer a free 15-minute inspection of the vehicle. Explain to them that you’ll have your master technician go through the vehicle to make sure the issue is with the water pump. Offer for them to come in at a specific time.

Tell the customer: We’ll give you an accurate price. I don’t want to just throw a price out there. I want to give you a price we can stand behind.

“Would that not get the customer in the door? Does that not build value for your shop?” Huh said.

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If there’s one issue that’s going to change the automotive aftermarket more than anything, it’s the economic and political relationship between the United States and China, an industry advocate predicted.

At the MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers Vision Conference in Detroit, Ann Wilson, senior vice president of government affairs for MEMA, delivered a critical analysis of the evolving economic relationship between the two countries and underscored the significant implications of ongoing and potential future tariffs, as well as the challenges posed by tariff evasion and the increasing presence of Chinese suppliers in North America.

In short, it’s a complex landscape to navigate and aftermarket suppliers must be prepared to respond to these geopolitical and economic developments.

Wilson emphasized the likely continuation and expansion of the Section 301 tariffs under the Biden administration. These tariffs are trade sanctions imposed by the U.S. on various Chinese goods in response to Chinese trade practices, including intellectual property theft and forced technology transfer. They kicked in under then-president Donald Trump in 2018, affecting a wide range of products and aimed to pressure China into making trade policy changes beneficial to the U.S.

It wouldn’t surprise Murray to not only see the tariffs continue but possibly expand should Democrats win the November election. “President Trump has already said that, if he’s in office, he’s going to expand some of those tariffs to 50 per cent,” she added.

Steel and aluminum tariffs are currently at 25 per cent.

Wilson highlighted the problem of tariff evasion, describing a practice where parts are shipped from China to Thailand, repackaged and then imported into the United States.

“Folks, that is not substantial transformational of a part. That’s fraud and it’s against the law. And we’ve seen the Department of Justice really hone in on that,” she stated.

‘Substantial transformation’ is a concept to determine a product’s country of origin for tariff purposes. Substantial transformation is considered to have taken place when a product, such as an automotive part, goes through significant manufacturing or processing in a country, changing its name, character or use. For example, auto parts from various countries assembled into a functional vehicle in another country might be considered substantially transformed. This would alter its origin for tariff classification. But, as Wilson pointed out, simply changing the box it comes in does not qualify.

Furthermore, the shifting landscape includes a notable increase in Chinese suppliers setting up operations in Mexico. “We have some members who are vehemently opposed to this and want us to do something — that something has yet to be defined, but they want us to do something,” Wilson noted.

She added, however, that other members are more accepting as long as the competition remains fair and everyone plays by the same rules.

Wilson pointed out that the U.S. government is considering a more stringent approach beyond tariffs. “What the government is really looking at is, we’re not just going to tariff goods coming from China, either through Mexico, Thailand or anyplace else — we’re going to prohibit them,” she explained.

This could have far-reaching consequences, particularly in areas involving advanced automotive technologies.

“So what they’re saying on information technology is, ‘If you’re part of this list, we’re going to prohibit the ability to bring that technology into the United States,’” Wilson said.

She highlighted that this prohibition could affect a wide range of automotive technologies, not just fully automated vehicles.

“Keep in mind, in that list of things like (automated emergency braking), lane keeping devices, backup cameras,” Wilson said, noting the political pressure to ban the importation of Chinese electric vehicles as a driving factor.

The post Why tensions with China will have big aftermarket impact appeared first on Auto Service World.

We’re looking for the top jobber in Canada once again!

We’re looking for a deserving winner of the prestigious Jobber of the Year Award, recognizing the best of the best in the automotive aftermarket. Who deserves the recognition?

Presented by Jobber News, nominations are now open for the award to recognize the top jobber in Canada. Chieftain Auto Parts in Prince George, B.C. won the award last year. Tell us who you think should be this year’s winner!

Nominate now: Jobber of the Year Nomination Page

While a track record of success is helpful, we’re looking for businesses that have innovated or shown excellence within the last year. We’re looking for a good story. What makes them special? What are they doing to stand out in the market? What differentiates them in the eyes of the customer?

We also pay attention to how the nominee supports the industry and their local community.

This is a peer-to-peer award. We’re looking for nominations from within the industry. We want to hear from jobbers, their employees, shop owners, technicians and suppliers.

Remember — the more details you can provide, the better we can judge who the most deserving candidates are.

Nominations close September 18, 2024. You can nominate a jobber through the form in this link or below.

Feature photo: Trevor Heinze and Jayne Kelly, owners of Chieftain Auto Parts, winner of the 2023 Jobber of the Year Award

Nominations are now closed.

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A sense of normalcy is returning to the Canadian market and the automotive sector stands to benefit, according to an industry observer.

Speaking at AIA Canada’s National Conference in April, Todd Campau gave an optimistic yet cautious outlook on the Canadian economy and its impact on the automotive aftermarket sector.

The aftermarket practice lead at S&P Global Mobility noted that Canada is gradually emerging from the challenges brought on by the pandemic.

“In general, Canada is starting to come out of a lot of the pandemic-era issues. It’s not back to normal. But we’re starting to see normal factors are beginning to drive the business again,” Campau said.

The supply chain is showing signs of recovery. While issues such as unemployment persist, Campau suggested that Canada might be slightly ahead of the U.S. in overcoming these economic hurdles.

“We’re starting to see inflation in Canada softening. We’re starting to see the GDP return part of normal. All in all, I think it’s good,” he added.

Canada has seen two interest rate cuts recently, dropping the lending rate to 4.5 per cent. The improving economic conditions have positive implications for the aftermarket sector but Campau warned that the labour market continues to be tight.

“But it seems like we’re getting back towards normal behaviour. And so I think that’s good for the aftermarket,” Campau said.

However, he acknowledged that inflation and high costs remain ongoing concerns. That said, these factors can benefit the aftermarket by delaying new vehicle purchases, leading consumers to repair their existing vehicles.

“If they’re delayed in vehicle purchases, people have to repair the vehicles in their driveway now,” Campau explained. “We are happy to help with that as the aftermarket.”

Turning to new vehicle sales in Canada, Campau observed a slow but steady progress toward pre-pandemic levels. “We’re not back to the pre-2020 models, but we are moving in the right direction,” he said.

Campau expressed confidence that Canada could surpass the two million unit sales threshold again in three to four years. In a follow-up after the conference, he was what would be key factors to driving new vehicle sales back to a point not seen since 2017.

“I think it is the confluence of all the factors: More of a return to normal market drivers, lowering exchange rates, reduction in inflation and interest rate costs reducing,” he told Auto Service World. “I think all of those factors combined will serve as the catalyst for the return toward two million sales, potentially additional acceptance of EVs too and some lower cost options coming to market.

Campau doesn’t think pent-up demand will be a driving force behind increased sales, “but rather a return to a more ‘friendly’ economic environment for new vehicle sales.”

Yet, this recovery is not without its challenges.

“It has been a little bit slow in coming. This is not unique to Canada. This is the story across the board,” Campau noted during the session, referring to similar trends in the U.S.

Campau emphasized the delicate balance of factors that influence the aftermarket.

“One of the things that I think I personally learned is that it’s such a confluence of factors that drive the aftermarket. And maybe uniquely so because we repair the vehicle for its whole life cycle,” he said.

The current trajectory is promising, but the situation remains fragile, Campau warned. “If we see big inflation, if we see big unemployment happening again, if costs stay high, this could get muted.”

Image credit: Depositphotos.com

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There’s a bit of a tug-of-war game going on between manufacturer-recommended services and what the dealer tells customers. There could be conflicting information out there.

An automaker may say a maintenance procedure isn’t needed. But the supplier that makes the component in question says it indeed does? What happens here in this care? The automotive aftermarket can step in and break the deadlock.

There can be a disconnect between what the dealer tells customers and what suppliers tell the industry, explained Jeremy O’Neal of AdvisorFix and coach to technicians, service advisors and shop owners.

However, the customer is more often listening to the dealer. They don’t know what the manufacturer typically recommends. But there is one group that has access to both groups: The automotive aftermarket. And this industry plays a key role in ensuring consumers get the right information and save themselves from a potential catastrophic failure, he explained.

O’Neal used the example of a transmission manufacturer saying the fluid should be changed every 60,000 miles. But the dealer tells the customer it never needs changing.

The dealer is stripping out this cost to the customer, he told attendees of his session, The Essential Laws of The Profitable Shop Manager at the Worldpac Supplier and Training Expo in Nashville. Why? because it comes down to the costs for the consumer. If they see this $450 job that has to be done every few years, that factors into the customer’s decision to buy that vehicle.

So the onus falls on shops and their service advisors to get the right information from manufacturers. It can be as simple as visiting a tradeshow and speaking to representatives to get the full details. Then relay that story to the shop’s customers.

“You [could] explain that story: I was at a conference, I met the manufacturer of the transmission, here’s what they told me to do and here’s why,” O’Neal advised.

He then took out small bottles that showed clean transmission fluid and dirty fluid after 60,000 miles. The dirty vial was discoloured compared to the clean one and had bits of metal shavings floating around.

An example like this can quickly demonstrate why the fluid does indeed need to be changed, O’Neal explained. And it’s easy to do — get a sample from your technician the next time they work on a vehicle.

“So this is how you can start to influence customers on why they need to do maintenance,” O’Neal said.

Once the customer sees they need to do routine maintenance, he added, then you can create a customized maintenance and repair plan tailored for them.

The post Aftermarket’s role when dealer, manufacturer give conflicting info appeared first on Auto Service World.

Image credit: Depositphotos.com

As the automotive aftermarket navigates an increasingly complex landscape, an industry leader explored evolving challenges, particularly the role of China in the industry.

The automotive aftermarket is experiencing unprecedented challenges as it grapples with global supply chain disruptions, regulatory pressures, and shifting market dynamics, Paul McCarthy, president and CEO of MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers told attendees of his group’s Vision Conference in Detroit.

As a result, he emphasized the need for the industry to adapt and innovate to maintain competitiveness in a rapidly evolving landscape.

“Our customers are consolidating; they’re going global,” McCarthy stated, setting the stage for a detailed exploration of the industry’s evolving landscape. He pointed to legislative and regulatory decisions as major influences on the business, touching on issues such as right to repair, trade regulations, electrification, and sustainability.

“It’s overwhelming sometimes,” he acknowledged. “And if that’s not enough, for many suppliers, the supply chain is still a problem.”

MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers’ Paul McCarthy speaks at the group’s 2024 Vision Conference

McCarthy recalled to a pre-pandemic edition of this conference where end customers stated that a 98 per cent fill rate was essential. But getting back to that standard today is challenging due to the intricacies of the supply chain. The industry is “aggressively de-risking” supply ties to China. The result is a more complexity-rich supply chain “with many more countries” in the mix. And that hasn’t slowed China down at all, McCarthy pointed out. In fact, they continue to grow as they set up operations in other countries.

“So while U.S. parts imports from places like Mexico and Vietnam and India have been growing, we’ve also seen exports of Chinese parts and inputs to those countries exploding,” he said, emphasizing the interconnected nature of global trade.

One of the most significant trends McCarthy identified is the global expansion of Chinese suppliers.

“This is a new frontier of competition,” he noted. “And when we look back in 10 years, this may be the biggest trend that impacts us.”

He also noted that Chinese companies are setting up businesses in countries like Vietnam and Mexico to circumvent tariffs and de-risking efforts, complicating the supply chain further.

McCarthy also mentioned MEMA’s efforts to ensure fair competition, including working with government officials to shut down companies circumventing tariffs.

“Our members are absolutely pro-competition. But there must be a level playing field,” he asserted.

The post The growing complexity facing the aftermarket appeared first on Auto Service World.

If you’re debating whether or not you should make the changes needed to have your shop ready to service hybrids and electric vehicles, an expert in the area broke down what to take into consideration.

First of all, consider how many electric vehicles are out there that you can tap into at your shop, said Carolyn Coquillette, owner of Earthling Automotive in San Francisco and founder of Shop-Ware, emphasizing the importance of market evaluation before committing to new repair capabilities.

“How many of these cars are actually out there? How old are they to be able to come into my shop to the point that I want to start to prepare to work on them?” she listed as key questions during Worldpac STX in Nahsville. “But if there’s no market, there’s no reason to market to it,”

Coquillette drew comparisons to the already familiar territory of hybrid vehicles, specifically the Toyota Prius the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle.

“It’s also interesting to start to compare the hybrid numbers because we already have, anecdotally, a sense of how many Pruises a lot of you are already working on. My guess is you’ve made some money on Pruises; I certainly have. And so then the idea is, ‘Well, maybe I can also make money on electric cars,’” she said during the session, Positioning Your Shop to Service Electric Vehicles.

While EVs are gaining traction, Coquillette pointed out that hybrid vehicles will likely see greater growth in the near term.

Carolyn Coquillette hosts a class at Worldpac STX 2024

“[The number of hybrids] is going to get greater. And it’s going to get greater, probably faster than [EVs] will long term in terms of gross volume,” she pointed out. “So there’s actually a lot to be done with hybrid cars because hybrid cars are basically becoming all cars.”

She noted that the transition to focusing on EVs should be timed appropriately, using herself as an example of her shop making the switch from primarily hybrids to primarily EV-focused.

“So the idea was, when is there enough movement inside of the EV market to say it’s finally time for really going to focus on the next thing?” she said.

Coquillette identified Tesla as the current leader in the EV market, making it a logical starting point for shops looking to specialize.

“The thing that was the next Prius is Tesla. We can finally see that Tesla is dominating in this space. And it gives us room to actually learn one specific platform, and then be able to drive a market around that,” she explained.

Jack Rosebro, who runs a training center for Earthling Automotive on EV and hybrid courses, pointed out that hybrids are a good gateway to EVs.

“Working on hybrids is kind of like the prep course for working on EVs,” he explained, though noting there are stark differences as well.

“And for the Tesla, they’re very, very, very different. But at least you start getting some experience with diagnosing more than battery packs and doing more than just maintenance — diagnosing an inverter, diagnosing a DC/DC converter.”

Whichever route you go, it can be a fruitful one, she pointed out. The hybrid market, as she mentioned, has been around for a whole and will be for some time longer. EVs have been growing rapidly in recent years.

“So there’s value in both of these markets,” she said.

The post Should you do EV or hybrid repairs? appeared first on Auto Service World.

Image credit: Depositphotos.com

As the automotive aftermarket looks to leverage artificial intelligence in its operations, an advisory firm working with the industry outlined four steps businesses need to take for successful implementation.

During the MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers Vision Conference, Neury Freitas, Partner at Roland Berger, emphasized the complexity and strategic importance of AI in the auto care sector.

While cautioning against the belief that AI can be a quick solution, he outlined a structured approach to integrating AI during the session, Profitable Deployment of AI in the Automotive Aftermarket, based on insights from MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers 2024 Landmark Study.

“We don’t think that AI is something simple,” Freitas stated. “I’m not going to use ChatGPT or any other tool and then [expect] to get the benefits right away. We see AI as a journey.”

Freitas broke down this journey into four major steps, beginning with the critical setup: Getting the setup phase done successfully. This initial stage requires creating policies that define the parameters of AI usage within the company.

“If you do not have policies, please go and tackle that right now,” he urged. This includes assessing what guardrails need to be in place, what can be done, what can’t be done, who has access and who doesn’t.

“This is very important,” Freitas emphasized.

Following the setup phase, he recommended a three to six-week period, during which a task force assesses the company’s readiness and real needs.

“The real needs is something very, very important because some of the companies started implementing AI use cases without really knowing why they were doing that,” he noted, adding that someone had the money and decided to do something with AI without thinking it through.

“The idea here is to go and map the pain points of your customers, the pain points you have mapped, the use case that can help you solve those pain points,” Frietas said. “And in doing so, you will have a deeper understanding.”

Freitas stressed the importance of creating and prioritizing proof of concepts, urging attendees not to skip this step.

“Spend the time, spend the money to really go and implement the use case you’re thinking of in a controlled environment and see if you get the benefits you are looking for,” he advised.

He further urged companies to start with achievable goals, such as improving demand forecasting.

The final stage involves testing it out and making sure you’re getting the benefits you’re looking for.

Bottom line, Frietas observed: Get started now.

“If you are not a company implementing [AI, then] you will not be competitive,” he said. “So by using AI in the right way, we believe you will have a faster time to market, you’ll be able to have an improved market share, or you’ll be able to protect your market share. And then you will be more competitive.”

The post 4 steps in the AI journey for the aftermarket appeared first on Auto Service World.

It can oftentimes be a struggle for shop owners and technicians to get the management and technical training they need. But two shop owners made the trek to Nashville this spring in search of the latest education to stay on top of the ever-evolving landscape.

Rob Lang from Richmond Motorworks in Richmond, B.C., and Louie Solarino from Sam Garage in Markham, Ontario, attended the Worldpac Supplier Training and Expo in the Music City where hundreds of training classes were held, ranging from business management to technical.

During the event, they sat down with Auto Service World Conversations host Adam Malik to discuss the importance of ongoing training to stay up to date on the latest repair techniques for increasingly complex vehicles.

The owners also share the challenges they face running busy shops, including managing workload efficiency and accessing the correct technical information needed to diagnose problems.

It’s an interesting discussion that explores the evolution of selling techniques, the challenges of selling to different generations and the need for adapting to change in the industry.

Tune into the conversation by clicking the banner above or choose your platform of choice below to hear this episode and find the full Auto Service World Conversations library:

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Vehicles are getting older but the pace it’s happening is expected to slow down soon enough. Sedans are fading into the sunset. Electric vehicle sedans could also follow the same path.

Those are some of the trends taking place in the automotive sector. And while the demise of sedans has been an ongoing trend for some time, Todd Campau, aftermarket practice lead at S&P Global Mobility, pointed out that light trucks could be the next area of growth in the electric market.

Speaking during the Three Dragons session at the MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers Conference in Detroit, he noted that after average vehicle age’s jump this year, there may be one more increase left next year.

“And then it may start to plateau as we get back into normal cadence,” he predicted.

He also highlighted the demise of the passenger vehicle. In Canada, DesRosiers reported 86 per cent of new vehicle sales in 2023 were light trucks. In the U.S., it’s about 75 per cent.

“We’re really seeing the disappearance of the sedan,” Campau said.

However, he added, that’s not bad news for the automotive aftermarket.

“A lot more of these crossover utility vehicles do have all-wheel drive and other features that probably increase the overall ticket for repairing those vehicles and keep them on the road,” he observed. “So that probably is good news for the aftermarket in the long run.”

And this is a trend he expects to see take place in the electric vehicle market. Until recently, there haven’t been many options outside of passenger vehicles for EV customers. Even as more start becoming available these days, there are still not as many option as on the internal combustion engine side. But that will change soon enough.

“As we’re seeing light truck electric vehicles come into play, that’s what people are choosing on the EV side too,” Campau said.

The rate with EVs is about two light trucks for every passenger vehicle sold now.

“So as we’re seeing more [Tesla] Model X, Model Y, [Ford] Mach-E, Lightning [options], people are choosing EVs a little bit more,” Campau said.

And that means greater repair opportunities just as on the ICE vehicle side of things.

“On the EV side, I think they’re also actually demonstrating that they do need maintenance and repair. I think the news was a little bit early to say that EVs are not going to need any service and maintenance. We’re seeing that plug-in hybrids and EVs both require maintenance,” Campau said.

“So the biggest thing I think we’re going to see is more and more parts proliferation. We’re going to need more capability to repair diverse vehicles.”

The post Vehicle trends taking place now appeared first on Auto Service World.

Image credit: Depositphotos.com

With so many platforms to host video content, like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and others, it can be confusing to drum up a strategy of where you should be.

The answer may not be of comfort: You should be on them all, but your videos don’t need to be the same for each one, a pair of experts recently advised.

You may notice features are similar across all platforms. But some outlets are better than others depending on what you want to do.

For Brian Walker, owner and CEO of Shop Marketing Pros, YouTube is the best place to be because it also allows you to embed those videos on your shop’s website.

Not to mention that YouTube is the second most-used search engine out there. “And they’re owned by the first-largest search engine in the world. You really want to put your videos on here as you want them to be found,” he pointed out during the session Rev Up Your Marketing with Video Advantage at the Midwest Auto Care Alliance’s Vision Hi-Tech Training & Expo in Kansas City.

Then consider your target audience. Facebook is the largest social media outlet for people aged 35-44, Walker said. And just about everyone across all age groups has a profile anyway.

“You can pretty much count on [the fact] that your clients are on Facebook,” he added.

On Instagram, even though there’s a pretty even split between male and female users overall, Chris Enright, owner of Enright Automotive, said virtually all of his 72,000 followers are male. Keep that in mind when you’re making content for that platform, he noted.

Instagram is also good for shorter, 90-seconds-or-less content, preferably even under 60 seconds. It also has Live, which allows you to do real-time Q&As, information sessions or whatever you like with your followers.

TikTok has fewer active users than Instagram but skews to a younger demographic overall. But Enright will tell you his audience is on the older side with that platform. It comes down to what you’re creating there.

“It depends on the type of content you’re putting out. So it does make a difference,” Enright said. “Not everybody that follows you is going to be young just because the mass majority of people on TikTok are younger than the other platforms. The content matters.”

For Enright, when he started putting effort into TikTok, his following grew quickly. It stands at almost 62,000 followers. He does consistent Live shows now and has drawn upwards of 20,000 viewers.

“That’s the type of reach that you can get,” he said.

The post Which video platform is best for your content? appeared first on Auto Service World.

Image credit: Depositphotos.com

There is a trio of new factors that are emerging for distributors on top of the ones the industry has traditionally relied upon, according to a new report.

Historically, distributors’ success in supplying repair outlets relied on ordering systems, product availability, pricing, and timely delivery. However, according to Lang Marketing, these factors alone are no longer enough in the changing DIFM market.

But the three new strategies are: Being essential, helping them acquire new business and having parts on hand.

Technical information

This has become a new essential for distributors.

With vehicles becoming increasingly complex, access to technical information is crucial for rapid diagnostics and repairs. Distributors can partner with carmakers and parts manufacturers to provide this information, giving them an edge over competitors by offering valuable resources to repair outlets.

Customer acquisition strategies

Distributors can enhance their value by helping repair outlets attract more customers.

“This enables distributors to provide benefits beyond the supply of products, which is the basis on which most distributors compete in the DIFM market,” Lang said in its report.

It noted banner programs and online-to-offline (o2o) transactions as two effective methods.

Banner programs offer marketing and advertising support, strengthening the relationship between distributors and installers while boosting the business of repair outlets and increasing their product purchases.

Online-to-offline — commonly referred to as o2o — transactions allow consumers to purchase parts and schedule repairs online, benefiting both distributors and repair outlets. This strategy is particularly effective for common repairs like tires and brakes, with e-commerce leading the way. Brick-and-mortar distributors can also leverage o2o to drive more business to their shop partners, Lang observed.

Parts availability

Distributors can reduce the pressure for rapid part delivery in two ways. First, by enabling repair outlets to stock frequently used parts, and second, through o2o transactions that ensure parts are delivered before the vehicle arrives for repair. These strategies require significant financial and technical resources but can offer substantial benefits.

“These factors provide added value beyond order systems, availability, pricing, and delivery, which are the primary focus of most distributors who supply installers,” Lang said.

The post New competitive factors for distributors appeared first on Auto Service World.

Image credit: Depositphotos.com

Your shop will likely perform a lot better if you have proper heating in the winter and cooling in the summer, a shop coach wagers. Not only will your staff feel more comfortable doing their work, but it would also help with recruiting new members and retaining current ones.

In fact, Rick White, president of 180Biz, has seen how much more business a shop can do when the technicians are working in climate-controlled environments.

His father used to joke that the staff’s Christmas bonus was to turn on the heat for a day. All humour aside, White such working conditions are not tenable for staff. And your shop could be missing out on making money.

It’s the middle of summer right now and your staff are probably feeling it, especially your technicians straining themselves in the bays. During these days, techs could be working in unbearable conditions, sweating all over the place. During the presentation Business Boss Leader: From Creeper to Leader at the Mid-West Auto Care Alliance’s Vision and Hi-Tech Training Expo, White noted one shop owner who realized he could get an extra three hours per day on average out of each tech just by having air conditioning in his shop. The installation of the AC would be paid off in no time, White said.

If you want to know how much you could get out of your techs during hot and cold stretches, compare the work output on hotter and colder days to optimal conditions. Does work slow down when temperatures hit extremes in your shop? If you could have the same conditions all year round, then what kind of output could you get?

But what about the classic look of having a shop’s doors open while vehicles are you’re open and actively working on vehicles, one audience member asked. White has seen shops put murals on the doors to make it look like the inside of the shop as a creative solution.

One other attendee said they closed the bay doors years ago and business wasn’t affected. He installed an HVAC system, saw productivity go up and no loss of business. All you really need is a sign that clearly says you’re open, White said.

Another attendee noted that he’s someone who likes to shop at places that treat their customers better. So by treating his own staff better, he hopes that translates to more customers.

Another brought up the safety concerns. You don’t staff falling over because they’re overheated or get frostbite.

Not to mention, White then pointed out, that it’s easier to attract talent when you can tell them your shop is cooled in the summer and warmed during the winter.

“When you say ‘I’m looking for help,’ I would have ‘air-conditioned shop’ [highlighted],” he said.

The post Why you need AC in your shop now appeared first on Auto Service World.

The transition to electric vehicles can be done but the timeframe mandated by governments around the world may not make it possible to be done right, an automotive leader recently warned.

It’s all about creating a sustainable transition, Leila Afas, director of global public policy at Toyota Motor North America, said during the recent MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers Global Summit in Florida.

“We need to make sure we have the sourcing, we need to make sure we have the consumer adoption and we need to make sure that our supply base is able to transition,” she said.

The timing feels almost equivalent to a transition being made overnight to much of the public. What happens to parts makers when the average age of a vehicle in the U.S. is nearly 13 years and nearly 15 years in sub-Saharan Africa?

“So we still need to make these parts,” Afas said. “That’s a humanitarian issue — being able to replace and update these cars that are already there.”

Most people can’t afford the price of a new vehicle, or even a used one. EVs are generally priced higher than comparable ICE vehicles.

“It shows that it’s not [usually] by choice somebody drives a 25-year-old Toyota Corolla,” Afas pointed out. “So that’s the thing — we need to make sure that it’s sustainable.”

An attendee asked what would be a more realistic goal for electrification and if delaying it a handful of years would make a difference. Afas didn’t give a specific timeline but noted a change is likely necessary.

“The direction is there,” she said. “Let’s bend that slope a little more towards reality.”

The post Bending the EV curve ‘towards reality’ appeared first on Auto Service World.

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Automotive technicians can expect plenty of opportunities to learn about advanced driver assistance systems, turbocharging, electrification and software diagnostics in the near future.

Those were the key topics Bob Cushing, president of Worldpac, highlighted as growing areas of specialized training as the automotive aftermarket rapidly evolves. These types of classes will be crucial in the coming years, he said during a question and answer session with members of the media at the Worldpac Supplier and Training Expo in Nashville.

Cushing highlighted the importance of adapting to new technologies that will be paramount for the future of automotive repair ad will be a focus for attendees.

“I would tell you there’s going to be plenty more classes on ADAS, for sure, as that continues to permeate basically [through] all the new cars that are being sold,” Cushing said.

ADAS, a critical component in modern vehicles, requires precise calibration and understanding to ensure driver safety, making it a vital area for continued education. He noted that some shop owners have already recognized the value of investing in ADAS training, considering it the best investment they ever made.

From left, Bob Cushing, Worldpac, and Shane O’Kelly, Advance Auto Parts, speak to the media at the 2024 Wordlpac STX event in Nashville

Turbocharging, another key area, will also see increased focus. As smaller engines become more prevalent, the ability to enhance performance through turbocharging becomes increasingly important, he noted.

“Turbocharging, that’s obviously key, as far as on what you’ll be able to do to boost horsepower [and be able to] do a lot of things on small engines,” Cushing explained.

Electrification of vehicles is another significant trend that will continue to shape future training programs. “You’ll see that electrification is clearly going to be there, for sure,” Cushing said.

He anticipated more car-line-specific classes on electric vehicles, in addition to general training. The high voltage systems in EVs pose significant risks, making it essential for technicians to understand how to safely work with these systems, Cushing noted.

Software-driven classes will be crucial as well, particularly for EVs.

“The No. 1 issue you have on EVs is software. I think that’s going to be another critically important part of dealing with diagnostics and software,” Cushing said.

With software being integral to the operation and maintenance of modern vehicles, proficiency in this area is essential, he added.

Cushing further emphasized the importance of calibration training.

“It’s all about teaching how to calibrate. So when we think about what classes, we’re going to have, oh boy, that’s one great particular topic to know about — calibration. How to look at it, how to get it right, and do all that,” he said.

The hesitancy of some shops to adopt these new technologies and training methods stems from the potential risks and costs involved. However, Cushing believes that as the industry evolves, more shops will recognize the necessity of these investments especially with the recognition of the importance of proper calibration to have accurate, functioning ADAS .

“The concern there is: A mistake could be costly,” he said.

The post The types of training that will soon be in demand appeared first on Auto Service World.

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If you thought parts proliferation was bad now, it’s about to get a lot worse, an industry expert warned.

As average vehicle age climbs and a wider range of vehicles are on the roads, jobbers are already seeing issues with keeping track of all the parts these vehicles need — and stocking them.

But as electric vehicles now begin to proliferate at a quicker pace — Canada finished with a new high in ZEV adoption at the end of 2023 and Stats Canada reported a further surge to start 2024 — there will be even more parts coming through to service those vehicles.

It will take time to make a large-scale impact, but it will happen, according to Todd Campau, aftermarket practice leader at S&P Global Mobility.

“We’re seeing the same thing with EVs that we’ve seen with all other vehicles: Consumers prefer to buy EVs that are of the light truck body style,” he said at AAPEX 2023 during his presentation, Trends Impacting the North American Aftermarket.

And as carmakers add more SUVs, crossovers and pickups, the belief is that more consumers will start buying EVs. Eventually, the market will move closer to what we see with internal combustion engines — in Canada, DesRosiers reported, 85 per cent of vehicles sold are light trucks.

Yes, EVs make up a small percentage of vehicles on roads today so there’s a long way to go for them to make a meaningful impact, Campau acknowledged.

“As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day — [the U.S.] vehicle fleet of 285-plus million vehicles wasn’t built in a day and we won’t change it over in a day,” he said.

But changes are on the way. For example, Tesla is the current market leader by far but their hold won’t be as strong in the coming years. Consumer options are going to go from a handful of brands building EVs to upwards of 60.

“And so we’re going from a few brands to a lot of brands,” Campau said, adding that the market will jump from 26 models today to hundreds of models over the next few years.

That’s 300 more vehicles “that you now have to understand the products to maintain the repair. You have to add parts to your line for 300 additional vehicles, all the while continuing to maintain what you do for the ICE vehicles that are on the road today,” he said.

Yes, EVs have fewer parts. “I think in the short term, the proliferation of parts could get worse for a while because you’re going to have to have parts for EVs that are starting to grow — and there’s a lot of brands and a lot of nameplates, a lot of models — and you’re going to have to continue to maintain the already proliferation of parts for the vehicles that are in the fleet today,” Campau said.

Eventually, he predicted, companies will merge and the pressure will lessen.

“But some of the some of the new entrants may not last forever. So that picture will clarify. But in the meantime, there’s going to be some degree of chaos around that,” Campau said.

The post Here’s what’s going to make parts proliferation worse appeared first on Auto Service World.

A long-time fixture on Toronto’s auto repair scene has shut her doors.

Josie Candito’s Master Mechanic High Park franchise location officially wrapped up business on June 30, ending a 25-year run in Toronto’s west end.

Her shop was recognized with the 2021 Shop of the Year Award from CARS magazine, a recognition Candito proudly displays inside and outside her shop.

The shop’s future was a few years ago when the landowner announced their intention to turn the space into condos. Rather than set up shop elsewhere, Candito is retiring, making the announcement official last month through social media posts.

 

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She joins host Adam Malik to talk about her journey of being a shop owner without an automotive background, her proudest moments, what she accomplished, what she hopes other shop owners keep in mind as they run their shops – especially greater respect for technicians — and more.

Tune into the conversation by clicking the banner above or choose your platform of choice below to hear this episode and find the full Auto Service World Conversations library:

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It would be wrong to think about artificial intelligence as something that would help the automotive aftermarket strictly with customer engagement.

Instead, Ben Ellencweig, senior partner at McKinsey, told a room full of industry pros that it assists with what he calls ‘human engagement.’

“Human engagement is your technician, your customer, your employee and your supplier,” he said at the MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers Conference. “Anything where there’s some kind of interaction, [AI] actually is something that can be helpful.”

The question of whether AI can work isn’t related to your industry — it’s a matter of competence. For Ellencweig, someone who says they understand AI but doesn’t see an application to their industry has the wrong mindset.

“You can actually rethink, holistically, how you do things in your company,” he said during his presentation, AI & Vehicles: A Good Match? “How do you design a new product? How do you give service?”

He gave an example of research that found people preferred to speak to a robot when they had a problem. People didn’t care for a human’s niceties or the corporate script; they just wanted the problem solved. Take an airline cancellation — people would rather just give their reference number to a bot and have the system figure out an alternate flight and process a new ticket.

Now think about how it can be applied to your jobber store or service shop. Think about when you’re sending emails or texts to clients or staff. You want to personalize the message because it generates a better response from the receiver. But personalization is time-consuming. AI can help. You can put bullet points into a generative AI system and it can create a personalized message.

“I do think the application here … [is] just massive,” Ellencweig said.

The post How AI can help more than just your customers appeared first on Auto Service World.

Canadian jobbers had their turn to voice their thoughts about how shop owners are running their businesses. And they have concerns.

It’s all laid out in the latest issue of CARS magazine.

In the Annual Jobber Survey, jobbers overwhelmingly raised red flags around the training — or lack thereof — taking place with many of their shop partners. That includes management training for owners and technical training for staff.

Flip through the feature to see how high their level of concern is. Plus check out their responses when asked about key shop pain points like parts quality and selling parts at the same price to retail consumers.

We have columnist Greg Aguilera talking about the right time to take your shop from a one-person operation to a multi-employee venture.

Zakari Krieger examines the 80/20 rule system and why it may be a great idea in theory, your jobber parts are actually putting themselves at risk if they keep to that plan.

After an unseasonably warm winter for much of Canada, Erin Vaughan writes about how the weather shouldn’t dictate your business. If you’re planning things right, you should have a steady stream of customers, no matter the season.

Then check out our On The Road sections where we visited the Worldpac STX event in Nashville and Lordco Trade Show in Vancouver.

And there’s more, like Letter, News, Class Act, By the Number and more. Check out the issue today!

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An auto repair and service shop needs to be seen as convenient in customers’ minds because it sets the stage for future business, a shop owner and coach explained.

Turning away a customer is something all aftermarket shops should be avoiding, noted Jay Huh, a business coach at Shop Fix Academy and owner of CarMedix. Some shops don’t like to do just an oil change on a vehicle and would rather package it with other services or repairs. So a customer calling about just an oil change may be told to try the place next door. However, with the right auto repair shop software, businesses can efficiently manage even small jobs, streamlining operations and improving customer retention by accommodating a wider range of services.

But being convenient doesn’t mean taking in anyone and everyone. If you specialize in Hondas you don’t need to take in the BMW that rolls into your parking lot. What it means, he told attendees of the Midwest Auto Care Alliance’s Vision Hi-Tech Training & Expo, is that you can say yes and offer convenience to the customer who may need a last-minute oil change in between their kids’ soccer game and their mother’s medical appointment.

Bottom line, you want to make it convenient for a customer to visit your shop.

“It’s all about convenience. You never underestimate the power of convenience,” he said during the session How to Run your Shop Stress Free.

He painted the picture of a driver having something go wrong with their car on a Tuesday. They call their shop but they say to come by on Friday. If you’re the customer, are you actually going to wait those extra days before going to the shop, Huh asked. No, and what happens next is the customer will pull out their phone and search “auto repair shops near me.” They will call around until someone says they can come over now.

It doesn’t even have to be something major to show convenience to the customer, Huh pointed out, going back to the example of oil changes. Look at how many quick lube shops there are. That’s because they make it convenient to drop in and get an oil change performed, he said.

These places have led customers to believe an oil change is a 15-minute job. So when a customer calls a service shop and they’re denied an oil change that day, they’re put off. And it sets the stage for months down the road when the customer’s check engine light comes on or they’re in need of a major repair.

“Do you think they’re going to call your shop?” Huh asked. “In their mind, you can’t even squeeze them in for a 15-minute oil change. You think they’re going to trust you to get their car in for major repair?”

Look back to the last year when your shop was busy and you had to turn away customers. “Do you think you being slow right now might be the result of that?” he posited to attendees.

Here’s what he suggested: When a customer calls in need of an oil change or help with a failure, ask if they’d like to come “now or …” and suggest an alternate time, like later that afternoon or tomorrow morning.

“The answer is always now — ‘Can you come in now?’” Huh said. “It’s the ability to say yes.”

It’s these decisions that help shops have a strong customer base so owners aren’t stressed during slow times.

“You guys are stressed out because you guys don’t have enough cars,” Huh pointed out. “So these are the basic principles you need to have in place. Saying ‘yes’ this is one of them.”

The post The importance of being convenient appeared first on Auto Service World.

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Political strife and economic realities are pushing automotive aftermarket suppliers to find lower-cost options and reduced political tensions in countries other than China.

Indeed, companies there are recognizing the challenges ahead and are moving their operations out to the likes of Vietnam, Malaysia, Morocco and Hungary, observed Paul McCarthy, president of the MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers Association.

And, he highlighted during the MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers Global Summit in Florida, they’re moving into Mexico as well.

“This is a different stage, a different type of competition for the global industry coming from China,” he noted.

But that doesn’t mean the industry will stop doing business outright with China.

Much has changed over the years, McCarthy observed. China used to compete on cost thanks to low wages. That’s not the case anymore. For example, a generation ago, China’s wages were half of Mexico’s. Now it’s more than double. Suddenly, China isn’t as affordable an option.

“This trend is not new,” McCarthy said. “And it was inevitable as China re-took its place as one of the world’s largest and most prosperous economies.”

But even as wages increased, China sold itself on the expertise it offered over anyone else.

“The best Chinese companies, their advantage is based on expertise. It’s based on scale, in terms of aftermarket products. And increasingly, it’s based on EVs and EV technology,” McCarthy said.

Furthermore, China saw its exports increase five-fold from 2020-2023. That’s creating excess capacity, leading to China sending that off to its neighbouring countries.

So as business moves to other nations, there will be an increasing need for aftermarket leaders who can tackle global complexities. Trade will always happen and find a way, McCarthy noted, pointing to how much more aftermarket business is coming from countries like Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

“So our point of view is that the international aftermarket expertise to this world we’re describing, it just becomes more important,” McCarthy told attendees. “A more complicated world increases the need for professionals who can navigate that complexity. And it’s even more important to know who you can trust across borders to have those relationships and an uncertain world.”

The rules of doing business and what the aftermarket needs to adapt to have changed in the last 30 years. Those who can navigate those waters will come out ahead, he added.

Take a look at issues in the Red Sea. The region typically handles 10 per cent of global trade. When conflict began, that number dropped to 3 per cent.

“It’s amazing this decline that you see of the trade going into the Red Sea,” McCarthy said. “So a very concrete example of how volatility is impacting our business and we’re seeing it in our shipping prices and elsewhere.”

It all leads to the industry “trying to execute the biggest shift in the aftermarket footprint that we have had in generations.”

The pandemic accelerated disruption in supply chains, the biggest since World War Two, McCarthy noted. “It impacted everything.”

The aftermarket leaned into profitability by ushing in ultra-lean global supply chains following the fall of the Berlin Wall.

“That’s where the margin was,” McCarthy explained. However, he later observed, “That may never return.”

Business forebearers had a “period of great moderation” where they had global stability and could find efficiencies, he added. “Our world seems to have changed.”

The post Why China will always be a key partner despite tensions appeared first on Auto Service World.

A quarter century as a landmark in Toronto’s west end, Master Mechanic High Park is getting ready to shut its doors this weekend.

It’s a decision owner Josie Candito has been preparing for. She’s known for a few years now that that landowner wanted to convert the plot of land at the corner of Dundas St. West and Howard Park Avenue — near the High Park, Roncesvalles and Parkdale neighbourhoods — into a condo development.

Unable to find a suitable location that would keep her within the community she has spent so much time involved with, she’s decided to hang it up as of June 30. But as she bids farewell, she’s taking happy memories with her.

And that’s partly because so many have mentioned how she’s spread happiness through the area. An avid contributor to the community through her charity work, Candito has become part of local lore with her weekly inspirational messages on the sign in front of her store.

While oil changes price adorned the sign at one time, she transitioned to positive thoughts.

It “started [as] something I used in my own life,” she explained, looking back on how it all began. “I started having some health problems and it helped me. And I just thought, ‘Hey, why not?’”

The neighbourhood responded. It’s such a community staple that local residents want the sign to stay long after Candito leaves. But that’s up to the landowner, she noted.

She further reflected on her entrance to the industry. Candito is not a tradesperson. She is an accountant by background and worked out of Master Mechanic’s head office when the opportunity to be a franchise owner came across her desk. She jumped at the chance.

But there was another hurdle — being a woman in a male-dominated industry.

“When I started in ’99, being a female, even still being a female these days, isn’t easy in a male-dominated industry. They accepted me. The franchisor at the time was amazing,” she said.

“I thought at this point, I’d be sadder. But I’m just taking back all the love right now. It’s just helping me get through the last days of closing the shop because it feels like it meant something to me.”

The key to success? Put a good people around you.

“No matter if you’re a man or a woman, have a team around you that supports you. You can accomplish anything you want,” Candito said. “It comes with a lot of sacrifices, I’m not going to lie. It’s a lot if you want to be a certain way. But it’s been my everything.”

She also credited her dog, Charlie, who had the title of chief dog officer in the shop, as helping her get through the tough times. Sadly, Charlie passed last week. He was front and centre when her shop won the 2021 Shop of the Year Award.

While she admitted to not being a risk-taker, Candito is glad she made the leap 25 years ago and pushed through.

“The first years, five years of business are always difficult,” she said. “And I always persevered and never gave up. And it gave me fuel. And at times, there were things that people would give you negativity [about], and I just ignored it — always ignored it.”

What’s next?

Once the shop closes down, what happens to the staff that celebrated the 2021 Shop of the Year Award from CARS magazine?

A social post from local business organization Railpath District noted that Rui Silvestre, the 2017 CARS Canadian Technician of the Year with Master Mechanic High Park, was opening his own shop once Candito retires and closes the business.

The post noted that the shop’s opening is planned for August and will be located about 2 km north of the current Master Mechanic High Park location.

When asked to comment, Silvestre confirmed the accuracy of the posting but wouldn’t elaborate on details.

Candito posted to social media announcing the shop’s closure, Candito praised Silvestre, saying he took her “vision for the shop farther than I could have imagined — for that I couldn’t be prouder.”

Editor’s note: Stay tuned for an episode of Auto Service World Conversations to hear more from Josie Candito about her retirement, her thoughts on the industry and advice for her fellow shop owners

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In an ongoing effort to attract more older vehicles — typically those in the aftermarket sweet spot — dealers are getting more creative in their pricing, according to a recent report.

In a strategy that it says has “gained momentum” since the Great Recession of 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic, dealers are embracing their ‘all-makes, all-models’ strategy, and offering alternatives to OE parts

“This allows dealers to be more price competitive with independent (non-dealer) service outlets in the rapidly expanding do-it-for-me (DIFM) market,” Lang Marketing said in its report, Dealers Tweak Repair Pricing to Up Bay Biz.

This comes as the average vehicle age in Canada and the U.S. has increased in recent years. In Canada, average age has grown from 9.7 years in 2020 to 10.5 in 2024. In the U.S. over the same time, average age moved from 11.9 to 12.6.

This shift also aims to support a broader range of vehicle nameplates in service bays.

To appeal to a diverse customer base, dealers are adopting a ‘good, better, best’ parts selection strategy, as the aftermarket does. But here’s how they break down each category:

• Best Parts: OE brands used for newer models and dealer-sold nameplates.
• Better Parts: OE-supplier brands, often matching OE quality, used selectively for competitive pricing.
• Good Parts: Aftermarket brands, offering affordability for older vehicles and different nameplates.

Additionally, some dealers are offering lower labour rates for servicing older vehicles, making their services more competitive with independent repair shops.

As the used vehicle market is significantly larger than the new vehicle market, dealers are increasingly using non-OE brands to refurbish used vehicles. This strategy has contributed to dealers gaining a larger share of the DIFM market over the past five years, often at the expense of independent repair shops.

Looking ahead, Lang noted, these adaptations present growing opportunities for manufacturers and distributors of OE-supplier and aftermarket brands. As dealers continue to expand their use of non-OE brands, they offer a promising customer base, potentially offsetting declining sales in the independent repair sector.

The post How dealers are moving to compete with the aftermarket appeared first on Auto Service World.

Bruce Eccles has been a technician and shop owner. Now he’s an author.

The semi-retired owner of Eccles Auto Service in Hamilton, Ontario, released a memoir, Don’t Look Back, Look Ahead: 40 Years of Business and Life’s Unexpected Road.

He shares stories of life and business. It’s not a book simply for shop owners — he believes business owners of all stripes can walk away after reading having learned something.

He joins host Adam Malik for an episode of Auto Service World Conversation to talk about his book, how it came together, what you’ll find inside, lessons he’s learned and much more.

Tune into the conversation by clicking the banner above or choose your platform of choice below to hear this episode and find the full Auto Service World Conversations library:

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Zero-emission vehicles from Stellantis on display at the 2024 Canadian International AutoShow

A move by the British Columbia government to reduce the level of qualifying electric and hybrid vehicles from its rebate program is drawing the ire of leaders of the Canadian auto industry.

The CleanBC Go Electric rebate provides up to $4,000 to qualifying zero-emission vehicles. The province dropped the maximum cost of qualifying vehicles on Tuesday to $50,000 — from the previous $55,000.

Groups say three-quarters of battery electric, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell-powered cars no longer qualify for the rebate.

“In the past 24 hours, I have been inundated with calls from new car dealers, expressing grave concern about changes to the program and, in some cases, suggesting they may cancel orders for vehicles they don’t feel they will be able to sell in the new environment,” said Blair Qualey, president and CEO of the New Car Dealers Association of B.C. in a statement.

“We are astonished and extremely disappointed by the announced changes to BC’s ZEV rebate program,” said a statement from Tim Reuss, president and CEO of the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association.

He further added the move was “decided in great haste and without any consultation with the industry, but it contradicts the province’s own ZEV ambitions” and that cutting out so many vehicles from qualifying “makes absolutely no sense.”

There’s about a double-digit price gap between ZEVs and their internal combustion engine counterparts.

“We’ve never suggested incentives should be in place forever, but they need to be in place until price parity with ICE vehicles is achieved — and we are not close to that,” said David Adams, president and CEO of the Global Automakers of Canada.

The leaders called on the government to reconsider the changes. Otherwise, meeting the federal government’s goal of 90 per cent ZEV sales by 2030 becomes “essentially insurmountable,” Adams added.

Prices overall for vehicles are at risk of spiking should there be added difficulty in selling ZEVs as a result of this rule change.

“Unless government adopts a flexible approach, manufacturers will be hard-pressed to meet targets, leading them to restrict the supply of all vehicles for sale in the province to avoid penalties — which in turn will drive up all new and used vehicle prices, as we saw during the pandemic,” Qualey warned.

He also added that some manufacturers could reduce prices to fall within the threshold.

“We anticipate some manufacturers may reduce the cost of some models so they fall within the new threshold, but we believe the overall impact on consumers will be significant,” Qualey said.

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Robert Kras won the 2024 MazTech Service Skills Competition

Robert Kras is the top Mazda Canada technician, beating out nine other competitors from across the country.

At the MazTech Service Skills Competition, technicians were given two hours to run through a repair order, diagnose the issues and solve them on a 2024 CX-30 all-wheel drive.

When the horn blew and the marks were tallied, Kras of Westowne Mazda in Toronto came out on top.

The issues he solved best among his peers were:

• Customer states ignition will only turn on if remote is near the push button.
• Customer states ignition shuts off when attempting to crank/start the engine.
• Customer states engine runs rough and Check Engine Light ON.
• Customer states Oil Monitoring Malfunction message on Instrument Cluster when engine running.
• Customer states Front Passenger Window one touch up doesn’t work.
• Customer states rear hatch doesn’t work from front switch.
• Customer states wipers hit the car and make noise.

And there were a few bonus ones added in as well by the organizers.

 

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Nicolas Germain from Laurier Mazda in Quebec City came second, while Ghislain Cote of Mazda Victoriaville in Victoriaville, Quebec came third.

For winning, Kras will head to an international recognition event hosted by Mazda Japan in Japan, along with the 2025 winner, to be determined next year.

The 10 competitors of the MazTech Service Skills Competition

The other competitors taking part in the competition were:

• Ryan McDougall, August Mazda (Kelowna, B.C.)
• Brian Logan, Sundance Mazda (Edmonton)
• Matthew Wallace, Barrhaven Mazda (Ottawa)
• Christopher Dill, Carling Motors Mazda (Ottawa)
• Sylvain Messier, Mazda Drummondville (Drummondville, Quebec)
• Eric Duval, Barnabé Mazda (Broussard, Quebec)
•  Cristopher Puckering, Western Mazda (Cornerbrook, Newfoundland)

You can see photos from the competition below…

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It seems pent-up demand for new vehicles is dissipating and new vehicle sales numbers are reaching a level of concern.

Canadian new light vehicle sales in May 2024 reached 169,000 units, according to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants. On one hand, that’s a notable improvement over the previous two years — almost 6 per cent better than 2023 and 20 per cent higher than “the pitiful” numbers of 2022 when supply shortages hurt inventories. On the other, that’s still well behind the 200,000 mark last seen in May 2019.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) for May 2024 was 1.63 million units, marking the lowest SAAR recorded so far this year. Despite this, the automotive market continues to show some level of growth, now marking 19 straight months of year-over-year gains.

“It is somewhat concerning (if not unexpected) that the SAAR appears to be trailing off from the levels hit in January and February when pent-up demand fuelled the market to lofty heights,” said Andrew King, managing partner at Desrosier. “However, we have now seen 19 consecutive months of year-over-year gains, and the market continues to move forward, albeit supported by an increasing range of sub-vented interest rates and other incentives.”

What may work in the industry’s favour is a reduction in interest rates. In a widely expected move, the Bank of Canada cut the number to 4.75 per cent, the first cut since March 2020. With inflation easing, more cuts can be expected. Speculation is there could be two or three more cuts by the end of the year.

However, Bank governor Tiff Macklem warned against moving the interest rate down too quickly and jeopardizing progress.

In the U.S., though, it’s a different story where the economy is said to be still too hot to move rates down. Job numbers in June came in with nearly 90,000 new jobs added than expected in May

“Inflation appears to be stuck in a range and there will need to be several consecutive months of undeniable proof that it is finally moving down at a clip, rather than a crawl, before any action is taken,” said Nigel Green, the chief executive of financial advisory firm deVere Group. “This is simply not happening at the moment and there’s no reason to suggest it will next month or the month after that.”

The post ‘Concerning’ month for new vehicle sales appeared first on Auto Service World.

Shad’s R&R, the top charity golf event in the Canadian automotive aftermarket, once again drew in hundreds of industry professionals for a day of raising money for charity.

Held June 13 at Woodington Lake Golf Club in Tottenham, Ontario, the 49th edition of the event brought out industry pros from across the country — and some from the U.S. This year’s event raised $175,000 for those suffering from muscular dystrophy.

On hand to receive the cheque from the volunteer board of Shad’s was Stacey Lintern, chief executive officer of Muscular Dystrophy Canada.

 

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Money was raised by not just the 277 aftermarket pros playing a round of golf, but by raffle prizes donated by industry companies. The day included 18 holes of golf, a dinner event with a raffle and 50/50 draw. The event has now raised more than $5.7 million over its 49 years.

The keynote speech was given by Dr. Homira Osman, vice president of research and public policy at Muscular Dystrophy Canada.

Check out photos from the day in the gallery below…

Shad’s R&R 2024

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Months after expanding its British Columbia footprint, Uni-Select announced it’s growing even more.

The company has acquired Alder Auto Parts, a long-time Uni-Select member. The business has been around since 1978 and currently serves Port Kells and Cloverdale, just outside of Surrey, and Aldergrove, near Langley, with 34 staff members.

“Joining Uni-Select starts a new and important chapter for us,” said John Feddersen, president of Alder Auto Parts. “We are proud to unite with a company that respects our heritage and shares our values. This partnership will amplify our strengths and continue the legacy we have built in this community.”

The total number of corporate stores in the province is now 21 for Uni-Select.

“We are excited to welcome a well-established family-owned business with strong regional roots and a shared commitment to our core values and quality service,” said Emilie Gaudet, Uni-Select’s president and chief operating officer. “This acquisition is a testament to our robust growth strategy and our dedication to maintaining the legacy of businesses we proudly incorporate into our family.”

Sponsorship

Uni-Select also announced last week that its flagship brand Bumper to Bumper will be a major sponsor with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League.

The Bumper to Bumper logo will be prominently featured on the right-chest jersey patch of all four of the team’s jerseys.

“We are extremely excited to partner with the Roughriders and have our brand woven into the fabric of Saskatchewan’s team,” Gaudet said. “We know how well-respected the team is across the Canadian Football League. And we are thrilled to become a part of Rider Nation!”

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A single digital program has been established in Ontario for emissions and safety inspections for heavy-duty diesel commercial, light-duty and passenger vehicles.

That program, DriveOn, is billed as being able to reduce fraud, ensure the safety of vehicles on roads, reduce emissions and save money for commercial vehicle owners. It started in July 2022 with facilities that previously tested emissions only. Motor vehicle inspection stations that currently perform safety inspections and issue yellow safety stickers (commercial inspections were able to apply starting May 9, 2024).

The current motor vehicle inspection program ends on Dec. 31. But to purchase and receive equipment before then, the DriveOn enrolment process was to be completed by June 1. An information session is available through the provincial government’s website.

The program, advocates say, will ensure the safety of vehicles on Ontario roads. Some hope that it will push out nefarious players and ensure legitimate safeties are given to qualifying vehicles.

“The idea that you can have a tractor-trailer that pulls 150,000 lbs. down [Highway] 401 that got inspected [in exchange] for two cases of beer is wrong,” said John Cochrane, interim executive director with the Automotive Aftermarket Retailers of Ontario, which has been helping Ontario shop owners move to the new program with guidance and regular updates.

There are further hopes that it may eventually lead to mandatory safety inspections of Ontario vehicles, whether every year or bi-annually, not just when vehicles are sold.

Cochrane explained that DriveOn will operate in the same manner as the now-defunct Drive Clean and operated by the same group, Parsons. Drive Clean started in 1999 and was scrapped in 2019.

“The idea is to modernize and computerize the inspection of vehicles,” Cochrane said in an interview, adding that nothing is changing as to how shops will certify a vehicle is safe. “What the province and Parsons want to make sure what happens is that vehicles that are inspected are properly inspected.”

That means the checks will be done the same way as before, just with a digital twist added by way of photos to verify the findings.

“You’re still going to be doing the physical inspection for play on the ball joints and play on the tie rods,” Cochrane explained. “There is going to be basically no change of a vehicle inspection. But what there is, is the recording of the vehicle inspection.”

There will be areas where technicians can note body defects, he added.

However, Auto Service World has received negative feedback from Ontario shop owners. They point to the Drive Clean program and wonder if their investment in DriveOn will end up like the one many shops made in Drive Clean, which was all lost following the end of the program.

For instance, the cost of digital equipment to perform inspections can be thousands of dollars. Many shops will need to upgrade their wi-fi capabilities to have coverage in testing areas, a requirement of the program.

For some shops, safeties don’t make up enough of their business so they told Auto Service World that they don’t plan to move over to this new program.

Cochrane called it a business decision shops need to make. But he believes it will be positive for a shop’s bottom line.

“I think that you’re going to have a lot more vehicle safety inspection business because a lot of the vehicles that have not been inspected properly are going to get inspected properly, and it will generate thousands of dollars of repairs,” he said, noting that for every 10 safety inspections his shop performed, about eight of them required mechanical repairs.

“So do you want to not get the mechanical repairs that are generated from an inspection?” he asked.

One shop owner questioned how many shops would invest in the program given that they already have a hard enough time finding technicians — are they prepared to pull a tech off the floor to perform these tests?

Nevertheless, Cochrane wants all Ontario shops to be part of the system that keeps vehicles safe on the province’s roads.

“I would like everybody to embrace this program,” Cochrane said. “It is going to have a learning curve. There’s no question about that. But once you’ve got through the learning curve, it’s going to make driving on Ontario highways safer.”

Speak up

Auto Service World has had shop owners reach out and ask if we’ve heard from others about the program — so we’re turning the floor over to you. Whether you have started the program, are in the process of getting equipment or staying out, let us know your thoughts in the comment section. Your fellow shop owners are looking for your insights.

Tell us:

• What has your experience with the new inspection program been like?
• Do you like the program?
• How has DriveOn impacted your business?
• What problems are you having?
• What success have you seen?
• If you’re not adopting the program, why?
• Do you think this program is a good idea?
• Do you think this program will work?
• What changes are needed to DriveOn?
• What issues, insights, challenges or opportunities you have found?

Use the comment box below or email adam@turnkey.media to leave your thoughts

The post Ontario Shops: What’s your DriveOn experience? appeared first on Auto Service World.

The average age of vehicles in Canada is more than two years lower than American vehicles and the gap has a fairly simple answer: It’s all thanks to a pipeline of vehicles exiting Canada and heading to the U.S.

Canada’s average vehicle age is 10.5 years. In the U.S., it’s more than two years higher at 12.6 years. During this year’s AIA Canada National Conference in Toronto, Todd Campau, aftermarket practice lead at S&P Global Mobility, explained why there’s such a gap.

He noted that the number of vehicles in operation in Canada is steady at 26.7 million. Campau pointed out that even though new vehicle sales are not what they used to be, there is still growth. The data left him curious. So he investigated why vehicle age wasn’t the same or closer for both sides of the border.

During the session, The Impact of the Evolving Vehicle Fleet on Vehicles in Operation and Vehicle Kilometres Travelled, he explained what he found. He told the audience that there’s some correlation between the Canadian dollar and vehicle exports to the U.S. When the dollar is low, it’s cheaper for Americans to import vehicles — and that’s exactly been the case for several years.

“And one of the things that is definitely impacting your fleet are exports going into the U.S.,” he explained.

He checked out federal databases, which showed what was taking place.

S&P Global Mobility’s Todd Campau speaks at the AIA Canada 2024 National Conference

In particular, the third quarter of 2020 and second quarter of 2022 each saw about 180,000 vehicles shipped from Canada south of the border. That wasn’t tied to the exchange rate, however — it was because there was a dearth of vehicles in the U.S. marketplace and eyes turned to Canada to fill the gap.

Since that later date, quarterly exports to the U.S. have been around at least 50,000 vehicles.

“There’s been a stronger dollar, there’s the high demand for vehicles in the U.S. And so importers in the U.S. have been very successful grabbing vehicles here and selling them there for profit,” Campau observed.

Furthermore, the vehicles crossing the border have been on the younger side of the spectrum, meaning U.S. importers are specifically targeting low-age cars and light trucks.

Back in 2016, the average age of a vehicle going to the U.S. was approaching nine years old. Today, they’re no more than seven on average. That has Campau concerned about the Canadian aftermarket.

“For me, that’s one of the big yellow flags for the market here,” he said.

If older vehicles nearing end-of-life are the ones being exported, that’s one thing. But vehicles just entering the aftermarket sweet spot being shipped down south creates a problem in the Canadian market.

“That’s taking real aftermarket opportunity away because that’s right in that sweet spot of aftermarket repair,” Campau explained. “So this is something that I think is very important for the marketplace to be sensitive of.”

The post Why’s Canadian average vehicle age so low? appeared first on Auto Service World.

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Shop owners may be surprised to know that their customer list or business reputation isn’t worth very much on the open market, according to a business advisor who works with the auto repair industry.

Hunt Demarest is an accountant and business valuator with accounting firm Paar Melis, which deals exclusively with the automotive aftermarket. He’s helped many shops expand by buying other shops and helped his clients sell their own shops.

When looking at the valuation of the business, he’s often asked about putting a value on the shop’s good name or the list of clients they have. They figure it’s worth a good amount of money. Unfortunately, he said, it’s not.

Demarest discussed this issue during the session Transitioning Your Business at this year’s Midwest Auto Care Alliance’s Vision Hi-Tech Training & Expo in Kansas City. He painted a picture for the audience: Say a shop owner down the street who’s been around for 50 years and specializes in German cars decides he’s going to close up. He approaches you and offers his client list for $100,000. Are you going to take it?

“Probably not, right? You don’t even need to hear anymore,” Demarest said. “Generally, we never see people paying for intangibles like this outside of assets — because there’s just not any value there. It’s very hard to quantify that value.”

From the point of view of the shop being approached, the retiring owner can’t force all of his customers to go to the other shop. There’s no guarantee any of them will even make the switch. The shop may not even work on German vehicles. And even with the list, there’s a lot of time and effort required for no measurable return.

The shop being approached is better off spending less money and market directly to those customers. Furthermore, once the retiring shop owner closes the door, those customers will be looking for a new place — they may find this other shop anyway with zero effort required.

“And so generally, the reputation is one of those things where it’s gravy,” Demarest said. He further explained that it’s one of those things where, if the buyer is on the fence, then having a good reputation may be something that seals the deal.

Or think of it this way: If a shop has a bad reputation, they probably have bad business and poor numbers.

“And if you have a business with a great reputation and you’re doing all the right things and everyone’s screaming your praises on it, you probably have decent profits” which makes it more attractive to a prospective buyer, Demarest said.

The post What’s your brand reputation worth? Not as much as you think appeared first on Auto Service World.

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The do-it-for-me (DIFM) automotive service and repair market has experienced significant shifts over the past decade, with a growing demand for vehicle repairs but a declining number of repair outlets.

According to data from Lang Marketing, while the volume of products installed by automotive technicians increased by more than 25 per cent from 2013 to 2023, the number of repair outlets fell by 10 per cent.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the DIFM market in recent years. In 2020, the market saw a double-digit decline in light vehicle repairs across the United States, coupled with a sharp reduction in the number of repair outlets. Although the DIFM market regained its product volume over the next three years, the total number of repair outlets did not recover, indicating a lasting effect of the pandemic on service infrastructure.

However, while many repair outlets struggled, repair specialists — outlets focusing on a limited range of vehicle services — showed resilience. Although Lang reported a decline in outlets in 2020, they rebounded from 2021 to 2023. Similarly, foreign specialists, which concentrate on the repair of foreign nameplates, recorded the fastest increase among DIFM outlet groups, particularly between 2021 and 2023.

Tire stores that also do vehicle repairs saw modest growth between 2013 and 2018 but faced a decline during the pandemic, which has continued slowly. Conversely, vehicle dealers, which lost about 3,000 outlets between 2008 and 2013, began to recover by 2018. Despite a reduction in 2020, they added locations between 2021 and 2023, Lang reported.

Aftermarket Implications

The changing landscape of repair outlets has substantial implications for the automotive aftermarket, Lang noted.

With fewer service stations and garages, there is increased pressure on the remaining outlets to meet the rising demand for repairs. This shift affects the competitive strength of distribution channels supplying the DIFM market and impacts the volume of aftermarket brands and the share of product volume captured by both dealers and independent repair outlets.

Going forward, Lang observed, repair specialists and foreign specialists are expected to increase their population counts and market shares. In contrast, service stations and garages will likely see the largest declines. Vehicle dealers will continue to expand their share, further reducing the market share of independent repair shops.

The post Repair demand rises as outlets fall appeared first on Auto Service World.

Shop coach Rick White wants you to remember this acronym: ABR, which means always be recruiting.

The president of 180Biz wants shop owners to never stop trying to find talent for their shop. Just because you think you have enough techs or service advisors doesn’t mean you can stop finding new employees.

“You need to be running ads all the time. You need to be talking to people all the time,” he said at the Mid-West Auto Care Alliance’s Vision and Hi-Tech Training Expo in Kanas City.

Why? Maybe you’re not ready to hire a tech today. But say one leaves in a month unexpectedly. Who can you bring in to replace them?

Let’s say some months ago you met a good tech that you want to add to your roster. He’s on board with joining your shop. You’re both excited about the opportunity. You don’t have an open slot. No problem.

“Would it be okay if we get together once a month or once every other month have some lunch, kind of catch up, see how things are going?” is all you need to ask them to keep the lines of communication open, White said.

And you can take it one step further. Say you’re taking your team out for some training. Ask the prospective tech if they’d like to join as a guest. That sends the message that you want him to work for you and want him to be up to date on training for when the opportunity comes.

“You’ve got to nurture that bench all the time,” White said. “When you do that you are no longer afraid to hold a standard in your shop.”

That means being able to drop techs who don’t hold to your standard because you have someone who can step in.

And if your staff asks why you’re looking for help, it’s all about being proactive instead of reactive. You don’t have to tell them you’re looking to replace anyone. But in case someone leaves, there’s a replacement candidate waiting in the wings.

“I’m going to sit down my team and let them know, ‘Listen, as a business, we need to have a pipeline. Just like we need a pipeline for clients, we need to have a pipeline so that if somebody decides to move, or something happens to their family or something, the rest of us aren’t going to be all stressed out,’” White explained.

The post Why you need to ‘always be recruiting’ appeared first on Auto Service World.

A lack of good data is hurting the automotive aftermarket. But artificial intelligence can help the industry in this area.

Industries like healthcare have rich datasets, noted Tilak Kasturi, founder and CEO of Predii, an AI solutions provider for the aftermarket. This industry isn’t in the same spot.

“In the automotive world, it’s much more complex. We don’t have that rich dataset. But there’s a good opportunity for bringing in the data ecosystem, and in a way that would benefit the organization,” he said at last fall’s  MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers Aftermarket Technology Conference.

Complicating things is how much learning AI can do when you’re broaching intellectual property concerns as well as data privacy, noted David Brondstetter, CEO of SureCritic, a reputation management platform that caters to the aftermarket.

“What are the boundaries of the protective nature with only for copyright purposes, but also your own competitive-related information?” Kasturi asked during the session, ChatGPT & AI Applications for the Aftermarket. “And that is pretty hard to grasp. But maybe there are some datasets that are shareable, that would benefit all of the vendors.”

Scott Brown, industry ambassador with Diagnostic Network, sees a big opportunity for the service information companies. Sometimes when a service technician is tasked with solving a problem, they have to go to six different points within the service information system to collect specific bits of data needed to address the vehicle properly.

“Why not use the AI to help understand the problem that the technician has … and it brings that information to him so that they’re more efficient?” he said.

Brondstetter noted that he’d like to see the cream rise to the top in this area and have several companies offer AI services to the aftermarket rather than one large conglomerate. With a smaller, tighter-knit community of service information providers, he sees greater opportunities for innovation as they compete with each other.

“A big, large conglomerate, in my opinion, probably would be a negative for the industry overall because of the lack of innovation that it might house,” he warmed.

The post How AI can help the aftermarket’s data challenge appeared first on Auto Service World.

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Consumers are finding dealers more convenient, lower priced, fairer and with greater technical expertise than before, a recent report found.

A recent Lang Marketing iReport revealed significant changes in consumer perceptions of service stations and garages versus dealers from 2018 to 2023, with notable shifts across key factors such as convenience, technical repair capacity and price.

Convenience of repair

Service stations and garages have historically received high consumer ratings for convenience, attributed to their widespread locations. The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted the number of outlets available to consumers, leading to a significant decline in their numbers. This reduction has decreased the perceived convenience of using service stations and garages for many consumers.

Technical repair capacity

Dealers are perceived to have superior technical repair capacity compared to service stations and garages. This perception is particularly strong among owners of foreign nameplate vehicles and newer models. Consumers believe dealers possess greater technical expertise, especially for complex repairs, which has widened the perceived gap in technical repair capacity between sealers and service stations and garages.

Low price

Consumers continue to see service stations and garages as offering lower prices for repairs compared to dealers. This perception is the most pronounced among the four factors measured. However, dealers have been making efforts to become more price competitive, particularly for routine repair jobs like oil changes and brake work. By offering aftermarket brands for older vehicles, dealers have narrowed the price gap, making them more appealing to cost-conscious consumers.

Fairness of price

Service stations and garages are still viewed as offering fairer prices than Dealers. This perception is less pronounced among consumers with foreign nameplates and newer vehicles. Nevertheless, Dealers are working to improve their image by emphasizing convenience and technical expertise, which helps position their pricing as fairer in the eyes of consumers.

Changing perceptions and market impact

Over the past five years, consumer perceptions of service stations and garages and dealers have evolved, influenced by both external factors like COVID-19 and strategic actions by dealers. Dealers have enhanced their services by introducing quick lube services, quick-service lanes and extended business hours, aiming to improve convenience and capture a larger share of the do-it-for-me (DIFM) market.

These efforts appear to be paying off. Consumers now perceive dealer repairs as more convenient, lower-priced, and fairer than they did five years ago. Meanwhile, the perceived technical gap between dealers and service stations and garages has grown, reinforcing dealers’ advantages in complex repairs.

As a result, Lang reported, dealers have significantly increased their share of the DIFM market between 2018 and 2023, while service stations and garages have seen a decline. With many dealers focusing on expanding their service bay business, this trend is expected to continue, leading to a greater share of total DIFM volume being captured by dealers and a reduction in the share held by independent outlets.

The post How consumer aftermarket perceptions have changed appeared first on Auto Service World.

Canadian automotive repair shops share significant qualms about quality auto parts in the latest Annual Shop Survey from Jobber News.

Shops were surveyed about their partnership with jobbers. While parts availability is always top of mind, parts quality was an often-mentioned issue among survey respondents.

This issue of Jobber News dives into the results of the survey, gathering feedback from shops about quality concerns, how the availability of parts has changed, what they value most in their partnership with jobbers and other challenges they’re facing.

Then check out our columnists in this issue. Kumar Saha explores the possibility of using artificial intelligence in parts pricing. He explores the current state, how it can be used and key barriers in the way.

 

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Zakari Krieger examines how the jobber-shop relationship needs to be one that evolves past being simply transactional. He offers insights on how to change that.

We were on the road at Lordco’s annual trade show in Vancouver and the MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers Vision Conference in Detroit and you can check out the highlights.

And there are also our usual sections like Letters, News, By the Numbers and Car-toon in the back. So grab your copy or click here to see the digital edition.

The post Shops make voices heard in the latest Jobber News appeared first on Auto Service World.

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A business owner of any kind, even auto repair shop owners, will view their business as their baby. But a shop coach wants you to let go of that feeling so you can view your shop differently and treat it with a more neutral perspective.

Emotions can sink your shop, warned Jay Huh, a business coach at Shop Fix Academy and owner of CarMedix in North Carolina. Compare that to an investor who buys a business and has no long-standing ties to the people. They will typically make decisions that are better for the success of the business because they have no emotion attached.

During the session How to Run Your Shop Stress-Free at the Midwest Auto Care Alliance’s Vision Hi-Tech Training & Expo, he referenced something he heard from another shop owner: They urged him to look at the business as an investor and to have all your thoughts and actions flow as if you’re an investor, not someone who started the business from the ground up.

How do you act like one? Do rolling 90-day reviews of every employee. You grade them on performance, culture and attendance. And if they don’t measure up, you let them go, Huh said. You hired them with certain expectations. So if they fall short, why are they still around?

“This is a contractual agreement. When you hire an employee it’s a contractual agreement to perform at an expected level. You have expectations when you hire an employee, do you not? And if [they] don’t meet those expectations, it’s a broken contract,” he explained.

But shop owners will rationalize keeping the person around. The employee may be going through a tough time in life, so they’re cut some slack. No one wants to be the bad guy either. But the bad employee is costing the shop owner money and time.

Huh wished he had that advice many years ago. He hired someone when they were 21 and watched them grow up in the shop. They got married, had kids, all of that. But the employee’s performance eventually started slipping. It started hurting the business. But Huh was attached to the guy — after all, he’d been working there for many, many years. He kept giving him another chance.

One day, he bit the bullet and let him go.

“Hardest thing I had to do,” Huh admitted. But once he did it, Huh knew it was the right choice and that it required him to take on a different mindset.

The post The mindset you need to have for your shop appeared first on Auto Service World.

The latest Consumer Behaviour Series report from AIA Canada shows that dealers are outranking independent automotive service providers in several key areas.

The Dealership versus independent: How Canadian vehicle owners choose a service provider report is available to AIA Canada for free, or $199 for non-members. It explores the factors influencing Canadian vehicle owners’ choices for maintenance and repair services have been revealed, highlighting significant trends and preferences in the industry.

It found that most Canadians (37 per cent) believe dealers outperform the aftermarket. One-third believe the reverse, that independent automotive service professionals outperform dealers. The remaining 30 per cent believe both are the same.

When comparing a few specific areas, dealers ranked higher compared to automotive service providers in:

• • Helpful service advisor: Dealerships 37% vs. ASPs 23%
  • Proactive notifications: Dealerships 46% vs. ASPs 18%
  • Technical competence: Dealerships 36% vs. ASPs 20%
  • Quality of work: Dealerships 33% vs. ASPs 24%

The independents came out ahead in:

• • Value for money: ASPs 20% vs. Dealerships 58%
  • Being trustworthy: ASPs 28% vs. Dealerships 36%

If ASPs want to build greater trust with consumers, they should look to for consistency in matching up technicians with customer vehicles. Two-thirds of respondetns said they would trust their service center more if the same technician always worked on their vehicle.

The same number of respondents said they would trust more if more time were spent explaining the impact of maintenance and repair, while 64 per cent would trust more if they received more help in planning for short, medium and long-term maintenance and repair.

About half (51 per cent) would be more trustful if shops sent videos and websites explaining the scope and importance of maintenance and repair.

The report further dives into where Canadians go for maintenance and repair, the reasons they choose a shop, how they find a new service provider, their perceptions of the independent aftermarket versus dealers and how to increase trust and loyalty.

In its key takeaways and conclusions, the report noted that ASPs must focus on building trust and providing quality customer service to retain customers and justify premium pricing. Transparency, trust, and quality service ensure repeat business, even if price initially attracts customers.

Satisfied customers can become strong advocates for ASPs, generating positive word-of-mouth and online reviews, the report added. Every customer interaction is an opportunity to make a lasting positive impression, encouraging loyalty and recommendations.

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The post How consumers see dealers compared to independents appeared first on Auto Service World.

In the latest issue of EV World, we hear from several leaders on the automaker side of the industry.

The cover story looks at what they see as necessary for the automotive sector to overcome as more consumers look to electrify their mdoe of transportation. And at the forefront of their concerns: Education. Read about what the industry leaders and carmaker executives have to say about bridging that knowledge gap, along with other concerns consumers that exist.

Elsewhere, David Mayers — a leading instructor in EV education — points out that it’s not all going great in the EV transition. He explores the key issues consumers are facing, especially around repair. Mayers himself is having troubles with getting his own EV repaired.

 

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Don’t forget to check out the news section for all the latest happenings, as well as By the Numbers for key stats.

Read the latest issue online by clicking here.

The post EV World: Overcoming the knowledge gap appeared first on Auto Service World.

While there may have been an initial push for consumers to choose private label options for their automotive aftermarket needs, it appears the area isn’t growing.

Nathan Shipley, executive director of industry analysis in automotive at Circana, showed data from the last three years and it all suggested that numbers are flat in this area.

“But there’s not some major shift to private label like I think a lot of us would expect as we have gotten into a little bit tougher economic times this year,” he said at AAPEX 2023 during his session, Aftermarket Outlook 2024.

A low-income consumer was more likely to opt for private labels more often than a higher-income one. Private labels made up 50 per cent of their purchases.

“So [there is a need out there] for branded offerings and not discounting having premium products targeting that higher income consumer,” Shipley said.

Shipley had previously noted that it was the higher-income consumer who was frequenting the aftermarket more often. Retailers, he said, need to account for that when thinking about their product offerings.

That said, consumers are finding sticker shock, such as with tires. It’s something that they buy every several years. But when they spent $1,000 five years ago and are seeing prices about 50 per cent higher now, they’re taken aback.

“So that starts to influence decision-making as it relates to what you’re going to buy,” Shipley pointed out.

Supplier promotions starting to come back, though. After a few years of no or very few of them offering promotions on their products, the mood is shifting.

“We’re starting to see that lever get pulled as a way to drive demand,” he said. “For the first time this year, we’re to a level higher than we’ve been the last four years at this point in time. So I think that’s just an interesting observation.”

The post Private label losing its appeal to consumers appeared first on Auto Service World.

With thousands of technician positions needing to be filled, there is an urgent need for the automotive aftermarket to find ways to tackle the problem.

Enter AIA Canada’s Labour Market Report, released late last year. The report found that the labour gap is expected to worsen in the coming years, exacerbated by the growing trend towards vehicle electrification.

Alana Baker, vice president of government relations and research at AIA Canada, joined Auto Service World Conversations to speak about the study, what they found, what the challenges are, how the industry can approach the issues and more.

She pointed to the high staff turnover shops in the mechanical and collision repair space are facing — many of whom are going to other trades and taking their transferrable skills elsewhere.

“It also indicated that 46 per cent of those technicians left for higher paying jobs or for other reasons, including poor public perception of the industry, or a lack of career development opportunities, and even improved working conditions elsewhere,” Baker said of the report’s findings.

Furthermore, she pointed out, auto dealers are a more appealing destination than the auto care sector.

They discussed challenges like advancing vehicle technology and electric vehicles requiring new technical skills from technicians. Low wages in the auto care sector compared to other trades were also an issue. Baker suggested adjusting employment programs to attract younger workers by offering better work-life balance, such as flexible hours.

Baker identified collaboration between industry, government and training institutions to address challenges.

Baker dives into where the industry goes from here, where large gaps exist and factors for improvement.

Tune into the conversation by clicking the banner above or choose your platform of choice below to hear this episode and find the full Auto Service World Conversations library:

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The post ASW Conversations: Aftermarket labour challenges appeared first on Auto Service World.

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Vehicles south of the border are continuing to get older. New data puts the number at 12.6 years, up two months from 2023.

That’s a generally slower pace of growth compared to recent years and more normalized growth, S&P Global Mobility noted in its findings. In 2020, the average age of a U.S. vehicle was 11.9 years.

Furthermore, the group observed that the continued upward trend means continued opportunities for the automotive aftermarket. The aftermarket sweet spot has traditionally been considered to be the 6-12 age group. But as average age has grown, the window has expanded to 14 years.

That means many more vehicles are contributing to industry business now and will in the future, noted Todd Campau, aftermarket practice lead at S&P Global Mobility.

“With more than 110 million vehicles in that sweet spot — reflecting nearly 38 percent of the fleet on the road — we expect continued growth in the volume of vehicles in that age range to rise to an estimated 40 percent through 2028.”

In April at AIA Canada’s National Conference, Campau confirmed that Canada’s average vehicle age is 10.5 years, up from 9.7 in 2020. Canada’s numbers haven’t grown as rapidly as in the U.S. mostly because many older Canadian vehicles have recently been exported to the U.S. In 2023, about a quarter million vehicles were exported across the border, keeping average age lower in Canada and higher in the U.S. (Auto Service World will have more details on this in future news coverage.)

The rise in average age in the U.S. comes even though more vehicles are being added to the fleet as new vehicle inventory returns to more normal levels. S&P Global Mobility reported two million more vehicles in operation (VIO) in the U.S. this year to 286 million in total. However, there are still fewer newer vehicles on the road today than just a few years ago.

Vehicles under the age of six made up 98 million vehicles in 2019, or about 35 percent of VIO. Today they represent fewer than 90 million vehicles. It’s not expected that newer vehicles will hit that mark until 2028, according to S&P Global Mobility.

Instead, older vehicles will drive VIO growth as consumers will hang on to their older vehicles. Indeed, vehicles aged between 6-14 years will make up about 70% or more of VIO for the next five years, serving as a tailwind for auto care opportunities.

Looking at electric vehicles, they too will see growing average age. EVs on U.S. roads reached 3.2 million in January 2023, with registrations surpassing one million units for the first time — a 52% increase from 2022. However, the growth rate was slower than some automakers had expected. As consumer adoption slows, the average age of EVs is likely to rise in the short term.

Currently, the average age of EVs in the U.S. is 3.5 years, a figure that has remained steady since 2019 due to a high number of new registrations.

“We started to see headwinds in EV sales growth in late 2023, and though there will be some challenges on the road to EV adoption that could drive EV average age up, we still expect significant growth in share of electric vehicles in operation over the next decade,” Campau said.

The post U.S. average age continues its rise appeared first on Auto Service World.

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Employment levels in the auto repair sector are higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to data from DesRosiers Automotive Consultants.

The automotive aftermarket showed robust growth in 2023, with the automotive repair and maintenance sector reaching 121,000 employees by December, surpassing 2019 levels by 4.8 per cent. Similarly, employment in automotive parts and accessories stores came in at about 5 per cent above pre-pandemic figures.

However, other sectors lagged behind. Motor vehicle manufacturing remained 11% below 2019 levels, while automobile dealers were still slightly short of returning to pre-pandemic employment numbers.

“The overall employment picture in the automotive space was positive by the end of last year,” commented Andrew King, managing partner at DesRosiers. “With the manufacturing side of the industry transforming, the retail aftermarket led in employment growth.”

The broader automotive sector saw continued employment growth throughout 2023, nearly reaching pre-pandemic levels with 604,000 recorded employees by December, just 0.7% below December 2019.

The post How much auto repair employment has grown appeared first on Auto Service World.

Shops that want to utilize social media and produce video content may see do-it-yourself-style content as an easy way to break in.

Professional technicians likely think it’s easy content to create since they know what they’re doing and can help consumers with simple tasks for their vehicles. It may be easier than trying to create educational videos for fellow techs or provide entertainment, for example.

But Chris Enright, owner of Enright Automotive, steers clear of DIY content, seeing it as a way to keep customers out of his shop.

“I hate DIY videos. I don’t like doing them, I don’t enjoy doing them. I don’t even like watching them. It’s just not my thing,” he during the session Rev Up Your Marketing with Video Advantage at this year’s Midwest Auto Care Alliance’s Vision Hi-Tech Training & Expo in Kansas City.

From his point of view, he wants people to spend money in his shop — if he’s showing people how to fix their vehicles themselves, then that’s money he’s not making. He noted that he often gets requests from his 65,000 followers on Instagram asking for it.

“That’s how I support my wife and kids,” he explained. “I don’t want you to fix your own car. I’m just being honest with them: I want you to bring it to me so I can pay my bills and support my wife and children.”

But, emphasized, that’s him. If you enjoy DIY-style videos, go for it, he said. The point of being on social media is to do what you enjoy.

“You got to decide what you want ultimately at the end,” Enright said. “But again, you want to enjoy it.”

His co-presenter during the session was Brian Walker, owner and CEO of Shop Marketing Pros. He has a different take.

“In our business, we do a ton of DIY,” he explained. “We teach people how to do their own marketing.”

The way he sees it, there will be those who see him as the guy who knows what he’s doing and the customer will want him to take on the work for them.

When looking specifically at auto repair, he still applies that logic. “Obviously, you’re not going to teach somebody how to put a head gasket on their car or something like that,” he said.

But for more simpler or semi-technical things, it may be a good idea. “Because you’ll have that person who starts watching your videos,” Walker explained. And if they’re DIYer, they may be fixing the cars of people they know. But when there’s more difficult work to be done, you’ll be top of mind for them because they’ve been learning from you.

“So I do see the value in the DIY videos,” Walker said.

At the end of the day, be authentic, Enright stressed. Don’t fake it.

“People are tired of being sold stuff,” he said. “If you watch the trends right now, the highly polished, highly edited, well-done videos are actually not doing well anymore. They’re actually tanking in views. And the ones that are not highly edited, not highly polished [and are] genuine and authentic are what’s skyrocketing in the algorithm.”

The post What types of videos should you create for social media? appeared first on Auto Service World.

Bestbuy Distributors held its annual gala dinner and warehouse trade event last weekend.

The dinner was attended by shareholders and vendor partners at the Westin Toronto Airport Hotel for a night of camaraderie and celebration. Long-standing shareholder members were recognized. Awards were also handed out to vendor partners.

Milestone memberships were recognized, including:

• 747 Auto Parts: 10 years
• Auto Magic: 35 years
• McNeil Auto Supply: 35 years

Vendor awards were handed out as well.

• The Rising Star Award: Wilmar – Performance Tool Products
• Marketing Partner Award: Dorman Products
• Bestbuy Partner Award: Promax
• Cornerstone Award: Bosch
• Horace J. Pratt Vendor of the Year Award: Mevotech

The 2023 board of directors was also introduced. Back as chair is Doug Wilson of Fat Guys Auto Parts. Michael MacPherson from Down East Auto Parts will serve as vice chair while Scott Anderson of Peterborough Automotive will serve as treasurer. Others serving as directors are: Tony Racioppo from Fincham Automotive Supplies; John Brunelle of Parts Stop Auto & Industrial; Rob Dow of Jack Dow Auto Supplies; and Arthur Edwards from Northwest Auto Parts. Mark Haner joined the board as Gary Thibault stepped down. He was given a parting gift in recognition of his years of service.

Comedian and magician Bob Cates took to the stage to wrap up the night.

But that wasn’t all — the next morning, vendors set up booths at Bestbuy’s Mississauga office for the Warehouse Trade Event. Shareholder members fill the space to check out the latest offerings.

We have the highlights in our Instagram reel and the photo gallery below.

Bestbuy Gala & Warehouse Trade Event 2024

The post Bestbuy celebrates members, vendors at annual gala appeared first on Auto Service World.