Why you should thoroughly inspect vehicles

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.”

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