Looking for our special discount offers?
Our special offer this month is just for the regular readers of Your Car Matters… You can have any discount offered in any of our 2014 newsletters! If you missed our announcement on this last month, here’s a reminder… although we used to publish any special offers or discounts in this Shop Talk column, that
was a little hard to find. Starting last month, we created a page on our website with all our current offers in one spot so you’ll always know where to find them. We’ll update the page whenever the offers change. Bookmark this page now, and you’ll always be a click away from savings!
50 Car Facts to Blow Your Mind
The world-wide love affair with cars is well into its second century, and that’s a lot of time to accumulate facts, figures, and oddities that you probably never knew. We ran across an amazing graphic that points out some of the best. It’s pretty large, so we’ve broken it down into some smaller, more digestible chunks for you. The “History” section is at below, but click the icons below to learn about Money, Car Brands, International Facts, or Technology.
Real Life stories from our comment cards…
We leave comment cards in every vehicle after service so we can keep track of what we’re doing right and what you think we should do to make our services better. We thought we’d start sharing some of the comments we receive each month and tell you what actions we’re taking in response. This month, client Tom R. said…
“It would be nice if you didn’t have to keep the vehicle all day for minor, routine service”
Tom, we certainly understand how inconvenient it is to be without your vehicle, even for a little while. We do everything possible to keep that time to an absolute minimum without sacrificing quality, but we have real-world restrictions on how fast we can be. We see anywhere from 25 to 50 cars a day depending on the time of year, and it requires careful planning to handle that work flow. We match vehicles to the proper techs based on their experience with your vehicle’s particular problem, but we also prefer to have the same technician work on the same client vehicle whenever possible so that the person who understands your vehicle and its history best is the one who’s consistently doing the work. However, this also means that the tech we assign to your vehicle may still be working on other vehicles before he can get to yours. We pride ourselves that our techs care for the whole vehicle, not just the problem that brought you in, so once your vehicle is on the lift we also allow time to keep an eye on other vehicle systems as well. Even for “minor, routine service” there could be issues (for example, with parts availability) that can and do extend the time of a “quick” service. Finally, our post-service checkout takes time and there may be several vehicles ahead of yours to be checked that day.
Scheduling well in advance can help us plan for your vehicle and return it to you in the minimum time, but we will still likely plan most of a day to care for it properly. If you just can’t leave it that long, we do have a limited number of “will-wait” appointments each day- just ask your Service Advisor when you call to schedule. Finally, our FREE Courtesy Shuttle or the available rental cars from Enterprise can help get you through your day without wheels. We’ll do everything we can to get you back on the road as soon as possible, but we can’t sacrifice the quality you expect to do it. And we hope that’s one of the reasons you keep coming back to us!
Our Referral Reward Program
We’ve had such a great response to our Referral Reward Program (in which we make a donation to the non-profit group of your choice when someone comes in from your referral) that we’ve decided to continue it for a second year. We gave you all the details from the first year of the program in last month’s “Referral Reward Wrap Up”, and we have a few more groups to tell you about this month…
Bark– Defending and restoring Mt. Hood
Fences for Fido– Unchaining dogs, one dog at a time
KBOO– Community radio for Portland and beyond
Your reviews and referrals matter
We are constantly grateful for the supportive and loyal clients we have developed over the years. Your comments and appreciation keep us on the right road to providing the superior automotive service you deserve. Your reviews and referrals are not only the highest compliments we can receive, but they’re the lifeblood of our new business. If you like what you’ve found at Tom Dwyer Automotive Services, please tell a friend or take a minute to write a review on Yelp, Angieslist, Google, or the review site of your choice. Thank you!
Latest Automotive Recalls
Automobiles are just like any other product; occasional flaws in manufacture or design can cause problems once they leave the factory. When an issue is identified the manufacturers and government work hard to bring the vehicles back in for refit or repair, but not all recalls make the front pages. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration maintains a constantly updated list of recalls from every manufacturer. Clicking the button at right will take you to the full list at the NHTSA website.
