It’s not about the vehicles. It’s about the relationships.
The most disappointing calls we get come from potential new clients with older vehicles. We have to refer them to other shops because our policy is not to accept NEW clients with 15-years-old or older vehicles. It seems like older vehicles would be easy to work on and very lucrative for our shop, so why, why, why would we turn them away? It’s not about too hard to work on; our team of ASE-Certified and ASE-Master-Certified Technicians can fix any problem thrown at them. It’s the second point, that they’d be lucrative to our shop, that drives the policy. We know we could make lots of money from working on older vehicles, but we also know it’s rarely in the clients’ interest to do it. We’ve been in business over 30 years because we center our service on successful client relationships, and we’ve found through hard experience that it’s almost impossible to build a solid service relationship around older, often challenged vehicles. Let us explain… 
Why do we hold NEW clients to a “15-years-old-and-newer” standard at all? It might seem silly for an auto shop to turn down repairs on any vehicles, especially older ones that will need lots of repairs, but Tom explained the basics in one our old KPOJ radio spots…
“When I started in the auto service industry in the seventies, I was told ‘no vehicle is ever beyond repair’.
Those used up vehicles weren’t economically totaled rolling illusions; they were “roses”… which is true, from a repair shop’s viewpoint.
Poorly maintained vehicles tend to gobble the most money right before they die… it can be a waste trying to squeeze out those last few miles.
Our clients trust us to give solid advice that’s in their best long term interest. We’ll recommend against repairs when we know it’s the right advice to maintain loyal clients for years to come.
Vehicles should come and go, but client relationships should endure.”
Older vehicles are poor starts for NEW relationships
Most shops look at a people as ‘customers’ buying a single product or service. They’ll perform any repair a customer requests on any vehicle, and then send them on their way. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, but we take a fundamentally different approach. We think the people who use our service are ‘clients’, people engaging us for long-term professional service relationships, so it’s critical those relationships are solid from the start. Their quality and effectiveness depends heavily on the quality and condition of the vehicles, and all too often older vehicles provide a poor foundation. We’ve found, through long and painful experience, that avoiding older vehicles avoids the problems that go with them…
Avoids suspicious ‘upsells’
We recommend our Comprehensive Inspection to establish the condition of all new clients’ vehicles, but in older (especially neglected) vehicles this in-depth examination usually finds a long list of very necessary, very expensive repairs to make the vehicle safe and reliable. Clients who’ve dealt with us for years know that if we tell them they need any repair it’s for legitimate reasons, but for a new client this can look suspiciously like we’re trying to sell unneeded services… like the ‘roses’ in Tom’s radio spot.
Avoids impossible prioritization
If a new client doesn’t want to address every item identified on the Comprehensive Inspection, their next logical question is often ‘which ones are MOST important?’ That’s a question we like, because one of our Service Advisors’ biggest values is the way they prioritize necessary repairs for all our clients. But they can’t be effective if the list is too long… if fixing the most important problem(s) STILL leaves the vehicle unreliable, then the clients’ money would be wasted to fix anything at all. They’d be rightly upset if we suggested they spend their hard-earned money for a vehicle that was going to ‘die’ soon anyway. That’s an experience we don’t want any new client to have!
Avoids awkward “goodbye” recommendations
For every vehicle, the cost of necessary repairs will one day exceed the value of the vehicle. When our existing clients’ vehicles reach this point (what we call “economically totaled”) we advise them to sell (or donate), and they know from experience to trust us. New clients don’t have the same basis of trust to work from. If their first taste of our service is our Advisor telling them to sell their vehicle, then it doesn’t lead to future trust.
And there’s still more…
There are other nuts-and-bolts reasons (if you’ll pardon the pun) for this policy. First, our ASE-Certified and ASE-Master-Certified Technicians can fix most anything, but they primarily trained to work on more recent vehicles and their particular needs and quirks. Second, the tools and technologies we’ve invested in are designed for newer vehicle technologies. Finally, (and especially important for NEW clients) older vehicles can be a “house of cards” due to their age, service history, or condition. A failure in one system can lead to failures in others, and this can lead to questions of “whose fault or responsibility is it” if connected systems fail during or after service.
EXISTING Clients are never ‘cut off’ for older vehicles
One of the biggest confusions in this policy is the effect on EXISTING clients. Sometimes they worry that their vehicles will “age out” of our care. Let us clear that up right now…
If you are a Tom Dwyer client, we will continue to care for your vehicles as long as it makes economic sense for YOU!
We have MANY longstanding clients with older vehicles, and we plan to keep them happy for years to come. But we started servicing their vehicles when they were new-ish and have continued to service them as they’ve aged. We know the vehicles and built the proper relationships with the clients, so everyone involved knows and accepts their responsibilities for the vehicle’s ongoing needs and condition. We’ll continue to care for these vehicles (and their owners!) as long as it makes sense for THEM!
We’ll even consider servicing older vehicles for EXISTING clients
If you’re an EXISTING client and would like us to consider servicing your other, older vehicles, there are options. We still won’t service it (even for you!) if it doesn’t make sense, but, if it’s a quality vehicle with less than about 150,000 miles we can do our Comprehensive Inspection ($150.00) to document its actual needs and conditions. If we find the vehicle is in a condition we can support then we certainly will. If not, then we’ll recommend you to another shop that can help you. (Sorry, but if you choose to go this route then we can’t apply any of our money-back offers to the inspection cost if we decline service.)
YOU are more important than YOUR VEHICLE
Tom Dwyer Automotive counts on long-term, trusting relationships with our clients, and we’ve found it’s almost impossible to build these relationships with NEW clients if their vehicle is a string of problems. “15 years” may be an arbitrary cutoff for older vehicles; after all, there are 16-year-olds out there in spectacular condition and 14-year-olds ready for the junkyard. We had to draw the line somewhere though, because all vehicles have a limited economically-viable lifetime. Proactive, sensible maintenance can extend the lifetime of a vehicle for many years but it’s rarely worth playing “catch up” to get an older, poorly maintained vehicle running safely and reliably. but eventually the economics just don’t make sense.
If a new client is suspicious of our motives, if economics keep us from making their vehicle safe and reliable, if mechanical issues keep us from doing the proper, high-quality work we can guarantee, then that relationship is poisoned from the start and we can’t provide the service we think our clients deserve and should expect. Our “15-years-old and newer” policy might be inconvenient sometimes, but we think it’s the best way to protect our value to you for the long term. Vehicles will come and go, but the service relationship can last for generations.
Digging Deeper
Why 15-Years-Old or Newer Vehicles?
“1998 and Newer” isn’t for everyone
Tom’s Tidbits- DON’T WORRY! We’ll still service your older vehicles!
