Comment of the Month
This Comment of the Month comes from outside the shop, where Charles S. gave us a 1-star review on Google. (9/21/21- Google seems to have pulled this review, but you can find it and all our other bad reviews at OUR BAD REVIEWS)
“High prices as with most shops. Seems like automotive shops should get ready to start losing business.”
Our reply, 9/1/2021- I hear you… auto ownership and repair is extremely expensive. It’s not ‘most shops’, either, it’s high everywhere. That’s disappointing and frustrating for those who can afford it, and can be crippling to people just scraping money together for their basic transportation.
The shops can’t take all the blame for that. No Service Advisor enjoys seeing a client cry when they face an expensive repair. No Shop can pay full price for parts and then give them to customers at a discount. No Technician wants to pay for their school, invest in their tools, and then do their physically and technically challenging job for minimum wage. And if someone is going to spend $40,000 (2021 average new car price) on something as complex as a car, they shouldn’t expect to cheap out on maintenance and repair.
High prices hit us all, but do you know who gets the short end of the stick in auto repair?
The first group is the folks who want expensive, difficult, quality service at cut-rate prices. These people hurt themselves. They’ll get an estimate they don’t like from a shop they don’t trust, then spend hours or days comparing the estimate with other shops around town. They may even find a deal, saving $10, $50, or even a couple hundred dollars, but their time, effort, and stress has value they aren’t considering. If they do find a better price, the service will be done by a new shop they don’t trust and they still may get conned. They don’t realize it, but their vehicle service is suffering because piece-by-piece maintenance can impact the overall performance and lifetime of the vehicle. And finally, when the next repair rolls around, they’ll be back on the treadmill again.
The other kind of people are hurt by the shops. As vehicles age, the number and severity of repairs grows and owners often pour money into a vehicle to squeeze out those last few miles. Shops know this, so most shops (because they’re commission-based) look at them as cash cows to be milked as long as possible. These people are in a hard place. They may not have the money for a newer vehicle so patching it together may be their only option. While one or two late-life repairs may be understandable, there comes a time when a vehicle is ‘economically totaled’ and it just doesn’t make sense to put more money into it at all. The customer isn’t always right, and one of the biggest services a shop can perform is to tell them when their vehicle has hit that limit.
Which brings us back around to our ‘high prices’. Our shop rate is about mid-range for Portland; you’ll find many boutique shops that charge more and many, many other shops that charge less. But that’s price, not value. “Expensive” doesn’t guarantee quality, and it’s hard for a shop to be honest and good if they’re trying to be the cheapest as well. Cheap repairs almost always have dark sides like lower quality parts with shorter lifetimes, less skilled technicians doing shoddy work, thin warranties, or a business model that depends on shady ‘upsells’.
In our own shop, we use OEM parts or better, employ ASE-Master-Certified technicians and NON-COMMISSIONED Service Advisors, only sell services our clients actually need, and offer a 24-month/24000-mile warranty. No one can do all that and still be price-competitive with Wacky Bill’s Cheapo Car Patching down the street.
If you want to dig deeper, we wrote a whole newsletter article on just this topic: ”Are we too expensive? How good is a low price on something you don’t need?”, but I hope our prices don’t keep you from coming back for the quality you deserve.
Carwash Coupon Season is still going on!
Have you taken advantage of Carwash Coupon Season yet? Summer in Portland doesn’t just mean the beautiful weather, it also means Free Car Wash Season at Tom Dwyer Automotive! The summer heat turns our parking lot into a dust factory so we offer free car washes to make up for it. Free Carwash Season usually runs until September 15, but with the blistering heat and no rain, we’ll extend this year’s Season until Oct 1. Sorry, but we only give out coupons for services exceeding $100 and not for oil changes or other minor services.
So why don’t we just wash your car here? It’s one of the most common questions we get, so we’ll let Tom himself tell you why…
“Because we’re so close to the river, we (and the city) closely monitor our discharges. If we washed more than 7 cars a week we’d have to install capture systems for every drop or risk damaging the environment. We offer free coupons for WashMan because they’ve already made the investment to do the cleaning right without environmental damage. Even just vacuuming cars presents problems. Although we used to vacuum, we stopped out of respect for our client’s privacy. You wouldn’t believe the things people leave in their cars, from fragile breakables to money to weapons. There are also liability and damage issues that outweigh the benefits of a clean carpet.”
So that’s the story. You can forget about washing your car for the summer, but only if you stop by to take advantage of our yearly blowout… FREE CARWASH SEASON!
We also have a couple ongoing offers you might find valuable…
Carbon Neutral Program–
Our company’s commitment to the environment led us to partner with Bonneville Environmental Foundation to create our Carbon Neutral Program in 2007. Client members offset the carbon production of their vehicles for one year AND save 10% on Labor Charges here at the shop! It’s a win for you AND our environment and it’s been very successful… since we instituted the program our members have prevented over 1.9 MILLION POUNDS of carbon from being dumped into our air!
Referral Reward Program–
Year after year, referrals from our existing clients are our greatest source of new clients, so we’ve tried hard to think of some way to appropriately reward people for their referrals. Our solution is our Referral Reward Program, where we make donations to the non-profit group of your choice to say ‘thanks’ for your generous referrals. Here’s how it works…
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. The last month’s recalls are below, but clicking the button at right will take you to the full list at the NHTSA website.
