My friend’s father’s small automotive repair shop and auto body shop, which has been in business for over thirty years, was forced to close down recently. When that happened, I defaulted to the shop I used to go to previously, Hondar House. To my surprise it was also closed. Permanently closed, as google tells me. Well, shit. Both were great shops, doing good work, work I trusted. Now they’re both gone.
Why is this happening? Are the people running these shops simply getting old and retiring? Are new cars too reliable to sustain a business repairing them, especially in an area where many people drive new(-ish) cars? Are cars themselves getting too complex? Is it just me, just in my area or is this happening in other parts of the country, too?
I made an appointment at a Toyota dealer for lunch hour. All I wanted was an oil change. I got there. I had to leave my car in a specific place. I had to talk to the guy who I told what I need, who put that into a computer. This took 45 minutes. He told me it would be two hours as they’re very busy, despite me making a f^%*ing appointment and being promised a quick oil change. I inquired about a transmission fluid change. He told me to leave the car for the day. Ugh.
Hooniverse Asks: Are small repair shops going out of business?
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12 responses to “Hooniverse Asks: Are small repair shops going out of business?”
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I think that it is a combination of all the things you have mentioned. Newer vehicles are requiring more and more specialized tools. Older shops are scared to touch a hybrid, while a very small percentage of the market, it is still 2-4% of the vehicles on the road that they won’t touch. Newer cars are requiring more and more software/firmware fixes that are pretty much a dealer exclusive thing. Just a guess, but most dealerships pay their mechanics much better than smaller shops, so the old “good help is hard to find”. I haven’t noticed any smaller shops around me going out of business, if anything they appear to be growing. People are keeping cars longer and keeping them on the road longer. Second and third owners usually avoid dealer service. Another factor, it is very easy to total a car these days in an accident. If you pop 2 or 3 airbags in a sub $10,000 car, it is probably totaled, even if the body damage wasn’t that extensive. Safer cars are meant to die in an accident so the passengers don’t.
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Maybe it’s just your area? How’s the real-estate cost there? There’s definitely a lot of age-related turnover happening but I have not seen any shops closing down in my neck of the woods. A body shop is basically a license to print money, you can pack the hell out of those quotes and insurance companies don’t care.
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Boston is one of the most expensive cities in the country, and that sure as hell includes real estate costs.
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Yeah, the shops that aren’t closing are moving farther out from the hot real estate areas. My go-to Saab shop (ABJ) has moved to the edge of its town (Somerville), and the galling thing is that there is now Saab art in the park next to the former shop location.
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I think what is happening is that with all the complexities of late-model cars, they are becoming uneconomic to repair after a certain age. Third and fourth-hand buyers (particularly of the luxury cars) are being shocked by the repair bills.
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However, the average age of the fleet is going up, not down – premature uneconomic repair would mean the fleet would get younger.
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A few months ago my brother closed his shop and retired from being a self-employed mechanic for essentially a combination of those reasons. I don’t think anyone intends to go into business as his replacement, which means there’s now one more small town in Oregon without a garage.
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Around here, everybody seems busy all the time. It’s impossible to find anyone willing to work for less than 110$/hour (around 900 NOK). With all this pressure, it seems shops don’t care much about following up their customers or doing things right the first time. Over the last couple of years we have driven 40 minutes to a Toyota shop on the other side of a mountain pass that does good work at ok prices. They are reliable and have a good reputation. It doesn’t always pan out as expected, but they come across as honest. Which is the #1 priority to me now.
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In my view a shop that’s honest, capable and has good communion could print money. The first two aren’t too hard to find, the third is nearly impossible.
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I think some of it is regional. Here in central Oregon there are lots of independent shops, often specializing in a single make or older vehicles. As an example, one large independent is a Subaru specialist and another shop does mostly classic trucks.
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Well the fact is good economic times do run some people out of business when the cost of rent and labor goes up. Happens across all sorts of businesses.
A number of people hitting retirement age and heirs not interested in taking over is another factor.
I doubt complexity has anything to do with it at this point, that might have been the case in the 90’s when people didn’t want to learn how to deal with computers. However for those that got over that hump with engine and then powertrain and ABS computers are capable of dealing with the other 37 computers in modern cars and fact is diagnosis is easier than ever now that everything is computerized. Is it the swtich, relay or device? Pull up the right PID and see if the computer is recognizing the button push and if it is commanding the relay to energize. -
Weirdly, I have actually just started going to a small shop near me that looks to be quite new — listed as having opened recently, young staff, etc. And this is in Silicon Valley, of all places — not exactly cheap real estate. Then again, the shop building itself looks to have been there for quite a while, and this place specializes in Subarus. Judging by the other cars I’ve seen in that shop, I’m guessing it’s mods/custom work/etc. as much as maintenance that’s keeping the business afloat.
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