Cheap Brake Services Can Be Expensive

Cheap Brake Services Can Be Expensive Brought to you by AASA For eighty years,there has been a war on the price of brake services. Shops were advertising low-priced brake relines on sandwich boards for $,but they complained about"gyps"selling brake jobs for $ on the side of the road. We see almost the same situation today. Some car dealers,chains and independent shops still chase the cheapest brake job. This time the price point is around $150. Today,shops are complaining about some guy on Craigslist who will perform a brake job for around $40 if he is provided with the pads. Shops that chase the cheapest brake job do so for a few reasons,the biggest being they are afraid of costing more than the competition down the street and maybe losing a customer. Some almost treat the brake job as a loss leader to get customers in the door so they can inspect the vehicle. While this might work for some retail businesses,it will not work for a traditional repair shop building long-term customer growth and profitability. Cheap Brakes = Cheap Result Most factory labor times call for hours to just replace the pads.But is it really worth taking the risks that come with installing cheap brake pads in order to advertise and maybe make a profit on a brake job special? The Value of Quality Buying a quality brake pad is like buying medicine Car Tools store. When you are buying a legal drug,you are not just paying the cost to manufacture,package,and market the pill. The bulk of what you are paying for is research and development. The same is true for brake pads. Aftermarket brake pads require a great deal of testing and engineering because they are made for a specific vehicle. A quality brake pad manufacturer will spend a lot of time and money developing a brake pad application for your vehicle. This includes simulated and on-the-vehicle testing. These types of tests are time and equipment intensive. A brake dynamometer,for example,can be more sophisticated and larger than an engine dynamometer. Brake dynamometers can simulate the conditions the brake system will experience in a much shorter time. This means that a brake dynamometer can simulate the mass,inertia and performance capabilities of a vehicle. Rotor Service There is usually a disclaimer on most cheap brake job banners that says:"Machining of rotors or drums extra OBD2 Scanner."Not addressing the rotors every brake job is setting your shop up for a comeback that can destroy any profit from any cheap brake job. If you look at most OE pad replacement procedures,they typically say that if the rotor is within specifications,you do not need to machine the rotor (assuming you are taking the time during a brake job to measure runout and thickness variation).Ask Your Best Customers Cheap brake jobs can artificially inflate car counts in the short term,but they attract customers that will not build your business' bottom line in the long term. Look at your top customers. For most shops,these top customers account for a large percentage of your revenue and even more of the profit. They come in more than once and recommend your shop to their friends. If you ask them why they come to your shop,chances are they will not say price. They will typically say trust and service. Cheap brake jobs are also an inventory issue. Your shop has only so many hours of labor it can sell a day. A fixed-price hour of labor for a cheap brake job is not as profitable as an hour of labor for a major undercar repair - but not doing brake jobs isn't a solution either. The solution is to perform brake jobs that use the best quality parts with labor prices that reflect reality and not what the guy down the street is willing to take. The customer really wants more than price.
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Cheap Brake Services Can Be Expensive

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