Opinion Archives - Page 66 of 71 - Import Car
Editor’s Notebook: Taking Image-Building to New Heights

If you think you’re doing a great job with customer service, you might want to think again. Dealerships in your area may have the upper hand. Toyota has launched “Image USA II,” a dealership renovation program aimed at upgrading dealership exteriors and interiors with an emphasis on special customer “touch points” to provide a new

Directions: What Women Say…

W hen a female customer visits your shop with a problem vehicle, she is looking for more than just a repair. She is looking for trust. Trust that your service writer or technician will listen to her explain the vehicle trouble, trust that allows her to feel comfortable about asking any question, no matter how

Is More Traffic Headed Your Way?

There has been a lot written in the last couple of years in business-to-business OEM and aftermarket magazines about how the car companies and car dealers are looking to increase service business at the dealerships. This focus on increasing activity in the bays is the result of improvements in the quality of vehicles that has

Time for Sale

If you do not charge for diagnostic time to diagnosis undercar problems, you might as well put a sign on the door that says “ROB ME.” With the complexity of brakes, suspension and exhaust systems increasing every year with little chance of standardization, it is difficult to diagnosis these systems with just a visual inspection,

Hansa Motors: Do What You Love, Love What You Do

Is More Traffic Headed Your Way?

Directions: Keeping Appearances

How your employees look – whether they please or deceive – usually carries a message I recently visited a local repair shop and watched a scruffy-bearded, pony-tailed tech in dirty, baggy clothes exit the shop and jump in his vehicle and take off for his lunch break. When the shop owner caught me staring at

Talking Shop: Shedding Light on Additional Service

liftgate-mounted applications. LEDs consume very little power, only about 1/10th as much current as a comparable incandescent light for the same amount of light that’s produced. The increased brightness and faster response of the LED lamps will improve safety on the roads, giving following drivers more time to react. In fact, tail lamp systems are

Carley’s Corner: My Advice on Gas-Saving Gadgets

ely, these cars were introduced a few years too soon and were discontinued because of limited range (about 100 miles on a full charge), and the high cost of the batteries (GM’s cost was reportedly $500 for each battery, and each car held 18 batteries!). If GM were to re-introduce the EV1 today, buyers would

Directions

Edward Sunkin has been the editor of Underhood Service since April of 1999. He has been a member of the Babcox family of automotive aftermarket publications beginning in December 1994, when he joined the jobber/parts specialist magazine Counterman as an associate editor. Edward also spent three years as managing editor Engine Builder, learning about the

Odds & Ends

Columbus, OH – PPG Automotive Refinish selected two outstanding vehicles to receive “PPG Dream Car” awards at the 8th annual Goodguys PPG Nationals, July 8-10 in Columbus, OH. The two vehicles were a 1937 Ford Pick-up owned by Joseph Dilkes Jr. of Little Falls, NJ, and a 1954 Chevy Sedan owned by Mac and Tina

Friend or Foe? Evaluating China’s Impact on the Global Economy and Your Business

There’s a lot of talk these days about China and how its infrastructure is a growing market for U.S. auto parts. These facts* prove it: U.S. automotive suppliers exported $835 million in parts to the Chinese economic area in 2004; total parts exports to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan last year represent a 16.4% increase