Thoughts on owning an auto repair shop?

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JesseVoss

Thoughts on owning an auto repair shop?

Postby JesseVoss » Mon May 21, 2018 3:45 am

Hi,

This is purely a thought exercise at this point.
A local gas station/garage near me just closed up shop (The owners got in hot water with the law and I believe may be in jail right now). It's at an intersection with 3 other gas stations on it, one of which has a garage as well.
Every auto mechanic place arrund here is always packed. There are a lot of commuters in DE, and it seems auto repair is always in need.
I enjoy mechanical things, but have next to no experience fixing cars myself. In my theoretical example, I would be hiring staff to do all the repairs, and I would just own/run the business side of things. I would not bother selling gas, it would just be a pure auto repair shop.
Any Suggestion Would be appreciate.

I didn't find right solution on the internet.



Thanks


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smj999smj
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Postby smj999smj » Mon May 21, 2018 10:19 am

It would help a lot if you had some mechanical experience. Since you don't, you'll really need to find a good, experience auto technician who'll serve to not only do repairs, but be a shop foreman, as well. There's also a substantial investment in equipment if the garage doesn't already have it...and continued investment in new equipment as it's needed. Plus, there's insurance and other overhead to consider. If you have a good head for business and, most importantly, a steady flow of work available, it's doable. But, some customers can be a real pain in the tail, as well! You'll deal with people that will want to nickel and dime you to death, bring their own low quality or used parts to install, will come back when other problems occur and say it didn't do that before you did an entirely not-related repair on something else and those that will tell you to fix something and not have the money to pay you, so the vehicle sits on your lot forever!


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