Ep 102 - Chris Gayne | If There's a Problem in Your Shop, It's Probably You

0:00You can obviously be successful and be that type of owner that is completely disconnected from what actually happens out there. Sure. Probably going to start a fight, but that's fine. However, that I think is 100%— and we get into discussion about this a lot, especially in these groups or within our chats or whatever— that's transactional business. It is. And I personally don't like it.

0:20The following is a special edition of the show. Don't worry, today's episode still features doofuses talking about the aftermarket. This one just doesn't include my dad, so it's probably better than normal. The stuff said on this show does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of our peers, our sponsors, or any other associations we may have. Chances are there may be some spicy language in this show, so if you're sensitive to that, you should probably move along.

0:48Without further ado, here's your special host, Brian Pollock, with Confessions of a Shop Owner, presented by Techmetric, the best thing to happen to the world of personal transportation since the advent of internal combustion engines. Again, now he's recording. Yeah. Oh, thank goodness. That conversation, just yet another thing that will never see the light of day on the Confessions of the Shop Owner podcast.

1:13It's a shame. Sorry for all of you. Oh my gosh. So we're here. Braxton tells me I have to mention we're at Tools in Pennsylvania because I forgot to do that. Where we are, so I think so. You never know this place. And I'm here with a, um, I'm here with a super American extraordinaire. I hope you didn't need that camera. And I kicked it.

1:33That's okay. Super American extraordinaire Chris Gagne. You pronounce it right? It's a fact. Not Gagne because you're not French. You're super American. Super, super American. Super, super American. Um, I don't know if that's a— that's not true at all, but whatever. You're super American. I mean, I think you're exaggerating. I mean, you're like— you're probably one of the coolest people I've ever met.

1:54I feel more like a— like Forrest Gump. I just have dabbled in a lot of weird things. I don't know how I got there. I don't know how I got here. You've done some things. Yeah, I've just done a few things. You own, uh, all unrelated, Dale County Diesel. Yep. Right. Yep. Not Markham's. Not Markham's. I do not work for Tommy Markham.

2:09You did not work for Tommy Markham. Although probably some days in shop ownership, it'd probably be nice to just show up somewhere and just do the thing. Yeah, do the thing that you do, right? Yeah. Hey Tommy, you got problems. Tommy, I'm done. Put it in the Tommy pile. Yeah, put it in the Tommy. Put in the Tommy pile. Um, before that Military career?

2:29Yep. So I did 21 years in the Army. Oh my gosh. Started out as a cop. Thought that's what I wanted to do. I was 17 and dumb. Turns out I hated it. And then started flying for the last 11 years. Okay. 11 years flying helicopter. Yep. Flying Kiowarriors and Apache. And then I finished out as the instructor pilot at Fort Rucker in Alabama.

2:56And that's where we are now. Nice. Yeah, it was pretty okay. You ended up in Alabama because it was like your last deployment, if you will, or what? It was my last duty station. My last duty station. Yeah, so I got sent there to be an instructor for flight school, um, did it for a couple years, and then, uh, when I retired, I thought I was going to keep doing it.

3:15I actually thought I was going to go to the airlines too, and I didn't do any of that stuff. And, uh, Dale County Diesel took off. So that's really— you were like too hyped up working on diesel pickups? Yeah, I guess. I, I don't know. You're like, this is kind of fun. I'm like Zeb's dog. I just need more stimulation. So I guess you're like, listen, I'm a little undiagnosed.

3:33Yeah. And I may have a touch of autism too. Yeah. Yeah. I just got to be— I got to like touch things and do stuff. That was the idea. Yeah. Yeah. So when you started, was it just you when you started? It was. So it was me. And so it started with me and the shop. I don't know if I've ever told you the story of how the shop came to be, but it was an accident.

3:50I used to fix and flip trucks on the side just because I like to do it. Okay. Except we were— when I thought we were going to go be airline pilots and all that, I didn't have a garage. I was in a townhouse. And so I was eating a— there used to be a place next to my shop where they had this giant breakfast burrito, and if you ate it, you got a t-shirt, your picture on the wall, and all that.

4:09Well, I ate it every time I went in there. And, uh, so I was sitting there, you were like small town famous. Yeah, just, just a slob, um, feeling sorry for myself and looking out the window, and there was a old garage for rent. Okay. And I was like, man, I wonder what that would cost, because the town's a little— it's a little dilapidated.

4:28Oh, okay. Oh, oh yeah, no, no. Oh, you're thinking— you're like, we are not hoity-toity. You're like, man, I might be a couple hundred bucks a month away from having a spot. I got you. So I checked it out, and it was definitely within my wheelhouse of what I could tolerate. So I rented this, this 4-bay shop. What I didn't know is you had to have a, a business license to do that in a commercial property.

4:48So city came and informed me of that. So I filed for a business license, and that's how the business started. So you just like mess around with stuff on the side? You were going to go do something else? Yep. You're like, you know what, flipping these trucks is kind of fun, there's some money to make. Fun. It was— I'm the boss, you know.

5:0521 years in the Army, I got real tired of people that I thought were unqualified telling me what to do. I'm not saying every boss I had was like that, but a lot of them are. A lot of them. Mhm. You've got a problem with authority. A little. Not really. Not after 20— if you made it 21 years, you can't have too much of a problem.

5:23Well, you kind of hit a point of no return, right? Like, I was— it's a little too late to do the right thing now. I also am a high school dropout, uh, and when I joined, I didn't have a whole lot of choices, so, right, I hit the point. And it was working out. It was good. I'm not— I will always be grateful for my time in the Army.

5:38It got me here where I am. But I was done. When I was done, I was done. You were done. You were done. I was done. I've thought about going back a couple times. It's been, uh, take a few offers to go fly on the civilian side with some— okay, other places. But, and I mean, went through the process, and then when I sit down and think about it, to be— to be— I'm not, I'm not willing to stop our shop.

5:59That's my true passion. That's what I really like to do, and I can't do both and be good at it. So I stick with the shop. It's what I like. It's what you like to do. Yeah, what you like to show up. As crazy as that is, I mean, teaching guys to, to to put rounds from an Apache on target is pretty fun too.

6:15It's not bad. Right. But I also like diagnosing blown up fuel pumps and stuff like that. You're probably a big fan of torque wrenches. You had a little issue with an Apache one time, right? Yeah. Is that public? Can we talk about that? Do we have to have breaks now? Yeah, you can probably Google it. Oh, you can Google it? I'm sure you can Google it.

6:30Okay. April 18th, 2018. It might be the 2019th 'cause we were in Korea. I don't remember 'cause times are different. Hey guys, Carrie Lynn with Turnkey Marketing. If you are looking to increase cars and you're looking for the right demographic to go after, you want to get the right people who need auto repair right now, then give us a call. We have a service called Direct Track, and it utilizes AI to find people in your area who are the great demographic that you want to go after, have raised their hand and opted in saying, "I need auto repair help right now."

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7:23It has been incredibly effective. It has made shops seem like they're everywhere to those people who need repairs right then. And I mean, I'm telling you guys, the return on investment has been huge. So if you want to increase car count, you want to get great people in the door, give us a call or reach out to us and ask us about DirectTrack Marketing.

7:44Look, when I first opened my shop, I thought my old systems would keep up. The software that I had would continue to evolve, but as we grew, the slow estimates, scattered workflow, increasing downtime, it really just, it was becoming a real problem. That's why I switched to TechMetric. It's not just software, it's a complete shop management system that makes my life easier.

8:06Smart jobs, instant estimates, integrated payments, integrated financing options. I mean, It allows me to focus on the work that actually makes me money and not get bogged down in the other details. My shop's repair orders have jumped over 300% since switching to Tekmetric, and when I need help, their support team responds in real time. I actually was online with them asking questions just this week, and I got answers in minutes rather than having to wait for callbacks and emails days later.

8:32If your system is holding you back, it's time for a change. Tap the link in the show notes and see how Tekmetric can help you move your shop forward. I always just say we're in the future, so it might have been the 19th in Korea, but anyway, depending on the dateline, right? Right, gotcha. Uh, had some, uh, so all the heavy maintenance in Korea is done by a civilian agency, but they're all former Army guys.

8:53Okay, right, that's where they learn. It's an Apache, right? So you have to be in the Army to learn the Apache. To learn, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're not going to learn that at the Niagara Falls waterfall tour. They don't fly. University ain't going to teach you how to work on the Apache. Sure. Um, so I, I was an instructor pilot. Our aircraft broke.

9:10As I'm walking back to the hangar, my buddy who was a maintenance pilot asked me if I'd ever done a full general test flight with them. I'm like, nah, man. He's like, let's go. He's like, I just need you up front. You just fly the aircraft. Let me do what I do in the back. I said, cool, no problem. We made it about, I don't know, 50 feet and that damn thing started spinning around and it just ate the dirt.

9:30Just ate the dirt. Yeah, so that sucked. At the time, I was probably 230 pounds of just exercising every day, meat and everything I could to push that damn collective down. You couldn't— it just wanted to be up, just the G-force. G-forces, you couldn't— I mean, it was hard to just move in that. I mean, it was hard because it had just sucked in so hard.

9:49You're spinning that snap. So 230 pounds, probably 10 G's, so you're like 2,300 pounds. So in the, in the investig— in the crash report, it says that we hit the ground at 13.37 G's. Oh my gosh. That's from about— I don't even think it was 20 feet. It wasn't even that high. It wasn't even that high. And that's hard. The initial snap and spin of the aircraft, it twisted the airframe and blew all the— when we— when it all finally got done, my buddy in the back, Jake, was like, he's like, I got glass all over me.

10:16Where the fuck is this glass? Can we say fuck? Whatever, I don't care. It's got this fucking glass over me. And I'm like, where the hell did glass come from? And I look and all the glasses, all the glass, because the frame twisted, twisted and popped it up, it blew it all out. Oh my God, like 20 feet. We were maybe going, if I remember right, it was just under like 20 miles an hour.

10:35So right, right under what we call effective translational lift, right when the aircraft starts to get efficient. So we had enough forward momentum where the spin wasn't just stationary. We were— it was kind of like going, oh yeah, perfect. Yeah, yeah. Um, so you're out of control on multiple axes instead of just one. It was super— that's cool. And it was super fast too.

10:50It lasted a few seconds, felt like an eternity, felt like an eternity. I remember every bit of it. I remember thinking, because you know, it's It's, it's got a spiral, and luckily we had big old rocket pods on there. And, uh, it was coming down, and I'm in the front, I'm flying, and it's coming down, and I'm watching the blades. We're— because we keep bouncing from side to side because I cannot get this.

11:10Yeah, it's just kind of like doing this crazy little gyroscopic out of control. Yeah, so one thing about the Apache is, especially if you're in the front seat, those blades, they can come down and they can lop your old, uh, your dome off. So I'm watching these blades coming down, and they're— and you're strapped in and you're trying to duck. Oh shit, dude, everything I had to get get as low as I could and just push as far to the left as I could.

11:32I'm like, please don't chop my head off. Oh my gosh. I thought we were flipping over. And I closed my eyes and I opened them up and I hear radios and I look and the tower was right in front and it's vertical. And I'm like, oh shit, we didn't flip. Oh my God. Yeah, it sucked. It sucked. And all it was was I think it's 5.

11:48I have the coupler. The tail rotor drive shaft came apart. They put the bolts in the wrong holes and I have the coupler on my desk. I keep it there and you could see the last one that gave out. It's got a bend in it where it was holding on for dear life. It was holding on for dear life. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh.

12:03It would— I mean, destroyed the aircraft, right? I don't know what the hell an Apache costs, but a lot in the tens of millions. $30 million, right? Got to be. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Total it out. That was— they sent that right to pick and pull. Actually, it sat in a hangar out in Korea for a long time. I don't know what they did with the rest of it.

12:20No idea. Yeah. All over, like 3 little 8mm bolts. Go from 5 little 8mm bolts. Were you— were you actively deployed at one time too? Oh, well, you were in Korea, so you were— you were in a war zone. I did Korea twice, did Iraq Iraq and Afghanistan is a list of guys. Um, I've been all over Europe. All over Europe. I know you've been all over the US.

12:41We've talked about that before. You grew up in— I have flown a helicopter in every state of the US except for, um, Alaska and Hawaii. Oh my gosh. Yeah, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere. Yeah, you've seen it all. It's been pretty literally pretty okay. I feel Forrest Gump-y, like I just— sometimes I'm like, I don't know how I got here. Why do you work on trucks, Chris?

13:00Because I'm tired, right? I kept going. Yeah. So Dale County Diesel starts up, you make the transition out of that, which is just an unbelievable— it's a big shift. You got to think too, I'm at the home Army flight— every Army helicopter pilot goes through Fort Rucker, which is where we are. Okay. All my buddies that are instructors, they're still there. If you're an Apache instructor pilot, you don't— if you're going to keep flying, you've got probably two choices.

13:28You fly some Apache— I mean, you got a few, but the good paying jobs are keep flying Apaches as a civilian instructor, or you go to the airlines like these other guys do. Right. So there's a ton of guys that I know that are still out there flying. So I see these guys all the time and they're like, why the hell you want to work on trucks, man?

13:41Don't you want to come fly? Don't you? I miss it. I miss flying. I miss things about it. But man, I don't miss that kind of shit. I don't. I don't miss the— that was a thing you did. And now we're on to the next. We're done. We're on to something else. We're done with that. Yeah. We're figuring out that running an auto shop isn't easy.

13:58Nope. But it's also not terrible in the grand scheme of things. No, it's pretty great. I enjoy it. There's a lot of things that translate from the Army, like When I was enlisted, I was a Sergeant First Class. So, you know, like when I went to Iraq, I took 40 guys with me. Okay. And well, I finished with— when I went there, I was E-6, so I had, what, 12, I think.

14:19And then when I left, I had 42 dudes I brought back home. I enjoy leadership. I've been to a bunch of leadership courses. It's just— it's what I like. I like kind of managing people. Translates well into the shop. It does. It does. Luckily, and I hope my guys will agree when they hear this, that I don't treat them— one of the guys, it's actually my main guy, Adrian, him and I were in Iraq together in 2000.

14:43Really? Yeah. Wow. And now he's the main guy there. I don't treat those guys like I do. I mean, I don't— I think I've raised my voice maybe once or twice to a couple of guys who probably don't work there anymore. I just— I run it a different way. Yeah. Luckily, I come to things like this and get to learn from guys like you and, you know, the other people that are here.

15:00And don't look at me. I don't know anything. That's, that's true. Where's your bag of potato chips? Right. All that guy does is eat potato chips. You don't fix no cars. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, it's all right, man. I, I enjoy it. I enjoy the, the growing part of it. Right. It's the painful part. But it's also— I'll tell you what I really like to like in this again, part of my instructor kind of background, like when they're teaching somebody how to how to, how to put a rocket, you know, on a dummy tank, right?

15:32Okay. It's tough. It's not easy. Yeah, right, right. 25,000-pound machine. Looks easy in a video game. It's really not that great in real life. There's a lot going on. There's a little bit going on. Yeah. That you don't see. But once they get it and the light bulb clicks and they just do it and you just sit back and watch them do it, it's like, hell yeah.

15:46Um, and I enjoy that same kind of satisfaction from this shop too, right? We get a lot of that. We get a lot of it within the shop. Get a lot of it with trying to drag other— because, man, I want to see everybody do well. There's enough broken cars. I They get crappier every day. So talk about it all the time.

16:01There's enough for everybody. I'm not— I want to see other guys coming to these events. I rode down here with other shop owners that we're not in competition with. Yeah, I'm not in competition with the people down the street. I'm not in competition. And it's not— and it's not because we're at different levels. The people I rode with, Dan can fix anything I can, right?

16:17Like, no doubt. Dude's freaking super sharp. We're not in competition with each other, right? We're just not. Because there's, like you said, so many broken vehicles. Yeah. And if you— I mean, it's not like a thing. I would argue it can be competition. It just doesn't need to have a negative connotation with it. Sure. Right. Sure. Competition breeds innovation. It should make you want to do better.

16:33Yeah. Like, I almost wish a diesel shop would open up next to us because right now we're really the only one. Give you a little nudge. Yeah. Give you a little nudge to really— other places that'll do what we do. To kick it, kick it into road gear. Yeah. Yeah. And all it does to me is like when someone says, oh, well, you know, they can do it too.

16:49And I'm like, you know, that gives me a little nudge. Like, I bet they can't do it like we do. Yeah. You know, like, that's my point. That's the best I can do is say, yeah, we don't— they don't do it like me. Yeah, I bet. They can do it. Yeah, that they— yeah, there's something— diesel is so strange because there's so many people— how do I say this— there's so many hobbyists dabbling in this thing and fucking it up.

17:14Yeah, it's just a fact. I mean, you just see stuff all the time, like stupid stuff that is like just basic for us. Like, yep, people like putting a, uh, put— doing a DCR conversion, they put— don't put the lines back in the brackets. Oh yeah, well, how do you think that's gonna go? I know directions say to do this, but man, it's good.

17:31No, because I'm smarter than the guys at S&S that designed the stuff and tested it, and they don't put the lines in the brackets. And they're like, oh yeah, I had, uh, my neighbor's sister's cousin, um, not her neighbor's cousin, the neighbor's sister cousin, if that makes sense, um, did this DCR converter. You know, I smell fuel, I, I smell fuel in my truck.

17:50And you look and there's fuel in the valley of the truck, freaking turbocharger manifolds right there. This truck is like, thank goodness he just gets groceries with it, because if he'd pull a trailer, thing would have burnt to the ground, square to the ground. And then there'd be a Facebook post telling S&S how, how, what a shitty product is because freaking technician Timmy doesn't know what a torque wrench is or instruction.

18:10Forget the torque wrench, forget the torque wrench. He knows the instruction, just blatantly doesn't put the shit in there where it goes, right? And that's— or the cheaper guy. Yeah, I got a, I got a guy who'll do it for that. I got— yeah. Oh yeah, I got a guy who does. Oh yeah, I got a guy who'll do that job. He said he'd do it $500.

18:25Well, great, right? $500 labor. Yeah, yeah, go ahead. We've seen the Facebook posts. I know. And you just imagine what those installs look like because let's, let's face it, on that job, like a lot of guys talk about doing that job for $500. If you're going to do that job right, even if you do that job all the time, 4 hours. Oh, to do it, to do it, to do it perfect.

18:48Correct. 4 hours. If you're cruising, you've been in a ton of these, 4 hours. And again, if some dude's doing it for $500 labor and he ain't doing them all day, Like, you're not— and even you're not making— you can't— no shop can— you can't be profitable doing that as a shop. No, sure as hell not at a shop. And as a private individual, I mean, I guess if, if you're broke, $500— I mean, I'm not trying to sound hoity-toity, but I'm just saying that like, if I'm going to spend an entire Saturday, it's good because they're not going to do it in 4 hours, right?

19:19They're not going to do it. They're not going to do it. It's going to take them all damn day, assuming they don't screw something up. Nothing. Assuming, assuming they have a— assuming they have an air hammer and a fan clutch tool. Yeah, maybe they get the fan off. Maybe you don't need to take the fan off. There's tricks, I get it. Yeah, some— yeah, whatever.

19:38I had a guy that didn't do it, God bless him. He was good at it, whatever. He was quick with it. My hands— I'm too fat. I'm— I tell everybody the same thing. My— I am fat, old, and my back hurts. Yeah, I'm taking the fan off. That's why, like, if— do I take the path of least resistance, bro? People talk about pulling, uh, or not, or doing um, 6.4 turbos with the cab down.

19:56Oh, it's easy, man. But no, if I just had this conversation last night— bring it up. We just— and people will make fun of me for this, but I'm like I said, I'm fat and old, my back hurts. I, I'm like, like LML fuel filter housings. Oh yeah, dude, like I'm like to a point, like, thank goodness, thank goodness we got great guys who work for us because I have a guy I can just give that to.

20:19Little hands. With little hands, because that job pisses me off. Like, I'm to a point now, I'm like, I don't know, I might freaking disconnect some hoses, some grounds, and freaking lift the cab off this. I don't know, I'm just— I'm especially— I'm over— they are. And I always talk— and Zeb's guys— Zeb's always funny. He's got guys that are really good at doing this.

20:36This is all they do day in and day out. He's like, my guys don't even lift the cab off to do a fuel system. I go, dude, I can't even take the EGR bolt out with the cab on. I'm like, I'm like, dude, look at my hand. Yeah, like, I can't, you know. Yeah, like, great. And it's great that they can do it.

20:51And I know them guys are doing it right too. I get it. They're doing it right. But it's like, it's like a turbo on a Duramax, right? You, of course, you don't need to take the cab up, but boy, one of them bolts break, you're going to wish you had just done it in the first place. Yeah. You know, and like I said, I'm not saying we do it, but luckily I don't primarily do that work anymore.

21:09Yeah, I got guys that are good at it and they do it. You're like me. Like, luckily I've got guys, you know, I used to There's been a big transition in our shop where even, even mechanical stuff-wise, like even the nuts and bolts of it before, before we got it, we got a guy now before he got a ton of experience under his belt, even in our shops, I was kind of, I was kind of the king of the road of the mechanical stuff.

21:35Right, right. Hey everybody, I'm going to take just a quick minute out of our show to talk to you about one of the favorite tools that we have. In my company to help streamline and make our guys as efficient as possible. And that's Detect Auto. I've been talking about Detect Auto for almost a year at this point, and my team still loves it.

21:52And if you listen to the show, you know that I love the idea of bringing in skilled individuals from outside of the industry to add to our shortage within our trade, right? But one of the problems that you run into sometimes with that is that these guys and gals might not have a full automotive knowledge just yet. And as a technician, if you've ever gotten a repair order that says check noise, you know how infuriating that can be.

22:17Well, this tool, the Customer Concern Tool, is designed specifically for that. The advisor can put in 1 or 2 or 3 words about what the complaint is, and then it's going to prompt them all the questions that they need to ask that customer. And then it puts that into a paragraph form that's easy to understand for the technician. So that technician's not getting check noise, check vibration.

22:39They're getting all the information that they would like to have from the customer. It just makes things more efficient. It makes guys in the back happier and it just makes the business run more smoothly. If you want to find out more about this and the other tools available on Detect Auto, just reach out to us through the link in the show notes.

23:03I'm gonna get these, get these stuck bolts out, you know, weld some whatever to get a bolt, whatever. Thank goodness I got a guy who's better at that than me. Yeah, because I'm just— and I, and I, as that shift has happened, you start to recognize that maybe you're not that good at certain things anymore. Oh, for sure. I wouldn't want to have to do a set of exhaust manifolds on something because it's going to take me too long.

23:28I got this guy over here that's going to do just as good a job as I do. And he's 10 years younger than me. He's going to do it in half the time because he's been doing all of our heavy line work for 6 years now. Yeah, there's something to be said for that. I mean, yeah, I walked outside the shop when we get here Wednesday.

23:44So Tuesday and Adrian's doing a fuel system on an LML and I look in there, I see the EGR out and see the turbo. I can see the turbo, which means you've done a lot of work already. Yeah, right. Yeah. If you can see it. Yeah. Like, nah. I'm glad you're good with the cab on. Cab on with the cab on. Yeah.

23:58I'm like, I'm glad you're good at this, man, because I don't want no part of that anymore. And like, you call me whatever you want. I don't care. But what I was going to say to that is, and I know for you it's the same thing, not doing that opens you up now to learn and do other things. Yeah. Focus on other things that for sure that it makes me better at the tasks I have to accomplish.

24:17I think that especially technician and I'm not a technician by trade, but I was sure a bunch of them now. Technician turned owners, it gives them time to do this stuff that maybe they didn't think was important to start. But they need it. And now they realize, hey bro, you need to be doing this stuff. You need to take a look at it.

24:32This thing doesn't run itself. If you don't know what KPI is, like you need to go get yourself in front of a computer and let's talk. Right. But that's what it does. I mean, it's, I used to feel bad about not fixing trucks anymore, but it's, I don't serve the shop best if I'm the one doing I'll do work, especially when you've— especially when you've hired people who are good, right?

24:55But they're good at it. They do it all the time. You're— you've hired a guy that at this point, because he's put so much more time in recently, you've spent some time not doing a fuel system, if you will. He's at a point where he's literally better with his hands than you are now. Yeah. And that's okay. It wouldn't make sense. It would not make sense for you to do that job.

25:13Yeah. Because you have a guy that's going to do it faster and just as good. And he knows the process. He knows we're going to torque this stuff, we're going to do this there, right? Yeah. I mean, why would you even try to do it like at that point? Like, if you're going to be slower at it? Well, I would say the only reason I would try to do it is if trying to give him some time off or he gets— sure, sure, you got to sub in.

25:35At least we can go back and do that. I couldn't imagine not being able to go out in that shop and do— I, I've made that point. I've made that point a ton of times. I, um, I think I made that point in the chat group we're in the other day. Whether people like Dave Ramsey or not— Oh yeah, yeah. This is a great comparison.

25:51Whether they like Dave Ramsey or not, whatever, but he is very well respected as a financial guy. Right. Right. And one of the things he says when people are planning for retirement, they're getting their investments together, he's always like, he's always like, you know, mutual, general mutual funds, whatever. Don't— if you're going to special— if you're going to crypto or commodities, this, that, and the other thing, don't invest in anything you don't understand.

26:21And that's caused a lot of heartburn for me. Oh, when I talk to shop owners that came from the restaurant industry and, oh, I was, I was, you know, the district manager for these restaurants and auto shops, a great investment opportunity. So I bought an auto shop. Yep. And I don't know, and I'm not saying that every shop owner's got to be super tech and they've got to be the best tech at their shop.

26:47That's not what I'm saying. No, what I'm saying is why, if you don't understand the general physical repair process on a car, the nuts and bolts of— if you don't understand the general idea of what it takes to get the cylinder head off of an engine Why did you buy a shop? Oh, I'll take it a step further. You should, you should be able to know.

27:09My dad, my dad's a career carpenter, and all the friends that he had that I used, like when I would go with him to work, what they would say was great about my dad was his ability to see some of the issues that were going to happen before they started, and that's why he was good at it. I couldn't imagine being a shop owner and not being able to look at that truck and that truck and tell that one's going to be a pain in the ass.

27:31Let's— or even you're out in the shop and you're hearing, you're hearing a little bit like this happens to me a lot. I'm hearing a little bit too much air chiseling or hammering going on over here. I'm going to go over here and take a look. See what's going on. That shouldn't be that. That shouldn't be like that. We shouldn't be, you know, or you just hear things.

27:45You hear things going on. You're like, we got to go have a conversation with this guy. Yeah. And that's right. I think you need it. It's my opinion that, well, I shouldn't say it. I shouldn't say you need to have that. You can obviously be successful and be that type of owner that is completely disconnected from what actually happens out there. Sure, probably going to start a fight, but that's fine.

28:05However, that I think is 100%, and we get into discussion about this a lot, especially in these groups or within our chats or whatever, that's transactional business. It is. And I personally don't like it. I listen, I love money, I like stuff, I like my kids doing whatever the hell they want to do. I'm all for that. I just don't want to do it that way.

28:26Yeah, I don't want to do it. I get it. We get— we're We run a relational business with our customers. Jim, Jim texted me on the way down here, uh, yesterday. One of our customers died. Let me know that the guy, the guy had passed, you know what I mean? Right. Like, that's like, we know these people, right? And I'm not saying these people, we know where, where, uh, you know, there was this one old lady that used to have trouble with her Toyota because she never drove it, so the battery would always die.

28:51Like, we knew where she was, we knew how to get in her garage, we knew how to jump the car for her to get her going, you know what I mean? And I'm not saying that every shop should do roadside service for old people. And that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is it's— we know the people, right? Well, you, you're putting more to it.

29:07And here's the deal, if, if you're, if you're a person that had the, the capital to invest and buy a shop and run a shop because you thought you could run this as a business and make money, and you do it, that, that's great, but it was strictly monetary, you know, uh, cash flow driven. And like, sure, your, your thought process is not I don't care what they say.

29:27It's just you're all about that cash and that's fine. I'm good with that. That's okay. That's just not— that's America. That's capitalism. I'm good with that. I love it. You're like, I love it. But I'm just saying that that's not what I want. It's not what I do. I want to have— I want you to say they're the best, period. You know, are we?

29:45No, of course not. That's why I pal around with the best, though, to get better. We aim to get better. Yeah. That's why my toolbox is still sitting in Bay 1 over there and it's going to stay in there. I couldn't imagine not having a toolbox in the shop. Now I say that and I hope Nolan doesn't take offense if he ever listens to this, because buddy Nolan runs a diesel shop and he doesn't have a box in there and he does great, but he's not ignorant to everything that's happening in there either.

30:07Sure. I just like kind of the— I don't know, man. It's maybe it's a— I don't know what it is, but I just couldn't imagine. Picture this. Picture if you're that guy that just invested in a business and you're trying to just make a bunch of money, you now have to find somebody who does know what the fuck is going on. Because when you're guiding down there, figure out who that is.

30:30Yeah, good luck. And how do you know? How do you know? You don't know, right? Because— but then your, your, your, your normal tech down there who's doing the brake job doesn't understand the electric e-brake or whatever. He's got to go ask a question. Who does he go talk to, right? So that's one of the greatest things I feel like I have going on in our shop is that nobody has to freaking die on something.

30:53Do you know what I mean? And it's not always good. And don't get me wrong, I've created a lot of problems just stepping in and taking care of stuff. But nobody feels like when something goes sideways and they're like, I just had it before I left. We were doing some control arms on an EcoSport and the axle had popped out from the inner boot, the CV axle.

31:13And 90% of the time, not even 90%, like almost every time in my life that's ever happened, I can like finagle it back together without taking anything apart for the guy. I couldn't get this thing. Yeah, right. So we take the whole axle out of the thing and like this guy, you know, he's struggling with it, you know what I mean? And he's not even a— he's, he was a 12-year GM tech.

31:34He just started first. This is his first job not working on GMs. He's working on Ford, which doesn't really have— it's the axle design was the the issue. It was a different style CV axle design. But, you know, he wasn't stuck on like, oh my gosh, I'm going to be here for an hour figuring this out. No, I saw he was struggling.

31:51I went over there, we popped the axle out, we worked together on it. We discovered, holy crap, this has got a weird axle design. And this is— you actually have to take the boot off. This is what you have to do to put this axle back together. And he's— but anyways, long story short, the guy's not stuck on a desert island. Just like if one of your guys gets done You know, you don't always— the mistake I've always made is always getting involved a little bit too quick.

32:12I don't let them ride the struggle bus for a little bit so they can learn something, maybe. Right, right. But it's the same thing. Like, if one of your guys does something, you have a new job and the truck doesn't start, you can go, okay, let's go through what did you do? Where are we at? What's this data look like? Let's start going through this and see, right, what happened.

32:30They're not stuck. Freaking dying on this job. Yeah, you know, I couldn't imagine doing that. But, and then I think that's a problem too. You run into places where, like, like, we don't do flat rate, right? Um, neither do we. We don't. And it's part of that is I only have a few guys that run our place. I don't want Adrian to feel like he needs to tell Michael, hey bro, go figure it out because I got my own stuff to do, right?

32:55I don't want— you want to be in a situation where people can help out. I want you to be able to help him where he needs it, or he can call him over, he can help you out. And that was the same situation on that, on that job earlier with those control— the bushings are real tight. Yeah. And our guy Brett had 3 guys over there helping.

33:10There's 4 guys holding pry bars certain ways trying to get it— trying to get the bolt in so he didn't damage the threads, you know what I mean? Yeah. You go to some shops, you know, and not all shops are like that. I hate to paint with a wide brush. Not all shops are like that. But I mean, we could safely say, you know, dealerships are kind of set up that way.

33:26I never worked in a dealership. From what I've heard, yeah, it's— yeah, you got your own shit, man. Yeah, good luck. Yeah. Look, when I first opened my shop, I thought my old systems would keep up. The software that I had would continue to evolve. But as we grew, the slow estimates, scattered workflow, increasing downtime, it really just— it was becoming a real problem.

33:47That's why I switched to TechMetric. It's not just software. It's a complete shop management system that makes my life easier. Smart jobs, instant estimates, integrated payments. Integrated financing options. I mean, it allows me to focus on the work that actually makes me money and not get bogged down in the other details. My shop's repair orders have jumped over 300% since switching to TechMetric, and when I need help, their support team responds in real time.

34:11I actually was online with them asking questions just this week, and I got answers in minutes rather than having to wait for callbacks and emails days later. If your system is holding you back, it's time for a change. Tap the link in the show notes and see how TechMetric can help you move your shop forward. That's not what I want to be a part of, dude.

34:29I like it and I hate it, right? I like it because I think you separate, right? You separate the men from the boys. Yeah. And I mean that— that's true. Some of the best techs I ever had was a woman, so I'm not— I don't mean that in a sexist way, but it just separates the good ones from the bad ones right off the rip.

34:45At the same time, we're all better together, right? So I don't like that feast or famine kind of setup. At the same time, when you've told the when you've told the customer, hey, I'm going to have your stuff done at the end of the day today, and you have a guy and it's 3 o'clock. Yeah. And it's a couple guys will step in and help them versus it's going to take them 2 hours, right, to get there from here.

35:05Right. I like a couple guys being able to stop what they're doing comfortably. Right. It's not a big deal. Right. It's not a big deal. Everybody just goes over, helps the guy, and it's not a problem. Right. Like, you know, with our— we kind of— we've tried a bunch of different things out, like pay compensation and incentives and stuff like that. And I mean, if you keep a shop incentive where, yeah, you're right, I'm coming to helping you, but it's still, it's a shop goal.

35:27So if we meet that goal, who cares, right? I don't like the idea of that, the individual. Yeah, I don't want individuals. I don't want individuals. You don't want a bunch of little businesses running under your own roof, right? No. And I think that causes— people, there'll be heartburn. We'll release this episode, there'll be heartburn. And not every— you know, there's some people I really respect do run flat rate.

35:47Yeah, again, it's fine. Well, that's, that's what I like. You know what I love about our group? My favorite thing about the group chat that you and I are in together there, what is there, 6 of us in there, 7 of us, whatever. Every single one of those shops is run differently. Yeah, they're not run the same. There's little differences with each of them.

36:02Yeah, and some of them are significant, right? Um, especially when you bring Zeb in, like he's completely different from everybody else. Yeah, but he's doing the opposite of everybody. He is. But man, when you really— like, everybody's flat rate and, um, yeah, I got, uh, a million bays per technician. I don't know, I'm just— each tech gets 30,000 square feet. Each tech has 30 2,000 square foot of their own.

36:25And, uh, yeah, but I don't know if you've ever been there, but I've been there, what, 3 times now. And when you walk in and you watch those guys work, it's like they're just going. It works. What he's doing absolutely works. And they have multiple trucks in, and they get stuck on one— if they do get stuck on one, which gets stuck probably doesn't happen often because from what I understand, Susie runs type shit.

36:43Yep. But if they do, just move on to the next one because it's already in. Yep, it's already there. They've got zero time. And that's something, that's something that we embrace. So in, um, so I lost 2 techs February. Now I remember this. Now mind you, I only had 4, so I lost— I remember this, but it was a good, it was a good loss for you.

37:02It was, uh, it turned out to be a good loss. So great dudes, I wish them the best. Um, but as a business, we did better, right? And this came up with, uh, Lucas was talking the other day about, you know, base per tech and this and that, and I commented on his post that there's not answer. There's not, man. We went from— we have 4 bays and I had 4 techs and I would kind of do diag wherever I could out of the way of those guys or take one of them and let them be my hands while I was being the brains of the diag.

37:32But neither here nor there, losing half of our workforce, but doubling the bays that the guys that we have that stayed have. It's just an efficient— they did as much or more build hours with 2 than we did with 4. Yeah. And I think it's— which maybe— which, which can be related to a million things. I think it's— and that's fine. I think it's the way that Zeb runs his, where if Mike— if I had Mike working on a truck here, I went and grabbed the— what— the next one I knew was dyed and ready to go.

38:00I put it right next to him and I said, you hit a spot where you— where you— parts, whatever, this is what this needs, here's a ticket, you jump right on this truck. Don't even hesitate, don't ask, go to here. Do the same thing with Adrian. So they always have at least 2 in the bay ready to go. And they're just turning all day.

38:15They turn, and they don't have any downtime. Like, they're, they're testing. They want to turn profit. It's— well, I think it's turn hours. I think that people who are efficient at what they do and good at what they do with, with mechanical things in particular, I think that— I think there's— I think there's a hyperfocus. Okay. Okay. And I think the hyperfocus, it If they're hyper-focused, they're very efficient.

38:41When it gets broken up to work, pause, work, pause, work, pause, I think it busts that down. And having everything ready to go and not having the wait and this, that, and the other thing is the difference between 80% tech efficiency and 150% tech efficiency. Honestly, honest to goodness. And that's why I think a lot of shops say that, that whatever over 100% is an unreachable number.

39:07And our guys, don't get me wrong, we don't We don't run it like this magical 150 or 200% because we have, we have a bay situation where there's one body per bay and shit happens and shit happens and it's fine and it's fine. But I think when you're dealing with techs that are very good and very efficient and do mechanical repair very well, right, I think keeping them engaged, boom, boom, boom, they want to run like that.

39:32It's like a racehorse. Yeah. And what does a racehorse want? You ever see— you ever For some reason, my, my Instagram feed gets all funny. For a while it was hot dogs. Now there's like rodeo. It's, it's crazy. And some people get that reference. It was, it was like literal hot dogs, like 7-Eleven roller dogs. Anyways, um, but anyways, recently it got switched up to a lot of rodeo.

39:53Okay. For some reason, I don't know why. It's algorithm does what algorithm does, right? And then you start watching it because, you know, it's kind of cool to watch, you know, some dude try to ride a bull. I'm like, that guy's a freaking badass. Yeah, yeah. But anyways, like, there's a couple, um, barrel racer videos that have popped up, right? And you look at these barrel racing horses, and if you ever— I don't know if you've ever seen it, you'd have to watch a video or maybe pay attention to radio or something.

40:19So this, this girl, or sometimes a guy or whatever, they'll get the horse and it'll be like in the chute, like ready to go out and run the barrels. Yeah. And they're like full pull trying to hold the horse back, because what does the thing want to do? Wants to go, wants to to freaking run, right? And I think there's a lot of techs out there.

40:37I think, I think there, there's a lot of bad technicians. I'll say there's a lot of bad techs out there, but I think there's also, I think there's also a lot of people that just want to freaking run, and they've got more frustration with the fact that they just can't run than anything else. I really do. Because I think there's a lot of guys that are maybe labeled as bad, but they're just not in the right environment.

41:08Here's what I think. I'm ready. And it's on par with what you're saying, but I'll take it a step further. Okay. Right, like, like, here's, you know, here's, here's my confession, right? Like, if there's, if there's a problem in my shop It's me. Sure, it's me. And I never, not once will I go and say, uh, I had a guy make a mistake, cost us an engine, right?

41:36I didn't go yell at him, call him right now. I've never yelled at him, didn't discipline him. Yep. Didn't, didn't take money, didn't do shit. Yep. I sat, I said, I need some time to process this. And what I did is just, where did I screw this up? Because he's good at what he does, but he made a mistake. So was it, was it the process?

41:56Was it, did I rush him? Were you rushing? Because we were. I remember it was around Christmas time, so we're trying to— I give everybody 2 weeks off at Christmas, like they don't have a choice. You're taking time off, but you're going to be off. So now you're— but we need to get that truck done. You're under the gun trying to— so that stuff up, you're trying to tie up all the loose ends.

42:10Yep, that's what we're trying to do because we're going to be— but you're going to at least evaluate that if that was a possibility. Exactly. Somewhere I screwed up. Sure, right. Um, because I, I think, I think that's a weakness of shitty leadership or shitty character to blame somebody else for your, what, your position you're in. Sure. Um, I think techs get labeled as bad techs by people who don't know what the fuck they're doing when it comes to managing people or teaching or any of that.

42:39And I'm not saying I'm an expert, right? But what I do know from a lot of leadership experiences Everybody's different, right? I have a hard time with my own son in the shop. We just this constantly, right? And, you know, I think the best thing for him, he's going to go work for somebody else over the summer. And I think it's great for him because I want him to get a different style, right?

42:58It's— I have a real hard time with, you know, when, when someone gets in these stupid, um, I say stupid, these auto shop owner groups and they're bitching about techs and they're— it's like, you really need to go get a mirror, right? Because you're probably a big part of the problem. Well, and at the end of the day, if nothing else, you are the one who hired them.

43:17You are right. And so at the end of the day, like, let's say, let's say you do hire somebody and they are, they are exactly what's described. Well, why'd you hire them? Right, right, right. You know what I mean? Still your fault. Yeah, it's still your fault. Or did you— what did, what did you do to mentor them? What did you do to get them better?

43:31What did you do for follow-on training? Did you do any follow-on training? Did he get offered to come to Tools? Like, that's sure. What have you done? Because my thing is, if they took the time to come to you because they wanted to do this, I'm going to say more than 9 times out of 10, they have the aptitude and ability. Just, you probably didn't get them there.

43:52And I'm not saying there's not people that are turds. Or you got them doing the wrong job, right? Right. Like, because here's the reality, not everybody, not everybody is— not only is not everybody cut out to be, you know, to, to diag and triage cars. I like to use the word triage a lot, honestly. Not only is everybody not cut out to diag and triage cars efficiently, but there's different things that guys are going to gravitate towards.

44:17There's different jobs they're going to like doing. Yeah, right. Like, I got a guy who does a really good job, like, and it's an easy job and it's not a complicated job. And it's like people are going to listen to it. What kind of brag is that? But I have a guy that puts oil coolers in Pentastars very well, cleans them up real nice.

44:33The job's done right. Everything's torqued. He does it very efficiently. Yep. So if this guy is that good at doing that job, why would I dispatch him something else? Just like I have a guy— I already told the story before, I think, on the podcast. I have a guy that welds exhaust very well. He can look at the problem and this isn't— you guys probably don't deal with this, but where we are, we don't do that.

44:58The shit rots out, right? I've told you, we don't even have brake flaring tools in the shop. Yeah, a lot of times. A lot of times you can't even get the parts, right? Like there's certain parts that are discontinued, whatever. So you got to, you got to fix it. You either got to buy aftermarket stuff, which aftermarket stuff, the difference between the OE and aftermarket is OE went 12 years, aftermarket is going to go 2.

45:15Aftermarket won't make it out of warranty. So we got a guy that does really good with fixing exhaust, welding this, welding that. We give him all sorts of pipe and he can just look at that thing and figure it out. And man, I used to be the guy. I fixed all the exhaust for a long time. Yeah, for a long time I fixed all the exhaust.

45:29This kid, better than me at it. Yeah, I mean, you can have it. You know, it's hard when you get somebody that's almost— that's, that's nearly 20 years— not 20 years, 15 years younger than you that does your job better. Instead of getting pissed off, just be happy the guy does the job better. Yeah, dude, like, okay, and you want them to get the other experience, but man, if they're good at it, they're good at it.

45:53Yeah, he's good at it. What I try to do is, you know, like, like Adrian— Adrian likes Duramax. Good brother, you can have every single one of them. The other guy's talking about that a million times. I'm like, how many freaking different size bolts they got to put in this thing? If I never do another one again, I don't— I won't be mad, right?

46:09Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah, it's— I mean, and, and that's— I'll say that's a thing that, you know, a luxury— I shouldn't say a luxury we have, but basically it is. In, uh, at Dale County Diesel, we're diesel trucks, right? We do Powerstroke, Cummins. You're already specialized. Well, for the guys too, they get used to— it's, it's like midway between like one of your guys.

46:29You do a lot of different makes and models. Sure. We're not a dealership. We're in the middle, right? They touch 3 different kinds of trucks. I don't touch Titan Cummins. I don't touch them stupid EcoDiesels. I don't touch them Powerstroke, mini Powerstrokes. So you don't put used motors in EcoDiesels? Yeah, we're not a used parts shop. Yeah, we don't do that. You don't do that?

46:47No, you know, you'd rather— you'd rather get a prostate exam with a cactus than put a used motor in EcoDiesel? There's no chance of that happening. Okay, good. I don't even want to— we did the last EcoDiesel we worked on, dude, was a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Beautiful, beautiful SUV with a diesel in it. The oil cooler ruptured. Well, we got it because Dodge said it needed an engine.

47:10Well, the guy drove it to the shop and I'm like, well, I think it runs pretty good for needing an engine. And but the coolant's full of oil. I'm like, you need an oil cooler for sure. And Dodge does. I read their service info and it says something about You should be changing the engine if whatever, but the truck was fine, or the SUV was fine.

47:27The point of the story is why I hate them. We do the oil cooler, but that oil hid, what do you call that, had weakened the integrity of the coolant hoses. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And so they were like really soft and squishy and you couldn't like clean 'em. So we're like, oh, we just need new hoses. Dodge doesn't make 'em. Or Stellantis, whoever the hell's making that pile of shit.

47:49Identity crisis auto industry. They do. FCA, Stellantis. Any of that shit. We had to find it on Daimler, whatever they're calling them nowadays. Yeah, absolute junk. So I don't touch that crap. Yeah, I hate it. So our guys, you know, they get a taste of, hey man, we're generally doing the same thing. And then as we, you know, I told the world that we weren't touching 6.0s anymore, and that was a lie.

48:12We took in 2 right after that. The lie detector test determined that was a lie. Sorry. You know, it's— and that almost goes back to like policy. Everybody wants to set, you know, a major fad that we listen to in auto repair, and I'll apologize for the people who do this, they're always talking about hard policy, hard policy, hard policy. And even when you try to do hard policy, it's almost like, like even like no quotes over the phone.

48:40Yeah. Like there's going to be an exception. Yeah, there's going to be an exception. If somebody is going to yell at me, but yeah, you just— there's going to be an exception. I'm not going to do 6/0s anymore, right? Well, I got some really good customers that run small businesses and farms, borderline, borderline fleet. So if one of them guys bought a really nice 6.0 somewhere and it was broke, I'm not going to tell a customer that's spending $35,000 a year with me that I'm not going to work on their 6.0.

49:10We're down south. Those 6.0s, the bodies are still everywhere, alive and well. Yeah, I'm, I'm relieved up by me. Most of them are rotted up to the door handles, but I wish ours were just— they would go away. But, but like, I have a couple set— I just, I just worked on a 7.3 the week before last, and it's like, what are you gonna do?

49:25The guy's a good customer, he's been coming to you forever, he's got a couple other cars he brings, and he's got this 7.3, and he wants you to fix it, and he wants you to fix it. He knows the value, what are you gonna do? Appreciates the value. He's not telling me he won't work on his 7.3. It's hard. And I go through the same spiel.

49:41It's so funny, I go through the same spiel every time I do my thing, because, you know, because first, you know, I have like my whole process when something's stupid. Like, I have to get irritated about it. I'm like, oh, we're going to use 7.3s. I'm like, I know whole-ass shops in the South where these things aren't junk that won't even do them.

49:56And then I'm like, okay, calm down. Just do it. Do your job. Shut up and do your job. Let the hate flow. Let the hate flow. Yeah. It's— everybody wants to set these hard and fast processes, but it doesn't— man, it's a very dynamic— and that gets into— well, especially when you start talking relational. Right? I was just gonna go there. That gets into the difference between transactional and relational.

50:20I mean, it's a huge difference. How do you run a relational business? How do you take care of, you know, Mr. Jones on this, this, and this, but you're not going to take care of them on that? So I'll tell you how you take care of them. We just did it with a 6.4 Powerstroke. Everybody knows them. Well, this thing is a two-wheel drive, extended cab, long bed, liftgate on the bed, just a pile of crap.

50:42And I'm like, all right. And I'm not trying to knock anybody else's truck. It's their truck, I get it. But we know chances are whatever's wrong with that truck is going to cost more than the value. It's going to total the vehicle. So I go in almost every time. They're old enough, it's almost every time. Yes. And that's so— so Adrian was like, don't you dare put— because Adrian loves the 6.4s.

51:02He loves them. Um, except his just blew a head gasket like they do, which the repair, if he had to pay for it, would exceed the value of the truck. 100%. Just 100%. He actually, actually, depending on what trim package it is and layout of the bed and cab, maybe even the bolts in the head gasket might totally be fine. Sorry, Adrian, don't hate me.

51:21I think it was Zeb. I made a post about that 6.4 and he's like, bro, if that thing needs a cab bushing bolt, it's totaled out. Yeah, right. But then the guy, he dropped it off after hours and I hadn't talked to him. I didn't even know the truck. And I find the key and I go look at it. Turn the gauge on or the battery on so I could see the— get power onto the dash.

51:40It's got 430,000 miles. And I'm like, there ain't no way this runs. Turn the key and it fires right up. And I'm like, son of a bitch. What were the chances? All right. But it's got a gaping oil leak that we think is the rear main. I bet it is. But it's probably the upper oil pan and the rear cover and everything else.

51:55Oh, you got to take off the damn fuel cover to do that. So with those, that was a long way of me saying, Luckily with those trucks, the repairs are so expensive that even if you, you know, you don't want to work on it, you won't have to because once you quote it correctly, nobody's doing that. They're not going to do it once you quote it correctly.

52:15Or, you know, maybe not in the case of that one, but many of them— that one at 400K was probably on its third engine, I'm sure. At least. At least, you know, once you pull the oil cap off, nobody wants to do the proper repair. That's how we take care of them though, right? Like we're talking about a relational and being— how do we take care of these people?

52:31Being honest. And don't fix this truck. I was just telling, I was just telling somebody earlier, a coach would choke our front end. We tell more people to go trade their vehicle in. Some of these coaches, they would lose their mind. Reagan, uh, probably 2 cars a day, we advise people to just go. I do it all the time. Yeah, I do it all the time.

52:51Go trade it in. Again, I got a lot of friends in the area too though, and it's— you're gonna be $3,500 now, and that's just, that's just fixing this problem you have. These things have this, this, this problem. It's like clockwork, you're gonna be dealing with it. Yeah, move it along. Yep. I have a friend of mine, he brought us a 2011 6.7 Powerstroke, nice Lariat.

53:09He bought it new, black on black, good looking truck, but he bought it new, 230,000 miles at this point. And he's like, yeah, it's got oil leak. And I'm like, okay, let me crawl under there. Front cover, vacuum pump, oil pan, I mean, it's leaking literally everywhere. Engine out reseal type of oil leak, brother. This is an engine out job. It's going to exceed the value You're pushing the value of the truck as is.

53:32And he's like, what do I do? I need— I like my truck, I want to fix it. I said, I said, my best advice is don't touch it. Sell it for whatever you get for it and go get you something new. Just move on, right? And he— so he comes pulling in, I don't know, it was a week later, and he's in a nice new black King Ranch and all that.

53:48And, uh, I was like, oh, you get rid of the truck? He goes— and then the truck comes in behind him, it's his wife driving it. I go, what the hell is that doing here? He's like, they wouldn't even take it on trade. And it's a nice truck. It's just old. It's just too old. And so Reagan drives it now. She bought it from him and she drives it.

54:04And we just, we just keep oil in it, right? Like, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna fix it. It's not worth it. But that's— we were honest. And man, he, he thanked me for that, right? I didn't take any money from him, but I did you right. And so that's— I'm good with that. I'm good with that because it's just better. I love it.

54:20I couldn't imagine fixing that truck and then it drops a lifter or it spins a bearing or it does whatever they do because it's got the kind of miles. Yeah, our 6R140 is durable. Yes, that many miles, who knows, it could go tomorrow and it shouldn't surprise anybody. Yeah, yeah. But it's been great having you on here. Yeah, dude, it was cool.

54:36This is awesome. Yeah, we should do it more. What's that? We should do it more. We definitely should do it again. We'll do a round 2 sometime. We should definitely talk more shit too. Definitely talk more shit. Thanks for listening to Confessions of a Shop Owner, where we lay it all out— the good, the bad, and sometimes the super messed up. I'm your host, Mike Allen, here to remind you that even the pros screw it up sometimes, so why not laugh a little bit, learn a little bit, and maybe have another drink.

55:00You got a confession of your own or a topic you'd like me to cover, or do you just want to let me know what an idiot I am? Email mike@confessionsofashopowner.com or call and leave a message. The number is 704-CONFESS. That's 704-266-3377. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, or follow. Join us on this crazy journey that is shop ownership.

55:23I'll see you on the next episode.