“I told him, ‘We want to help. We’re all in.’” LaFontaine Automotive Group’s Mike Zasadny says of a conversation with the superintendent of Ecorse Public Schools about its Certified Automotive Tech Program.
“That Mach-E is a shiny new modern vehicle in all its glory, but for us it is a teaching instrument,” says Washtenaw Community College’s Brandon Tucker.
Founded in 2018, RepairSmith counts Mercedes-Benz and Porsche among its investors. But that does not mean those automotive brands would make RepairSmith part of an OEM-backed plan to have dealers offer mobile service.
U.S. dealers earned $111.2 billion in service and parts sales in 2020, a third of the vehicle maintenance and repair industry’s total revenue, according to the National Automobile Dealers Assn. Local repair shops and car-care chains get the rest.
Despite the gains, fixed ops as a department – especially in warranty work – continues to lag the astronomical gains the dealer groups are putting up in other profit centers: in new- and used-vehicle gross profits, and finance & insurance.
“If you don’t have a written (safety) program, (OSHA) will smell blood,” Summit Automotive Partners’ Brian Boase tells the Association of Dealership Compliance Officers.
Electric vehicle owners should be aware that collision repairs may be more costly than repairs for gas-fueled vehicles. This is because EV battery packs are expensive and finding mechanics with specific expertise in that repair can result in...
