Where Have All of the Good Shops Gone?

"RightFootDown" (rightfootdown) 08/30/2017 at 11:31 • Filed to: None

9

5

I think that we can all admit that the aftermarket car industry is in a perpetual state of change. It evolves as the industry and tastes change and that has been a lot over the past two decades. But what does this mean to those folks that are at the tip of the spear? The small shop owner.

Where did it all begin?

2001 saw one of the biggest game changers to the industry, the launch of the Fast & The Furious franchise. Import tuner culture had been around for years prior to the first movie’s release but it was a whole new world afterwards. The movie turned the scene into pop culture overnight and saw a huge influx of people. New performance shops opened up left and right to meet the demand of the power (and attention) hungry new customers. People were spending big money to set themselves apart from the rest.

This article was written by Neal Weese for !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Visiting the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! helps us out! Thank you.

As with anything, a booming industry breeds competition. Products begin to age and cheaper options begin to show up to undercut the established competitors and take a portion of the pile of money available. Mass retailers began to take notice as well and wanted in. These products may not have been up to the quality and performance of the industry leaders but they offered those with less money to work with an introduction into the scene. They could get more stuff for less money.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

About this same time, companies began to release copies of other’s work. What started as boutique shops offering US customers a way to get a copy of a product that may never make its way to US shores became big business. The perception of the value of parts began to change. Why pay $1,500 for an original front bumper from Japan when you can get one almost just like it for $400 stateside?

Then the great recession happened….

Everyone was hit one way or another by the financial meltdown of the late 2000’s. Disposable income for the majority of Americans began to dry up and people had to put aside hobbies to focus on their daily lives. With this, many shops began to go out of business as fewer and fewer people could afford to indulge their cars anymore.

Time passed and the economy began to recover. While nowhere near as popular as it was during the early 2000’s, tuner culture began to come back as well. While interest in cars was back, things were much different than they had been. Online purchases provided instant price shopping on goods and social media was a driver of style and influence. While things looked brighter and brighter for car enthusiasts, not so much so for those shop owners who had managed to weather the storm. Image had eclipsed substance.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

I recently was chatting with a shop owner who is a friend of mine and our conversation is what led me to write this article. We were talking about how much of a struggle it is for shops to keep going these days. We live in a world where online dominates our opinions. Review sites can boost or tank a business. People get advice on where to shop and what is a good product. Its no longer just about the work that you do but your reputation as well. While some can use this for good in terms of warning others about immoral business practices, others can use it as a weapon against the owners. Social media is a big part of where people get their information from whether it be groups on Facebook or accounts on Instagram

In talking with my friend, he said that he has seriously considering changing the focus of his business to get away from custom work. When I asked why, he stated “I have such a strong hate lately towards doing any cars that are ‘in the scene.’ Anything custom at all. The car world we all love so much has gone to shit. It’s all about what’s the cool thing I can do for the least amount of money possible. Nobody wants to do quality mods anymore. Nobody cares about quality paint anymore. Nobody wants quality wheels anymore. The DIY guys have fully taken over the industry.”

In a sense, I could see where he was coming from. Many times I had gone on an owners forum or asked others how to do a certain task or project. I had tried to do as much of the work myself to not only build up my own knowledge of cars but also to save money. In a way, I had been guilty of the same thing due to the power of the internet.

A Mazda RX-7 in an auto shop

Where things can go off the rails though is when social media becomes the de facto expert of all things. I asked my friend whether he thought social media has benefited or hurt local shops more.

“Hurt, drastically.”

“People value what they heard online by someone random over our professional opinions. Oh Tom online told me this is only a two hour job.”

While the idea of having a large base to determine the value of something is a good thing, it can also skew logic and facts towards the extreme. What might be the going rate for something might get skewed by a one-off experience used as an example. What might once be opinions is now heavy influence to conform to new norms.

My friend has seen this time and time again. “When someone posts up about wanting to paint their car and to get opinions, 90% of the response is, f-that wrap it. Or dip it. Majority of people are followers. They just go with the trends.”

As funny as it may sound here, influencers are even a thing in the car world. Just like everywhere else, the car world has its own ‘celebrities’ that drive trends. While some of these influencers may be professionals in some automotive area, many are not. That does not change their influence though. This can be very stressful for any shop owner that has to deal with one of these people.

“They cause more damage than good. You have to walk (sic) on eggshells around them or they wreck your reputation you worked on for years with one simple post. They don’t think about how much damage they are doing with those 5 minutes it takes to make the post.”

Social media can be great in so many ways. It can bring people together and share knowledge and ideas. Consequently, it can also be a weapon. It can be used to hurt honest shops which might lead to them abandoning a customer base that they feel treats them poorly. Hence the reason my friend is considering this now.

So, the next time you are talking with other automotive enthusiasts and someone asks why there are no good shops around anymore, think for a second about what we might have done to drive them away.

This article was written by Neal Weese for Right Foot Down. Please visit the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to see more stories! Thank you.

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > RightFootDown 08/30/2017 at 11:47

2

You have to *search* for these shops, because the best ones don’t advertise.

My wheel/tire/suspension guru doesn’t advertise at all, but he’s at tracks racing, and doing HPDE events. I know him through that, and my cars all end up at his shop.

But he also is straight up about things he *won’t* do. I currently am looking for another indy to do a few of those things, since I don’t want to deal with an air hammer and a pickle fork. I’ve gotten a quote from the guy down the street, who’s making a go of it in a shop building that closed up last year.

All the best to him. My truck is there now. We’ll see how it goes.

Chuckles > RightFootDown 08/30/2017 at 12:22

1

Nice article. Another reason that I can think of that wasn’t addressed is this: manufacturers have learned from the aftermarket and incorporated those lessons into design from the factory. I’ll give one tangentially related example: car audio. In the 90s, anybody who wanted a good soundsystem was ripping out the stock head unit and throwing a system in there. But eventually, the manufacturers got smart and started offering factory audio systems with a subwoofer in the trunk, an aux input, and brand name speakers. Sure, there’s still a need for high end aftermarket audio, but the masses these days aren’t paying a shop for stereo upgrades. Similarly, I think a lot more people are satisfied these days with the performance options that don’t void a factory powertrain warranty. If my car feels too soft, I turn a dial on my dash to get a stiffer feel instead of paying a shop for suspension work. Again, there’s still a need for high end work but most people are happy with what they buy as is.

Textured Soy Protein > RightFootDown 08/30/2017 at 12:53

1

I haven’t really ever used a full-on tuner shop that says “ok we are going to build this car for you and here’s a huge parts list that we’ll procure and install, it will cost xyz dollars.”

My car is pretty thoroughly modified, but all the mods are something I picked myself, bought online, and brought to an indy mechanic who is willing to install aftermarket parts with a warranty on the labor but not the part.

If something is broken, I’ll ask them to fix it and have them do the usual mechanic thing of getting the parts and installing them. Even though I know I could buy them online myself for less and hand them to the guy, I feel like for OE replacement part stuff that’s just fixing an issue, I’ll pay the shop’s price on the part as long as they’re not gouging too much, because then they’ll warranty the part.

I’ve done this same thing with 3 different mechanic shops now. The most recent of which is probably my favorite.

If I had a car which I was more extensively restoring or building up from scratch, maybe I would seek out a full-on tuner.

Aaron M - MasoFiST > RightFootDown 08/30/2017 at 14:36

0

To be honest this hasn’t really been my experience as a consumer of specialty automotive work. In New England at least, there are several high quality tuning shops that have devoted and happy clientele, which defends against the “lone shitposter” phenomena quite effectively. I live in one of the most restrictive states in the country for car modifications (Massachusetts) and yet I know exactly where to go now for specialists for every car I’ve previously owned. And when I was no longer a customer of my favorite shops by virtue of getting a new car, they always were willing to point me to another shop that specialized in the new vehicle I had picked up.

The flip side of that is that breaking into this area is going to be really, really tough. And you know what? I’m OK with that. I’m perfectly comfortable watching a shop fail if they couldn’t outperform who was already there.

RallyWrench > RightFootDown 08/30/2017 at 15:06

1

*waves hand. We’re here, but we sure as hell don’t want to touch any tuner cars. I don’t have time for the long and wide-ranging response this deserves with regard to the state of the automotive aftermarket and repair industry, but suffice to say Neal’s shop owner buddy is right. Thanks.