TOOLS & PARTS
Tool Up: Don't Get Left Behind

General or specialized repair? Original equipment (OE) or generic diagnostic tools? While shops, technicians and others within the industry continue to debate these questions, for me, it's a no-brainer. I believe that specialization and factory tools help a shop build its capability and image. Otherwise, how can one truly compete at the OE level?

Maintaining Tool Competency Matters This 5 year old photo shows a selection of factory and aftermarket diagnostic tools seen next to a Clayton 500HP Virtual Test Track chassis dyno and a Bosch engine analyzer. These plus newer 'latest generation' OE tools that Continental Imports purchases enable the shop to continue to fully service each of 10 car lines it specializes in. (All Images - Continental Imports)

A shop should build its business model upon two key elements. First efficiency through specialization and next, it should acquire tooling, training, and information resources to produce the competency image to compete as a true dealer alternative. The decision whether to buy OE or generic scan tools should include tangible and intangible returns on investment (ROI) considerations. Too often, the intagibles are left out of the equation, such as a marketing return based on reputation instead of expensive advertising.

It's about dollars and sense ... common sense
Most shops I know work on two or three car lines that make up 60 to 70 percent of their business; if car counts in those lines are high enough, those lines justify the purchase of OE tooling. The rest of the business is made up by an indefinite number of car lines may not meet an ROI standard for fully competent tooling.

The market I seek is late/all models of the car lines I commit to, the direct competition is the dealer. The owners of such vehicles expect their service facility to handle every aspect of service. This means being capable of efficient repair of all systems. I believe in approaching cars armed with all the diagnostic ability designed into the onboard systems. I don't believe one should work on systems that one hasn't invested in such capabilities. The issue of ROI is thus a matter of successfully converting the image gained through competence into market position and profitable work from those customers who are capable of paying for it.

Those who claim that there isn't enough business to justify OE tooling for the number of cars they service are being short-sighted. The choice is only whether to work on cars, prepared or not. If the market isn't there, then don't commit to the car; likewise, don't work on cars that one can't commit to. The choice to undertool — whether it's based on poor assumptions about ROI, a lack of awareness of generic tool functionality gaps or simply ignorance — limits the level of competence that a shop can provide its customers. Performing with less than fully functioning OE tools for the primary car lines in one's business also diminishes the shop image, effectiveness of its technicians and caps service to customers.

The issue is integral to one's business model. Does one believe that a baker should have an oven? If one works on cars with onboard diagnostics, one should have the full capabilities designed into those systems. That seems obvious to me. You invest in the tooling of your trade and the execution of such generates the ROI. One does not look at the cost of a wall and ask of its ROI. It is part of the whole. Once a business fulfills its commitment to the trade, it is a different entity than the competition and the success or ROI is the result.

Next Generation Tools Keep a Shop Current Continental Imports' BMW resources include both second (2G) and third (3G) generation tools. The Progman programming software running on the software service station (left) and the GT1 (middle) provide 2G diagnostics through MY2009. A laptop and the new 3G ICOM tool (right) connects the laptop to the car and a server online in Germany to allow diagnostics using BMW's new 3G diagnostic (ISTA/D) and programming software (ISTA/P). Note that while 2G tooling is still useful, it can only be complete when backed up by current 3G facilities.

Build From Within
The business model at Continental Imports is to maximize diagnostic and servicing competency for each of the 10 brands the shop specializes: namely, Mercede-Benz, BMW, Porsche, Volkswagen/Audi, Jaguar, Land Rover, Saab, Volvo, Honda and Lexus. Eleven technicians are divided into five teams - four teams of two and one team of three technicians. One team is dedicated to Mercedes-Benz only, One is devoted to VW/Audi, one to BMW and Porche, one to BMW and Honda/Lexus and the other is charged with the other brands.

Each team is provided current OE factory tools, OE service information resources, and brand-specific training. This helps maximize their competence and improve our customers' experiences and impressions. Our customers give the shop complicated diagnostic work, as well as their basic service orders. They also refer their friends and acquaintances. In addition, we write almost no estimates that aren't purchased. That is the intangible kind of ROI - a return on image!

Each team builds from within. Technicians are able to improve their skill sets at their own pace. As technicians develop, they move up a team's hierarchy. Turn-over is minimal, but new hires are sourced from cooperative automotive training programs at two schools where I serve in an advisory role.

I believe that young technicians should consider the techniques and investments that will suit them best for their careers. For many it will mean optimizing or changing their jobs for the maximum benefit. Technicians should also consider seeking a job where specialization exists. The path to proficiency, both with tooling and diagnostics, is benefited by concentrating on one niche. In addition, the shop will be more efficient and more likely to be at the top of its game, thus offering technicians the best chance of upward mobility.

Shops should control the level of competence and tooling. A shop that tools properly probably does other things properly and has a billing capability that would fund a top technician higher than just being top dog in a lesser operation. Technicians should also invest in his or her own training; like other disciplines, the training provides a return on the investment made. Two good sources include iATN (which allows free membership) and focused participation in brand-specific technician groups, such as www.bimrs.org, a website that shares technical information and experiences amongst BMW and MINI technicians and shop owners.

Your diagnostic gaps are someone else's competitive opportunities
Cornerstones such as experience, training, service information and complete tooling make technicians and shops more proficient. Limiting any of them has consequences. The smart ones realize an efficient business is most likely to produce value at a cost that produces both profit and results.

Specialization assures a clientele that can afford proper repairs on cars that they own. The typical customer in a specialty market is looking for competence and efficiency. They understand that they get what they pay for. Image can be a crucial first step in the decision who they trust and call on.

Complete Source of Diagnostic Data While some system theory, wiring, and repair info is available through various online, CD, a third party subscription data systems and some generic tools, the only complete source of diagnostic data is built into factory tools, such as the Mercedes-Benz Star Diagnostic System (SDS) diagnostic tool.

Acquiring business from these customers — who can and will go anywhere — isn't easy. They may never consider visiting an independent, we-can-fix-anything shop because they just buy new again, or they want the expertise that experience, training, and full tooling — something they don't normally associate with an independent shop.

While hardly any customer really knows whether a tool is OE or not, they do know what they expect from a full function facility. They want someone who can change the personal characteristics of their car and perform all the repairs. They want someone who knows what the third light over means when it is flashing. They want an expert available, not a generalist — someone with the ability to set the cars seats, A/C, radio, speed at which the door locks activate, and other personal settings for each key. Also, as OEMs find new solutions to resolve conditions over time, customers also want someone who maintains both the currency and capability to program the latest updates.

Keep pace with innovation
Our industry is seriously flawed by the amount of work done by those who have no business doing such work. Shops and dealers each have a diagnostic critical mass that is based on what they can and can't do. The decision to buy generic tools and/or rely on less than first-line sources of service information erode that mass.

Having experienced technicians who are not able to leverage all the diagnostic capability built into the vehicle software, as well as access readily available service information, isn't the fault of automakers or the toolmakers. In addition, any facility that performs diagnostics without all the capability designed into the system assumes a huge responsibility.

Generic tools limit this mass, not so much by what they can do, but rather by what they cannot do. The vehicles that our industry fixes were never taught to only need just the functions and features that generic aftermarket tools provide. The abilities that are left out result in techniques that are never learned and processed.

The use of diagnostics technology and software is moving at warp speed. The ability of technicians to function fully, by using the best tools possible, will determine market gains and sustain ongoing success. Ultimately, diagnostic gaps at other shops yield market traction and grip to specialized shops like mine.

Full Diagnostic Competency Unlike generic aftermarket tools, VW/Audi's VAS 5052A touchscreen tablet factory tool provides a 'guided fault finder' approach for resolving diagnostic trouble codes. The tool is also capable of reprogramming engine control modules and keys.

Be all that you can be
At best, subletting to more capable shops or mobile diagnostic services is a stopgap workaround that works; at worst, especially for customers, problems may just get missed outright. Either way, those customers hold the shop they went to responsible. Whether a shop truly fathoms the impact of these lost business opportunities, let alone image erosion, is questionable. Rolling the dice is not a sustainable strategy.

A specialized, factory-tooled shop can rely on its own OE-level tools, brand-specific training and the skills of its technicians. Those that outsource to a third party — mobile service, another shop or dealership — have no certainty or means to verify or guarantee that third party maintains both competency or currency.

In my view, the market for sublet diagnostics is fleeting and already past its prime. Business managers who continue to sublet ensure that their shops slip further and further behind in the ability to properly cope with and manage vehicle diagnostic problems. The more that time passes, and as vehicles become even more complex, the wider this competency chasm grows. That's attrition by choice.

Incompetence elsewhere — whether rooted in undertooling, falling behind in knowing tool capacities and OEM requirements, or reliance on poor sources of service information — helps define and reinforce for customers the image of competence at a specialized shop. Giving up control of one's destiny by either using tools that lack the functionality your customers need or by relying on someone else to fill a competency gap just isn't prudent. Boiled down to its essence, every service facility has a simple choice to make. Be all that you can be. Or not.

Specialization with OE tools for one's primary car lines is the real thing. I happen to participate in numerous groups and have seen shops all over the country that believe in this as I do. Most are even more specialized than I am. The number of these shops is not yet the majority, but they are all on the winning side of change and profitability in this industry.

(Editor's Note: Steve Brotherton owns Continental Imports in Gainesville, Fla. The shop is an import car specialist that repairs and services 10 European and Japanese brands. He also writes for automotive trade publications.)