Features

Shocks and struts are usually an optional purchase consumers may make when the performance of the original parts no longer meets their expectations. That translates into an opportunity for you and your technicians to ask the right questions. If you don’t, or if you fail to listen to the answers, you won’t know what your customers really need when it comes to shocks and struts.

Tags: Ann Neal, Gabriel, KYB, Monroe, Shocks, struts

Don Moore, Fairview Tire, has a family-owned business in Burlington, Ontario, where he is well-known for his community involvement and providing an excellent value to his customers for tires and mechanical services.

Tags: 20 Groups, Business insight, Pat Brown

For over a decade, the car dealer channel has been on the rise. Once barely an “also ran,” the channel has steadily increased retail market share in the U.S. from 1% in 1998 to a respectable 7% in 2012. That puts car dealers within closing distance of company-owned stores which stayed at 7.5% share in 2012 and within shouting distance of warehouse clubs that posted 8.5% (from Modern Tire Dealer’s Facts issues).

Tags: Bob Abram, Car dealerships, Competition

In 2011, domestic retreaders produced 7% more truck tire retreads than they did in 2010. Production fell in 2012 to 14.8 million truck tire retreads, 3.2% less than the prior year.

Tags: Bridgestone Bandag, David Stevens, Goodyear, Harvey Brodsky, Michelin Retread Technologies Inc., OTR retreading, Retreading, RTA, Top 100 retreaders, TRIB

One of the most common modifications your customers make to their cars is to replace the wheels. It’s easy to see why — there is really no faster, more effective way to customize a car’s look or feel than by changing the wheels.

Tags: 2013 Performance Handbook, Offset, Performance Handbook, Sean Phillips, Wheel offset

A couple of guys riding around in a Corvette stop at a tire dealership and tell the dealer they need new tires. When asked what kind, the driver says, “Nylon premiums, the best.” The dealer replies, “That’ll run you $45 apiece.” Unconcerned, the driver agrees to the sales price. Nylon tires for a Corvette? High performance, premium tires that cost only $45 apiece? What year is this?

Tags: 2013 Performance Handbook, Corvette, High performance tires, Performance Handbook, UHP tires, ultra-high performance tires

By now I am sure you have been bombarded by all sorts of companies soliciting the opportunity to “manage your reputation.” Companies making all sorts of promises, from “getting rid of negative reviews” to “posting positive reviews from happy customers.”

Tags: Online marketing, Social media, Wayne Croswell

The economic climate is conducive to selling preventive maintenance as a way to save your customers money, says Rich White, executive director of the nonprofit Car Care Council. The change of the season is an ideal time to remind customers that routine maintenance of components, from brake parts and shocks to wipers and lights, extends the life of a vehicle and makes it safer to drive.

Tags: Brakes, Car Care Council, Shocks and Struts, Spring car care, Wipers

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Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Tire dealers in the United States might have taken that proverb to heart when buying winter tires in 2012.

Tags: Bridgestone, Cooper, GITI Tire, Goodyear, Hankook, Hercules, Michelin, Nokian, Snow tires, Toyo, Winter tires

How often do people buy shocks and struts when they are buying replacement tires? “Never,” says Danny Rosinsky, a partner at Ocean Tire & Service in Hermosa Beach, Calif. “They’re too mad about having to buy the tires.”

Tags: KYB, KYB Americas Corp., Monroe, S&S Firestone Inc., Shocks, struts, Tenneco Inc.