What do you look for in a Tranny shop? (poll)

[sleepychallenger]

i went with
Local Rep
Years in business (experience)
and price,

But the tranny guy that I went with was a back shop, not many folks know him, been in business forever, and price was right. He also let me help him with my rebuild, explained what happend, showed me why stuff was bad, and cut me a better deal because i sent him more business and remove and install all the trannys that i send him business for. some of the best guys out there you have to find back in the weeds   

[JayBee]

My picks were:
1. Local reputation
2. Years in Business
3. Warranty

In '82 I had a local franchise (Mr. Transmission) rebuild my 904. I did a lot of asking around and they came up with the most kudos, mainly because of the dedication and honesty of the shop manager/mechanic. At the time they also offered a Lifetime Warranty but with restrictions...yearly inspection/service, no drag racing or shifting and he said if I wrecked it they could tell if it was abused. I have had to take it back in the 25 years and they honored the warranty. I've since stopped the annual service so I guess the warranty is void now. Sure wish that someone like you was in my neck of the woods. 

[DanGoodman]

I just recently had to use a shop in a new area, so I had nothing to go by but 1 thing. How clean is the shop vs how many cars are being worked on. This shop was busy, yet you could eat off of the floor. A good tidy tech, is a good sign the work will be done correctly, the first time. :

[73Chally]

I got hooked up with my shop (he does the whole 9 yards including motor, tranny, body, paint, etc) by asking for opinions through the local Mopar club, plus he owns an original 70 440-6 shaker Cuda that he restored himself several years ago.  The ride he took me for in that sealed the deal.

[torredcuda]

1 Reputation  self expanatory
2 Warranty    most guys don`t warranty race parts/products but need to know the guy stands behind his work
3 Other/Performance oriented for us non-stock car guys

[gkring]

reputation above all. Price is a nonissue, it kind of goes hand in hand with the reputation.  Building the best trans is great, but no excuse for gouging the customer or treating them poorly. A good reputation means I don't have to ask about a warranty or read the fine print.

[Carlwalski]

1) Quality of work.
2) Professional Service.
3) Competitive Price.

Professional service is a must, some companies have some arrogant staff and overall attitudes.
The way I've been shlt on as of late it's now one of my main "must haves" when buying products.

The quality of work must be good, no question. I want the best products I can get.
I don't mind paying for the best but there is a line drawn in some cases (excessive).

Good poll Terry, shows you care about your customers. 

[IMNCARN82]

Grandpa said," Your reputation is the only thing you make your self, and nobody can take it away. I own/operate my own buisness. My rep is all I have.  I always ask around for leads on shops that specialize in what I'm having done.
My last experience was not all that great. I had problems almost ever since.

[Rare_T_A]

I chose Other:

To me the main thing I would consider is how honest the person was.  I guess that falls under other. I would pay more for the right person. I have a good repoor with our local Dodge dealer. In 2000 when we had trouble with the trans in out Ram, all we had was drive and reverse and no othe gears. I asked around to a couple of chain trans shops and I was told by both it would cost $2500 or more to fix it. I called the dealer and was told it was just a solonoid in the trans on the valve body that was the problem. They fixed it for just a fer hundred dollars. I've been a mechanic all my life and have worked at some very shadey places. One of the worst places was in the late 70's I was wouking for this family oned shop in Aberdeen, SD. We took in a late 60's Dodge to do an engine rebuild cause of a knock. After taking it appart we found a cracked piston. So guess how we rebuilt this motor!!!  The parts runner was sent to a local salviage yard and came back with one piston and rod with the used bearing. We installed the assembly with some new gaskets and the motor was rebuilt. I didn't even stay there 3 weeks and left. There are some pretty shady shops out there.

I to wish you would be closer. It's a standard answer around here with trans problems it needs rebuilt. If it can be repaired for a couple hundred bucks why not do it that way. It makes the customer happy and mabe you would have a customer for life as well as all the people he talks to.

[tactransman]

I have one more thing to throw in here. Let's say you have an intermittent problem on your vehicle,say a .........'02 Dodge Caravan and it doesn't want to upshift sometimes. You might have to drive it a whole day to get it to do it. Would you rather a shop put one sensor or part on ($50 -$200)and then let you drive it to see if it fixed it and then bring it back again if it still does it,or would you rather they replace everything possible (maybe up to $500-$600)that would cause the problem and the problem be fixed?

Thanks everyone for their replies.

[Rare_T_A]

I would personally go the $500-600 way. I would trust that you know what your doing. My recent rear diff shows that example pretty good. I chose the $3100 repair rather then bandade it. If the repair warrents an expensive fix so be it. But if its easyly repaired for a couple hundred to me it's just taking advantage of the customer to try to sell the $2000 job.

[Rooster]

I think it really has to do with basic risk management.  The answer will be unique for each individual but basically the thought process is the same..........in the pharm industry we use this same approach for milion dollar investments, but it works just as well for a transmission repair:

Severity - how critical is the malfuction? (i.e. is it an annoyance or are you worried about being left on the side of the road)

Criticality - how important is your car to you (i.e. daily drivers are high priority, back-up cars are low priority)

Resources - How much time and money do you have availible?
               - does the shop have time to troubleshoot over multiple visits, or are you limited by there schedule?
               - and how much is your time worth?

Detectability - How confident is the shop that they can appropriately diagnosis the problem, and follow-it through the process of elimination.

Generally if either your severity and critcally are high, and/or your Resources and Detectability are low........then a larger response is required.

Conversely, if the severity and critcally are low, and/or your resources and detectibility are high......then a smaller response is appropriate.


As a customer I would be impressed if a mechanic went through this logic excercise with me without bias or ulterior  motives.......that way regardless of the outcome I would have made the best decision possible at that time. 

I am not cheap, but if my particular situation allows for me to fix whats broke through the process of elimination...that is better than shotgunning a solution.......sometimes shotgunning a problem causes more harm than good, if you change too much at one time you never know what actually fixed it for the next time (or next customer).....trust me I know.

Just my $0.02
-R-

[ChallengerHK]

Would you rather a shop put one sensor or part on ($50 -$200)and then let you drive it to see if it fixed it and then bring it back again if it still does it,or would you rather they replace everything possible (maybe up to $500-$600)that would cause the problem and the problem be fixed?

for me it really depends on other factors.  If it's my daily driver I need it back in service ASAP, so throw money at it and fix it.  If I have the time to go the cheaper piece-meal route, though, that would be my preference.

[tactransman]

if you change too much at one time you never know what actually fixed it for the next time (or next customer)

Exactly Rich! It helps you become a better technician.The reason I am asking this part is because I will not throw parts at a vehicle to fix a problem. That is what "mechanics" do that don't know what they are doing. I am curious if the aggravation of having to bring a car back if a part does not fix the problem is worth more to a customer the cost of a "replace everything" repair.

[ntstlgl1970]

I have one more thing to throw in here. Let's say you have an intermittent problem on your vehicle,say a .........'02 Dodge Caravan and it doesn't want to upshift sometimes. You might have to drive it a whole day to get it to do it. Would you rather a shop put one sensor or part on ($50 -$200)and then let you drive it to see if it fixed it and then bring it back again if it still does it,or would you rather they replace everything possible (maybe up to $500-$600)that would cause the problem and the problem be fixed?

Thanks everyone for their replies.

I would explain exactly what you said here to the customer using a little different verbage. Something like this:

"I think that the governor pressure sensor, the part that tells the transaxle when to upshift, may be intermittently failing. However, without the sensor failing while it is here in the shop, it is difficult for me to diagnose the problem completely. I can try replacing the sensor for $xx and let you drive it to see if it is fixed, if you wish to go that way. Or I can replace a number of components that may cause the problem for $xx and that "should" take care of it".

In my experience, I have found that customers appreciate the fact that you are willing to try and save them some extra money as long as they can be without the car for a couple of days. Although changing many components may fix the problem, I agree with Rooster that shotgunning it may not be the best approach. I would rather figure out the exact cause of the problem, even if it meant using the customers car as my daily driver to get it to fail. Then if a prospective customer calls on the phone with similar symptoms you would be ahead of the game and could speak confidently in regards to their symptoms, your previous experience and then worst case scenario (replace many sensors/solenoid pack etc.). In the end, I think that finding out exactly what the problem is would make for a happier customer and would also increase your business and personal knowledge.

Intermittent problems are a pain in the a__

Although not applicable in this scenario (probably), when customers could not leave their cars with me, I would try and setup an indicator (test light) or gauge on the system/circuit I suspected was a problem and have them take the car (when it did not involve an issue where the car would leave them stranded). I gave them the instructions to check the gauge or test light when the problem occured and call me immediately. In almost all cases, the customers were happy to do this since it gave them a sense of being involved in the repair as opposed to being at the mercy of the technician/shop.