Here’s an update on the story of Why You Can’t Get Your Car Fixed.
I received a reply from “Trust Dale,” the organization started by the local TV Consumer Reporter. This person was extremely sympathetic, and reached out to the shop to try to find out what happened.
The “Trust Dale” people sent a reply to me. This was to the effect that this fine vehicle would be available “within the next few days.”
That was on Friday. The following Thursday the Ask Dale people got back with me. The news was, that they were working on it, and oh, by the way, did I know they were installing a new radiator.
I owe them a link.
Friday Follies
On Friday morning, at the 28 day mark, the shop got back with me again. They were test driving it, they said.
Finally I got their automated response on Friday Afternoon at about 4. The place closes at 5 so I rushed out to the shop to get it.
I had a friendly chat with the fellow in the office. This fellow explained that there is a big shortage of parts right now, he eventually had to swap a five-pin something for a four-pin something, just to get the part.
This is one of those exotic cars, right? It is “Imported from Detroit.” According to him, we’re living in a world where we can’t get parts for a Dodge. He blamed a government conspiracy. Apparently they’re trying to convert the system to electric and the car companies don’t want to provide parts for their clunkers.
Labor Force Issues
Just about everywhere I go, there is a help wanted sign because of labor issues. That that goes double for this place. This fellow said “yeah, I basically gave up and just leave the “help wanted” sign out there all the time.
Because this place is not especially glamorous, and there is a shortage of people with practical mechanical skills, there’s a shortage of this kind of worker.
People in the ideal age group, 18-25 year old males, would prefer to work elsewhere.
I actually have a video or two on this topic.
The Return of the Vintage Caravan
So I got this thing back, finally, and drove it around the following Saturday morning. Went to the store, went to the Fedex place, and decided to pull through the car wash.
This was one of those automated car washes where you put the car in neutral and let it drag you through.
About 2/3 of the way through, the “temperature” light came on.
Allowing the motor to run in an overheated condition is counter-indicated by the operating system.
There is no protocol for being stuck in a car wash with an overheated motor, for some reason. Firstly, do you turn it off, or keep it running, hoping you will be able to start it up when you get to the end?
Secondly, what I did was let it run, and luckily, was able to pull into the first parking space after the green light came on.
Troubleshooting
Thirdly, at this point I knew I was in a position I didn’t want to be in. I was solving a problem with a newly replaced radiator.
My first reaction was that the lunkheads who replaced it didn’t fill it back up with water. Luckily for me, I had some coolant with me, because that is who I am. I filled the reservoir, let the motor cool down while I was vacuuming it out, and started moving.
I pulled around the corner and was caught in traffic, and stopped because It overheated again.
Troubleshooting Part 2
I consulted Click and Clack on this topic. Car runs a little warm while moving but overheating when the car is stuck in traffic, or stuck in a car wash.
They concur that it is a good idea to pull over when your car overheats anytime, but were not helpful on this specific problem.
I knew because of my vast experience with driving experienced cars that if I replaced the water pump and the radiator, there are three more things that could go wrong.
One is the head gasket. Coolant is leaking into the motor from the cylinder heads. That was too horrible to imagine, since I just paid dollars to have the transmission replaced, it would mean more dollars
The other is the thermostat. I have had the thermostat out of this car at one point a few years ago, and that was a possibility.
The third one was the reality, which was the knuckleheads forgot to plug the fans back in. Here’s the photo:
There are two electric radiator fans, both unplugged. Once plugged in, it cools right down. Actually these are thermostatically controlled, and it has to get pretty hot before they come on, such as when you’re stuck in traffic.
Root Cause Analysis
Problem Statement: The motor was overheating. Why? Fans not plugged in when it was put back together. Why? Workers did not do their job. Why? Well, the question of “Why People Don’t Do Their Jobs” has been a favorite topic of mine for awhile.
In this case, I’d have to say that when it was time to put it together, they were in a hurry. It was Friday afternoon. The management had heard from “Trust Dale.” The workers, such as they were, may have been impaired as well. Friday afternoon fatigue or outright exhaustion.
It’s hard to work on cars anyway, which is why I didn’t want to do it. Add to that they’e overworked, and could use some assistance.
Fundamental Business Model Issues
Firstly, It’s no different with pizza places, or doctor’s offices. There are fundamental problems in this era with the retail business model.
Here’s how it works. You have some skill, or you are in a franchise situation where someone has developed a skill for you.
Maybe you rent a building, and hire employees, and put a big sign in front, because that is the way the model works. If you had money, you’d buy the building. Ideally this is on a busy street, even though the rent is a function of the traffic on that street.
You do various types of advertising to attract people to your store. TV and Radio are the historical norm.
Every Part of that System Has Changed
Let’s start at the top. You can’t hire people, because there aren’t any. The supply of young auto mechanics, or pizza flippers has gone away. 50 years ago, high school kids filled these roles. Now, high school kids don’t drive, their moms don’t want them to wreck their cars. They don’t spend time around their dads. Auto repair isn’t a thing.
25 years ago, these jobs would be filled by immigrants. But, the same people that complain about immigrants no longer want to work on cars either. The flow of immigrants has stopped.
The Real Estate System
Do you see a problem with commercial real estate? I do. That’s because the price of leasing commercial real estate is too high to support a typical tenant.
I have done a lot of analysis of this. Go to the town square in any of the little towns in the area, and price out the rent for a sandwich shop. Back-work it into the number of $10 sandwiches you need to sell to pay the rent.
Retail businesses of all kinds are in trouble because of this.
This means trouble in commercial real estate because the “valuation” of a property should be some function of its ability to make money. We’ve gotten away from that part of the system too.
Advertising doesn’t work.
If you had a message, such as Double A “Beep Beep” MCO, it would be fairly easy to get it in front of people, because information channels were limited.
In Omaha, 50 years ago, there were basically three AM radio stations that anybody listened to. One was the news station, that the old fogies listened to because they needed to get the weather or the corn prices. They played Ray Conniff at night.
There was a kids’ station, that you listened to in your muscle car when driving responsibly down Dodge Street at midnight.
And there was a distant third one that played the music called “classic rock”. In those days, it was called “rock.”
Because of the web, and streaming, and smartphones, it’s much more difficult to do this. There is an FM, and now satellite radio that spreads out the audience. This is fine if you like to fine tune the content, but there is no such thing as a mass audience anymore. Plus no one drives around in muscle cars anymore, because it is considered dangerous, which of course it was then. We had higher tolerance for danger.
We can get into the nuances of internet advertising, and “traffic” if you want. I’m trying to do that right this minute, as a matter of fact. I want you to click on this and share with your friends. Hopefully one of them needs a Quality Systems Consultant.
So the three things you need in any retail business, namely a labor force, a location and “traffic” in the advertising sense, have fundamentally changed.
Now what?
If you are Elon Musk, do you care about this? Yes you do. However impossible it was to get a Tesla in the beginning, now it’s easier. But once you get it, who is going to fix it when it breaks down, which it will?
Who is going to fix anything? The art of “fixing things” is also disappearing. Mostly you just throw stuff away. People will have to build things that are fixable at some point.
When I got the water pump replaced, I hired a shade tree mechanic to come to my driveway to do it. Maybe that’s the answer. He seemed pretty busy and didn’t have problems with an expensive building. There are drawbacks.
At some point these businesses are going to go away.
A potential franchisee will do the math and decide “wait a minute, there is no way I am going to get that much traffic” and that will be that. Rent won’t get paid, the owners of these buildings won’t get rent, to pay off their building loans, and the banks that are holding the mortgage don’t want to hear that.
So you can see that’s the way we’re headed. Coming soon to a Main Street near you.
You still won’t be able to get your car fixed (cheaply) because there won’t be anybody around to do it.
That’s my story today.
Links and References
