Breaking The News

“Again, when a car needs work, it needs work. It’s how the news is delivered that has a big impact. In person is best, with the broken bone exposed, so to speak.”

Over the past week I had two customer visits from two different types of customers. It got me thinking about the differences between the two, both really nice guys who want work done on their cars.

The main difference is that for one, it wasn’t his first rodeo with a car review and scope of work. The other, on the other hand, it was his first walk-around his new beauty without its clothes on.

As fair as we try to be, when a car needs work, it needs work. For those who have been through this before I try to simply point out what we found, and what out remedy will be, regardless of how extreme.

They usually get it and we move on and call them if there’s anything really bad. The experienced car geek is usually happy you were smart and diligent enough to find the issues and flaws before they either became cosmetically worse, or simply dangerous.

For the poor soul who bought a car without exercising due diligence, it becomes a bit more delicate. If it’s their first time, most had no idea that older cars had so many crappy parts. Welcome to the fifty-year-old mechanicals club, my friend.

Again, when a car needs work, it needs work. It’s how the news is delivered that has a big impact. In person is best, with the broken bone exposed, so to speak. We typically ask the customer out to the shop to review the work with us before dismantling anything. A solemn bedside manner and a bit of suicide prevention can help prevent a disaster.

Typically, both types of customers come out of the experience happy, but it sure helps to get their buy in up front. Everyone wants a nice car, right?

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