As new-car sales stall, repair shops prosper
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TePoel says his customers — in better economic times — typically kept a car until it neared the 110,000-mile mark and then sold. Thus they tended to leave major recommended repairs like the timing belt, replacement of the water pump and bearings to the next owner, a group that TePoel says typically does its own repair work instead of going to a repair shop.
But that’s changed in recent months, to TePoel’s benefit. High-end customers, the type not prone to fixing their own cars, are hanging on to their cars longer. “Basically as a car owner, you have to make a decision: ‘Am I going to cross this major service point?’” TePeol says. “What we’re seeing is, ‘OK, let’s do this major service and keep the car another three years or whatever.’”
On the other end of town, Larry Blazer has operated Blazer Automotive on Broadway just south of Hampden Avenue since 1983. He doesn’t report the same surge in business that ToPoel is experiencing, but he’s not complaining. He’s been through other downturns, though none like this.
“The recession we had in the ’80s, I didn’t even know they had it,” Blazer says. “I read about it more than I felt it. We sailed right through there without feeling the crunch at all. This one is worse.”
A Volkswagen repair specialist, Blazer says that while his business has slowed, it hasn’t stalled, and it isn’t likely to.
“We’re kind of recession-proof,” Blazer says. “People are putting off what they can, but when push comes to shove, we all have to have our cars. They’ll drive around with bumpers dragging on the ground, broken windshields and doors that don’t open, but if a car doesn’t start, they’re finding the money to fix it.”
Mike Taylor is the managing editor of ColoradoBiz. He writes about small-business money issues and how startups are launched. E-mail him at mtaylor@cobizmag.com.
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