3M Car Care Center

[The ///Man]

Baba Well Said. In our market I am trying to work with local guys to help them build their businesses. The only way we are all going to survive is to stick together and help each other. I am fortunate to be in a good market of high end but i recently started working a company the strictly does wholesale work and wants to partner with me to add our services. We are opening our third location and hope to continue growing but instead of re-creating the wheel I will look to partner with guys that are skilled technicians who just want to install while i do all the sales and marketing to grow the brand. We know what the results will be with these car care centers and i actually see them as an opportunity instead of a threat. Think about the investment they need to make, training of a tech, and doing quality work. You know they are going to pay these guys nothing especially if they are targeting price so how long do you think they will last? MOST importantly the one thing that will help all of us is that 3M will finally do what we all have been waiting for the manufacturers to do "DIRECT MARKET TO THE CONSUMER"!!! Let them spend the money to educate the consumer and increase awareness. For me i see huge opportunity and hope you guys do too!

This is exactly what needs to be done. Group up according to state or region, everybody says what they're good at, and form a brand and work within it. There's potentially more work out there than we know what to do with. I know guys with just two dealerships that are almost overwhelmed. Like I said though, people have to put their "I'm taking over the world myself" attitude behind. The guys who work together can stomp out these rogues like Rob described easily. If we don't as a whole we'll keep treading water.

My area everyone seems out to put everyone else out of business. I just hope they all put themselves out of business.

[KonSiva]

very interesting topic...

[Bababooey]

what are your thoughts on some of these film makers and pattern makers selling kits on their websites to anyone with a CC #?

At the end of they day, they have to run a business too. They're going to certify anybody and give patterns to anybody who's going to hand them money. I think these internet low ballers selling film for what amounts to 10% over raw material cost need to be kicked out of the business, but in reality, 3M/Venture (lets face it, it's their film that's mostly involved) doesn't care what you do with their film as long as you keep buying more. They aren't there to make you money. A perfectionist who does a couple cars a week flawlessly for good money is worth less to a film manufacturer than a hack job doing 4 cars a day.....and that hack job will be looked over as soon as a corporate chain wants to get involved. From what I know about 3M and their tint, they seem to be very protective of who's installing it where. This move seems to be a complete 180. I'm surprised, but I'm not.

I keep going back to the point, we need to stop measuring our wieners and start partnering up if we all want to be in business 5-10 years from now.

[Speed]

I wouldn't be too worried. Pep Boy customers are DYIers and I can't remember ever seeing a car that wasn't 15 years old in their parking lot. Maybe they will get a MACO respray customer once in a while, but they won't have a pattern for any of their customers until 2020 when the cars built today become beaters.

[lorenzotint]

I wouldn't be too worried. Pep Boy customers are DYIers and I can't remember ever seeing a car that wasn't 15 years old in their parking lot. Maybe they will get a MACO respray customer once in a while, but they won't have a pattern for any of their customers until 2020 when the cars built today become beaters.

the other half of their customers are doing the installs in the parking lot.....just put the precut films in the store so the customers can spend some more time blockin up the parking lot....and don't forget a tool kit for $20.00

[Guest Pro-tectFilmMelissa]

I really think if we don't stop shitting on each other locally and start to work together and partner up, there's nothing that's going to stop more of this from happening. While we're having p1ss1ng matches over who's install looks better, these guys are out selling to chains and dealerships totally bypassing our business. Once the word gets out about Pep Boys selling film for next to nothing, it's going to be very hard make any type of money. Sure the Ferrari owner will understand he's paying for quality, but the guy financing his Camry for 6 years will just see a lower price. It wouldn't be a problem if they sold 300,000 Ferrari's a year.

We have ZERO support from any manufacturer and will NEVER get it. I couldn't even get a manufacturer to place a sales call to a 28,000 car per year dealership for me. It's heavily corporate and the only way in there is through a manufacturer. Work together, build your own local brand. The bigger you are or are perceived, the easier it will be to land the bigger jobs. Some of us might be better installers than salesmen and the other way around. They can easily work around us being individuals. If we don't the real reason for this business going downhill is us.

Wow that was really deep and I totally agree 100% with everything you said. I wish that everyone worked together more and that this business was a less cut throat. In the end everyones throat ends up being cut. This product is too pricey to not make your money off installing it and you also have to figure for any mistakes or loss of film as well.

I wish that every great installer was a great sales person as well. I have had many people that I called weekly and gave them pep talks about going to the dealerships and staying diligent. I am here to help anyone who wants to grow their business and I have done the outside sales to the dealerships and I would be happy to share my experience with anyone who is looking for some assistance.

Happy Installing

[Guest samhahn]

Film/patter makers will sell to anyone because it is more $ in it for them. And if there is any case of warranty issue, they can deny saying, "can't honor the warranty since it wasn't installed by certified installer." So more sales, less warranties they have to honor, and more $ in their pocket.