The 10 shops in this year's Top Shops contest know how to stay ahead of the game.
You don't really need to train this year's crop of Top Shops on how to run their businesses. Each shop does a terrific job of doing that on their own.
One main reason each shop stood out among the competition and landed in the top 10 is their focus on training. We here at Motor Age regularly include information about training in all of our print and digital publications. Associations across the country, whether it's at the local, state or national level, encourage owners to send their advisors, technicians and other employees to training whenever they can. More and more manufacturers are creating online resources to get your techs the information and training they need.The best shops in the country are taking advantage of that, and thus setting themselves apart from the competition as the go-to places for automotive service. The 2011 top 10 Motor Age Top Shops are:
- Rad-Air Complete Car Care, Strongsville, Ohio
- Ayers Automotive Repairs, Santa Barbara, Calif.
- Beckwith's Car Care, Humble, Texas
- C&H Foreign Auto, Spokane, Wash.
- Certified Automotive Specialists, Glendora, Calif.
- Downing Street Garage, Denver
- Keller Bros. Auto Repair, Littleton, Colo.
- Pellman's Automotive Service, Inc., Boulder, Colo.
- Scott's Auto Center, Cumming, Ga.
- Tony's Auto Service Center, Phoenix
You'll learn much more about each of these shops as you flip through the rest of this month's Motor Age and go online for more stories and photos. We hope you take away ideas from what these industry leaders are doing to help better your shops. Even the folks in this list have adapted ideas from others in the last few years, helping them earn or maintain a place in the top 10.
Across the board, these shops focus on training and purchasing quality equipment and tools for their technicians, offer customers useful warranties and set high standards for their suppliers. We have tried to highlight this and, more importantly, what sets the shops apart from others in the following pages.
These shops stand out in their communities and stand out in our industry. We hope you enjoy reading about them and learning from them, as well.
Motor Age's annual contest was open to any independent repair shop in the United States. Each owner had to answer nine questions about their shops that related to the categories on which judges rated the shop. Judges scored each shop on 10 categories: experience, training and education, shop operations, supplier relations, marketing, website presence, aftermarket involvement, community activities, technical offerings and a photo tour of the shop.
If you would like to be contacted in the spring about entering the 2012 contest, send an email to Tschanen Brandyberry, managing editor, at [email protected].
