Oregon shop stays up to date with vehicle and diagnostic technology

“I was a one-man shop doing automotive repair,” he recalls. “Then around 1988 I diagnosed a car with a bad PCM, but couldn’t fix it because I needed factory software to program it. I realized I had to make a change, and bought my first factory scan tool, a Tech 2. Now I have 22 OE-level software scan tools for Mercedes, Toyota, etc., and probably 15 aftermarket scan tools. If a car comes in, we’re going to fix it. That’s how we built this business up.”

Profit’s definitely not in diagnostics, though. “No,” Harding laughs. “My subscription fees to keep the scan tools up to date averages around $35,000 a year. But I’m going to fix customers’ brakes, do their oil changes, and sell them tires. That’s how I pay for diagnostics.”

On the tire side Harding’s a member of Point S, a franchise made up of independent owners. “I first bought into it about 20 years ago when it was Tire Factory.” Based out of Europe, Point S has over 4000 points–of-sale worldwide.

“I keep about 1,200 tires in stock,” he explains. “I’d say we have a fill rate of about 70 percent, and 30 percent of the time we have to order what somebody wants. Our tire business is going up and up all the time; I think it’s our prices. I don’t really charge much because to me it’s about giving a good price and keeping people as customers for all the other repairs. If you treat somebody well, they’re going to remember you.”

Harding points out that if he’s going to do anything, “I’d like to try to do it right and be on top of the game.” Which is why he’s now an advocate for lab scope waveform diagnosis.

“You get 3/10ths of a voltage drop on something, it will create drivability problems,” he observes. “A scanner will get you in the general area, but a scope will get the car 100 percent figured out. Say a scanner code has a technician pulling the oil pan to inspect the reluctor wheel. That would be like an eight-hour job. I take a scope, put it on that crankshaft sensor signal and tell you in a minute if that reluctor ring is good or bad without tearing anything down.”

By Harding’s own estimate, only 15-20 percent of the shops in the U.S. have scopes. “The best scopes are around $5,000, and I think it’s worth it. A scope is something that doesn’t have to be updated all the time like a scanner, plus it works on any make or model. And if you know how to do drivability stuff, you wouldn’t even need a scanner; you can figure anything out with a scope — although a scanner will get you to the area having problems quicker.”

Of course, using and reading a scope requires special training. Lots of it. “We’ve got four Automotive Test Solutions’ (ATS) lab scopes, and we do 25 days of training for my guys here, plus we go all around the nation.” Harding reports they just got back from a big four-day training event in Kansas City.

“If you want to fix the hard-to-fix cars, the ones no one else can, you have to have a scope,” he maintains. “We actually capture all the wave forms, to prove to the customer what the problem is by showing them the before and after results. Then a lot of those wave forms will be used for training seminars.”

For Precision is among a select number of shops chosen to beta test lab scopes for ATS, Bosch and a few others. “They know what we do here, the quality of the technology,” Harding notes. “They know I have 22 factory tools to compare data.”

Another technology Harding has invested in is keys. Unlike the old days when any hardware store could grind out copies, modern car keys are now, well, key to a car’s security.

“It’s a hard market to get into,” he says. “To become a licensed locksmith, you have to go through NASTF (National Automotive Service Task Force). You pay a yearly subscription; they do a huge background check on you, FBI, etc., and it takes them quite a while to give you your licensed locksmithing code.”

But once a shop earns that code, they can cover any and all types of key programming. “Let’s say I’m going to program a GM, Ford or whatever,” explains Harding. “I go on that factory site, I put in my LSID number, and I can pull up the key cut codes and programming PIN codes. If a customer loses all of their keys, I can cut and program a key to their car. You go to a dealership and they’re just going to do their make and nothing else. We do all makes, all models. A lot of cars up and down the coast will drive 50-60 miles to get to our shop.”

Harding also owns a local Carquest parts store, although he keeps both operations pretty separate. “Everybody thinks that (I can get the parts cheaper from there),” he comments, “but i have to pay the employees and overhead, and in a small town they’re not the busiest Carquest in the world. It’s busy because of me, but you have to look at the numbers; I sell to myself just like I would if I was buying from any other store.”

Still, Harding’s interest in technology is all-abiding; he’s lately been looking into ADAS. “If I see new stuff coming out I’m certainly going to put as much time into it as I can, to try to be the best at it. If it requires me to spend money on tools, well, my wife and I pay ourselves a good salary; everything else we put back into the business.”