Talk of the Town

Jan. 1, 2020
It often takes more than mere determination to be successful; keen observation and mental flexibility definitely don’t hurt.

It often takes more than mere determination to be successful; keen observation and mental flexibility definitely don’t hurt. Back when he was a novice mechanic at a dealership, Dick Horan noticed that senior technicians were avoiding cars with electronic ignition or fuel injection. “I made a decision to take the weakest part of the shop and make it my strongest,” says the New Hampshire native of his newfound philosophy.

Like this article? Sign up for our enews blasts here.

Besides, it actually looked a little easier. “Working flat rate next to a guy working on the little Hondas, he could take the cylinder head off and put it back on in four hours and make three or four hours time,” Horan recalls. “I would take the cylinder heads off a big GM V8 and it would take me all day, and I would lose two hours. I thought, ‘This is stupid; why would anybody want to do this for a living?’”

Eventually he became the go-to guy for imports. “There’s a lot of people out there that are still afraid of the new technology,” Horan laughs. “It changes rapidly, and if you don’t adapt and change with it, you kind of get pushed to the back.”

Pushing himself to the front, Horan started Precision Imports on Feb. 1 1980, now one of the leading shops in Manchester, N.H. In fact a little over a year after opening his doors, he was testifying as an expert witness in front of the Federal Trade Commission during a investigation into Volkswagen’s valve stem seal failure problem.

Answering a trade paper ad soliciting help for the Federal Parts Return program, Horan explains that “they would request certain parts that they were investigating, and you would save these parts and send them in with documentation. I started doing that and sent in so many that they actually sent a lawyer up from Washington to talk to me, and he interviewed me for a day. Then I went down to Boston and spoke in front of group there, then they sent me down to Washington D.C. That was kind of cool.”

Dick Horan, president, works on a Porsche 996 engine.

As per Precision’s tag line, “we do high end to Hyundai,” before opening the shop Horan had been a Volkswagen and Mazda technician for a number of years, and before that had worked on Honda, Renault, Mercedes and Volvo. Specializing in German and Asian makes, they work on everything including American cars — well, except maybe old British ones.

Having graduated from what’s now Manchester Community College, Horan takes a keen interest in education. Serving on several local college boards, he’s also Chairman of his alma mater’s Automotive Steering committee. “The bottom line is (the schools) need to be teaching basic skills; we’ll take them to the next level,” he says, speaking of an internship or co-op situation where students work at a dealership or repair shop as part of their degree. “You can’t just breeze through and get a degree and then go out and get a job, because no one is going to hire you unless you have some experience. That’s more true now than it’s ever been.”

Patrick Horan, service advisor, works a the front desk.

Manchester is the biggest city in New Hampshire at around 110,000, rated the second most tax-friendly city in the U.S. by Kipliger, 13th out of the “100 best cities to live and launch a business” in 2009 by CNNMoney.com. Horan notes that his marketing strategies have changed over the decades but are still pretty basic: newspaper ads were deemed ineffective and eventually dropped; direct mail was minimized, although he has maintained advertisizing in a local shopping mailer for several years now. Most of his marketing budget, around $53,000 a year, goes for radio, a medium that recently began playing a bigger roll in Horan’s own life.

As co-host of Talking Cars With Dick & Ron, Horan is now heard 9 to 10 a.m. every Thursday on WFEA 1370 AM. “I have a friend that I’ve known forever who had started a radio show by himself,” Horan relates. “Then he called me out of the blue one day… so I went in and did the show with him a couple of times, and it has just taken off. We’re having a blast.”

There are nine bays in the shop for today’s foreign vehicles

But as sensitive as he is to technology, Horan hasn’t mastered the latest marvel: the Internet. “Not as much as I’d like,” he admits. “I’ve been battered around a lot by the internet, as far as getting my toes in the water. (I’ve read) a lot of articles about people having success using the internet for the marketing of new cars, services or whatever. Some of these guys are saying it kind of works, while others are saying they’re putting 65 percent of their effort into the Internet, because it works better than the older (marketing strategies).”

A new website for Performance Imports is in the works; once online, Horan should have a better grasp on this mercurial market. “We’re a small enough company where I’m doing all I can, and it’s working,” he surmises. “But I know I need to do more or else somebody is going to be eating my lunch; we clearly need to market better to our existing clients. You can‘t sit still, you‘ve got to keep moving.”

And Horan is well aware that the Internet is more than a marketing tool. “Service information has become so accessible now,” he cites. “We can track pattern failures on these cars to the point where a car comes in that’s bucking only when its cold out and only two days after putting fuel in it; you can go and look up those exact symptoms on the internet and it will go, ‘Bang, this is what it is, check this first.’ That capability didn’t even exist five years ago. That’s pretty cool.”

His technicians sometimes check the Internet before even opening the hood. “But of course as we all know,” Horan grins, “being on the internet doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true.”

That’s where the mental flexibility comes in.

Subscribe to Motor Age and receive articles like this every month…absolutely free. Click here

Sponsored Recommendations

ZEUS+: The Cutting-Edge Diagnostic Solution for Smart, Fast, and Efficient Auto Repairs

The new ZEUS+ simplifies your diagnostic process and guides you through the right repair, avoiding unnecessary steps along the way. It gives you the software coverage, processing...

Diagnostic Pre- and Post-scan Reports are Solid Gold for Profitability

The following article highlights the significance of pre-scans and post-scans, particularly with Snap-on scan tools, showcasing their efficiency in diagnosing issues and preventing...

Unlock Precision and Certainty: TRITON-D10 Webinar Training for Advanced Vehicle Diagnostics

The TRITON-D10 lets you dig deep into the systems of a vehicle and evaluate performance with comparative data, systematically eliminating the unnecessary to provide you with only...

APOLLO-D9: Trustworthy Diagnostics for Precision Repairs

The APOLLO-D9 provides the diagnostic information and resources you need to get the job done. No more hunting through forums or endlessly searching to find the right answers. ...

Voice Your Opinion!

To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of Vehicle Service Pros, create an account today!