Why ADAS Calibrations Are Being Ignored in Auto Repair Shops [THA 484]
Remarkable Results Radio Podcast
Why ADAS Calibrations Are Being Ignored in Auto Repair Shops [THA 484]
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57:12
Term
comebacks
“Comebacks” are repeat visits where the same vehicle returns because the original repair didn’t fully fix the issue. They’re costly for shops and usually point to misdiagnosis, incomplete repairs, or missed related causes.
Term
diagnose
To diagnose a car problem means figuring out what’s really causing the issue. If you guess, you can end up replacing the wrong parts and the problem comes back.
Term
flat rate
Flat rate means the mechanic gets paid a set amount for a repair, even if it takes longer or shorter than expected. Because of that, some shops may be tempted to do extra work that they can charge for.
Car
Chevrolet Trax
The Chevrolet Trax is a small SUV meant for regular daily driving. In the podcast snippet, “Trax” sounds like it’s being mentioned in a business or software context, not as a description of the car. If you’re looking at the vehicle, it’s typically chosen for practicality and size.
Term
radar
Radar is the car’s sensor that “sees” using radio waves. If the radar is aimed differently after repairs, the car may need recalibration so it measures distances correctly.
Term
LiDAR
LiDAR is a sensor that uses lasers to build a 3D picture of what’s around the car. If the laser unit’s angle changes after repairs, the car may need recalibration to “read” the world correctly.
Term
service advisor
A service advisor is the shop’s customer-facing role that explains recommended repairs, schedules work, and communicates with technicians. In ADAS calibration discussions, the advisor’s job includes translating why recalibration is necessary after certain repairs so the customer understands the risk and rationale.
Concept
recalibration
Recalibration means resetting the car’s sensors so they work correctly again. After certain repairs, the sensors may no longer be aimed right, so the car needs recalibration to keep its safety features accurate.
Term
ASCs
ASCs are shops or service centers that have the training and tools to do certain specialized work. The host argues that customers may not recognize the difference between shops that can do it well versus those that can’t.
Concept
sublet
Sublet means the shop sends the work out to another specialist shop. That can happen when the original shop doesn’t have the right equipment or training to do a particular job.
Term
L1 diagnostics
“Diagnostics” means using tools to find out what’s wrong with the car. “L1” sounds like a basic level of troubleshooting—figuring out the problem using standard computer checks.
Term
mobile work
Mobile work in auto repair means service performed at the customer’s location instead of at a fixed shop. In the context of high-tech vehicles, it often refers to bringing diagnostic/calibration equipment to the car so certain tasks can be completed without towing.
Term
remote providers
Remote providers are people who help with car computer work without being in the same garage. They can connect to the system and guide or run parts of the diagnostic/calibration process.
Concept
ADAS calibrations
ADAS calibration is like setting up the car’s safety cameras and sensors to see correctly. If it isn’t done right, the car’s lane/braking helpers can act wrong or warn you unnecessarily.
Term
in-ground ADAS
An in-ground ADAS setup is a special calibration area built into the floor. It helps keep the car and measuring targets level, which matters because the calibration needs to be very precise.
Term
flat ground
For ADAS calibration, the shop floor needs to be extremely level and consistent because the calibration process assumes known geometry. If the surface isn’t flat (or the vehicle sits unevenly), the system can be calibrated with incorrect reference angles.
Term
alignment
A wheel alignment adjusts how your tires sit and point. It helps the car drive straight and wear tires evenly, and it can also affect the car’s safety sensor accuracy.
Term
eight-awson
The transcript’s “eight-awson” sounds like a misheard technical step that the shop is supposed to do. The point being made is that skipping it can lead to the car’s safety systems not working correctly.
Term
windshield
A windshield can be part of the ADAS calibration workflow because many modern systems use a camera mounted behind or near the glass. Replacing the windshield often requires recalibrating the camera so lane-keeping and collision warnings stay accurate.
Brand
Safe Flight
Safe Flight is mentioned as a company that helps shops calibrate the camera/sensor systems used for driver-assistance features. The point is that their materials can help explain to customers why calibration matters.
Term
calibration targets
Calibration targets are like reference charts the shop uses to line up your car’s camera system. They help the technician make sure the car’s safety tech is “aimed” correctly.
Term
Keith Birkins chart
The “chart” is a visual tool the shop uses to help explain what the car’s safety systems are doing and why calibration matters. It’s meant to make the explanation easier for customers to understand.
Term
adaptive cruise
Adaptive cruise control is cruise control that automatically slows down or speeds up to keep a safe distance from the car in front. If the sensors aren’t calibrated right, it can misjudge that distance.
Term
lane keeping
Lane keeping is the feature that helps your car stay in its lane by watching the lane lines. If the sensors aren’t set correctly, it may not track the lanes properly.
Term
360 round view
The 360 round-view is the camera view that shows what’s around the car from above. If a camera gets replaced, it may need re-aiming so the picture matches the real car position.
Term
front camera
A front camera is one of the car’s “eyes.” If it’s replaced, the car needs to re-check where it’s pointing so the camera view and safety features line up correctly.
Term
advanced parking
Advanced parking is the car’s parking help that can steer or guide you into a spot. It relies on the car’s sensors/cameras working correctly, so calibration matters.
Term
automatic parking button
That button turns on the car’s self-parking feature. It uses sensors and cameras to guide the steering, so if the camera isn’t set up correctly, the parking guidance can be wrong.
Term
reverse
Here, “reverse” is when the car turns on the camera view used for backing up and parking. If the camera is aimed wrong, the view and parking guidance can look crooked.
Term
programming function
A programming function is the software/vehicle-configuration step performed in the car’s diagnostic system (often via a scan tool) to recognize or configure a component. The transcript distinguishes programming from calibration, arguing that programming alone doesn’t fix camera aim/alignment.
Brand
Ford
Ford is the car brand being referenced. The speaker is saying you can look up Ford’s instructions to see what the correct camera/ADAS procedure is.
Term
job aid
A job aid is like an official checklist for how to do a repair the right way. Here it’s being used to show what Ford says should be done after camera work.
Term
calibration period
A calibration period is the required “setup time” the car needs after certain work so its safety sensors work correctly. The hosts are saying Ford expects this to be done every time the conditions are met.
Term
factory scan tool
A factory scan tool is the official diagnostic computer the dealer uses to talk to the car. It can show what steps were taken, so you can tell if the required calibration was really completed.
Term
technician ID
Technician ID is like a log-in name that ties actions in the car’s system to a specific person. Here it’s used to figure out who skipped the calibration.
Term
Blind Spot Marking
Blind Spot Marking is an ADAS feature that detects vehicles in your blind spot and then visually marks that area (often on the mirror or in the display). It’s meant to reduce lane-change mistakes by giving a clear cue before you move over.
Term
Lane Depart
Lane Depart helps prevent you from unintentionally leaving your lane. If the car senses you’re drifting, it warns you (and sometimes helps correct it).
Car
Chevrolet Tahoe
The Chevrolet Tahoe is a big family SUV. The story uses it to show how ADAS safety alerts can annoy some people at first, but they may still be helpful.
Car
Chevrolet Silverado
The Chevrolet Silverado is a large pickup truck made for work and towing. The example mentioned is a 2016 model that has been changed with a lift and bigger wheels, which can change how it drives and what it costs to own. People often discuss trucks like this because upgrades can affect maintenance and performance.
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This is the Automotive Repair Podcast Network.
Hey, everybody, Karm Capriato. Hello.
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Hey, welcome back.
I have the Perkins here with me.
Used to be my favorite restaurant until you came around.
Every time I say Perkins is those pancakes that you learn how to make.
Carm, I loved their pancakes.
So I figured out how to make a really great, great buttermilk pancake recipe.
People come from miles to my house to eat pancakes.
We haven't traveled the distance, made the trek to.
Yeah, you may have to come to my house and have.
And then now I'm experimenting with pumpkin pancakes.
But anyway, that's another story for a different day and time.
Keith and Liz Perkins, so glad to have you here from L1 Training, L1
Diagnostics and Level One Automotive, your brick and mortar place.
And you're here teaching today.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
What are you talking about?
Can networks.
Boy, how exciting.
I think, I don't know, there's maybe three or 400
Be it shop owners, service advisors and specialists in the audience.
And I think they're going to have a blast.
Oh, by the way, just as another side note.
And I think the industry is going to hear a lot about it.
Trace is doing the keynote today.
No pressure, my dear.
Did you see that instant sweat that just happened?
Oh my God, I know there's a ton of things that we know we can talk about here.
But when it comes to can bus.
How often are you being asked to give this in?
Are you getting through?
Yeah, so just like all the classes.
Listen, I talk about this a lot.
It goes in cycles.
So now I've taught this class like four or five times this year.
Now at different events and whatever and since Jan.
Yeah, I think so.
Wow, it's been the circuit.
It gets on the circuit.
So the first year I released the keynote and the keynote mobilizer came back.
It came in the first year.
I released it big.
Every event wanted me to come do or that, you know, that I was asked to do.
I gave them the list of classes.
Keys and a mobile as it was big.
They're like, oh, it's new.
We don't have that.
No one has that because the locksmith world keeps everything really tight to the chest.
We're a lot of tribal knowledge, all that.
I taught it.
And then it like took a one year hiatus.
It felt like it really longer.
Yeah.
And maybe a year or two hiatus.
And then now it's back.
Yeah.
So it's been key and a mobilizer and can this last.
This is the site.
2026 fiscal, you know, and the last rolling 18 months early.
Is it important to almost put that in abeyance because you want to refresh it?
And the other question on that is it's probably not bad to go to a Canbus class every couple years.
Yeah.
Well, we're going to do two today.
Yeah.
Mr. Sanders is going to do one today.
He's going to do one very hyper focused on General Motors, Global A and B architecture,
which GM calls VIP now.
And Ken talks about it.
And then he's going to do a little one hour stint that's hyper focused on that.
And then I'm doing a more generalized Can class.
I've seen this presentation.
So we're good.
There's no overlap.
It made me nervous when I asked, they're like, hey, do you want to follow Ken Sanders
and do a Can class after him?
I said, absolutely not.
I love Kenny.
He's such a humble, cool guy, just like you are.
And you are intelligent.
That's why when they asked, I said, no, I do not want to do it.
I don't want to go after Ken and do the same stuff.
So we're at dinner last night and I go up to him and I said, you know what?
It's really tough getting you to do a virtual with me.
So tomorrow you're going to sit in the studio and he goes, okay, I'll do that.
So I'm interviewing three trainers today.
And I'm happy to do that because I think it's important that our industry realizes
that the continuing educational drive that I have being a perpetual student
is probably more important than ever.
And unfortunately, you know this.
Liz, you know this.
The same people show up in the class all the time.
Why?
God.
I would hope that there's a lot of shop owners listening right now to what I'm about to say,
that if you're not regularly sending people to quality training,
you are going to go out of business.
And I love it because I'll buy all your stuff at a 10th on the dollar in your liquidation
sale, which I do every year.
It's awesome.
I've got a lot of equipment.
It's like an estate sale.
It is.
I love it.
I've got a fantastic transmission rebuild table that paid like 75 bucks for,
but it's a $600 table.
No, I mean, training is the key.
It is truly the key.
We see it all the time.
Everyone says, hey, they're the same people, all this stuff.
But what are you doing in your neighborhood?
Are you reaching out to other shop owners?
Are you reaching out to other technicians?
Are you bridging that gap and inviting them?
We are on the board of an educational school.
And what we do is we go into this board meeting and they're talking about this,
that, and the other.
And then we go, oh, yeah.
So we're going to be at Vision next week.
And then after that, we're going to be in New York and we're going to be teaching
for a private event.
And then we're going to go and teach at TST.
And all of these things are like, there's like moving their head around like,
what are you talking about?
Right.
And we're like, what do you mean?
What are we talking about?
Yeah.
How do you not know this?
Do they have pizza?
We're not talking about it.
Yeah.
So, but are you talking about it?
Are you going into, you know, your community and like saying what you're doing or even
telling your customers?
Like if you're working in a shop, you know, specialists or if your service advisor,
specialists, you know, like any of those things, are you saying, hey, I'm going to
this training?
Are you putting on your own personal Facebook page?
Are you saying it in your, like your shop page, like any of those things so that the
community also knows about it as a whole?
You bring in such a good point.
I'm on the advisory panel of the Erie Community College in Buffalo.
And they do get invited, the instructors to go to local training that's brought in from
some of the bigger companies, the supplier base.
But Keith Liz, I sense a trend and the trend is this localized training where Keith
Perkins gets flown in to do something for a one particular shop who reaches out to their
network and says, listen, he's coming in.
Here's how much it costs.
If you want to send some people, we're going to divide this thing up at the end of the day.
We're all going to get really, really good training for maybe a day and a half hands
on all kinds of great stuff.
And still sometimes they crash and burn.
Now the person with the great idea invested a lot of great money in a trainer like you,
but the rest of the world around them just doesn't want to commit to it.
How do we get this trend moving?
I mean, the thing is, it's moving.
Carm, I'm terrible at being an advocate for my own company.
I do tons of podcasts and stuff.
I never self-indulge in the, hey, by the way, I do this stuff and offer these things.
And so I'm not taking that moment to do that.
But what I'm telling you is that, do you think it's like 10 or 15 this year, babe?
Probably.
I don't have a question you're asking me.
Oh, oh, typically I thought you would.
Usually we're on the same wavelength.
Yeah, no, we are.
10 or 15 private shop events.
Yes.
I mean, at least.
So I think I have 10 or 15.
For you.
For me to go.
And, you know, Stechler's doing the same thing.
And Andrew Fishers, I mean, I think you're going to interview him later,
hopefully, or something.
He does the same thing.
And a lot of us do.
I know Thornton used to do it.
I think Sanders does it.
I think, I mean, I think all of us instructors offer that as an option
where we can come out to your shop and teach.
And it becomes more cost-effective when you're trying to get more than five people trained.
Right.
So we run two-day hands-on classes at our shop.
But if you're going to send a technician,
you've got A, the technician's got the time off.
We do it on the weekend, which I would love to do it in a week,
but we tried that and no one, we get two or three people, right?
Yeah.
So we push that trend as much as I can.
But you have travel cost, hotel cost, and then we charge a pretty good amount to show up.
So, you know, you're in it a thousand bucks just for training for two days for a person.
So 500 bucks a day.
And by the time you've added all that up, it's expensive for one person.
So you go, well, I was going to send three.
At that point, it's almost the same cost to have me come to your shop at that point.
So that trend has moved that way.
We're seeing it more and more.
It's more every year.
I got 10 or 15-ish scheduled this year, and I'll probably have more next year.
And so your training company is L1 and you say you do a poor job of promoting it.
Yeah, L1training.com.
And you've got a ton of people that are members.
Thanks for the moment.
We do have a subscription-based model.
It's really expensive.
It's $25 a month.
So...
Oh my God, that'll break me.
Yeah, it's 250-ish hours of on-demand training right now that's on there.
And typically, every Monday I did an hour.
And it's been about four weeks since I've done a Monday because the training circuit
things just kind of...
I've got no Mondays right now.
So usually, every Monday, one hour live, then we have events that we do at our shop.
And then we'll come to your shop and do events.
We're at Expo.
We're at all of these things that we offer.
And we're seeing more and more.
It's growing every year.
But it's not enough.
Not when there's 700,000-ish technicians in the country and we see the same
thousand people everywhere, just back to your point.
I mean, we service over 1,000 shops in our market for mobile division.
And maybe there's a handful of those shops that are customers that we ever see at a
training event.
Or that even...
I can't say that they don't know because we definitely have talked to them about it.
But before we said anything to them, before we had those conversations, they're like,
what?
Wait, there's like, conventions?
And they're like, oh, yeah.
Wow.
You know, I'm sorry.
I find that so difficult for people not to realize the world around them as far as
conferences and training and the need to get it right, fix it right, reduce comebacks,
and not take five hours to diagnose something that could have been done in 45.
Where are we?
You have to be frustrated to see you know the answer.
Yeah.
The problem is, Carm, is there's less money in doing it the right way.
100%.
The industry is set up where most technicians are flat rate.
So they're incentivized financially to put more parts and spend more time on the car if they
can bill for it.
The shop is financially incentivized to sell more parts.
The part stores love the fact they put on more parts.
Although maybe it takes one part to fix the car, but my technician can guess...
On our way there, on we had a...
This part took this part out.
Like, no, you misdiagnosed it, then you're covering it up.
And then the shop owners tell me, Keith, I would go out of business.
I was like, then maybe you should.
Flat rate is kind of going away.
No, but I wish it would.
That's controversial.
Everyone's going to hate that.
Now I get all the hate mail.
And so will we probably.
And there's a lot of specialists out there that they live in the world of flat rate.
They know nothing, but they get it.
They know it.
It's kind of like an exercise routine that...
And I don't want to stop doing it.
But okay, there's so many things that we can talk about.
We could keep talking about this in a circle, but I think it's right.
I think localized training is critical.
I can't imagine the value per dollar that you get with an intimate group and hands on
and the casualness that you can hang out with the trainer.
You can't...
This is a beautiful event, but it's the sage on the stage.
It's not me in a circle around everyone.
And boy, I have to tell you, if you're listening and you think this is something you need to
try, experiment with, work with another individual.
There's so many guys that are just this close to connecting.
How do they get a whole you?
You can just go to the website at onetraining.com.
There's a contact form at the bottom.
Perfect.
And just at least start to do discovery.
What classes do you have?
How much does it cost?
Yep.
And then that individual has to do the legwork inside of his market.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Okay.
How are the girls?
Great.
And how's the farm?
Awesome.
And I want to know, how do you run all these companies?
You're never home and you have all these great animals at home.
It's not bad to talk about this work-life harmony or balance.
How do you guys do it?
Calendars, people and patience.
And the country of Columbia.
Yeah.
I'm just saying, between coffee and cocaine,
they're just trying to make sure we get stuff done.
I've been waiting all day to say that joke.
And dad jokes.
And dad jokes.
And dad jokes.
Dad jokes, yeah.
And no calendars and Liz.
Everyone's like, oh, it's so sweet that he says about it for 100%.
I am an absolute disastrous unorganized mess.
You?
Okay.
My organization is chaos, but it works to a point.
And I'd have to have help.
I'd have to have.
I'd love to see his desk.
It probably looks like mine.
Does it look like mine?
I wonder, you know what mine looks like, Trace.
It's probably worse.
I love you so much.
I love you.
I just have piles and piles of dust.
But.
So we set up our office, 10 by 12 office, okay?
And it's, I have an L desk and I'm facing him and I have my monitor.
And on the other side of the monitor.
I have a G desk.
He has literally a G.
And by G, I mean the letter G.
It goes around and comes back.
It's a, it's a like triple L.
A circular thing?
Yeah.
It's, I have a circle with an opening to get into it.
And then it's just chaos all the way around.
I need, I need.
90% of the time there's something in the walkway
where he can't get to said desk.
And now it's overflowing into my area.
And like the cleaners will come in and they're like,
do you want me to try to clean his desk?
And I was like, don't even just, just I'll deal with it later.
And they come into my desk and it's,
I have a, it's a glass, clear glass desk.
And you, you can not even, I mean, I keep a,
can you eat off it?
Oh yeah.
You can see the floor on hers.
Mine's a clear glass desk also,
but you don't know it because it's covered.
I need a G desk.
It shaped like the letter G.
He literally spins like.
Oh yeah.
Around.
It's hilarious.
So okay.
So you got all these companies.
Yeah.
And so this is L one training.
This is L one diet.
And it's kind of like that.
So where the computer is,
there's a lot of training stuff right here.
There's just my keyboard mouse and just piles of stuff.
There's a lot of stuff going on from classes being built.
If I turn to the right a hair,
now we're into the L one diagnostics area
where I've got a lot of stuff that I'm working on for the shop
that's, that's specific.
If I turn around, we're into the YouTube land
because there's a recording spot.
I got about six cameras, a big desk mat that's designed
to be recorded on and do module work
and stuff that I do on videos.
Turn a little more and there's some circuit board work.
So there's a circuit board station and microscope
and monitors that are set up,
that are hooked to the microscope
so I can see what I'm doing and,
and then to the right some more.
And it's back to the shop.
And there's my toolbox and stuff.
And how big is that box?
It's a 72 inch box.
A 72 inch box.
My personal toolbox is in my office.
In his office.
And it has all like e-prom stuff and other tools.
But it's all just module repair cloning tools.
Because you have to touch it.
It's got to be quick, easy access.
And then that you're not going to walk.
And every top flat surface is piled with things.
How many monitors?
In that room.
Or off your computer.
It has three monitors.
But then there's another computer in this corner
that has another monitor.
And then the microscope has its own monitor.
So there's two or three 46 inch TVs
and then three 27 inch monitors.
Can you fly drones from there?
I could.
Yeah.
Maybe launch a rocket for X?
I have video.
I have B-roll of our shop.
From the drone.
From my drone.
Yeah.
So you're into it.
And you go to her desk and it's like her calendar.
Her keyboard.
Her mouse.
A writing pad.
And a pen.
And her little cup of pens.
And everything's organized.
It just reminds me of me and my wife.
Annie Annie is just like you.
I know which I can relate.
There's no less than seven laptops on that area laying around.
Either repair or being used.
So you see these.
These come right from the office.
I want to show you.
You see the back.
All the notes that I use.
This may not be a great example.
I save all the paper of the notes I take into the studio
when I do interviews.
And I've done over I don't know a couple thousand right
in the last 11 years.
And I save them all and then I take them to a printer
and I say cut them in fours glue the one side.
And so I'm reusing them.
But my desk is littered.
These are thought papers.
Yeah.
OK.
They're littered with all these different ideas
and some to-dos below that.
And I would be afraid to take all those individual to-dos
and put them into one big one
because that probably wouldn't get anything done.
How do you eat an elephant though?
One bite at a time.
Which is the.
So start with your napalm.
Lots and lots of napalm.
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To your point, Liz, every once in a while,
I think what you have to do is regroup.
So my question to you, Mr. Chaotic,
but very smart, very intelligent,
and you're always moving something forward.
How often do you regroup?
Every couple of days she'll go,
all right, what's on your task for today?
And then she'll write it.
We have a dry erase board in the office right behind her.
And so she writes down my task for the day
that have to get done.
Requirements, what I'd like to get done, whatever.
And then I just, when I look up, it's right there.
And so that's a daily, then there's a monthly,
what do I got to do before the next event?
What do I got to do six months?
What's the year plan?
So there's all these lists that are up there.
We're constantly erasing stuff, writing new stuff in.
And then their categories for each company.
So this is L1 training, what we need to do,
this is the diagnostic company we need to do.
This is the shop.
This is the shop.
And then sometimes this is the house.
Before you leave work today, make sure this tool comes with you.
So we have a little hat.
So I will give this away.
Oh, are you free?
Yeah, free.
Thank you.
Yeah.
So, you know, like you're sitting there talking about something,
you guys get like, you're so passionate.
Like, okay, I need to remember this, right?
We literally will whip out our phone and someone will take notes
and they will, they will text each other.
We text each other.
And then it's in a note form.
So if you like look at her, like they'll be,
good morning, honey.
I love you.
And the next thing is like, we need eggs.
Dog food, everything.
You know, like whatever, or like we're doing a project.
And I'm like, okay, we need screws.
Okay, what size screws do we need?
Two and a half inch, two and a half inch.
25 torques, outdoor rated.
Yep.
Sure, right.
All right.
It's lovely.
I love that hack.
I'm going to take it to the next level.
Okay.
Microsoft to-do is an unbelievable piece of software.
You can create any to-do list.
And immediately, if something comes, you open it up,
you go to a, I got to do this now, or you can have,
you can have L1 training, L1 diagnostics.
You can have all these little different folders.
You can move them around.
You can move your to-dos.
You can say that I did it and it'll save it to the bottom
of your list so you can go back and double check it.
And what I do is if I have a wild thought, no matter where I am,
I stop, I open it up and I dump it into a, remember,
you might want to do this now.
It has helped me not have to remember all the things,
because my brain doesn't stop.
Just sure it's like yours.
It's constantly going.
I have one of these and a pen in my nightstand
for the two o'clock in the morning wake up.
So that's good.
I like that.
But I try to be as streamlined as possible.
So typically I don't carry paper or anything like that.
I carry this.
It's called a plot, PLAUD.
I just turned it on.
We're now recording.
Oh, right, right, right.
That's it.
Yeah, a plot, yeah.
Hey, plot.
Today's March 28th, make sure that I send
Karm an email with my thoughts on the latest rendition of the specialist.
That's it.
I don't do anything else.
It's recorded it.
It'll remind me later.
I think I own a PLAUD when it first came out.
It's the one that went on the phone.
Huh?
The first one was the one that went on the back of the phone.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
No kidding.
Yeah.
Wow.
We're at the whole entire event.
Everybody I talk to, tell them I'll send them an email,
tell them to do this.
I get back to the shop and I go and plot.
It's a phone app.
You can, once you pay for the service,
a couple hundred bucks a year, the hardware piece that I'm wearing
is just a piece of the puzzle.
It's not required to have it.
Now that I have the subscription,
I have PLAUD installed on my desktops.
I have them on my phone.
I can pull up my phone and just go record and start talking to them.
That's an even better hat.
It's AI note ticker as always.
Okay.
But it does so many other things.
It's clipped on your shirt right now.
Is it recording everything or only when you speak?
Everything.
So it's everything.
So you got it.
Is it going to transcribe it back to you?
It can transcribe it, make a mind map.
You can ask it questions.
You can go, hey, PLAUD.
This weekend, when I was in, three months ago,
when I was in DC and I talked to a bunch of staffers,
did I promise any of them any information or anything?
And it'll list it out for me.
Yeah, you promised Senator Mullen's staffer that you would send a report
of the number of vehicles that you fixed that were XYZ, right?
They'll just tell you what you talked about.
It has all of it.
It transcribes it.
It saves the audio recordings.
It creates mind maps.
It creates a note section.
It synopsis everything.
And then you can ask it whatever you want.
Well, when I do discovery calls with new guests
that are going to come on the show, I use Fathom.
It's a marvelous piece.
Every time I wanted to do a new interview
and I have not met these people, persons, group before,
I'm feverishly either typing or I'm handwriting notes
until I discovered Fathom.
And I just let it run while we're having this discussion.
And then I say, OK, remind me what I said we were going to talk about.
And boom, I've got my outline of what we both believe
would be an ultimately great episode.
So we can't ignore this technology
to help us be better at what we do.
And again, we're traveling so fast.
I imagine that when I talk to you in three months,
you're going to have two new companies here.
Well, there's actually another company right now, right?
Yeah, there's actually two.
Yeah, OK.
One, Keith and I have, you know,
hey, we're thinking about doing another company.
But Rylan, our oldest, is really, really pushing.
She really wants to make our farm a company.
Like she wants to run and she wants to learn and grow.
And I thought, man, what an amazing opportunity
for a 14-year-old to understand.
She knows a lot about the business.
Like if a mobile division email comes in,
she knows how to put it in the shop where and make a ticket.
Yeah, when a customer request comes in,
she can go into shop where and create a request
and put it on the calendar for the guys.
You have your girl.
We love your girls.
You've been on the cruise with us.
And it's just they're so smart.
They're gorgeous.
They're driven.
Yeah, I wonder why.
Couldn't tell you.
Yeah, Rylan came to me.
I think it was like the day before we left and she was like,
Mom, I got called into my teacher's office.
And I was like, really?
Before.
Well, what's going on?
And she goes, he told me he really sees a lot in me
and he thinks that I can really go far.
And I was like, which teacher was it again?
She's like, oh, my ag teacher says, hey,
you really should reconsider doing ag next year
because she is in band and jazz band and color guard and ag
and even showed a goat this year.
And he goes, listen, please reconsider not to do ag again
next year and not put it away.
He goes, I really, really think that you have what it takes
to go really far in this.
Her first year ever of showing an animal and she won three awards.
Yeah, yeah.
Of course, we're beaming with pride, but also like, yeah,
that's amazing.
Those are gifts from God, I think, that just come down
and tell people when they're very young skaters, athletes,
it's very talented people that ultimately find an opportunity
to say, maybe this is my destiny.
And then you've got a teacher and the pride that you're seeing
and the fact that she wants to run the farm as a business.
This is too cool.
Yeah, yeah, she wants to do it.
She's like, I want an egg stand.
I want to, you know, hey, all these things.
So her and I have been over here dreaming and scheming
and he's like, I don't have time.
I'm making time.
Yeah, we do.
He really does.
We do make time.
But I can see Keith sitting in the G desk,
just shaking his hand to you and the girls say, handle it,
handle it.
Yeah.
That is what happens.
I don't, I don't, if she told me, hey,
will you go take care of all the animals down there?
I'd go, you got to send me what I'm supposed to do.
Yeah.
I can help with some of it, but a lot of it.
Yeah.
The kids and her do it.
It's really just a team.
At the end of the day, we're a team.
And I heard this once and it's one of the authors of a book
that I, there's two authors that could be that have said it,
but they said, listen, marriage is not 55.
It just isn't.
And I was like, no, like everyone says marriage is 50-50.
You give me half, I give my half.
And they said, no, it's wherever you are.
Like, honey, I have 20%.
That's all I've got right now.
Means today, I got to do 80.
He's like, hey, you know what?
He can either be honest and say, you know what, babe,
I got you, I got 80%.
Or he can say, be extra honest and be like, I got 40.
I got 40.
Let's struggle this together.
We got it.
I will give my, but I'm giving my best, right?
Yeah.
I've got your 20.
I've got your 80.
I've got whatever it is, I got it.
What a great ying and a yang, huh?
Yeah.
Because it's a fluid.
And sometimes you're just-
I love that word.
It's fluid.
Yeah.
It really is.
It changes hour by hour.
Yep.
And it sounds a lot like Liz is helping you a lot.
Are you stepping in to help Liz?
When I can.
It depends upon the situation we have.
There are some defined roles for certain things.
Like I, but there's days where she's like,
hey, I'm going to go down to the horses.
I'm like, I'm coming with you.
We're going.
She's like, all right, you get the alfalfa, soak that,
I'll do this.
It's almost like you knew you wanted to.
You need a mental change.
You want to do something physical.
And it's Liz that kind of, if you will,
helped you make that decision.
Oh, yeah.
She sometimes will make sure my schedule's set.
We had to do some fencing not too long ago.
And so she made it toward two weekends in a row.
I could take all three days, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
because we're a four-day week shop,
and work on that fence and make sure that fence got done.
Because that's what needed to happen at the house.
I don't have every weekend to go work on the farm.
So she's scheduled.
She made sure we didn't hit.
Anticipated this months ahead of time.
Made sure she didn't schedule me for an event.
I'm scheduled for an event or a training
or something most weekends.
Yeah.
I don't know how you guys do it.
An exclusion of like Easter and this and that.
I don't know how you do it.
Well, we make sure the kids come with us a lot.
Yeah.
Okay.
Talk about the kids.
How upset were the kids that they weren't going to be at home
on the day of your birthday to celebrate with you?
So Rylan is actually doing a winter guard competition
and it's their state qualifiers today.
So I was either going to be mom in mom mode
and president mode of the winter guard team
and be there doing that for my birthday or here.
And maybe go on a little adventure.
And he's like, you really should come with me.
Oh, nice.
And I don't get to see everybody.
Last weekend we did a family trip.
Yes.
The girls and us, we all went.
We actually were here in New York.
But last week we left Sunday.
Yeah.
And we came back yesterday.
Did you get involved in that LaGuardia thing?
We left the day before.
Wow.
No, the day of.
The day of.
That's right.
That's right.
We left the day of.
The day of.
We left at around 12.30.
Yeah, Sunday, mid-morning.
I've heard some crazy horror stories about, you know.
Yeah.
Anyway, it was really an unfortunate thing.
So the reason that I bring up the birthday thing is that
dinner last night you had a cake brought out
and celebrated your birthday.
It was yesterday.
Today is my birthday.
Oh, today's official.
Yes.
Today is official.
I thought it was yesterday.
Okay.
Right now.
Right now.
Oh, I'm so honored.
Wow.
The birthday girl.
And it's her 17th annual 20th birthday party.
I've been doing that for years.
Yeah.
Yeah, he normally will do the math for 25.
That's harder.
That's harder.
It's today.
It's her 12th annual 25th birthday.
Where's ADAS training going?
Is I mean, you didn't mention that it's kind of on a repeat scale.
Are we, is it to the point where people want to be in it,
that are in it, and the other ones that are sitting on the sidelines
kind of?
Negligent.
A sort of use.
Thank you.
You know what?
Thank you.
I've been struggling with the word that I'm in a Keith Perkins class,
and I can't remember where it was.
I think it was possibly tools last year.
And I'm going from class to class to just getting absorbed in the trainers.
I couldn't leave your class.
I've told you this story before, and I want those damn graphics for the industry.
And so he's basically explaining why the $99 alignment, maybe you're doing some towing,
putting front end parts, whatever you're doing to the vehicle that could very possibly change
the angle of radar, LiDAR.
And he's got these beautiful.
And I'm thinking, well, if I was a service advisor and I was looking and somebody was
wondering why now that I have to have this recalibration, why is it those graphics so purposefully
explain to the customer the rationale or the why behind it?
And that's the challenge that I hear from other shops as they go, well, I can't do that alignment
with that calibration because that'll make the X hundreds of dollars and the guy down the road
does alignments for $79.99, just like the problem with why guys aren't in training because they
don't see the value because there's more value in not fixing car right the first time and selling
more parts. The answer always comes back to the same thing. I'll tell you what the problem with
our industry is, and it's our image to the public. If the public recognized that could
differentiate between a knowledgeable and less than knowledgeable shop, and there's no way to
do that right now. ASCs are great, but it's a base level, right? Everyone can go on Amazon.
I bet I can go on Amazon and buy a we employ ASC technician sign. And that's no fault of ASCs there.
There's no differentiator. So the guy down the road, we have how many shops in town that say
we fix everything and they don't, they have to call me. I've never had to sublet to another shop,
but other shops sublet to me. If you ask a person, hey, we're going to give you two options to take
your car and you're not going to be able to tell the difference between them. One of them can fix
everything and one of them can't. Where should you take your car? Most people would ask, well,
the one that can fix everything, right? But that's not really the answer. Which one has a better
waiting room? Which one has better customer service? Which one creates a wow factor? Which one
is going to create more experience? Has all the more, right? So all those things and there's no
way for one person to differentiate that shop from the other. Every shop will tell you we're the best.
Yeah. Right? Why would they not? Yeah, why not? I seem to throw this entire discussion of yours
in the last two minutes under the global wording of professionalism. Yes.
And you said image and you said the word I loved is negligence. How could we get by today with this
extremely high tech vehicle that is so reliant on more computers and more flow of information
the right way and the responsibility. This is, I guess, where I'm driving to this whole
professionals. The responsibility that I have to my client, instead of brushing it off and
neglecting that it's not important, where is my responsibility to the client to do the kind of
work or have the right equipment, the right tooling? Okay, I could call or the right contact and just
be like, yeah, I can call L1 diagnostics because mobile is growing. Am I right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
We're going to see the gravy of the remote, like Rich and I talked about with you. The
gravy of the remote work or the mobile work is going to go to remote providers to separate
those, someone who can remotely log in and do that. So the gravy work of our mobile business,
that line that piece is going to be moved off to remote providers, right? And so it'll be left
with just how mobile started for me, which was the stuff that nobody else could do.
You're going to go in there, roll up your sleeves and dive in deep.
The navy seals of the automotive. Okay. Oh, I love that. Come in in the dark,
smash out the job, complete the mission, leave. Most of the time the vehicle owner has no idea
we existed, did it, or whatever, but the car's fixed. Next time. It's a great analogy. The navy
seals of the industry. That's what all those mobile guys are. Most of the time they're coming in
the vehicle owner that has no idea they even exist. Let's call it the heavy work. Yeah.
But also just as a specialist, as a shop owner, know your limitation, right? Yeah. If you know,
hey, I know that I can't do this, find somebody who can. And be honest about it. Right. The entire
purpose of us, like you said, is we designed the mobile division to be that we can come in there
and take care of your customer, without your customer ever knowing that you weren't the one
that did it, right? We come in there and it looks like you are the hero. You're the shop owner,
you're the specialist, are the heroes. And so you're keeping them alive.
And that's the battle we talk about a bunch too. Exactly. It's like I'm my own worst enemy.
My mobile company is making sure that I can't use the word competitor. I don't have a competitor.
There's no one that can do what we can do. No one in my area at all. No one in a tri-state,
quad-state area can do what we can do. So I don't have competitors, but I've got these other shops
in my area that we are keeping alive that maybe we shouldn't, right? I don't know what to say about
that because it hurts my heart to hear that. Right. And it hurts yours too. But it's a great
business for you. Yeah, the mobile business has its own thing. I have to support it regardless,
even if my brick and mortar shop is has a lack of the quantity of growth. We have growth crazy
in the shop. But I wonder what it would be like if we weren't supporting the other shops and we
told them all, sorry, you have to send it over here to the brick and mortar. But the mobile
company started with us telling people, I'm not your competition. I'm going to help you fix cars.
All right. Let's go back to ADAS, the word negligence that you said. I really,
I'm trying to drive a point to the industry. I had a great friend in Buffalo just bought a flat,
in-ground ADAS. I just saw some pictures of it. I'm going to go over to a shop and take a look at
it. He made a very large investment, got another building next to his. What's preventing the
investment? I know it's a lot of money. I know you've got to have the right space. This whole,
you've got to have left and right and up and down and flat ground really scare people off.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Buffalo, there's room, right? Think about in- Oh, there's a lot of room.
Dubrox. Think about that. We're going to put that building in. Dubrox and Dubrox.
We drove by them on the way to the restaurant the other night. They're
semi-unprofessional, at least on the outside looking. I don't know what's in the background.
That's the excuse I hear, right? It's like, oh, well, we can't get a space with it. Like, cool.
Then you shouldn't do an alignment on any of those vehicles. But the guy down the road is doing them,
and so again, at the end of the day, it's you are either a person of integrity or not.
And if you say, well, we fixed cars, right? Unless it's an alignment and it requires an
eight-awson, we just don't believe in that. That's fine. It's you turning a blind eye
to you know better. So the problem is, is, Karm, we're not talking to any of those people right
now. None of those people listen. All the people listening know this. Yeah. But I believe there's
some out there that need to either make the investment or find a partner that's going to
take that vehicle and do the calibration and send it back. But besides the integrity part of the
Karm, what is the benefit to a shop owner to do that? There's not, just so you know. There's
not. It's going to cost them money. Then they're going to have to work harder to get that job
versus just pretending like it's ignorance is bliss, Karm. Yeah. If you just did every alignment
at the alignment process you did and pretended like eight-awson didn't exist, you make more money
than spending 60, 80, 90, 100,000 and then having to tell people the alignment with you is this many
hundreds of dollars. And their first thought is, I called down the road before I came here and the
guy down the road said $79 cheaper. Same thing with a windshield. We were at a doctor's office
one day. It just had an ice storm, which is kind of rare in Oklahoma, but the lady was on the phone
like in the background and him and I are looking at each other because she's talking to a glass
company and she comes out and she goes, oh my gosh, man. We heard from the background if we
don't hear one side of the phone call and she goes, really? That much for windshield? Okay.
Does it have to have that? And that's all we can hear. The calibration. Yeah. We looked at each
other and then she comes out and we go, if your car has that camera, it does have to have that
calibration. And she goes, how did you know what I was talking about? She goes, do you do that or
something? I was like, we do. We kind of giggled. I'm like, yeah, we do that. Okay. I'm going to
give Safe Flight a couple of high fives. About a year ago, they were saying, and if your vehicle
needs calibration, we can do that too. About a year ago, the most recent commercials are showing,
if you will, the charts, the targets, the targets sitting up in front of the camera. I don't know
if it's a legit or not picture of what it is, but they're starting to show people that there's more
to it and it may help lend some credibility. No matter if people need a glass or not,
there's a company out there talking about the need for calibration. Yeah. That's good.
It's giving us more credibility for validation. Exactly. And when we say that to our customer,
hey, this is what it requires, they go, oh yeah, I remember seeing that commercial.
So shop owners listening leveraged that, go, hey, have you seen that Safe Flight commercial?
Exactly, right. Or that's what your car needs. Or look, I want to show you my Keith Birkins chart.
Yeah. And here's what it means a thousand feet down the road if we don't do this thing right.
Because that's what your car is doing. Like every 10th of a second, it's looking,
it's thinking, it's reacting. And we want to make sure that those engineers that designed this vehicle
to go down the road and do all this lane keeping, all this adaptive cruise thing going on the way
you originally intended, or they intended that you rely on. I mean, how hard is that to explain
to an individual? They can still go out and get the $99, the $79, but I think they're always going
to think about the truth and the reality that we were at the professional shop.
You need to make sure your advisor understands it. Yeah. Has your advisor had training?
Yeah. Does your advisor know how to have those questions, those deep questions? Like,
actually add that system turned off. I actually don't even use that. When the customer says that
to you, what are you going to say back? What should your response be? How are you going to say,
oh, actually, this is the reality of the matter and continue forward, right? Because just because
you have it off doesn't mean that you can't... That your daughter who drives the car doesn't
turn it on, that the person who you sell it to doesn't turn the system on, that the other drivers
in the vehicle. Yeah. So, and funny thing is what I cut you off and why I was going to say
was that I'll give a piece of information to you. What's helpful for me that helps is typically when
someone calls and I know that I have to tell them over the phone or I'm talking to someone to their
face and I'm estimating a job that has an ADOS calibration, I typically preface it with, hey,
so your vehicle has a piece of technology that requires this additional function we have to do
when we do this repair to do it right. And what I want you to know is that if you call around,
we've done this and we found that the vast majority of other shops aren't even aware
the manufacturer of your vehicle requires us to finish that job properly. A matter of fact,
we actually even called the dealer and they didn't know either. It's crazy. Can you believe that?
Anyways, and then you give them the cost and stuff and you go, so if you're checking around,
ask them if that includes calibration and what's crazy when we asked the dealer,
they told us it didn't need that. Can you believe that? Anyway, so here's the position
statement from the manufacturer. Here's your estimate we talked about. That position statement
talks about why it's needed and the fact that it's required when you do this job.
Bingo. And that's the key. Not even the people at the dealers are reading the factory manuals.
Oh, no. I made a video and called out a local dealer because we took Liz's Navigator
to go get a recall done that required replacing the front camera in her grill for the 360 round
view. We went to go pick the car up after. I'm trying to make it as short as possible.
Pick the car up after repair. Liz jumps in. The camera is at a different angle now.
We can see more of the bumper than we could before and we knew automatic. I told her. So when we
dropped this off, I said, they're not going to calibrate it. They're going to slam the camera
and press the limb bus activate. The camera's going to turn on. No lights, no codes. They're
parking at us, but her car has advanced parking. We can drive down a parking garage,
turn on the push the automatic parking button, and it will look for an empty space.
It'll tell us to take our hands off the wheel and just use the brake, and it'll back the car
into a parking space. Yeah. So that around the camera needs to be accurate. Yeah, exactly.
So we went up there. We did never tell them that we worked on the shop or anything. We just dropped
the car off for a recall. Yeah. So Mr. and Mrs. Perkins came in and we said,
hey, we just went and got in the car. The camera, when we put the reverse on the front camera,
the one you replaced, it's pointed different. Is there some kind of alignment thing? Because the
shop that sent us over here told us there wasn't a special alignment required after the camera's
replaced. Oh, I love it. And then they go, the service manager told us that happens during
the programming, which it doesn't. There's a separate programming function to turn the camera.
So Liz goes, are you sure? And she goes, so then I gave her the ammunition to say,
which was, so do I just live with it crooked then? That's the question that you ask.
Because he said, well, it's not required. We did everything we're supposed to, blah, blah.
And that's his battle. And so I said, ask him this, do I just live with it crooked then?
Question mark. And just look at him. And then he goes, well, okay, just leave it here. I'll have
the foreman look at it and blah, blah. Next day we get a text. Everything was done like it's supposed
to 9.30 a.m. 9.30 a.m. Everything's done like they never touched. They did not calibrate. So Liz,
Liz then starts texting them pictures of the mat. So this was done. So we start Google searching,
we have great pictures to use, but we have to Google, we're not trying to give away that we
own a shop and we do this. So we send them pictures from Google that has a picture of the
navigator with the mats around it. So this was done. Google says that this is the alignment
procedure that was correct. Then he says that is not required by full. And then so then I try to,
I will go find a position statement. It's on Ford Crash Parts.com. You can find it for free
Ford Crash Parts.com. Google search Ford Ados Job Aid. Right now, if you're listening, Google
search that in the very top one says Ford Crash Parts, click it. There's a job aid that shows every
Ados system on a Ford and when it's required to be calibrated. And that is if your Ford car has a
camera, and you do an alignment, a wheel alignment, it requires calibration. Every single Ford vehicle
that ever gets an alignment for any reason requires a camera calibration period end of discussion.
Sorry. And then it also says when that front camera is replaced, that's done.
We got the car back. Ford's factory scan tool has this awesome function where it records
everything that anyone does on that car using the factory Ford tool. So we pulled it up and showed.
It was after the first time we would have got to pick up the car, they never did the calibration.
It was never done. Never attempted. Never even attempted. I can see every button click they do.
Even when they went to service info, I can see what service info they went to
from within the system. It records everything. Ford's awesome to give us all that.
So I could see what technician ID did not do their job properly. And then the following day,
when we pushed and they finally tried it, it took them seven hours to
calibrate it. And they tried it nine times. No. Yeah. Yeah. It was awesome. Because that
technician had never done that before. I'm positive. Oh, yeah. And I'm sure these mats are massive.
Okay. They're six foot wide, like 36 inches wide and 36 and a half feet long. No kidding. Yeah.
So could you Matt, if you've never done this procedure, you're being forced to do this.
Because you got this jerk customer that just won't leave you alone about doing this thing.
But then like, okay, you have to go do this. And then they have no idea what they're doing.
And they're probably getting point two to do this job. Yeah. Because flat rate.
Yeah. They're not incentivized to do it right. They're incentivized to just get the completed
button to show up regardless of the calibration. Again, probably with zero training to do this.
And for mats, you have to have them in the right spot or they will literally just say nope, nope,
nope. Or they look askew. There's a lot to it. This lends itself to the unprofessionalism that we
seem to be living in. Thank you for that very uncomfortable little scenario. But I think it's
important that our industry realizes why we are such an important dealer alternative. If we just
live in the do right rule, we get ourselves educated. We look to be so much more professional.
Part of this whole language shift that I work so hard at in the industry is that we use these
acronyms to our customers so loosely because they're comfortable to us to say a dash to a
customer and they have no clue what you're saying. And I loved what you have both of you have been
saying for the last five to six minutes, the words calibration. And I think your client,
the consumer, can appreciate more the words of calibration than us dropping the word ADAS
that they have no clue. Even if we define what the ADAS means to them, it doesn't have much meaning.
Oh yeah, no. Customers, if we're talking about like, hey, well, they're like, well,
what do you teach? And I was like, well, we teach ADAS, which is advanced driver assistance, and
I'm like, okay, are you speaking a different language? Exactly. And so then you go, okay,
well, are you familiar with Blind Spot Marking? Are you familiar with Radar Cruise? Are you
familiar with Lane Depart? All these like, oh, actually, yeah, if my car has that, and like,
okay, that's what we do. And then we get to go into that and educate that customer a little bit.
Two points before we leave. Tracy got a rogue, I don't know, a bunch of years ago, right?
2019, a long time ago. And she says, dad, I don't like these beeps. When I go over a line,
how show me, I got to turn this thing off. And I said, live with it for a little bit.
Really, I want you to have that feature. I think it's really, really important. And I don't know
how much longer after that she comes to me, she goes, I like it. I live with it. I don't even
know that it beeps. But when it beeps, some subconscious thing of mine says, I'm doing
something wrong. And so people are so quick to say, I don't want this,
I don't want this when I think they're lifesavers. Yeah, my friend, she came to me and she says,
I just got this brand new Tahoe. And she's like, I named her Karen. I was like, what do you mean,
you named your car Karen? And she says, yeah, because she's tattling on me and tell me how
bad of a driver I am all day long when I'm driving her. And I was like, okay, and also,
sorry for all the Karen's out there, you're not actually Karen's. But yeah, so to that point,
you know, people are like, Oh, I don't want to listen to those noises and they turn off.
Yeah, they don't understand that the sales team doesn't do a great job either.
No, they don't. The delivery people, they don't even know what they're delivering.
Right. They just don't. I just heard from a friend who knows a couple of dealership networks in
Florida who said that the average price of a vehicle that's leaving is $1,000 note payment for 84
months. Wow. Go ahead. I shared a video on Facebook the other day. It's from a rather prolific car
sales guy. Not that a lot of people here would know, but just buy here, pay your kind of place.
And he's got a little phrase he uses, Hey, this blah, blah, with blah, blah, blah, blah.
He's like, I just got Derek here, his new car. Tell him what you got. And he's like,
I, and the one I showed her the other day was he paid $20,000 down 172 months.
What? At $1,200 a month for this wide body scat pack. And then there was one that was like 184
months. I was like, what? That's, I don't have the fingers. Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm going to do the
math right now. 64, five. That's like 15 years. I mean, it's a house thing. Yeah.
And they're putting thousands down and then paying thousands. That was like the most extreme
example. But the one I shared two or three of them, I was like, this is, these people are doing
84, 100 months, 100 something months at, you know, 78 $900 a month and five,
$10,000 down for cars that are, there was one that was like, I did the math on the truck
and the truck was he's going to end up paying $190,000 for this 2016 Silverado,
but it's lifted and got big wheels. So that's the end result of that payments.
And so also, and I don't want to believe where this point, but the 299 leases, if you freeze the
TV and you read the fine print, it's like, what? Extremely qualified buyers.
$6,000 down at 8,000 miles a year. Yeah. Yeah. 4,000 miles a year when accounting for fuel savings
over driving a vehicle with the corporate average fuel economy of 18 miles. Listen to him.
All right. Before we leave, one final thing, NASDAF, you're on the board. What's going on there?
We've got a new app coming out very, very soon. I think it's done. So everyone that
gripes about the D1 process of taking a, having to upload these documents and stuff,
it's streamlined into a phone app. The two factor authentication is all built into the
one single app. So one app instead of using a computer and a phone. And so it's going to
streamline the D1 process from three to six minutes, if you're slow, to maybe one to two minutes now.
Nice. And then we've got gateway access for Hyundai's Kia's where there was no gateway access before.
There's a for-profit corporation out there that does gateway access for Chrysler and Nissan.
And they're about $60 a year per make for those. NASDAF, we negotiated an extremely low rate of
free dollars and 90 free cents. That's free, 100% free. Just gets your free NASDAF account.
And then upload some documents stating that you are an automotive technician.
Once you do that, then you can access the Hyundai Kia gateway through their software
with no dollars to you at all. That's a good one that came out recently.
A lot of good stuff. I had fun talking to you guys. Thank you for sharing life with the Perkins
and what's going on in the business and bringing your passion to elevate our industry to be much
more professional. This is Perkins and Keith Perkins. Thanks for being here. Thank you. Thanks.
Thanks for being on board to listen and learn from the Premier Automotive Repair Business
podcast, Remarkable Results Radio. Get your episodic education on the ARPN listening app
at AutomotiveRepairPodcastNetwork.com. Also enjoy the podcast on our Carm Capriato YouTube channel.
Carm is all for advancing the professional automotive service industry. Until next time.
About this episode
Shops aren’t ignoring ADAS calibration because they don’t care—they’re getting squeezed by cost, logistics, and incentives. The hosts connect front-end work to sensor angle changes (“radar, LiDAR”) and argue camera-equipped vehicles require calibration. They explain why short, localized training can “crash and burn,” and why flat-rate pay can push technicians to chase the “completed button” instead of the full procedure. Customers also struggle to tell capability apart from marketing, while remote/mobile work shifts who does the technical heavy lifting.
Original notes
Thanks to our Partners, NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty
Watch Full Video Episode
Recorded live at the 2026 TST Big Event, host Carm Capriato sits down with shop owners and industry trainers Keith and Liz Perkins for a candid conversation about the evolving future of automotive repair. From the growing demand for private, hands-on training to the dangerous misconceptions surrounding vehicle calibrations, Keith and Liz share hard-earned insights from the front lines of the industry. They also pull back the curtain on how they successfully balance multiple businesses, a family farm, and life as entrepreneurial partners, all while staying deeply committed to technician development and industry advancement.
What You’ll Learn:
- Why more shop owners are bringing trainers directly into their facilities for personalized, hands-on education
- How the flat-rate pay system can unintentionally discourage accurate diagnostics and proper repairs
- The critical importance of vehicle calibrations and why skipping them creates major safety concerns
- A real-world story of how Keith and Liz challenged a dealership that failed to properly calibrate a vehicle after repairs
- How Keith’s mobile diagnostics team operates as the “Navy SEALs” of the automotive industry, tackling the most complex repair challenges
- The productivity systems, AI tools, and organizational habits that Keith and Liz use to manage multiple businesses and family responsibilities
- Their perspective on partnership, marriage, and entrepreneurship, including why success is rarely a perfect 50/50 split
- Updates from the NASTF board, including a new mobile app designed to simplify D1 security processes
This episode is a powerful reminder that professionalism in the automotive industry extends far beyond fixing vehicles. It requires continuous education, accountability, clear communication, and a commitment to doing the job correctly, even when it’s difficult or inconvenient. Keith and Liz Perkins demonstrate how technical excellence, strong systems, and true partnership can create lasting impact both inside and outside the shop.
TST Big Event: https://tstseminars.org/
Liz and Keith Perkins, Previous episode HERE.
L1 Automotive: https://www.l1diagnostics.com/
L1 Automotive Training: https://l1training.com/
Thanks to our Partner, NAPA TRACS NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Today's Class Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. Find Today's Class on the web at https://www.todaysclass.com/ Thanks to our Partner, KUKUI Stop juggling multiple marketing tools. KUKUI’s integrated platform delivers 4x better website conversions, automated follow-up, and real-time ROI tracking. Get industry-leading customer support with KUKUI at https://www.kukui.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Pit Crew Loyalty You’re probably tired of chasing new customers who never return. We understand. Pit Crew Loyalty ends the one-and-done cycle, turning first visits into lasting, reliable revenue at https://www.pitcrewloyalty.com/ Connect with the Podcast: ...
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