Women Who Drive Change: Entrepreneur Jesse Jackson of Mango Automotive
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Company
Mango Automotive
Mango Automotive is the company Jesse Jackson created. It uses software to help car repair shops manage their business and plan for what’s next.
Concept
automotive repair industry
This is just the business of fixing cars—like diagnosing problems and doing repairs at shops. The guest is talking about how her company fits into that world.
Concept
automotive repair shop owners were looking to retire
A lot of car repair shop owners are getting ready to stop working. When that happens, someone has to take over the business, and that’s where new help and planning can matter.
Concept
business side
The business side is how the shop runs day to day. It affects things like how they quote repairs, manage appointments, and keep customers updated.
Concept
user experience
User experience is basically how the whole repair process feels to you. It includes things like how they explain the problem, how fast they respond, and whether you feel informed the whole time.
Concept
employee experience
Employee experience is how the workplace treats and supports the people who do the work. When employees are supported, they’re more likely to stay and do better work.
Concept
turnover
Turnover means employees leaving their jobs. The speaker says it’s common for new repair shops to lose a lot of staff in the first year, which can hurt how smoothly the shop runs.
Concept
P&L
P&L means “profit and loss.” It’s a report that shows how much money the business made and spent, and whether it was profitable.
Concept
P&Ls
P&L means “profit and loss.” It’s a simple report that shows what money came in, what it cost, and whether the business actually made a profit. Knowing it helps you run the shop based on numbers, not guesses.
Concept
exit
An exit is when you sell your business and move on. They’re talking about shop owners selling for a bigger payout than they might expect.
Company
AAA
AAA is a company that helps you if your car breaks down or you get stuck on the road. They also offer insurance, so some people bundle services for extra convenience.
Term
22 inch wheels
Bigger wheels usually mean the tire sidewall is shorter. That can make the ride feel a bit firmer and the car look sportier.
Term
20 inch wheels
They’re talking about how wheel sizes used to be a big deal, and then became more common. Bigger wheels can change how the car rides and how it looks.
Term
third row legroom
They’re talking about how much room your legs have in the back seats. If there’s good legroom, the third row is actually usable for real trips.
Brand
Infiniti
Infiniti is a luxury car brand. It’s part of the same company as Nissan, and it often puts a lot of tech in the dashboard and safety systems.
Term
lane departure warning
This system watches your lane markings. If you start drifting without signaling, it warns you so you can correct it.
Term
speakers in the head restraints
Headrest speakers are audio drivers integrated into the seat/headrest area. They can improve clarity and localization of navigation prompts by directing sound toward the driver or passengers.
Car
Infiniti QX 80
The Infiniti QX 80 is a big luxury SUV. It’s meant to feel comfortable and upscale, and it can also tow a lot. The host is basically saying it’s a “big SUV” that still gets decent gas mileage for its size.
Concept
clean vehicle drain holes
Cleaning drain holes is a corrosion-prevention practice that removes dirt and sediment that can block water egress. The host ties it directly to rust forming above the rear wheel wells and in door bottoms where moisture gets trapped.
Term
spark plugs
Spark plugs help start combustion in the engine. If they get worn out, the car can run rough or feel less responsive.
Term
ABS light
That ABS light means the car thinks something is wrong with its anti-lock brakes. Your regular brakes still stop the car, but the anti-lock part may not work, so the wheels can lock up more easily.
Concept
roadside assistance
Roadside assistance refers to services provided when a vehicle can’t be driven safely or at all due to issues like breakdowns or being stuck. Many memberships also extend coverage to rental cars and sometimes other people’s vehicles.
Part
brake pads
Brake pads are the parts that squeeze against the spinning brake disc to slow your car. If they wear out, braking gets less effective and can start making noise.
Company
Power Stop
Power Stop makes aftermarket brake parts. Here, the speaker is sharing their experience with Power Stop pads and rotors and how they turned out after installation.
Company
RockAuto
RockAuto is a website where you can buy car parts and compare different brands. The speaker is using it to check prices and see what other customers say.
Brand
AutoZone
AutoZone is a store where you can buy car parts like brakes. The point here is that the speaker prefers well-known brake brands over cheaper store brands.
Part
brake rotors
Brake rotors are the metal discs the brake pads press on to stop the car. The speaker explains that rotor service used to be expensive, but now replacement is more common.
Concept
resurface them
Resurfacing brake rotors means machining the rotor surface to remove rust, grooves, and thickness variation so the pads can contact evenly again. The speaker contrasts past labor-heavy practices with today’s lower rotor prices that make replacement more practical.
Term
labor rates
Labor rates are what the shop charges per hour for the work. Two shops can charge very different hourly rates, so the same repair can cost a lot more or less.
LIVE
W-A-T-D presents John Paul, the car doctor. All things automotive. Have
questions? Call or text 7-8-1-837-4900. Now, here's John Paul, the car doctor.
And good Sunday morning everyone and welcome to another edition of the Car
Doctor program on 959 W-A-T-D. My name is John Paul, the car doctor here to help
you with your car problems and you probably noticed Jesse and I and
Bethany builders were not here last week because there was local sports in our
place and we're back. Jesse's back. We'll have to talk to Jesse a little bit later
too because he was in... where were you? Scotland? Ireland? Where were you? Some
place? Not Ireland. I was in Scotland, went down to England and finished off the
trip in Wales. So all over the island of Great Britain there. There we go.
All right, we'll talk about that a little bit later. Right now with us is
Jesse Jackson. She started a company called Mango Automotive and not that
many years ago and turned it into a... quite the business. Jesse, good morning and
welcome to the car doctor program. Good morning. Thank you. You confused me with
that other Jesse on. Yeah, I know. I know. We have Jesse's everywhere today. So let's
start by a little bit of background about you and the business that you're
currently in. Tell us a little bit about that. Sure. I came out of software and I
happened to stumble upon an automotive software so I got to learn a ton about
the automotive repair industry and I saw a huge opportunity at the time six out
of 10 automotive repair shop owners were looking to retire within the next 10
years. So there was going to be a huge transfer of shops and wealth within the
industry. So I decided to jump in and start talking to owners in my area in
Albuquerque and explore how I might help them retire. So the process... I need to
collect my thoughts here for a minute. I've been to what should be good
restaurants that were run by chefs and they don't always do that well and I've
been to repair shops that should do really well run by people that have been
in the trade for a long time and they don't always do that well running the
business side of what they do. They may be fantastic mechanics and can fix
anything but sometimes the business is not what they're that skilled at. So it
sounds like you're bringing kind of that to the table as well. Yes, I would say my
when I was in software I was focused on the user experience so as I've moved
into Berkin Mortar Automotive I'm also focused on the user experience. My
business partner Brian has been an automotive repair his entire life so
often our conversations are me saying why do we do it that way and Brian saying
that the way it's done in the industry and me saying okay is that the best way
how should we reevaluate that what could it look like that would be a better user
experience for our customers. Now is it just a user experience with your
customers or is it also sort of a better user experience with your employees as
well? Yeah of course our employees are the most valuable part of our company so
we try to raise the bar there as well. What's interesting that I found in the
automotive industry is this is a 150 year old industry so raising the customer
experience and the employee experience bar is pretty straightforward. So when we
started Mango I was lucky to find my business partner Brian and when we
talked to shop owners we said we never yell. We offer benefits, we bonus well
and turns out that those three very basic things are not standard across the
automotive repair shop after market industry. I know I was asked to go look
at a couple of repair shops one time for my employer and one of the things I
found out was in a lot of cases when a new shop opens up probably for all the
reasons that you have made changes there's something like a hundred percent
turnover in the first year and then after that the business itself tends to
be in that 40 to 50 percent turnover rate. Are you doing what you do to try to
also control that turnover rate? Do you by turnover rate do you mean with employees?
Yes. Yeah of course because when we buy an automotive repair shop the most
valuable part of the automotive repair shop is the employees that are working
there. So we care about them, we invest in them, we invest in their education, we
try to do right by them. I mean I think as shop owners we think a lot about our
employees and what is good for them and sure they're more likely to stick
around if you treat them right but that's the basics right? You would think
you would think it is but sometimes it doesn't seem to work that way and how
important are things like Yelp and Google reviews to business? Okay so I know
that you're on the East Coast and I think that Yelp is very dependent in the
automotive repair industry on your location. So we're in the Southwest and
Yelp is not a big factor for us. In fact we have ran Yelp ads and sort of worked
the Yelp circuit and saw really no additional customer flow come into our
shop but Google reviews you better bet that those are super important for the
customers that are coming in and they should be. It's you know we want to do
right also by our customers and have that kind of reputation and we we want
our customers to leave good reviews of course but leave honest reviews because
our industry has a history of not being honest and I think it's time to raise
that bar and Google reviews help with that. You went from software to
automotive. That's a pretty big jump. You must have amazing confidence. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
I have found in the journey of my career that the person that I was when I said I was going to start Mango is not the person that I am now or that I
needed to be to run these eight shops. So sometimes when and I coach a lot I coach
other people on acquiring businesses and what I found is that when people get
ready to set themselves a big audacious goal they feel a sense of disconnect
from they realize that saying I'm going to build this empire that they are not
prepared to run that empire and that that makes us scared to speak the goal
and to execute it but none of us are who we need to be to accomplish our future
goals. We just have to be willing to put the wheels on while we're driving the
car down the road and if you're you know someone struggling with that you a
perfect example is parenthood. I have seven kids and something I know is
before my first one was born I had no idea what I was getting into and I
certainly didn't have the skills that I needed to have seven kids right but you
built those along the way. The same is true in your career. It sounds like you
know looking at what you do it sounds like you're doing two different
things. You're acquiring businesses but you're also helping business owners try
to maximize their business or if they want to get out of the business to try
to get the most value out of their business at the same time. Did I
read that correctly? Yeah that's right we help other auto shop owners elevate
their businesses as well and we just have a policy that a rising tide raises
all ships and that we really want to make a difference in our little corner of
the universe which is automotive repair and we want things to be done the right
way in this space so we try to be a part of of helping automotive repair shop
owners whether they're ready to sell and retire or whether they're trying to
figure out how to make enough profit to keep going whatever their struggles we
try to come alongside them and and work through it with them. One of the things
that it seems like you try to help shop owners somebody who owns one repair shop
and wants to open a second or a third and like I said at the very beginning
sometimes the person who owns the repair shop fantastic mechanic maybe not the
best in business how do you help them go from being the shop owner and head
mechanic to somebody who has to sort of bounce between three or four or in your
case seven repair shops or eight. It's hard to put your finger on it's always changing but we're at eight right now. I think the key like any business is to put in the correct staff and the
correct processes and procedures and so we actually give our coaching clients these
processes and procedures and help them focus on we have what we call the six
non endoscibles and when you get down to it the the process of running an
automotive repair shop is simple it just needs to be executed over and over and
over again and you have to be willing to talk to your team about those processes
over and over and over again and we call it the mango way but the way that you
want it to be done so we we take what we've learned in growing from zero to
eight shops and we hand those as you can call methods but whatever you know those
processes and procedures over to other shop owners and then we hold them
accountable to implementing them. Sometimes we all need a little nudge. Mango is kind of
an interesting name for a repair shop but it's part of the whole branding you
know rather than you know Ken's auto repair or something mango automotive how
did how did that come up? We were throwing around names for the business and
that I think my sister had suggested mango and I was looking for something you
know just as you said Ken's automotive either it's named after the owner or it's
some automotive pun right wrench works automotive and as I looked at those
brands it and I was interfacing with shop I realized it's hard to remember if
I'm talking to pinnacle automotive or mountain care automotive so I wanted
something that stuck out like a sore thumb and when I proposed mango my
business partner hated it my mother-in-law hated it everyone said no that is an
awful name but what I noticed is you might hate it but you'll never forget it
so it's quite sticky and we've been able to build a brand around the idea of
mango we have Mia mango so a little character and she interfaces with our
customers and anyone who comes to mango does not get confused and think that
they've gone to J&J Automobus. Now this journey of yours has only been a few
years in the making right? Yeah we're four years and you grew this from one shop
to eight pretty quickly what was the how did how were you able to do that so
quickly and I guess also have the I don't know if it's the the nerve to be able to
to build that quickly how did you make it all work because I've you know over
the years people have offered me you know repair shops and I've never worked
on my own so it's it's something I've never done I've never had the nerve to
be able to do that now you went from zero to eight in just four years was it
the partnership the business relationship you had how how what what in
your kind of in your head made it all decided you wanted to click to to push
you over the finish line to get it done or was it looking back there was a
cliff so you had to either go over the cliff or to the finish line what what
was the push that made it all happen you know perhaps it's my tendency to just
press forward when other people might stop and analyze the decision ahead so
maybe you could refer to that as just being dumb and perhaps it was my lack of
knowledge of really understanding that I didn't yet have what it would take to
be the leader I needed to be but I think at the end of the day before you can do
it you have to think it so eight shops is my my goal was more than that and
we're still going but I think a lot of you know shop owners or business owners
or entrepreneurs or even if you're in your career you're sort of so focused on
what you're doing day-to-day and you that that distracts you from even
envisioning the possibility of growing like a lot of shop owners when I talk
to them the idea of going from one shop to eight shops they think I can't even
handle my one shop how am I gonna do eight so when you grow your business so
what you have to be able to do is let go of tasks that you used to do so there
was a time when I thought when I was running all of the digital ads for
mango and I couldn't continue to do that and grow at this speed right there was a
time when my business partner and I we were HR we were payroll we were finance
we paid all the bills we we did everything and we had to let go of some
of those tasks and hire someone who is better at the task than we were which
is sometimes hard to let go sometimes you think you're the best find someone
that's better at it than you so that you can focus on growth because focusing on
vision and growth is really its own set of tasks and that's why we have CEO so
you sort of you've got to extract yourself from the job that you know and
are comfortable with and be willing to be uncomfortable maybe that is my
superpower I'm I'm just never afraid to be uncomfortable yeah that that's
absolutely it I think I you know I remember talking to someone years ago
when they were talking about hiring people and and sometimes the person who
is doing the hiring is afraid to hire that kind of a person because they're
afraid they're going to be smarter than them and in my mind it's always like I
always want to hire somebody that's smarter than me because the smarter
people you know everybody kind of rises to that highest level if you hire a
bunch of you know see your B people the best you're going to get is and is more
see your B people but if you hire an A person you're going to get everybody's
going to try to come up to that same level so you know hiring the smartest
person the best person you can seems to seems always to make sense for me if I
was owning a repair shop and I was in your area and I was thinking of getting
out of the business what would you tell me I should do to try to get the try to
get the most from my business well first of all you should call us no I think
when you are selling your business the buyer is going to look at your piano so
your your financial statements are something that you might you know a lot
of us run our businesses based on how much cash is in our bank account which
is not always super directly connected with what's on our P&L so a focus on
what that P&L looks like because if you have an entertainment profit and you're
going to sell your business you know for three acts and you're going to get 1.5
million if you can eke out another hundred K in profit that's another
three hundred thousand dollars every three hundred thousand dollars help as a
wife to say so it really is a focus on that P&L and then something else this is
a hard thing to do but something that makes your business more valuable by
buyers is you being less involved so because then when you sell it we don't
have a big hole to replace so if you're the shop owner and you're answering all
the calls and the customers only want to talk with you and you are solving the
highest hardest diagnostic problem this is a very difficult shop to sell
although perhaps that's what puts the most income in your pocket because you
haven't had to hire those rules that you're you want to leave your shop when
you sell it so a buyer is very challenged now the buyer has to replace you
but they've got to replace in front of the house staff they have to hire the
best a mechanic so I thought I see those shops and it's hard for me to acquire
them and I know a lot of times they end up just closing their doors because the
shop is so reliant on the owner have you been to any shops where you know
they're considering closing or selling out and I'm going to go back to a story
I heard from a local car dealer in the Boston area Herb Chambers when he first
looked at his first dealership the owner of the dealership actually had no idea
how much money they made or how much they had in fact they thought they were
making an extra and making up the number now you know half a million a year but
in fact they actually took out a loan a couple years before that and that was
actually what was keeping the place afloat have you found repair shops that
just have no idea what's going on in their bank account yes a lot of smallish
repair shops that are doing around a million a year really are disconnected
from the financial side and maybe that's because they grew up on the
technician piece and they're trying to keep keep the business afloat but when
I mentioned you know a repair shop owner being disconnected from their
financials or the P&Ls I think that it's very common for that to happen and you
just have to reconnect to be in in charge of your business and it's a value
in itself hmm if you know over this four or five year journey of you know
starting this you know eight location company and you know making it scale up
both business-wise and profit-wise if you had to look back at you know maybe
mistakes or risks or things you did is there like one or two things that you
wish everybody who wanted to go out on their own you know learned and you know
what would they say everything everything you know in life you learn in
kindergarten is there like one or two things that you could say I wish they
taught that in kindergarten because it would help every entrepreneur out there
I would say the biggest thing is and the biggest lesson I ever learned every
kindergartner knows but we forget when we become adults if you are a business
owner or an entrepreneur or even in your life you are only limited by your
creativity I think a lot of times we get stuck in the way that business should
be done the way that acquisition should be done and I don't have x so there's no
way that I can do why well do you really have to have x to do why or is that
just a limiting belief that you have and if we if we are willing to think
creatively like when I'm working with shop owners all we're trying to do is I
know the realm of what would work for me but my goal is to understand the realm
of what would work for that shop owner whether we're coaching them or doing
doing an acquisition and all we have to find is a little sliver of overlap if
that exists we can work together if it doesn't exist we can be friends and
have coffee but if I have so limited my circle that I because I don't know how
to think creatively about business then it really hinders our ability to work
with shop owners or do acquisitions or do deals so think creatively about your
business and your life and dream of what you want it to be and then you can
figure out how to get there if people want to find more information like you
said you're on the you're you're in the Arizona area and that's where you're
expanding but this program also becomes a podcast so it can be heard anywhere and
it's heard online anywhere as it is if people want to find out more information
either as to work with you possibly as an investor or maybe they're a shop owner
that either needs some help or wants to get out of the business do you have a
website where they can kind of help and work work together and find out more
information about you and mango automotive sure we have a few various
websites depending on what you're interested in so I'm going to actually
give an email and a phone number okay so if you want to email me personally my
email is jesse.com and then if you are interested in selling your shop or
being part of a larger exit and we didn't really have a chance to talk about
this John Paul but right now we have an opportunity for shop owners to exit for
a much larger multiple so where they might be getting a 3x now get a 10x
upon exit if you're interested in selling your shop and you're in the
southwest or just having a much larger exit and you're anywhere in the US you
can call our VP of business development his name's Kevin and his phone number
is 505-441-4779 give out that one more give out that one more time sure it's
505-441-4779 and feel free to just text him the the car doctor if you're
thinking of it just shoot him a text right now and he'll get back to you
guys can engage in a conversation but don't let it sit that's been the key to
my success just keep going and do the action this is a 12-second action so do
it now don't put it on your to-do list and let it waste away well Jesse I want
to thank you for taking your time out of your day and joining us at 8 30 in the
morning your time on a Sunday morning and on what I guess is the second day of
spring as well so thank you for taking time to do that and fascinating the idea
behind all this and how it all worked just a lot of fun to hear and always
great to hear from successful smart people and you're all of that thank you
so much have a great day you as well take care bye bye that was Jesse Jackson
owner of Mango Automotive you can check out their website it's mango
automotive.com if you're a repair shop owner and you're looking at their
website you know they have a really good looking waiting room and their shop
looks really clean and they're doing this and they're doing that kind of you
know there's a lot of a lot of ideas you can take out of this as well and you
know if you're thinking about you know leaving the business sounds like she can
help you with that as well we need to take a break pay some bills it's about
11 30 when we come back we're going to talk about the car that got me around
last week and that is the Infinity Qx80 if you're listening on the podcast kind
of a rerun of that because we did a little special podcast review of it but
we'll do the live one coming back in just a couple minutes you're listening the
car doc program on 95 9 WATD we'll be right back even car geeks and do it
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Twilight Showcase Radio hosted by Sandy Stride and Keith James visit Twilight
Showcase.org Twilight Showcase tonight from 8 to 10 on 95 9 WATD honored with a
lifetime achievement award from the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration he's John Paul the car doctor on 95 9 WATD and welcome back to
program on 95 9 WATD the car that got me around was the Infinity QX 80 that's
their big SUV this happened to be the sport trim I believe the Xfinity Xfinity
Infinity keep getting messages from Xfinity that could be why the Infinity
QX 80 comes in a pure luxe sport and autograph I've driven the autograph one
before but this was a sport trim this sits just below the autograph price wise
it's expensive it's a hundred and four thousand dollars it's powered by a V6
engine the V8 engine that was in previous models has gone it's powered by a
3.5 liter twin turbocharged V6 it makes 450 horsepower and 516 foot pounds of
torque that's probably 50 more horsepower than the VA it replaced it's
actually and the transmission is a nine speed automatic matches the engine
performance perfectly this thing you know for a big heavy SUV SUV this does a
really good job this moves along really well but I think it's the sport trim it's
kind of the sport trim doesn't add additional horsepower or suspension
tuning it's just different it's a more aggressive appearance the grills a
little bit unique it's kind of this darker exterior trim inside it's got
traditional luxury you know looks to it you know materials and so forth it's
running on 22 inch wheels which I remember when 20 inch wheels were like a
big deal if you had 20 inch wheels it was it was wow you're running 20s and I
was seeing cars with 20 22 24 inch wheels becoming kind of standard on some
of these up level models so I think the sport term in this vehicle really has
to do more with the way it looks other than you know is it going to be is it
going to handle any different than the luxe version no it's all the same but
you do get you know it's a different theme the inside of it's kind of unique
it's a blue and black leather combination which really looks it takes a
minute to really realize what it is and I'm one of these people that's never
been really color focused I guess would be a good way to say it I'll look at
something somebody will say oh that's an interesting color car interesting
color what and they'll say what color is them like I don't know didn't the color
doesn't sink into me but when I looked at this all of a sudden you see this kind
of blue and black leather combination and it really looks good plus is you know
the accents inside there look good the wood trim and all that stuff it has three
rows of seats it can seat six with pretty good comfort all the way around even in
the third row there's pretty good legroom and the seats feel pretty
supportive I drove this drove this particular vehicle back and forth to
the airport a couple times because my sister-in-law was here visiting and we
took her to the airport dropped her off came back home found out her flight
could cancel at like five hours later went back picked her up brought her back
then two days later brought her back to the airport so where I don't typically do
a lot of highway driving I always go out on the highway to see how cars perform
on the highway but I don't do a lot of highway driving those is all highway
driving it seemed like so and good car for that technology
Infiniti's got a lot of technology in this the dashboard is you know get these
big displays digital gauge clusters all kinds of lover-to-hate it lane departure
warning lane departure correction you can turn some of the systems on and off
if you want lane departure warning so if you drift out of the lane it vibrates
the seat or put a little tug on the steering wheel lane departure correction
keep you from changing lanes unless you're using your turn signal so it will
kind of fight you back on that people either lover-to-hate it I remember
talking to somebody who had a new Chevy suburban and they thought there was
something wrong with the steering we went out for a ride and I saw all the
and he shows me go well it won't let me change lanes I'm like try using your
turn signal oh that fixed the problem so no problem but and it does have
Infiniti's version of semi-autonomous driving which works okay they're not
there yet the last vehicle I drove the GMC I think had a little bit better
version of that I have never driven I've been in a Tesla with what is supposed
to be full self-driving mode and it seemed pretty good what Tesla doesn't do
is it doesn't watch the driver so I think the GM system actually works better
than all of them because it relies more on safety like I said a lot of
technology in this and if you're somebody who likes sound systems this
thing had I'm not sure how to pronounce it KLIP SCH clip six audio system lots of
speakers what I liked about it to the navigation system there's a there's
speakers in the head restraints and the navigation system sound actually comes
through the speaker in the driver's head restraints so you're able to kind of
process that a little bit better just clips clips are you an audio file some
people say I know a thing or two about audio well is clips a good audio system
that I don't know I haven't actually looked into it I just know clips it's
like a I think it's a German German word but yeah keepsh that's how they
said well fortunately I know how to say Bose you do I do it's one of the things
I love about you but you know overall you know it feels composed it's
comfortable it's it rides well like I said the sport trim ultimately just
offers a slightly different take on luxury just a little bit better design
if you're looking for a luxurious big SUV and this is big if you're looking for
luxurious big SUV take a look at this fuel economy is surprisingly good I've
been averaging because of all the highway driving around 24 miles per gallon
so actually pretty respectable for something that has 450 horsepower and
can tow 8,000 pounds so there you go there's a review of the QX 80 by
infinity if you would like to join us all you have to do is pick up the phone
gifts call it 7818374900 and we'll talk to you and see what's on your mind about
cars and car stuff and other things so right now I believe the phone lines are
open and you can join us to 7818374900 couple things couple questions that
came in this week I and somebody said to me they they they hope they weren't
being too pushy because they wanted an answer right away and they emailed me
no I try to I try to answer usually within 24 hours so if you don't get a
response if you send me an email at J Paul at AAANortheast.com and you
don't hear back from me in like 24 hours email me again because we have at work
we have a pretty strong spam filter and sometimes questions will end up in the
spam filter it must just be the way they're worded or captioned or even
emails if you're trying to email me from outside of the US you can usually do it
through like outlook or Gmail if you're using some other email specific to where
you live might not work because it'll probably get caught because it knows it's
coming from outside of the US and at work they go why are you talking to people
outside of the United States well there you go this person has a 2008 Dodge Ram
quad cab and he says the bottom of all four doors are rusting away also above
the rear wheel wells so what would be the reason for this I drive around and
walk around I notice most Dodge Ram trucks of this error and body have the
same rust well in the doors it happens because water collects you you know when
you look at vehicles you know look at your own car you know the the window
closes but there's a rubber door seal and the rubber door seal is not perfectly
watertight so water runs in through the door and out and exits out through the
drain holes in the bottom and when water and moisture accumulate in there that's
what causes rust and chances are over the years and this vehicle is 18 years old
now it's probably dirt and sediment and junk that is built up inside the door
and it's not letting the doors drain the way they should in fact I think I was
looking at a Mercedes service information and it was it actually in the
like 30,000 mile service it said clean vehicle drain holes so they need to be
done and you know a couple weeks ago we had Ken Lemoine on from wax oil talking
about rust preventative and they actually have a product where you can spray
inside the doors and it's very thin so it doesn't clog up any drain holes so you
know it helps prevent rust and I want to thank him also he talked about his
podcast behind the garage door and he had me on that the other night so if
you're if you're a follower of his podcast you can you can learn all about
that so yeah so keeping the keeping the drains open will help you know the rust
that's above the rear wheel wells same thing stuff accumulates in there rust
rust forms wherever there's moisture so you know if there's mud that accumulates
in there things like that that's where the problem is going to be so clean it up
and take care of it is the best you can do this person says my wife owns a 2016
Chevy equinox she leased it and then brought the car then bought the car when
the lease ended at 85,000 miles we replaced the spark plugs drain the
radiator flushed it along with replacing the refrigerant for the air conditioning
I don't know why we would do that but they did the belts and coolant hoses are
fine at this current time my question is at the next maintenance should we have
the timing belt replaced any other ideas of other maintenance I should do to my
wife's car I do keep a close eye on things and change the oil every 3,000
miles well you didn't mention what engines in it but it really doesn't matter
both the four-cylinder six-cylinder engines have timing chains not belts so
as long as you're doing these routine oil changes and there's no inherent issue
with the timing chains like guides that are subject to break and things like
that the timing change should last the life of the engine there shouldn't be any
reason to change it I would just follow the regular maintenance filters
lubrication things like that if you haven't done it yet the four-wheel drive
system replaced the transfer case fluid changing oil at 3,000 miles is typical
of kind of severe service schedule you could probably stretch it out a bit the
factory recommendation is 7500 miles can't hurt to change it early but
certainly something that you can maybe stretch a little bit depending on how
much she actually drives the car or you drive the car we'll do one more here and
then take a break I have a 2009 Volkswagen Jetta Sport wagon I purchased it
new and it only has 21,000 miles on it well you don't drive it much do you the
brakes are working fine my mechanic said the the ABS warning light is on because
there's a problem with the ABS module but he said it can be repaired he's
suggesting replacing the electrical portion rather than buying a new unit
what are your thoughts he's right when the ABS light is on the brakes will
function normally just without the anti-lock brake function so if you got
going at 50 miles an hour jammed on the brakes the wheels would lock up like
they did in you know 1999 not 2009 so I think what they may be suggesting is
sending the module out to be repaired so sending it to a company like UpFix or
one of those companies where they take it down to the semiconductor level and
work on it and see what's wrong with it you know maybe there's a part of a board
that went bad that they can they can the printed circuit can be repaired maybe
there's transistor resistor whatever in there there's bad and they can check it
out and see what's wrong with it and rather than replace it with a new unit
and that's you know what I have seen with parts lately there are so many
terrible parts out there replacement parts that just don't work the way
they're supposed to and it actually fools a lot of good technicians because you
know the person will come in and they have a new oxygen sensor and it's not
the car is not running the way it should and it's really that aftermarket
oxygen sensor that is causing a problem or even sometimes that factory one
that's causing a problem so the idea of repairing what worked good since 2009
might make more sense the one thing I will say though ABS modules are on
Volkswagen so pretty solid units and not something gets replaced very often now
maybe the repair shop has gone through it all but what I see when an ABS light
comes on more often than not it has to do with an ABS wheel sensor or wiring not
the module itself sometimes it can even be related to vacuum lines I remember my
wife's old Volkswagen had an ABS light that came on and it actually was a
vacuum line that broke that turned light on so so not that why don't we take a
break my name is John Paul this is a car doctor program you're listening on 959
WATD give us a call at 781-837-4900 phone lines are open love to talk to you we'll
be right back even car geeks and do-it-yourselfers rely on AAA to give
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we'll do this Sunday evening at eight o'clock here at WATD I'm Joan or and
I'll be featuring fabulous females this Sunday between eight and nine here at
959 WATD make an appointment Sunday morning at 11 for John Paul the car
doctor on 959 WATD now back to the car doctor and welcome back to the car doctor
program we're off we're offline we talk about Jesse's pizza business and
whether he spins pizzas over his head or not which he doesn't so I'm still
waiting for him to send me a pizza here don't know how that would work but still
waiting I have to freeze it you would have to put it in dry ice and send it
like it was that Omaha beef stuff that could be a really cool presentation it
would be yes it would let's talk to we have a pair of Tom's let's talk to our
first time Tom good morning this one is Tom in Pembroke Tom and in Pembroke hey
John how are you good how are you all right just to get back to the pizza
discussion is there any place left that still makes the pizzas you know the old
fashion way throwing them up in the air and it seems now they just throw them
they buy them frozen and throw them in the oven no not everybody does that no
there are some there are some there are some show-offs out there that's been a
pizza every once in a while there's almost no excuse for a pizza place to
buy dough frozen that means there you go you didn't feel like infesting in a
dough mixer which are expensive I get it but still it's like dough is so cheap to
make still just I don't even mean just the dough I mean an entire pie frozen and
they throw it in the oven oh that that is criminal and they belong in jail yeah
there's a lot of places there you go there's the answer put them in jail yeah
yeah okay and look at that getting back to auto parts mm-hmm do you know why
there's such a huge price discrepancy and I was looking at break pads you know
you can get the whole kit now for like 200 bucks the road has everything for
each axle and I'm talking brand-name you know Ray best is Akabono all of them is
there I mean is there a difference I'm there that can be I mean there there is
some garbagey parts out there but if you're buying you know I Ray best those
and Wagner you know they were always to go to names years ago you don't hear as
much from them anymore Akabono is all of a sudden that's a highlight everybody
everybody's you know for at least domestic and Asian imports Akabono seems
to be the the one everybody likes to use and has really good luck with them I
put power stop pads and rotors on my vehicle I wasn't quite there needing
brakes yet but I did them early and power stop brand I saw mixed results in
the reviews you know when I was looking on rock auto in places like that and I'm
like I'm like I don't know how good these really I've been I've been happy it came
they came with the pads came with the hardware the rotors look good and I got
the rust resistant rotors and you know they're now a year later they get a
little fine maybe just a little brownish tinge to them that comes right off right
away I'm I had pretty good luck with them with the power stop brand but if I
was if I was just out to buy a set of brake pads yeah I would still I'd
probably stay away from most of the and I'm kind of picking on them a little bit
you know the AutoZone or Riley's kind of their store brand whatever it is and I
want to go with something a name brand like Akebono or or Ray Bastos or
something like that yeah there's really no price difference in any of them yeah
no no and yeah I I remember years ago and this is more than 25 years ago I
could actually buy a set of brake pads and brake rotors for like your typical
front-wheel drive at the time you know Buick Century Chevy Celebrity something
like that I could buy the pads and rotors for $25 wow and they were absolute
garbage yeah but they weren't I mean they you know they were brand new they were
shiny you know they probably didn't last very long and they were every used car
dealers dream because it throw a set of rotors and pads on a car and say well
you know those cars got brand new brakes on it yeah were they any were they
any good no they were but they were fine to make a car that didn't have brakes
have brakes so but yeah I think when it comes to something important like
stopping I kind of want to use a decent brand name yeah and you remember even
further back when rotors were a fortune hundreds of dollars it was it was very
rare to replace them yeah yeah no and yeah and I mean and back then you know
and same thing with brake drums they were all oversized you know you were
putting you know brake drums on that you could you know take 60 80 90 thousands
often still be within the limit brake rotors same thing you could you could
you know cut brake rotors you know every you know every shop had an Amco
brake late and they were always cut and break rotors and today you know the
labor it would take to put it up on the lathe and and resurface them clean them
all up take all the rust off and do all that stuff the price of rotors has come
way down so it does make sense today to do pads and rotors together you might
and maybe even your first break job at 40,000 or 50,000 maybe you can just do
pads and then the second break job you do the pads and rotors together so yeah
you might do the whole thing might as well that's a huge discrepancy on labor
too I had a I know a guy that does it 80 dollars per axle but you go to a deal
with 600 dollars yeah no yeah no that way I I have seen labor rates now from
people right to me as high as 270 dollars an hour oh my god yeah I would
think it's even more a break job how much how long is the brake job an hour
and they charge $400 yeah yeah no it's no it's crazy yeah crazy yeah all right
good to hear from you all right thanks a lot all right and good comment on the
pizza too nobody nobody no restaurant should serve a frozen previously frozen
pizza that they buy out of a box terrible we're going back to another
Tom right yeah we have Tom and Waymouth if we have time we'll jump to Kevin and
Quincy we only do Tom's today yep Tom's and Jesse's yeah yeah exactly all right
Tom yes hi John quick question very quick on inspection sixes I have a
second vehicle I never drive it never drive it I mean that so I would do for
inspection sticker in January but I couldn't do it because I something's
wrong with I need to work on it you know yeah three feet of snow around it now
that so I got I just got something from the registry something about you didn't
get your inspection sick could they issue a ticket what when you're not driving it
I just you know I mean if you if you fixed it and you went out on the road you
would get a ticket and it's actually a depends on the police or whatever but
it's actually a moving violation so it's a surchargeable ticket and the old
days of you know you go get an inspection today or May or June or whatever
and your stick is going to go back to January again and you might go well I'm
never taking this car out in January so and the answer to that is either you can
you can get a form from the from the RV that says I'm not driving my vehicle and
you can fill it all out there is a form online for that if you go to the RV
website but the other the other thing is you know to fix that is you end up
getting it inspected twice you do it you know you do it when you do it and then
you do it again in June or July so you go well at least I know when it comes up
again that I'll be able to do it while the weather is nice you know maybe it's
a car you don't drive it bad weather so yeah also I'll add that if you're parked
on a street and your inspection sticker is bad I think you can also get a ticket
for that yeah yeah so yeah it's just sitting there I have another car drive
all the time it's just here and I'm not going to work until it's warm up so I
can't get a ticket then unless I'm out in the road with you right right yeah but
you do but you do get that notice that says we're going to cancel your
registration because you didn't get the car inspected right yeah okay but there
is a form that's what I was there is a form there is a form because the car that
we keep at the north house the old old Volkswagen that we have it gets inspected
in March or April or something and I got the form because you know we're not
there what ends up happening my wife goes home to visit her family and she
ends up taking the car to get inspected so we come pretty close to not having
it expired but but yeah you there is a form you can get because I asked the
the inspection the inspection folks all about oh okay great thank you very much
all right that Kevin all right take care about 30 seconds here to talk to Kevin
30 seconds Kevin can you can you come up with a question oh you start to I just
put a battery in I have a 21 F 150 with all the bells and whistles I upgraded
from the H6 AGM to H7 and the YouTube man says the flash the high beams five
times three times in the break to reset the battery management system I was
wondering if that sounded kind of correct to you no it sounds silly yeah yeah no
I I think it's just I think if you just drove it normally it would have reset
itself and everything would have been fine but yeah the right way to do it is
you actually have a battery reset tool and it just tells you just tells the
trucks computer that's got a new battery that's all okay
there you go all right thanks all right thanks Kevin take care well that music
means we need to go we didn't get to talk to Jesse about his trip all around
Scotland next week we'll do that so until next week make sure you're where you
seatbelt drive safely be good to your car if you do see an emergency vehicle
by the side of the road slow down or move over it saves lives talk to y'all next
week bye bye
About this episode
Jesse Jackson of Mango Automotive joins John Paul to discuss building an auto-repair business from software roots, scaling to eight shops in four years, and why customer and employee experience matter. They cover hiring and retention (no yelling, benefits, bonuses), the role of Google vs. Yelp reviews, and how Mango coaches shop owners using repeatable processes. Jesse also shares exit/sale advice: buyers value clean P&Ls and reduced owner dependency. The rest of the show includes a QX80 review, rust causes on older trucks, ABS module troubleshooting, brake-part pricing, and inspection-sticker rules for rarely driven cars.
Original notes
In this episode we talk with Jesse Jackson of Mango Automotive who started in the repair industry less than four years ago and now has eight locations producing an 8 figure income. Listen and learn. We also review the 2026 Infiniti QX80 Sport and answer our listener questions. BTW the question about Ford battery, the listener information seemed correct, but you could also just let the truck sit for 8 hours and problem solved
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