Why Long Car Loans Are Changing Auto Repair

00:00 That part of the landscape shifted due to the economy. Five years ago when they bought that car and they set it out for eight years, they didn't think about the last three years when that car starts needing money. So, you know, I always say mileage doesn't kill cars, neglect does. 00:17 Welcome to the Gain Traction podcast, the official podcast for tire business.

I am Mike Edge, your host, and I have the privilege of interviewing the tire dealers, shop owners, counter sales reps, technicians, industry executives and other thought leaders of our industry. This episode is brought to you by Tread Partners. Tread Partners is the leading digital marketing agency that specializes in digital marketing for multi location tire and auto repair shops. Tread Partners works with clients that have hundreds of locations, down to five locations.

Get a professional, unbiased opinion and let Tread Partners review what you're doing. It starts with a simple conversation. To contact Tread Partners, visit treadpartners.com so let's get started.

Hey folks, welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast, the official podcast for tire business. 01:02 My guest today is Tim Sat Cabo, owner and president of two Trail Tire stores in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and Hoosier Tire Western Canada. Tim, welcome back to the Gain Traction podcast. 01:14 Happy to be back, Mike.

Always, always a good conversation with you. 01:18 Well, you and I met, I just realized this before we got on today. We met about a year ago this time up in Canada. 01:26 Yeah, right about this time.

01:27 You bet it was. And were at Lake Louise. 01:30 Lake Louise, you bet. And I set a calendar reminder that if I hadn't talked to you by now, to reach out to you and have another great conversation.

So sometimes planning ahead works. 01:41 Well, I'm glad you reached out because you reached out, I think somewhere like early January, maybe even December, and you had an idea of what you wanted to talk about that's affecting Canada and dealers there. But I, I suspect it's affecting us all over the place. But I, I think you're feeling maybe more of an initial brunt of it and so we'll talk about that.

But to give our audience a little perspective of who you are and, you know, how you got in the business, let's talk about real quick. Where'd you grow up? 02:10 I grew up in Vancouver, Canada, so Vancouver, British Columbia, in the lower mainland. Grew up working at my dad's shop after school, working on cars and hitting the racetrack on the weekends.

02:23 Nice. So did you always know you wanted to be in the business of auto repair? 02:28 You know, I, I think I'm of the last generation where you didn't have a choice. You know, my dad was a mechanic.

His brother. His brother, you know, so it. 02:38 Was just in your blood? 02:40 It's in my blood.

As soon as I could hold a wrench, I could. 02:42 Yeah. 02:43 So it's one of those. It's been in my blood for so long, I wouldn't know how to do anything else.

02:49 That's a, I really think that's a beautiful thing. I, I'm jealous of that. I think you just knew. I mean, you didn't, it wasn't like you even thought about, like, what else am I going to do?

You were just born with the wrench in your hand. 03:00 Yeah. You know what? I took a different approach than the rest of my family, though.

And I used the wrench to work myself up to owning a, a shop and, and changing my trajectory from being in the shop to running the shop. So. 03:15 Nice. 03:16 I learned how to work on the cars, but I learned young that I wanted to run the stores.

I wanted to talk to people. I wanted to meet guys like you. I wanted to be in the light, not in the back. 03:25 You, you are a very good people person since I've met you, so I've always enjoyed that about you.

And you're very articulate about your, what passions you have. So you've been in the business how long? Let's say. I'm not saying like when you're a child working in the.

But when you officially say you stepped into it. 03:46 Well, I became a journeyman at 21. 03:48 Okay. 03:48 So I went to school starting when I was 17 for mechanics.

It's a four year program up here in Canada. Okay. So. Yeah, so that would be 20, 28 years now.

04:00 Nice. Well done. Do you have sons, daughters? 04:04 Two sons.

Yeah, two sons, one daughter. My oldest son, he followed my path. He races cars, he works in the shop. He's behind me doing an oil change right now.

And my son is an athlete, so one went to cars and one just takes rides in cars, I guess. 04:24 Well, is he hockey? 04:26 I mean, he's hockey, yeah, he's a goaltender. And if anybody knows goalies out there, he's a little weird.

So that's what we love about him. Yeah. 04:39 Is he gonna watch this podcast? 04:40 Yeah, he's gonna watch this podcast and he'll.

You know what the true goalies out there will tell you? You gotta be a little weird to stand in front of 100 mile an hour hard puck. It's gonna hit you in the chest. Yes.

Like that's not what normal people do. 04:53 No, you gotta have a certain passion. And your wires are gonna be wired a little different for sure. 04:58 Exactly.

Yeah. And every now and then the puck hits him in the head. So I could be part of it too. 05:04 That's awesome.

So you've got a passion for fixing cars, you got passion for hockey. Fast forward today, what you guys are doing at your locations and trail tire, because when you emailed me, you obviously had a topic you want to talk about, but it's the state that the economy's in, particularly around you and what you see on the, you know, on the ground per se, about how people are fixing cars longer versus buying new cars and not out of really want, but out of necessity. 05:37 Yeah. You know, we've seen the Canadian auto landscape shift dramatically in the last five years.

I don't know when it was five, 10 years ago, they started extending car loans out to eight years. And normally when a car hits the five year mark, people postpone suspension and coolant because they know they're trading it in and that car now becomes the dealer's problem. However, at that five year mark, they still owe three years on that car. So a lot of people are finding their upside down or negative equity or, you know, to get the new car, they got to take 7,000 from this car and put it on their loan and then sign another eight year loan.

06:15 So to most people, that shift of, well, if I just spent, you know, $3,000 now, took care of some of these repairs, my car is going to last me another three years and then I won't be stuck with that negative equity. I'll actually have an asset. So that part of the landscape shifted due to the economy, you know, eight years or five years ago, when they bought that car and they set it out for eight years, they didn't think about the last three years when that car starts needing money.

So, you know, I always say mileage doesn't kill cars, neglect does. 06:50 That's a good way of putting it. Well, let me ask you a quick question. You made me think about because I wonder if there's a difference between Canada and the United States, where, what is the used car market like?

Because, you know, here, you know, I think the rule of thumb is, I mean, it drops substantially the asset value from the day you buy it to two years in, you know. 07:09 Oh, substantially. 07:10 Okay. But then it kind of levels off.

07:13 It does. Well, and it depends on the manufacturer. 07:15 True. 07:15 So one of the things that I've noticed and I didn't pay attention to it until we started financing repairs.

You take a, a 2019 patriot. Let's just pick on Dodge here for a second. Take a 2019 Patriot with a hundred thousand kilometers and you go for a vehicle financed repair. The max it's going to get you is about $2,000 from the finance company.

But if you took a 2019, let's say Toyota RAV4 with the same mileage, that same finance company is going to give you about $5,000 worth of repairs on that car. So you know it's a combination of what you bought versus you know what you've done to it. And these companies are smart, they're attaching to the value of the car. 08:00 So if they think they're going to make 10,000 on the car, they're probably going to give you a ten thousand dollar finance for the car.

So you know, the older, less expensive cars with an eight year loan, it's, it's really hard for them to justify losing all that money trading it in versus you know, paying to repair that car to keep it for three more years. 08:20 So one of the things are you guys doing this like when you have a customer come in and you can tell it's a dilemma for them. You're, you're giving me the impression you're pretty upfront with them about saying hey look, here's basically your long term options.

If you do X, you're gonna, and you roll it into a new vehicle, you're gonna be upside down, have that negative equity and you're back in, you're being a bigger hole now. You're not just in a hole but you're in a bigger hole. But if you were to fix it and we take care of you here, you can at least get out of the hole to where you're at least the net zero maybe. 08:53 Absolutely.

Yeah. And in Canada there's no penalty to pay out early. So if you really only need a six month short term gap finance, it's perfect. You know what I mean?

The interest isn't that bad but again it's all on the consumer. So you know, in Canada you don't get penalized for paying out early. I don't know how it's like in. 09:14 The United States but most loans are that way.

But it's a, that's a negotiable thing. But most of the time that's in. In there as well. But, yeah, you know, you should ask.

That's what I'm saying. You should always ask. 09:25 We have a definite process. A lot of times people, they don't want, they feel ashamed to ask, you know, and you can.

So we have a process where we let them know that financing is available. We put it with their final invoice copy on the back with the link for them to pre approve themselves so that we don't. We're not stressing them out. We're not.

They can take it home, they can read it, they can say, yeah, I need. I need to get this done, but I can't afford it now. Here's my options. It's not the greatest option, but it is an option.

You know, people's vehicle is their freedom. 09:59 Yeah. 09:59 How many times have you heard that on the show? You know, people, they don't want to give up their freedom.

So we're just giving them a solution that helps them get down the road. I'm no financial advisor, and I don't think the interest rates are that great. However, it is an option that's good. 10:16 You know, I mean, I'm speaking from experience.

I had. Many of the listeners know, I've had. I had five kids. My wife and I, we would, you know, we get into financial binds, obviously, when everybody's young and I mean, it was crazy, but all of a sudden somebody's got to go to the hospital.

They split their head open or, you know, it's a. Stitches here. You know what I mean? It was just stuff that would happen or, you know, somebody.

I remember allergic reaction one time, and it's just that panic stuff. Next thing you know, you got a hospital bill, the insurance doesn't cover all of it, et cetera. And then, you know, all of a sudden, then something like, say the water pump goes out in the van, you know, and it's like, what is going on here? 10:53 You know, And I had to do some of those type of loans or whatever, but you obviously, you want to take it to somebody you trust or whatever.

But I did always have the notion that I did not want to go further into a hole. So I always looked at the option of, you know, is it better? Am I in a situation where I couldn't, I really couldn't go get a new car. I mean, I could, but I didn't.

That's just a bigger hose. So I looked at it like, all right, I'm gonna go buy somebody else's problem potentially. So, you know, what Can I do today to solve this problem and do I want to put more into it like you're talking about, to extend the life? And that's usually where I ended up.

And it ended up helping me because I extend. 11:34 Yeah. Am I driving around something I don't want, really want to? Sure.

But that's just, that's living. Right. That's just part of life and then having five kids. Yeah.

But, you know, after you get over a certain hump or whatever and you keep grinding it, all of a sudden there's daylight, you know, and you get out of that hole. But I think you have to do it strategically and you can't. It's less about wants, more about needs. And, and it's nice to know that, you know, you're working with a shop that somebody you can work with because it is a trying time.

I mean, you. And I never made that decision while I was standing in somebody's lobby, you know, in the. 12:07 Absolutely not. That's a terrible place to have to make that.

Yeah. 12:10 And I, I would sit there and think about my options, head home, and then I'd be like, all right, here's what I'm gonna do, you know, But I'd have to sleep on it, you know, because. 12:19 Well, it's a lot of people too. They, you know, we're in nice neighborhoods and they're driving a nice car.

They don't want us to think they have financial problems. Nobody wants to admit that openly. Even though we're all kind of living in that same environment. So we like to take the soft touch approach, you know, let them know it's an option.

You know, I had listened, I had a customer last month or sorry at Christmas time, and he was supposed to get paid on some projects and they delayed his funding until January. But he needed winter tires for his brand new 2026 truck today. So he financed it, paid it off the next month when he got his money. So it's a short term gap finance.

It's a long term finance. 12:59 At the end of the day, it's just an option to get you back out on the road to get to that job. You know, we have that problem here up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, of minus 30 for extended periods of time, you know, where taking the bus really isn't an option at minus 30, Mike. I mean, it's there and there's some brave people standing out there every day.

But, you know, it's not really an option when you've got kids. You, you got to get your car back on the road. 13:25 I got it. I got a question just crossed my mind and I'm probably thinking just like a bunch of other Americans right now, but especially those that are in the southern states.

But how long can you physically stand in negative 30 degree weather? 13:37 Well, do you remember when you first met me, Mike? And I was wearing shorts? Yeah, I still wear shorts to minus 20.

So some of us can stand out in that cold for a very long time. 13:49 We're just products of our environment 100%. I mean, you know, you come down south and you sit here in the heat that we have. And I'm talking about not I would die, not Arizona heat where it's dry.

I'm talking that heavy heat that's just humidity beyond your imagination. And I get people, I go, why do you think people talk and move slow down here? It's because you do not want to, you don't want to expend energy, you know. 14:15 Yeah, it's the exact opposite.

You know, at least we can dress for our weather. 14:20 Oh yeah, we can't take. 14:22 Any more off here. 14:23 I mean.

14:23 No, no. You know, it's funny, I ran into a guy and he said, son, it's not that warm out. I said, sir, it's not that cold either. 14:34 That's awesome.

Well, talk, let's talk a little bit more about some of the experience you're seeing across Canada with the whole new car versus used car market. 14:44 Well, you know, and I got a good story for you. So where a lady came into the counter and she said, I was just at the dealer and they tried to charge me 3, $500 because I hit a hundred thousand kilometers. And I said, you're trying to rip me off.

And I said, well, what are they asking you to do? And she showed me the list and it was all stuff that we would recommend a person do. So I said to her, has the first hundred thousand kilometers been great? She says, I love my car, I wouldn't do anything with it.

Well, do you want the next hundred thousand kilometers to be great? And she said, of course. Well, then you got to get these items done. And she says, there's no way I'm spending $4,000 on a five year old car.

15:22 So she took it to the dealer and she came back and she said, how much of this can I do now and how much of this can I do later? And I said, what happened. She's like, I owe $35,000 on my car and they're only going to give me $22,000 for it because I didn't do any of my maintenance. So she kind of put herself in that spot.

She devalued her car by doing nothing to it and then gets to the point where now it all needs to be done. So anyway, we gave her our financing option and she went home and she came back and she ended up doing all of it. And I recently just saw her and she thanked me for explaining it differently to her. 15:59 You know, basically the dealer said, well, if you want to keep your powertrain warranty, you better do this.

You know, they didn't understand that she had three kids at home. She had two car seats in the back. She didn't have 30 to $500. It's not that she didn't want to do the work, she didn't have the money to physically do the work.

Then she found out she couldn't trade her car in. So now you've got the single mother, three kids, neglected all this work because she thought she could just trade the car in every five years and not worry about it, you know, because that's what she had done in the past. So it's a harsh reminder to some people when these things come due. 16:34 But again, the maintenance now, like she's going to tell three of her friends and they're going to tell three of their friends.

And now we're seeing the whole marketplace of cars in our shops now in that five to 10 year mark, getting major repairs. We never saw that before. It was the dealer's problem. The dealer took it, the dealer sold extended warranty and they recycled that car.

And then shops like ours got them in the eighth or ninth year. Now we're getting cars in the first year and keeping them to the ninth year without changing their payment options. You know, like as an example, like a 20$500 repair over three years is $48 BI weekly, something like that. 17:16 Yeah.

17:17 Who can't afford that? It just becomes a bill that you pay every day for every month for three years. But you're back on the road and you could pay it sooner if you wanted. However, it's a real right now option.

And man, a lot of businesses going that way. 17:31 Yeah, no doubt about it. Well, you give the key. A lot of these situations are, you know, I'm a debt free type of guy, but I've also had to go into debt, right.

And and it's like you said, it'. Bridge. It's short term or whatever, but sometimes you may not even see the light at the end of the tunnel. But if you can say, you know what though, I got to get done, I can absorb $48 every two weeks.

17:55 Well, I don't know the pricing down there. So if you were to try and go buy like a 20, 26 Escalade today here at Edmonton. Yeah, $180,000 Canadian. 18:05 Yeah, that's.

18:07 Yeah, that's wild. That's a house payment, that's a mortgage payment. You know, so what you're. The value of the car has gotten so much to the point where who can afford that?

That's $50 every two weeks sounds a lot better than 1400 dollars a month in a car payment. 18:24 Oh, 100%. I mean, and that's exactly the way, I mean, look, when you're in that situation, that's what you got to think about because you don't want a bigger hole and you got to have options. 18:36 Gotta have options.

And the car is worth less needing stuff, you know, so the whole point of this, that I like to educate my customers when they come into my store, that when you get to this point, this is the end, you have to solve it. There was a lot of different roads that could have been taken to get to here. You know what I mean? We're a big proponent on letting you know what's going to happen before it happens.

So you can watch a transmission leak for two years before it takes the transmission out. So when the transmission goes, if the guy didn't get told every time he came in for an oil change that this was going to happen, it's kind of the shop's fault too. So then that involves this major repair. Now that involves financing.

19:18 However, if we had just replaced that pinion seal or replaced that leaky pan gasket, saved the fluid, saves the transmission, we wouldn't even be looking at this option. So part of this is educating on how we got here. Solve this problem and then do this so you don't have to come back to the solution again. 19:36 Man, I love the way you break it down because you make it simple for the customer.

But that is true. I mean, we didn't get here today, but we are here today. And these are your options today. 19:46 Yes, and I understand you couldn't afford it along the way.

However, Moving forward, that $180 pan gasket and filter for your transmission saved you this $6,000 cabokle to get that car up and going for you. 20:00 Yeah. 20:01 You know, and it's painful and we do it in a very empathetic matter. It's not a, you know, like what, you didn't do it.

But yeah, when you do things the right way and you got a good community and, and you put stuff on the work orders properly, they can also go back through all their work orders and say, you know what, this guy has been telling us about this for a year and a half. Maybe next time he says something, we're just going to maintain it. And you know, and the common thought is cars, 200,000 kilometers, they're worthless. No cars are going 4,500,000 kilometers.

Now we've got a Toyota San Van that comes here for a 5,000. 20:38 Well, and to put that in perspective for people, I just want to give them the. 20:41 Oh, miles. Yeah, yeah.

20:42 The conversion rate, it's like 400,000 is roughly 250,000 miles in a. Or 400,000 kilometers is roughly about 250,000 miles. 20:53 Yeah. So it's, cars are lasting that long and they're going to last a lot longer.

So the value in keeping something isn't the same as your 92 Geometro. You know, we used to call those cars Bic lighters. Right out of gas, you throw them away, you know, like. But it's not like that now.

Now it's, you're buying a car for 10 years, it's going to last you 10 years, you do your regular maintenance and you'll have an asset at the end. You know, that's. So it's more than just. I wanted to make sure.

We talked about that. It's more than just, hey, guys, how do you get more money from your customer? This is. How do we help our customer and then make sure that they don't get back here.

You know, there has to be an education level to all of this. 21:31 100%. 21:32 Because we don't make money on the financing. We don't make a dollar on it.

It's all third party. So it benefits us to make sure these people don't get in the situation again. 21:41 Oh, 100%. But at the same time, I mean, it gets you paid today in the sense that you've given them an option that they didn't have or potentially have.

You know, my, A lot of dealers tell me they love to listen to other dealers and you know, you come from a different perspective being in Canada and everything. What's it? I think I know the nugget. But all these dealers always tell me whenever I travel, if I run, I love running into complete strangers.

And they'll say, man, I listen to. I listen to your show every week, you know, because it comes out on. And first of all, I want to hug them all because, you know, you do this in a bubble. You see the stats, but you never see the people that are listening.

So it's fun to encounter people like that. 22:23 And I'll ask them, you know, what do you like about it? And they go, man, I love it when you have dealers on, because I always get a nugget from them. Somebody, somebody will tell me, you know, I'll hear something that, you know, that just, hey, I might want to think about doing that one thing for an employee or a customer or whatever.

What's your big nugget today? I think I know one, but I want to see what you think it would be if you could give one away to dealers out there that you've learned through your career. 22:47 Educate. Educating your customers on why we got here and why we need to do things in a more structured manner.

I took this course with Ford called Selling Services to Women. Now, they had said that by. I'm a highly trained Ford technician, just so you know. They said that women drive the financial purchase of maintenance and repairs.

And the reason that selling to women is harder is because a woman wants to know why she can't buy her purse or she can't do this. She wants to know what the part does, why it costs so much and what it's going to do if she doesn't replace the vehicle. So from that I learned that not just women, everybody wants to know where their money is going and why. So there's a lot of items that we call next time items.

23:35 You know, a fluid leak versus a fluid sweat is different. So we like to educate our customers so that they start asking the right questions when they come back or if they end up somewhere else, like, why am I replacing that? Well, it's leaking. Is it leaking or sweating?

I didn't see anything on the ground. That's an educated customer. You know, the. The customer needs to know everything we're doing so that we don't hide anything from them.

So if I could share with anything to anybody ever, I say educating your customer is a key foundation. And owning a successful shop, including things like maintenance and versus repair, finance versus purchase, you know, when you're pitching a Sale to a customer. That. That pause is not yes or no.

That pause is credit card, bank card, or line of credit. 24:22 So understanding the situational awareness around that customer is very crucial to educating them. But at the end of the day, it comes down to education. Who wouldn't want a customer coming in saying, last time you told me I needed by ball joints and alignment.

I'd like to get that done today. Right. That's. That's the dream.

That's the dream. They took their paperwork. 24:45 That's the unicorn. 24:47 That's the unicorn.

They took their paperwork home. They called their best friend, who's a mechanic down the street. That guy said, hey, that looks good. That sounds great.

Go back to those guys and they'll finance you. Oh, man. Like, this is perfect. That's the dream.

So we try and get that every time. And not always, but we try. 25:05 Do you guys keep good records for existing clients or customers? 25:09 Okay, we have digital vault, so we take pictures of all the.

All the leaks and all the repairs. So we can go back to last year and say, this is what it looked like last year. This is what it looks like today. You're still in good shape.

Don't worry. 25:24 That whole DVI thing is. Is what really legitimizes you in so many ways, because you're able to show the history, hey, this is what we had on. On file, and this is what it looked like last year at.

25:35 You know, I've said to other dealers before that you almost want them to not do that, repair, have something happen and go back and say, oh, man, this guy is like a. He had a fortune teller. He was a crystal ball. He told me this was going to happen, and it did.

Because now they realize that you're not lying to them. 25:55 Yeah. 25:56 You know, they. They don't want nobody.

Your car is running. Perfect bike. You drive into my shop and I tell you got an oil leak. It's 1100 bucks.

We fix it, you leave. Your car drives no different. You know, you didn't see the benefit or the advantage. 26:09 Yeah, you didn't.

You didn't have the pain. So you didn't get. Yeah. 26:12 So there has to be some track and some record of that if a guy was to come in and say, you told my daughter her car was leaking.

Yes, sir. Here's the picture. Oh, yeah. And we shampooed it.

And here's the after. You know, then it. It takes all that away and. And it.

And it's full transparency like we are. We try and be as fully transparent as possible. We got big windows like that one behind me. Looks right into the shop.

Car customers can watch their cars get worked on. It's, it's become that era. Yeah. You know, it's not like your dad or my dad took a guy's word because it was insulting not to.

26:47 Yeah, well, that's true. But yeah, like you said though, I mean, the transparency just puts people more at ease. And the less transparent you are, obviously the more people feel distrusting or if you're not showing everything. Let's go to tires real quick because it's part of your name.

What's your. I'm just curious, what's your favorite tire to sell? 27:09 Continental. 27:10 All right.

27:12 Continental. And it's. I like working with Partners that are like us. If something happens to a Continental tire, they're going to take care of you.

They've got a road hazard warranty, they've got a tow warranty, they've got a replacement warranty. They back their dealers. If we decide we're going to replace that tire because we felt it was a defect, Continental will stand up behind us. Even if they don't think it was, they'll say, you know what, you guys help so many people.

We take your word and they'll send us a tire. 27:38 What about winter tires? 27:41 Winter tires is same as Continental as well. We are seeing the pinch up here though, between where technology has created inexpensive tires that are almost as good as the good tires.

But as you know, rubber's a commodity traded on the stock market. So it has a price. The more a tire cost, the more rubber that's in it. That's pretty much how it goes.

Inexpensive tires have a definite place in our market. Most people don't realize dealers make more on the cheap tires than they do on the expensive ones. Ones. Yeah, we're not trying to sell you the expensive ones to make money.

We're trying to sell you the expensive ones so that you don't have problems. Yeah, but not such the case. We've seen a huge influx of the offshore tires here in, up in Canada. 28:27 Yeah, I'd say it's close to half of half the sales.

28:30 Now what's. Give me a brand example that you see radar. Okay. 28:36 You guys have radar tires down there?

28:38 Not in my area. Not very. I don't see those very often. In my area.

28:42 A lot of the technology is just two year or three year old Michelin technology or Continental technology. It's not bad. It's just dated. Yeah.

You know, so we have, obviously with winter Seven months of the year. Winter tires are not something people generally cheap out on. You know, winter tires are where we see the strong market for good tires. Bridgestone, Michelin, Continental.

29:07 So y', all, don't, you, your customer base doesn't look for shortcuts there, for sure. 29:11 Not, not in the winter time. No way. Not when it'.

Below. It's a game changer, Mike. 29:17 Yeah. That temperature is a motivation to get it right, isn't it?

29:23 So, yeah, the summer tire market is kind of hit or miss. It's usually cheapest thing. I, I, it's just dissatisfying to me to see someone with a really nice Mercedes Benz putting Chinese tires on versus a uhp tire. Yeah, but that's pretty common too.

That's usually the guy that's also financing. 29:43 Yeah. That's interesting. 29:46 Yeah.

29:47 Give our audience a little bit more about you. What's your favorite movie? 29:51 Ford versus Ferrari. 29:53 Golly, there was some good acting in that, wasn't there?

29:55 There's some great acting. And the premise of the story that I took was you can be the best at what you do and still not be acknowledged for it. Be the best at what you do for yourself. 30:06 You're talking about Miles the driver.

Yeah. Cheated the way he was and cheated. 30:11 But that's life, Mike. Yeah.

You know what I mean? He still had a great life, still had a great wife and a great passion and a great love for the sport. It's like when my son loses a hockey game. 30:22 And he had one guy in his corner.

Carol. Shelby was always in his corner. I mean, in the sense, you know, and he knew they did him wrong, but there was nothing he could do about it. But, you know, I always, I liked it too, because Shelby, he just had that I don't give a, you know, attitude.

And the way he would talk to Henry Ford, you know, when they went, he goes, I'd say we got, oh, Enzo right where we want him. He's like, explain. Well, the brakes still don't work. Hate's coming off.

We can't turn that well, but we hit 218. Now, the bike stretch, it was just the way he describes it was perfect. 31:01 It was absolutely perfect. And he is a he, Miles.

He was a. Not a smart man when it came to business, but a very smart man when it came to cars, you know,. 31:11 Unbelievable the way he could. 31:12 Yeah, yeah.

He let himself get into the position he got himself into. But I had a boss tell me once, you never get in life what you deserve. You only get what you negotiate. You want to be.

You want to be successful in life, being a good negotiator. And Miles was not. But no, he was a little. 31:29 He was.

He was. Yeah, he was a little cantankerous. 31:32 Very much so, yeah. But that's what I mean.

He was a product of his own environment. 31:35 Yeah. 31:36 So I. I take that lesson and I learned it in life and realize you can't say what you want to say all the time.

31:42 I've got. I've got some people in my life that I can point out, and I think my daughter is one of them. She's a very good negotiator. Both my daughters are.

They're very good negotiators. And they. They could be very sweet at it, and they could be very persistent, and it's just like, holy cow. Like, they.

I. I just. Just their attitude. They just.

And. And the youngest actually probably got it because she learned from her older sister whatever, but she. Yeah, she. But she could just.

But she's. She's even better than a mom. But she'll just. Like, she's having.

She's having issues right now with an auto repair shop. And. And it's funny, but she goes, I don't care, dad. I'll call him every day.

I said, I know you will. But she's. 32:26 But she's very pleasant about it, you know what I mean? And she just.

She just knows how to. To do it. 32:34 And. 32:34 And, you know, I've.

I've learned from that, you know, that you. The more persistent. Nice you are when you look like you're just that guy, it's not going to go away. It's.

It's tough on people, especially if you're nice about it, because if you make it mean or if you get hostile, which I've done before, well, that immediately puts up barriers. I mean, you know, it's like you lost. 32:53 Immediate loss. 32:54 Well, and you.

Everybody puts their heels in the ground. Everybody's anchoring in, and, you know, they're all in. But if. If you're constantly nice, man, it's.

It's like water on a rock. It just wears it out. 33:06 Yep, absolutely. And that's kind of what our life is it?

Not negotiation and trying not to get around. 33:16 I think that's great that you said that for the audience, but it is true. 33:19 It's. 33:20 You don't always get what you deserve, but you get what you negotiate you.

33:24 Get every time because you've negotiated it. It's not. It's. It's fundamentally sound It's.

And I thought. And that was over a raise. I hired a guy, and then I found out a year later he was making more money than me. And I was so upset.

I said, how is a guy that. I. I'm. I'm his boss.

I give him his tasks every day, and he's making more than me. And the owner just laughed and said, he's a better negotiator. I thought, oh,. 33:48 That hits right there.

You mean all I had to do is ask that? 33:53 There you go. Right. Like, I.

That's. That's a good life lesson. I'm glad he taught it to me. I don't have any.

Any ill will about that one. 34:00 Well, it's like I. I try to tell my kids, don't ever be afraid to ask. Ever.

What's the worst thing somebody can tell you? No. Okay. You had that answer going in.

34:11 That's a good one. I never thought of that. You had that answer going in because. 34:14 You don't have it right now.

So what if they leave you in the same spot? Okay, you're there, you know? 34:20 But I actually take that impression when people ask for a discount. I tell my staff, don't be upset.

What's. What's the harm in saying and having a. A way to overcome that objection? You know what I mean?

Take. Take shop supplies off the work order, make them feel like they won something. You know, It's. It's fair.

It's. You're right. It's. You had the same answer before you asked.

34:40 It's. It's a beautiful thing. It's fun, too. Sometimes you get older and you get more mature and secure in who you are and everything.

Then you almost get to where you. You find it to be a game, you know, to just see. See what else you can get, you know? 34:53 Yeah.

But anyway, they call that reciprocity. Right? You. Some.

You got to give me something back. I'm gonna stand here until I get it. 35:03 Well, before I let you go, I think you told me this before, but what's a. What's a quote or a mantra you live by?

Are you like or that you like? 35:14 Quote? The mantra that whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're always right. From our friend Henry Ford.

And that. That transcends to every part of your life, whether you think you can convert that employee from a bad one to a good one, whether you think you can or you can't, you're right. Whether you think you can increase your sales, whether you think you can do a better job in your community that it's all the same, you know? So anybody that's listening, believe you can do it.

Try something new every day and try and better educators to your customers. 35:45 That's awesome. Great news, Tim. I'm glad we finally did this.

We'll have you back one day. But thank you for being on the Gain Traction Podcast. 35:55 I absolutely. It's been a pleasure meeting you, Mike.

I've always enjoyed my conversations with you and I'm also an active listener and I look forward to every Wednesday's episode. 36:04 I really appreciate it to all our listeners out there. We'll see you next time here at the Gain Traction Podcast. Hey folks, Mike Edge here with the Gain Traction Podcast.

Real quick we get a lot of people ask us they know Gain Traction, but who's Tread Partners? Well, Tread Partners is our parent company and they're a marketing agency dedicated strictly to tire and automotive repair shops. Anywhere from five locations all the way up to hundreds of locations. And primarily one field that is always a pain for most people is paid search or PPC or Google Ads.

We see enormous amount of waste in it and we see inefficient spend in it. If you want to know if you're doing well or not, give us a call. We'll help you. We'll audit your account.

36:43 We'll look under the hood and tell you if you're doing things the right way or the wrong way and help you optimize that spend. You can reach me and I'll direct you in the right direction@mikereadpartners.com or feel free to go to treadpartners.com the website.

To all our listeners, thank you for being part of the Gain Traction Podcast. We are grateful for you. If you'd like to find more podcasts like this, please visit gaintractionpodcast.com if you'd like to make a guest recommendation, please email me@mikereadpartners.

com this episode has been powered by Tread Partners, the leader in digital marketing for multi ladies location tire and auto repair shops. To learn more about Tread Partners, visit treadpartners.com. Com.