It's About You, Not Your Car. Written by Jaime Sanders
Scott “Oz” Osborn, recently wrote the book Making Smart Choices: A helpful guide to maintaining your vehicle. Not to inflate his ego (over-inflate, may be the more appropriate term) but Scott’s dedication and passion for people, not cars, is his true calling. This passion ultimately led to his success in this industry. I share this passion, which is what led me to Osborn’s Automotive in the first place. When Scott published his book it inspired me to finally start writing a blog that could possibly wind up being the best nighttime “bound to put you to sleep” blog available on the web.
Speaking of sleeping here is a quick story that will ensure I have captured your attention. I am currently looking at buying a new car, out of need not want. The ideal car will be safe, fuel efficient, reliable and hopefully sport a bit of power. The car I choose will have to be built to last, at least a little while. I am not a “keep buying a new car and always have an auto loan type of person”. I pushed my last vehicle to 256,000 miles and my other family vehicle had almost 300,000 miles on it. I am determined to buy a new care that will start to lose money the minute I pull it off the lot. I plan on taking complete advantage of that 36,000 mile / 3 year factory warranty, including the free oil change packages. This is not because I am cheap and looking forward to free oil changes, this is because I am cheap, skeptical and a bit witty. Since I don’t believe in 10,000 mile oil change cycles I will have my vehicle serviced in house (at Osborn’s of course) every 5,000 miles or 5 months, at which time our technicians will also document any noted problems or concerns they see during the inspection process. At 36,001 miles and/or 1,096 days when the service manager attempts to tell me of some expensive repair that has to be done I will smartly hand them all my “cover my you know what” documents and be on my way. Does all this seem like a lot of work to go through on a new vehicle? It is a pain, no doubt about it, but it is worth it to me because investing $25,000.00 dollars in a vehicle, carrying an auto loan for 4 years is a big deal.
When we invest in vehicles we expect them to last and we care for them so that they do. There is a lot of thought that goes into buying a car, each person will have their own list of wants and needs, and as repairers of those vehicles we must make sure that we understand not only your wants and needs but also your long term goals. In Scott’s book he wrote “I like helping people with their vehicles. It’s like a puzzle trying to figure out what’s best for them based on how the have cared for their car, how long they want to keep it, and of course their budget to keep it on the road”. Again, Scott and I are completely inline. Helping people is a passion and I am thankful that I have found a career that allows me to truly help people make the best decisions for their vehicle based on their own wants and needs. This blog will be the perfect platform for me to blab on and on about the importance of a good relationship with your automotive shop, the reason we hound you to keep up on your maintenance, the reason we completely violate your privacy and ask personal questions about your financial needs, and most importantly the reason why I become the mean person who tells you it is time to let go of the emotional attachment you have with the car you birthed your first born child in. We at Osborn’s “focus on the “People” part of the business just as much as we focus on the “car” part of the business and we like to consider ourselves experts in both areas.