A: Air Bags.
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Oh, this is outrageous and my intention was not to offend
anyone but to relate it to a story of how times have changed and how we do
business here at Holzhauser’s.
One rainy morning back in the early 1980s I was driving to
work when a tractor trailer pulled out on me and cut me off. I had two choices – either hit the tractor
trailer or swerve to the left and hit a curb.
Since my car was a compact, I figured the lesser of the two evils was to
hit the curb. The tractor trailer
driver went on his merry way and I ended up with a bent lower control arm and
shifted subframe.
Fortunately, I had just began dating Joe several months
before. I took my car to the dealership
where I purchased it to get it repaired.
Back then, being young (just barely 20) it was a whole different
environment when it came to women and car repair. I was totally intimidated by the service
manager who was old enough to be my father.
He assured me they would “take care of me.” After a couple of days in the shop, I picked
up my vehicle and it didn’t feel just quite right. Joe drove it and put it up on the lift at the
shop where he worked. He told me they
did replace the control arm but that was it!
They did not pull the subframe or align the car to make the vehicle
drive straight down the road.
Being armed with this information, I went back and told them
that the subframe had shifted and the car was still drifting to one side. They assured me that they knew what they
were doing and, in no uncertain terms, told me that I did not know what I was
talking about. After I began explaining
to them the problem in more “technical terms” thanks to Joe’s Auto 101 Crash Course,
they finally listened to me and fixed the car properly.
When Joe and I opened Holzhauser’s Auto in 1995, that
scenario played over and over in my head.
I vowed to never treat anyone, particularly women, who came in to have
their car repaired with such disrespect.
It was an unwritten rule in our shop then and now that everyone, male or
female, would be educated in lay terms on what the problem was with their car,
given an explanation on the best way to fix it and any questions they had were
answered.
Now that we are celebrating our 20th Anniversary
in business, I believe that my experience has made a difference in the way we
do business. We appreciate all of our
customers - young, old, male or female -and we do our very best to make you
comfortable when you come in for service.
After all, you are what keep us going and we hope for another 20 years of
serving you!
Keep checking our blog for the latest news and tips from
Holzhauser’s Auto!
