I am getting tidbits of information here and there about the status of the economy down there. Its no different where I am at. Right now its tight everywhere, especially with the holidays here. The idea is to get a feel for the market now, so I know what I need to be looking for before I get there. Right now I am looking at this time next year coming in with a family, setting up a house, getting used to the area, and then getting a shop ready. In the 12-14 months until I get there things are gonna start settling down as far as the economy. Right now you also have to look at how everything is in a freeze, most areas are at zero growth, and some going into negatives, because everyone is pinching pennies early, worried that they may not have a job next week. Corporate america got greedy, and now its starting to show. Let the dust settle and you will see by next summer this stuff will start to settle down. Gas prices are dropping, the housing market will rise again, and we will see growth.

But what a lot of folks are gonna be looking for in the next 2-3 years is someone other than the dealership that can fix their car. If you do not have the technical knowledge in the electrical, and troubleshooting fields, then your business will fail. The days of the backyard mechanic are starting to die slowly.

The hardest part is telling the consumer with the Mercedes that they have to replace their windshield to fix the wiper that will no longer work is the tough part ($1000 repair vs the $50 repair they were expecting. Or telling the consumer that their door window switch went bad, but you have to keep the car 2 days to replace it because the computer has to be reflashed to accept the new part (17 hrs)

This may be the high end of the spectrum, but start looking at what is in your car, and what all is tied into the systems you have. GM's MDI system (Tech II replacement)will make most of the scan tools obsolete by 2010 on all their new models coming out. Most diagnostic work is done off a laptop now. But without access to the software, the backyard mechanics are gonna be out of luck.

But the point of this thread has turned from what is needed in the area, to do not open a shop in the area, we do not want you...

By the amount of complaint threads I am reading on here, apparently some of the shops never did this. They just opened the doors with huge dreams, and scammed what they could, rather than listen to the people's wants. I hope to change some of that, as any businessman would. And believe me the other shop owners are looking through this thread to see if anything pops up that they can use...