George Winkler’s goal of providing the area with the most complete and trusted independent automotive repair shop when he opened the doors to Winkler Automotive in 1982 was validated once again with the recent awarding of the “Excellence In Customer Service Award” from the Washington, Maryland, Delaware Service Station and Automotive Repair Association (WMDA).
The prestigious honor, from the region’s primary trade association for the industry, was bestowed upon Winkler and his staff at the organization’s recent Annual Convention & Mega Show in Ocean City, Md.
“This is the biggest honor we have received since we opened 30 years ago, and we couldn’t be more thrilled and proud with the recognition,” said Winkler. “We know the type of customer service we provide, and this is our No. 1 mission, but to be recognized for it is very special, and a tribute to our magnificent staff.”
The honor even attracted interest from Maryland state comptroller Peter Franchot, who personally wrote Winkler a note of congratulations, which read in part “you must be pleased that your work and professionalism have been recognized with this prestigious award.”
Franchot went on to add “you are making a significant contribution to our great state of Maryland and I thank you. As Maryland’s chief regulator of motor fuel and tax collector, I understand the countless contributions that your industry provides to our state and its families.”
Winkler Automotive, located in Gaithersburg at 401 East Diamond Avenue, is AAA approved, and all its technicians exceed rigorous standards to be ASE certified. And Winkler Automotive performs maintenance and repair service on all makes and models, including European, American and Japanese cars, trucks, SUVs, vans and minivans, along with extended warranty work on all.
The Washington, Maryland, Delaware Service Station and Automotive Repair Association, (WMDA) was established in 1937 as a trade association serving independent business men and woman of service stations, repair facilities, convenience stores, and other related businesses. WMDA provides automotive and management educational training programs throughout the year for owners, managers and technicians with the primary objective of innovating and educating.
The WMDA award now hangs proudly in the waiting room of Winkler Automotive, and also serves as a reminder to the Winkler staff of its commitment to customer service.
“I always stress to my staff to put themselves in our customer’s shoes,” noted Winkler. “People trust us, and when it comes to having your car serviced, that’s most important.”
About Winkler Automotive
Winkler Automotive of Gaithersburg is an AAA approved and ASE certified auto repair shop now celebrating its 30th year. Since 1982, Winkler Automotive has been committed to providing the best, most honest and most reliable car care service in the area, offering customers complete satisfaction and one-stop shopping, as well as an alternative to expensive dealerships. Winkler Automotive performs maintenance and repair service on all makes and models, including European, American and Japanese cars, trucks, SUVs, vans and minivans, while extended warranty work is also accepted. For more information and web specials, visit www.WinklerAutomotive.com, or call (301) 258-2774 and ask for owner George Winkler.
To winterize their vehicle, most people are aware of the major parts or components of a vehicle that should be inspected during an automotive service, such as oil changes, tires, transmissions, and brakes. However, there are 2 other components that often get overlooked until they fail, leading to an inconvenient and costly automotive repair.
What are these 2 components? Belts and Hoses!
Your cars belts and hoses are essential to the interior heating system, electrical system, and engine. Dont take the routine replacement intervals of these small parts for granted or neglected during an automotive service, because they can fail unexpectedly and leave you stranded by the side of the road. This is especially annoying and even dangerous in winter driving when the temperatures are below freezing.
What is their purpose?
* Timing Belt This belt keeps the crankshaft and camshaft mechanically synchronized to maintain engine timing. Whether its the serpentine, V-belt or fan belt (the belts on the outside of the engine), they all transmit power from the front of the engine to accessories that need to be driven, such as the heating system, air conditioning, and the charging system and fans.
* Hoses Radiator and heater hoses carry coolant to and from the engine, radiator and heater core. They carry heated water to your cars interior heater which keeps the interior of your car warm when it is freezing outside.
Typical symptoms of wear and tear that are indicators to schedule an automotive service as soon as possible are
* You start to see fluid leaks on your garage floor
* The dashboard light flashes
* You hear squeaking noises coming from under the hood during start-up, or while driving.
Are you looking for expert automotive service? To keep your car rolling down the road, contact our ASE Certified Technicians today by calling (406) 248-2838, or go on-line to www.pricesprecisionauto.com for more information. They will be happy to help you with your car tune up services. Our Tech-Net professional auto repair shop in Billings, MT, also serves vehicle owners in the areas of Shepherd and Laurel, MT.
You could possibly very well have been informed that you have “MacPherson Struts” in your vehicle and wondered with the dealership or large box keep car assistance team technological article writer what on earth are these car or truck pieces and just how do they differ from excellent outdated fashioned ( and economical ) vehicle shock absorbers.
It is comparatively easy to spot if you do have MacPherson Struts. A suspension system with Macs might be very easily identified by even automotive repair novices by looking for an incredibly large and thick tube form strut connected to your wheel assembly in the base and slanting upwards away from your wheel. A coil spring is visible from your outside from the strut on the major, and an A-shaped arm operating horizontally from your base from the strut so its’ too legs attach for the frame.
When the MacPherson strut has the spring around the strut assembly, the shock absorber spindle and spring is often a mixed unit held in site with the best through the upper mount assembly and at the bottom through the ball joint and reduced handle arm. The shock absorber is really built into the MacPherson struts’ outer housing. The coil spring by itself is held in site by a decrease seat welded on the strut casing and an upper seat bolted towards the shock-absorber piston rod. In flip the upper mount bolts for your auto, truck, and bus or S.U.V. system.
Any looseness inside the control-arm bushings, ball joint, or strut-rod bushings or stabilizer bar inbound links would necessarily mean replacement. The strut assembly alone ought to be checked closely for spring fatigue, bad damping attributes, binding and popping that could nicely happen when the wheels are turned or rolled – must be checked in between for leaks between the shock shaft and shaft housing. By bouncing the suspension, verify for binding which indicates a possible bent shock absorber shaft. If any of those problems exist the strut may have to be taken apart for services and that is a position for which any back lawn mechanic really should genuinely look for vehicle mechanic skilled enable and aid.
The suspension components earning up this crucial element of driving contain the chassis or frame, coil springs, leaf springs, dampeners including struts and shock absorbers, and anti-swing or torsion bars. A suspension system commonly includes a combination of all those aforementioned parts. Every has an important job in the method, and all work with each other within their respective roles to keep your motor vehicle to the street and at a manageable experience.
You have recently opened a limousine hire service targeted towards tourists and others who are looking to enjoy a luxurious chauffer driven ride on a special occasion. Your biggest problem is that business spikes at certain times during the year (college graduations, wedding seasons, etc) and experiences a lull the rest of the year.
This strategy will help you stabilize your business all year round and keep the cash coming in even during times of traditional slowdown.
Who is your customer?
Be it a college graduation, prom night, wedding day, or tourists day out, your customer is typically a luxury seeker. He or she prefers to drive around in style, but can only afford to do so on special occasions. To work around this, you need to focus on customers who can afford limousine rentals on an everyday basis. Hence your target profile should be large corporate companies who have their head offices located in the vicinity of your service. This way you would be able to ensure business all year round by becoming the preferred vendor for the companys board of directors and other staff entitled to luxury cars.
What is the best thing you can do for that customer?
Corporate offices expect the very best in terms of service from their vendors and are willing to pay a little extra to get it. Offer dedicated cars and chauffeurs to each corporate that signs an annual contract. Offer value added benefits to retain such customers by guaranteeing them additional cars within a one hour notice period and so on.
How are you going to do it?
Ensure you have a sufficiently large fleet of new limousines as well as professional chauffeurs. If required, you could enter a sub-contract with other limousine hire services located around you to make up for excess demand. Create a database of all the offices within a predetermined radius of your rental office.
Invite them, via email, to join your Privilege Club of customers who are entitled to special benefits when they signed up for half-yearly or annual contracts. Incentivize such deals not only with discounted pricing but more through value added services such as dedicated cars and chauffeurs.
Dont forget to say thank you
Every new member of the Privilege Club gets a thank you email and a gift hamper. Also include a link to a survey with the following suggested questions and others of your own.
What is your companys daily requirement of luxury cars?
Is this a fixed or flexible requirement? Are there any times of the year when the can foretell a spike in requirement? What are the key factors that decide their choice of a car vendor service, pricing, availability, newness of fleet, etc?
When to communicate with your members
In order to maintain ties, send out email newsletters on monthly or quarterly basis. Use the newsletter to inform them of any special offers for employees and one time hires as well as of upgrades to your fleet or service.
Of course you must also contact them one month prior to the expiry of their contract urging them to renew it. If you do not hear from them, send a follow up email one and two weeks after your initial mail.
How do you measure success?
Conduct quarterly surveys of your existing customer database to judge their level of satisfaction across various service and pricing parameters.
Build Build Build. Measure new as well as lapsed corporate partners on a monthly basis and compare numbers and turnover with like periods across the past few years. The more people that sign up for annual Privilege Club memberships, the more stable your business will become!
Our granular activated carbons have a wide range of uses for the automotive industry. Boyce Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) is excellent for low pressure drop, high-efficiency purification of liquids, gases and vapors. Available in several grades, it covers a range of pore size distributions, surface chemistries, particle size distributions and purity levels. Granular activated carbons are used for gasoline vapor recovery, air purification, catalysis, and decolonization/deodorization/contaminant reduction of chemicals.
Automotive Industry Applications
Automotive Evaporative Emissions
Vehicle activated carbon canisters are designed to capture fuel emissions generated by the evaporation of the fuel tank vapors during day to night temperature variations. Emission regulations vary throughout the world. In the United States (US), requirements call for capturing fuel vapors generated during a 72-hour test, while in the European Union requirement are for a 24-hour test. Fuel vapor generation rates are approximately 25 to 30 grams a day for a mid-size vehicle. Our granular activated carbons are used by leading industries for this application because of their superior volumetric cost, performance and proven durability.
Automotive ORVR
On-Board Refueling Vapor Recovery (ORVR) is a U.S. regulation that requires the capture of fuel vapors generated during vehicle refueling events. ORVR presents a unique challenge for the vehicle by requiring the canister to have high fuel vapor capacity at fast loading rates and low pressure drop. ORVR canisters are typically two to three times the size of a standard evaporative emissions canister because of these capacity requirements. Our carbon pellets are the industry standard for this application due to their high capacity, durability and low pressure drop. Further, our special grade of Boyce carbon helps to reduce canister size due to its industry leading capacity.
Automotive PZEV
Partial Zero Emission Vehicle (PZEV) is a California initiated emission category that is expanding across the country. PZEV requires the vehicles fuel system to have no more than 54 mg of emissions during a 72-hour test. PZEV presents a unique challenge to control canister bleed emissions to very low levels, typically less than 10 mg. Boyce special grades gives solution to control canister bleed emissions.
Two-Wheelers
There is a global expansion of canisters on motorcycles to control fuel tank evaporative emissions generated by the evaporation of the fuel tank vapors during the day to night temperature variations. These canisters are typically much smaller than an automotive canister. Our granular activated carbons are chosen for this application throughout the world for their superior volumetric cost and performance and proven durability.
Air Induction Systems
Vehicle regulations in the U.S. sometimes necessitate the control of vapors emitted through the vehicles air induction systems. Unique solutions are required to solve these emissions because of the high airflow within the AIS and the potential to affect engine performance if these airflows are inhibited. Our uniquely designed granular and powder carbon are used to reduce hydrocarbon emissions to targeted levels.
Small Off-Road Engines Fuel tanks for weed trimmers, leaf blowers, lawn mowers, generators and similar products are being mandated to control fuel evaporative emissions. Our granular activated carbons are chosen for this application for their superior volumetric cost and performance and proven durability.
Marine
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is evaluating evaporative emission control regulations for recreational boats.
Cabin Air (Vehicle Interiors)
Exposure to volatile organic compounds that off-gas from interior components in new vehicles is of increasing concern in many parts of the world. Recent tests have demonstrated significant reductions of VOCs in the cabin by the use of activated carbon sheets. Boyce supplies special grades of activated carbon to make activated carbon sheets. This confirms ACS as a low-cost and effective method for reducing VOC content in the cabin before delivery to the consumer.
Hybrid Electric Vehicles and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles
Automotive equipment manufacturers are increasingly turning to advanced engine technology to increase fuel economy. HEV and PHEV, while allowing for improved fuel economy, present a unique challenge for the activated carbon canister primarily due to severely restricted purge volumes. While our carbons are recognized for their superior purge performance, to meet the challenges of HEV and PHEV our carbons are typically combined with activated carbon honeycombs to meet emission targets.
Gasoline Direct Injection Engines
Gasoline Direct Injection Engines (GDI), while allowing for improved fuel economy, present a unique challenge for the activated carbon canister primarily due to reduced purge volume. Our carbons are recognized for their superior purge performance to meet most global GDI canister challenges. Additionally, our carbons are combined with our activated carbon to meet PZEV level emission targets.
Fuel Loading/Transfer Facilities
Bulk fuel and chemical transfer facilities use large-scale activated carbon absorbers to capture the vapors that are displaced or generated during the liquid transfer. The characteristics that make Boyce products the premier activated carbon for automotive evaporative emissions control apply to fuel loading as well.
To know more about us please visit www.carbonsuppliers.com contact us on +91 9842091301 Email: [emailprotected]