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48 GEARS March 2006
As this issue of GEARS goes to print, weve just kicked off the
2006 seminar season with one of the most ambi-tious, in-depth
programs ever. If you havent made plans to attend the next ATRA
technical seminar in your area, dont wait: Check the schedule in
the back of this issue, or go to ATRA Online and see when the ATRA
seminar will be in your town.
For as many years as most people can remember, the ATRA
technical seminars in New York have been sole sponsored by industry
suppli-ers. October, 2005 marked a turning point for New York City
area transmission technicians, when ATRA produced the first
non-sponsored technical seminar.
This first-time event was held at the JFK Ramada Plaza Hotel.
Attendance was good, especially for our first ATRA-sponsored
program in the area. And based on the response and feedback from
those attending, this next years event will be even bigger.
Everyone had high praise and good things to say about the
information provided by two of ATRAs Top Guns: Larry Frash, GEARS
new technical editor, and Randall Schroeder, well-known for his
Doctor, Doctor articles in GEARS Magazine.
Industry suppliers, who in some
cases are fierce competitors, also sup-ported the event. For
this one day, these tough competitors shook hands and then went
about their business of selling products and meeting with the
attendees. And they did so at no cost from ATRA: Just one of the
many benefits of being an ATRA Supplier Member.
Hand-in-hand with the seminars come the shop visits, one of my
favorite parts of these weekend excursions. This time, ATRA CEO
Dennis Madden and I got to visit three New York area shops. It
actually gives me a warm, fuzzy feel-ing when we go into a Members
shop and say, Hi, were from ATRA. Every time the response is a big
smile and then the person at the front desk hollers out Hey guys,
ATRAs here! Theyre always happy to see us and were happy to be
there, too. Its a real kick.
The first shop we visited was Dial Transmissions in Merrick, NY.
Dial has been in the business for over 20 years and an ATRA Member
since the begin-ning. In addition to private passenger transmission
work, Dial also has a heavy duty fleet and commercial sec-tion in
the shop that keeps them busy. Dial does about 30 units a week.
When asked how they manage to stay so busy, Pat Sepe explained:
We work hard to control the quality of our rebuilds. And we make
sure, when the customer leaves our shop, he knows hes received the
best service possi-ble.
Dial does a lot of fleet work, which pays off two ways: in
addition to the fleet, which sends a lot of work their way, they
often get the personal work from the people who work for the
com-pany that owns the fleet. In addition,
TRENCH REPORTS
A Little Bite Out of the Big Apple by Frank Pasley
(L to R) John Nilsson, Tom Garrett, Frank Melchert, Andrew
Frasson, John Kleva, Paul Meyer, Tyemell Walker and Pat Sepe.
Dial has been in the business for
over 20 years and an ATRA
Member since the beginning.
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The Problem Solvers.
At Precision International, outstanding quality, performance and
reliability
are really our bag. But as the technological leader in
transmission repair
for over 30 years, we figured we should also look the part. So
weve updated
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new bag is
a lot easier on the eyes. Plus, as always, whats inside will
make your job a lot
easier as well. Look for our nifty new bag and discover how
choosing proven
transmission solutions from Precision International is more
attractive than ever.
Introducing Precision Internationals redesigned transmission
repair kit bag.Beautiful on the outside, still the industrys best
quality and dependability inside.
210 Knickerbocker Ave., Bohemia, NY 11716 (631) 567-2000 Fax
(631) 567-2640 Toll Free: 800-872-6649 Florida Office (954)
509-9950 Fax (954) 509-9945E-mail:
[email protected]
Hotter than Prada and Gucci.
Precesion placed.qxd 7/21/05 4:29 PM Page 19
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50 GEARS March 2006
they sometimes do general repairs for their regular customers,
although they dont advertise it.
Before we left the city of Merrick, the Good Guys at Dial sent
us to a nice pizza joint near their shop. Dennis and I ordered a
couple of slices of the finest thin crust New York style pizza Ive
had in over 10 years. It was to die for.
If youve never had a slice while actu-ally in New York, you have
no clue how good New York pizza really is.
The next stop for the day was Habbys Transmission in Hicksville,
NY. Habbys is a busy shop full of hard-working guys. Back in 99,
they got into torque converters, because they were having so many
problems with
the converters they were buying. Today they not only rebuild
converters for their own transmission work, they also sell to a few
local transmission shops. When asked about the comeback ratio on
converters, they look me straight in the eye and said Zero. I
believed them.
Wholesale work is a major part of Habbys business; so much so
that they even have a full-time outside salesper-son, who makes
sales calls to the gen-eral repair shops in their area.
They also do cooling system and A/C repairs, and will provide
gen-eral repairs when asked, but they dont advertise those general
repairs. As Wayne pointed out, Wholesale work is such an important
part of our busi-ness, I dont want to compete with my
TRENCH REPORTS: A Little Bite Out of the Big Apple
Habby's Transmissions (L to R) Marvin Miranda, Jorge Lopez and
Jamie Chavarria.
Habby's Transmissions (L to R) Mike Cheshire, Rich Kornacki,
Wayne Frie, Pete Gaiser, Shaun Delph and Warren Frie.
Wholesale work is a major part of Habbys business; so much
so
that they even have a full-time outside salesperson, who makes
sales calls to the general repair shops
in their area.
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GEARS March 2006 51
own customers. The general shops in the area keep us busy enough
without trying to cut into each others market.
The last stop was A-1 Award Transmission in Huntington, NY. A-1
Award is a nice clean shop with a focus on producing a quality
product. They rebuild about 10 units a week with an almost
nonexistent comeback ratio.
A-1 Award receives a large number of customer referrals;
according to shop manager Charlie Raymond, at least two or three a
day. When asked what he attributed that type of referral rate to,
he said, By being fair and honest with the customer, and taking
pride in the work we do. And we make it a point to speak on their
level. I try to put myself on the other side of the counter, and
think of how Id like to be treated when I have a problem.
As far as their comebacks, Charlie says, Everybody has
comebacks. Its not about whether you have a come-back; its how you
handle those come-backs that determines whether you end up with a
satisfied customer or not.
We were surprised to see they had an extensive parts department,
which is a little unusual in todays market, with the number of
different units on the road and the rapid delivery service most
parts houses offer. A-1 Award was previously written about in GEARS
April-04 issue. Its nice to have them in GEARS one more time.
The common thread with the shops we visited, besides being
long-time ATRA Members? Its the one we see so often. Family owned
and operated, with a staff of hard working people that are all
treated like family and interested in doing the job right the first
time; they are all the Good Guys.
Since this is a New York City story,
I have to end with a food story. Friday night I was honored to
have dinner at Peter Lugers Steak House in Brooklyn. For dinner,
the kind of fun but typically surly New York waiter started us off
with a huge piece of beefsteak tomato and sweet Bermuda onion,
covered with the special house sauce. It was pretty darn good. But
nothing could have prepared me for incredible, huge, water-aged
Porter House steak, served family style, on a huge platter for
three us of us to share. It was, without question, the best steak I
have ever had anywhere. Thanks Don Swartz of Airport Transmission
in Rochester, NY, and Kenny Hester of WIT. It was quite an
experience, even if it did end at 2:00 in the morning, when I had
to work at 6:30.
Later this year, when ATRA is in New York, well have a slice of
the Big Apple, not just a little bite.
A-1 Award Transmissions (L to R) Charlie Raymond; Larry Steiger;
Charlie Raymond, Sr. (Dad); Thomas Abbatiello; Steve Zimicki; and
Eva Raymond (Mom).
A-1 Award receives a large number of
customer referrals; according to shop manager Charlie
Raymond, at least two or three a day.
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