Automotive Repair News Today

Braxton Critcher [00:00:05]:
This is Automotive Repair News today. What's up? Thanks for hanging out on Braxton. Got a lot to cover on this episode. If you've not listened to it before. This podcast is designed to give you the latest headlines of all that's happening across the automotive repair space and even the automotive industry. To just keep you informed as a shop owner, an industry leader, a technician, someone at a dealership, all the things these podcasts are to help you stay in the know of what's going on around the industry. By the way, my name is Braxton, and just by way of confession as we start today's show, a couple things I just need to get off my chest. I realize this is not Confessions of a Shop Owner with Mike Allen, but I did something last week I just got to get off my chest because if I you don't, at some point Lucas Underwood is going to, well, roast me for it and I'm not going to be prepared.

Braxton Critcher [00:01:02]:
So just getting this out there, part of what I do is of course, this podcast, produce a couple of other podcasts, but I also help Lucas Underwood at his repair shop in Blowing Rock make social media videos. So go find Lucas's shop on Facebook, Instagram, give us a follow and like our content. But I was up there last week, drove my wife's car, periodically, take it up there just to have a peace of mind evaluation and a technician to look over it. Because if you know me, I am not a car guy. I can't change oil, I can inflate tires, I can turn the car on, I can pop the hood, pump gas. But I mean, that's the extent of what I can do with a car. So, and this is, this is a recurring problem at this point now because anyway, the problem is tires. I, I don't take care of my tires and apparently my wife's tires.

Braxton Critcher [00:02:06]:
So last summer I got some, some new Continental tires from Lucas's shop and Lucas made a video of kind of making fun of me because I waited way too long. I never rotated, rotated tires and it was past the point that I need to get some. Well, I took my wife's car up there last week when I was at Lucas's shop and we had just recently got her two new front tires because they, they needed them. From what I could tell, the backs were okay. And the shop, because, see, I don't live in Blowing Rock, I live in Asheville. And so it's, you know, a couple hours away and the tires needed to be changed in the front. I couldn't tell the Back ones were. Were that bad.

Braxton Critcher [00:02:51]:
So took it to a shop. They changed the two new tires on the front and then said, oh, you know, the backs are good for a little while. I said, okay, great, great. That's great. Got to Lucas's shop, though, and the back, like on the inside of the tire where I could not see. Well, we're pretty bad. You know, the tread was gone and we were getting pretty thin, about to blow. And Lucas called me out like, hey, what is it with you and tires? Do you not like safety? You know, do you.

Braxton Critcher [00:03:23]:
Are you trying to get your wife killed? And long story, but I just had to get that off my chest was, you know, me and tires were starting, you know, a new leaf. We're turning a new leaf or starting a new chapter here because something's got to change. My ability and knowledge in tires is apparently not great. So I'm going to start rotating them with every oil change and changing them when Lucas tells me to and not taking them to the shops. That will give me two new front tires and neglect the fact that my back tires are also failing. So anyway, getting that off my chest. But by the way, also one more thing before I get to the news. I am trying something new with this podcast where I'm not just reading the news, obviously, as you can hear, I'm trying to do this in a conversational way that, that isn't boring, dry, whatever.

Braxton Critcher [00:04:22]:
And this still may be boring or dry to you, but if you like this new format of me just talking through what's happening in the headlines, then let me know@braxtontomotiverepairnews.com a couple of you have reached out and said that you like this format better. So if that continues, then this won't be the new format. This will just be the format. So anyway, to today's headlines. First up, I've covered the repair act for at this point, a year and it'll still be a thing I talk about because it's not passed yet. But my goodness, it feels like we're headed in that direction. The. Let's see.

Braxton Critcher [00:05:02]:
Yes, the C. TDA and the tia that's California Tire Dealers association and the TIA leadership recently met with members of Congress last week. And of course the conversation was right to repair, but specifically for tire dealers to get access to critical data calibration ADOs alignment for newer vehicles. Right. The bill, the repair act is HR 1566. That's a new number recently. HR 1566, 27 bipartisan co sponsors right now. And California Republican Kevin Mullen and Ro Khanna are supporters of this bill and they need more supporters.

Braxton Critcher [00:05:59]:
People from the CTDA and the TIA are doing that. But they also, if you are in California, need your help because automakers are pushing back really hard against this legislation. Well, it's going to hurt their, their pocket, their wallet. They want to be able to have all the information and not be able to share it. Even if they charge independent repair shops, they want to keep all of that on their side. And so this bill needs support. I feel as though it's going to be passed, but we don't know that. And so if you're in California or anywhere in the states, this bill needs your support, right? To email, contact your congress people, your representatives, and let them know of your need as an independent repair shop or your desire as a car driver to want to have the option to choose where you take your car to get repaired.

Braxton Critcher [00:07:06]:
That is HR 1566, the Repair Act. And that's the latest update for tire dealers in California. Now really fighting for this to get past. All right, SEMA, Apex coming up November 4th through the 7th in Las Vegas. My first experience at Apex, SEMA was last year. Fantastic. Loved Las Vegas. What's coming up again, 2,000 exhibitors, the great networking and then of course in freaking Las Vegas.

Braxton Critcher [00:07:41]:
So that's exciting. It. The registration is open now. It is $50 from now to June 27th. So a little over a month, $75 after that until September 27th when it goes up to 100. So right now, if you are thinking about going or going, you know, cash in on that $50 to go to SEMA and Apex. Now when you get a SEMA badge, you also get an APEX badge. I admittedly did not get the chance to go to SEMA because I spent all my time at Apex, which was also awesome.

Braxton Critcher [00:08:18]:
I encourage you to try to go to both. Don't just go to one, go to both. But I loved Apex. Can't speak to Sema, but I've heard great things there too. So again, November 4th through the 7th, Sema Fest is going to be back. All the networking, all the things register now for SEMA and APEX in Las Vegas. All right, back to California for a second. Right now there is, if you're a repair shop, listen to this.

Braxton Critcher [00:08:48]:
Because there is a Cool air rebate program that just, well, technically launches tomorrow, May 1, 2025. They have piloted this rebate program in Fresno where they're offering financial assistance to low income Californians for repairing leaking R134A vehicle AC systems, if you are familiar with that system, it is a greenhouse gas emission happy system. And this program will cover up to $1875 in repair costs with up to 1500 paid directly, two certified shops and the remaining balance of up to 375 paid by the vehicle owner. So this is a big deal. If you're a repair shop and they're you're in a low income area, you know, you can offer this to your customers, your clients, this Cool Air rebate where if they've got this failing system in their car, you know the program will cover up to $875 in the repair costs. Again, that's the Coolair rebuild rebate program that you can apply for to be a certified shop. Right now, 128 shops in the country, in the country in the state of California are currently certified and they're looking for more. So if you'd like to register, if you'd like to learn more about this Cool Air rebate program, you can do that in California, starts in May.

Braxton Critcher [00:10:27]:
And you can get all the details@coolairrebate.org that's coolairrebate.org all right, so at the top of the show, I talked about Confessions of a Shop owner and Mike Allen and one of his close relationships on that show so far has been Todd Hayes. And I had the chance to meet Todd at Vision 2025 in early March and he was exactly as expected, very knowledgeable, very passionate in your face. But definitely knows how to help run repair shops. And the Todd Hayes is dipping his little toes into AI with what's called aix. It's a live coaching platform where if you're a repair shop and you've got aix, it will allow you to analyze sales calls in real time, audit scripts, improve customer service with driven or data driven feedback. So Todd Hayes, I think he even mentioned something about AI when I was with him in Kansas City. But I guess they've been working on this for a little while. And if you'd like to learn more about how this can make an impact in your repair shop, you can check auto shop answers out online@autoshopanswers.com now it's AIX, so go check that out.

Braxton Critcher [00:11:59]:
All right, that's basically the scoop on automotive repair news today about all that's happening in the automotive industry. If you've got other news stories that you feel needs to be covered, or even me interview someone to learn more about a certain topic, let me know at Braxton Automotive Repair news.com thanks so much for listening. Have a great day. Hey, if you're still here, thank you so much for listening to this episode of Automotive Repair News Today. If you enjoyed the show, please take a moment like share. Subscribe to the podcast. It'll help us out a big deal and help grow the show. And you know what? While you're at it, slap on a review too.

Braxton Critcher [00:12:40]:
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