Grand Rapids Auto Repair

This summer is going by so quickly! In Michigan the 4 th of July can be cold, hot, rainy, sunny or any other combination. Being a Michigander requires the ability to carry copious amounts of clothing in our vehicle so we can change when the weather does. It’s a day spent eating burgers, hot dogs, and brats—running around with sparklers and possibly even attending a parade. The day is wrapped up with the explosion of color and light in the sky, followed by ooh’s and aah’s. Going to a parade on 4 th of July is interesting because you usually see classic cars, fire trucks, the local politicians throwing candy, Boy Scouts, people on horseback, etc. I remember sitting at the Dorr 4 th of July parade every year and trying to keep three little kids from jumping in front of the beautiful classic cars for a tootsie roll that was just out of their reach. Watching the excitement on their faces as the fire trucks and police vehicles rolled past. Americans have a deep love f ... read more

On this upcoming Sunday we celebrate Father’s Day. One of the biggest blessings in my life is my business partner who is also my husband and our children’s father. We began as a young couple with three children and became business partners out of necessity, not design, when we purchased the family business from Jeff’s family. I’m thankful for a man who worked hard all week and still coached his kid’s soccer teams on Saturday. For several years he wasn’t able to attend many weekday kid’s events but made a point to take what little free time he had to spend with them. They always knew they were important to him. Jeff modeled commitment, a strong work ethic and love to his kids every day. The kids getting up at 6:00 in the morning to see their Dad before he left for work wasn’t something I thought about at the time but on reflecting back, I realize how precious that time was. When we purchased the business, he asked me to begin working with him, even though I had n ... read more

It seems like social media is this ever changing and evolving animal. Seventeen years ago when I began working with Jeff at Arie Nol Auto Center, marketing was simple. ‘Which sized Yellow Pages ad would you like?’ was the big decision for the year. Now, there is a plethora of platforms and new ways to reach our customers. Customers are reached several ways based on certain criteria. Age does play a factor but I’ve had 75-year old customers who’ve said they follow us on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. We dipped our toes into the water of Twitter a while ago to kind of see what it was all about. Being restricted to 140 or less characters is an adjustment but it’s easier to find something relevant without wasting a lot of time reading paragraphs of information. Leonardo da Vinci said “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”. You don’t find long rambling posts on Twitter like you may on Facebook. One of the things I do like about Twitter is the fact t ... read more

Have you ever wondered about the process of auto repair? When you drop your vehicle off, what happens in ‘the bays’? While not every auto repair shop has the exact same process, I’m guessing that most processes are similar to ours. When you schedule your appointment, based on what type of work you are having done, the service advisor takes an educated guess at the amount of time needed to perform the work or diagnose the problem. We have a finite number of labor hours a day so we work to fill those hours and schedule the vehicles accordingly. Our goal is always to meet the timeframe stated to the customer. I’d like to say that always happens, and it usually does, but there are times when the bolt breaks or a part doesn’t arrive and that changes the time frame. The service advisor takes all the information and enters it into his computer. This information is then sent via an iPad to the technician chosen to work on your vehicle. The technician brings your vehicle ... read more