Did Mike close his shop? When did he close?

Noone in New Jersey has ever been to Motorwerks to have there car serviced? Does anyone know why he closed shop??

The economy is killing our automotive repair business and last month alone, over 15 Import shops in NJ went out of business. I'm not sure about Mike, but I did try and call his number and it was disconnected.
My main supplier of parts (and all other MB indy shops supplier) had contacted me to ask how my business was doing...I guess to make sure they were getting a weekly check.
It is scary to see many friends and friendly competitors close like that. I'm grateful that I: 1)Have good credit. 2) set aside extra money for a rainy day. 3) Have loyal customers. 4) have the desire to do what it takes to keep my lights on. (I've been working 14-16 hour days for the last two weeks).
It was a lot slower than normal over the winter for all of our shops and that is what I believe put a lot of us out there in a tight spot now. Also, the price of gas affects the price of the parts. I purchased a part a month ago for $xx and this month the same part cost me $xx +25% and the list price did not change. The markup on parts is what us shops use to pay the overhead and if there is no markup on the parts (if a customer brings in their own parts) there will soon be no shop and then Mercedes owners will be at the hands of the dealership.
Dave

His shop closed because he was a terrible tech and people stopped going to him except for basic maintainence service! After Mike left COAST/TSE MERCEDES (rumor is he was terminated), he never maintained sufficient training to diagnose and work-on later model MB's and more and more of his customers (including myself) ended up having to pay for repairs twice - when we had to take our vehicles to the dealer to get them fixed AFTER after he worked on them! Bad techs don't get repeat business. And without customers, you can't pay the rent!

I can't complain about the current economy. It seems that lately everyone wants to fix their car. My shop is booked up for the next two weeks (leaving two spots open a day for small stuff or emergencies). It's rare that we get a comeback, but sometimes ***** happens. It is the way the owner deals with the errors that make the difference.
My wisest investment was to purchase the factory laptop for Mercedes and BMW. There is nothing that we have to turn away to the stealership due to the lack of tools or training.
Dave