#1951 - Navigating New Tech: ADAS and Automotive Innovations - The C&C Auto Show

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
>> Aaron Clements (00:00):
We do welcome you to the CNC auto show. I'm Aaron
Clements here with Jamie bridges.

>> Jamie B (00:05):
Good morning.

Are we ready?

>> Jamie B (00:06):
We're ready.

All right. We got a fantastic show planned.
We are live here at the beautiful Marriott
Hotel here in Augusta, Georgia, and we have a special
show today. This show will double
as the opening for the SassA event and
that southern Automotive Service
associations event. And before we get
started, we want to first say we,

(00:29):
that we have in our prayers, and our prayers go
out, all those that are affected by Hurricane
Helene, terrible, terrible,
destructive storm. and I've seen some terrible
destruction here in this area.
And, of course, watching tv, we've seen terrible destruction
on in a lot of other places. And,
again, our hearts and prayers go out to them. but

(00:51):
also, I've seen some beautiful things, and that's so
many people moving in together to help
each other, helping people they've never even
seen before. Don't know. They just coming in and helping
in many, many ways. And even at this
particular hotel that we're at, the
Marriott here in Augusta, Georgia, there's

(01:11):
tons of power, workers,
insurance adjusters. It's just filled
with those. The parking lot was packed last night with just a lot of
trucks. And we want to say thank you to all those that are
here and doing the many things that they can to
get people as close to, back to normal as they
can as soon as they can. And I can't
say enough, good things about all these wonderful,

(01:34):
workers, emergency, responders and line
workers and just people that's chipping in to do
things.

>> Jamie B (01:41):
Yeah. I've talked to a lot of linemen this week from out
of town, and they're, they're 100% doing everything that they
can to get us back to normal. As
normal as we can be right now.

Yes, they are. Well, SASA is associated with
the automotive service association, and it has two main
goals, and that's to provide technical and business
trainings to our members and be a voice for
the automotive industry. And after the first hour of
this show, most of the people in this room, they'll be
heading into different management classes,
technical classes, and we'll continue.

(02:14):
Even while they're in those classes, we'll continue
to talk to some of our wonderful guests that we lined up for
today. just before we get started, I want to say thank you to our
board members, Mary Steele, Mike Reynolds, Darren
Dameronization, and Tim Simmons, for making all
this happen. They've, had a lot of calls. They did it,
on very short notice, putting

(02:34):
the event together, and everybody's worked
together so closely, and that part's been good
because we have those same goals. We want to bring
training to our members, and
we'll have different guests during this show
that we have now. And
the. Our goal is to bring our
listeners a lot of good information about

(02:57):
a lot of the new technology that's on the
cars. Automotive world's changing really fast, and we want
to keep our listeners informed.
And in doing that, we'll start with our
first guest.
We have Tyler McIntyre here,
and Tyler is a.
Is the operation manager of mobile

(03:18):
automotive service solutions, or
mass, better known as mass. Matter of fact, that's on your
shirt there, mass. And
that that company is on the cutting
edge of this technology that we're talking about here.
And so, Tyler, welcome to the show.

>> Tyler McIntyre (03:34):
Thank you for having me.

All right, we're going to ask you a lot of questions because what we
want to do is get our, many of our
listeners up to date with a lot of the terms
that's that a lot of this modern technology
goes by and also
let a lot of our listeners know
what's available to them as far

(03:56):
as, as far as driving assistance
and a lot of the things that CRM,
how it can be cared for and why it
should be cared for on a regular
basis. So we'll, we'll,
And I want to mention this also. when I say
mass masks, are
mobile automotive. Mobile automotive service

(04:18):
solutions. in reality, they're
the company that saves a lot of other technicians,
but sometimes.

Sometimes, we do that. Yes, sir.

Yeah, well, a lot of times when
other technicians, along with doing some of the things that we'll
be talking about, the calibration side, evade
us, many times, I'm sure you do some diagnostics,
and, that's when a technician has kind of reached
the end of their rope on trying to do it. And everybody
does that. I'm not proud when it comes to

(04:48):
repairing a car. If I can call another person
and them come by and repair it faster
or know something that I don't know, I'm fine with
that. It's not a. Not a big problem.
But, we appreciate you being here. Appreciate you, being
willing to share some of the knowledge. Tell us a little bit about
your background and what you
do now.

So, yeah, started off in the automotive industry, in the
dealerships on the service, repair side, actually started in
parts, quickly went over to service,
and then, got a fixed operations director role. So I was kind of
over parts and service and, continued on
that side of the, industry for about eight
years and, then had the opportunity to come over

(05:29):
with mass and, best decision I ever made of.

>> Darren Dameron (05:32):
Wow.

Fantastic. Jamie.
Let's, let's, let's go over some of the
items with Tyler, asking him
what some of these items
that they're installing on the card mean and,
what they do, but m possibly, just a very,
very short version of how they work. I'll let you go first. Which

(05:53):
one would you like to ask Tyler about?

>> Jamie B (05:55):
how about adaptive cruise control? What is it and what
does it do?

So, adaptive cruise, first of all, let me say, adas components
and systems are great, but it is important for
the consumer or the driver to fully understand
how each system operates and more
importantly, the limitations of each system.
But adaptive cruise control, that's going to be your smart cruise
control. So give an example. If you're on the

(06:19):
interstate, you set your cruise, you can set it not only for the
speed that you want it to stay at, but you can set it from the
distance from the vehicle in front of you. So, if
you start, if you coming up on a car that's going a lot slower,
it'll slow you down and maintain the distance that you have it
set at.

So when,
the wife is driving the car, no, she's
sitting on the passenger side and the husband's driving
and he's sitting there going up and down with
the. Trying to drive and following too close,
too short. She, could look over and say, honey, why don't you
use acc? And he'll say,

(06:56):
wow.

Yes, sir.

So that's a, I think that's a great system.
and it helps a lot of people. What's ldw or
lane departure warning?

So lane departure warning is an audible alert
that will notify you when you are
drifting out of the lane. So it monitors
the, markings on the road and will just give you a
warning when you're starting to go over those
lines.

And that's normally done by either
manufacturer?

It varies. Yeah. It could be a shake in the steering wheel. It
could be, you know, in a
Toyota, it just gives an audible beeping
when it's picking that up.

Okay.

>> Jamie B (07:34):
All right, so that lane, the lane departure warning works
hand in hand with the lane. Lane keeping assist.

So lane keep assist is it does. So
lane, keep assist is going to try to correct you,
to get you back centered into the lane,
using different types of brake pressure,
pull you back to the left or to the right.

And what's automatic emergency braking?
AEB? Yep.

So AEB, is going to.
Automatic, automatic emergency braking is going
to attempt to stop you in the
event that you're not stopping quick enough.
And at worst case, even if collision is
imminent, really the goal is to lessen the
severity of the wreck.

So don't wait for it to go off?

No, no. Ideally you don't want to wait for it to go
off, but, you.

Know, because it's not going to automatically stop you
before you hit the car.

It does not guarantee that it will prevent a
collision. It will help start slowing you
down. And then, like I said, worst case, if a collision is
unavoidable, hopefully it lessens the severity
of the actual collision.

Very good.

>> Jamie B (08:40):
The blind spot detection.

Yeah. So blind spot. Blind spot detection.
you know, when you're driving in traffic and you
go to put your blinker on, if there is a vehicle that's in your
blind spot, it will typically in the mirrors, there will
be a light that will illuminate, some vehicles
now, like on the kias, you actually turn it
on and it will actually have a video

(09:03):
feed right there on the instrument cluster that will give you an actual
video picture of what's in your blind spot.
So, that is starting to get a little more and more advanced. But
the basic concept is it's not going to allow
you to hit a vehicle in your blind spot when you're trying to switch
lanes.

>> Jamie B (09:18):
So with the blind spot detection, that works hand in hand with the
parking assistants.

So the parking assistants, they get different levels of
that. so your traditional parking, assist
is backing in or pulling in.
it's going to monitor how close an object, another vehicle, a
wall, or, you know, something of that nature is from
the vehicle. They do have
pedestrian, detection now as well. So not only can it pick

(09:43):
up, you know, another vehicle, it can detect and stop you
automatically, if a person is walking through. So that's kind of
the next step in that.

Just real quick question, though, Tyler, do you think that,
is it legal to use
the parking assist when you're getting your
driver's license?

I would probably say no.

Okay. All right, traffic, sign
recognition, what is that?

So it's a forward facing camera typically up in
like in the windshield area that is going to pick up
and detect traffic speed limit signs, that type of thing.
And we'll display them in the instrument cluster for the driver
can easily see them.

>> Jamie B (10:23):
The driver monitoring systems.

Yep. so that's going to be a system that basically
will, again, another camera that's, this one
is focused more on the driver and it's going to pick up the
eyes and it's going to alert a driver if they're
distracted or even drowsy.

I see that on, I think it's a Toyota. Sometime when
I'm driving those, it gives a little cup of coffee up here.

Absolutely. Ah, they have them, they're real big in Tesla is when
you start getting into the fully autonomous, that type of
thing, to make sure that, the driver decided, didn't
decide to take a nap on his way to work or from work.

But.

Yes, sir.

And if I'm not mistaken, some of the vehicles are designed
in a way to where, let's say certain ones, you're
supposed to put your hands back on the wheel in a certain amount of
time. And if you go past
that so many times it will
actually cut the car off.

it can't. Like said, each manufacturer is a little different. You
know, some of them, like you said, require every so often you to grab
the wheel. some of them with the Tesla, I think you don't have to
necessarily grab it, but it'll ask you to just
kind of put your finger on the wheel. Just kind of
move the wheel a little bit so they know that you're
still awake. Yep.

>> Jamie B (11:36):
Oh, the, let's
see, when do you.

Think certain, certain items in the Ada system have to be
calibrated?

So that's actually a really, really in
depth and long answer. So the true
answer to that is you need to check OEM service information
to always make sure that just because there's no
light on doesn't necessarily mean that a system doesn't need
to be calibrated. so really big
misconception in the collision industry. They'll get done post

(12:05):
repair and there will be no lights, no warning lights
on the dash. And I, so they'll return the vehicle back
to the customer. But you know, you're giving the customer
potentially an unsafe vehicle back. But two, you
know, you always run that risk of the customer having to
bring the vehicle back because sometimes those lights
will not set until it's driven a certain

(12:26):
amount of time.

>> Jamie B (12:27):
Yeah.

And so, you know, you deliver the vehicle back to the customer, they think
their vehicle's fixed and then they drive it
and light comes on. Now they're
upset, you gotta bring it back in.
So always, refer
to your service information
to determine if a vehicle needs
calibration.

And that could be very important, because if your vehicle has
automatic braking and it's looking in a different
direction and not able to see
what's in front of it, then it can be, a major problem.

Even if it's off just by a couple of millimeters, it can really
affect the performance and accuracy of it in two different
ways.

One, it could fail to brake before
it hits the car in front of it. but the other
way, it might slam on the brakes.
It shouldn't be slamming on the brakes.

It can, it absolutely can. It can pick up a vehicle
coming the opposite way, you know, vehicle coming down the
other flow, of traffic, and it'll think that you're about to run
into it, slam on the brakes. There's even been some
situations where the radars were facing
up and going under an overpass of a bridge.
It picked it up, thinking that it picked overpass

(13:35):
up and applied the brakes.

Wow.

>> Jamie B (13:38):
So what does the recalibration process look
like?

so again, different vehicles have different procedures.
Some are dynamic, which mean basically using,
your calibration system, you hook up to the
vehicle and you perform a drive under
certain conditions, and the software itself
will perform the calibration. The
other, one is a static calibration, and that's going to be

(14:01):
where you take measurements, you use
targets, and you set the targets at certain
measurements, and then you use your calibration
software to perform those calibrations.

what types of, equipment and space is needed
when you're doing a ada system? So that's
recalibrating? Yes.

Space is very important. so you got two,
you have radars, which obviously send works by
sending a signal out, and then it deflects off of something and comes
back to the vehicle. some vehicles use
cameras, and when you use cameras, you know, you have to have
controlled lighting to make sure that the lighting is
accurate for the good, for the
calibration. And then, you know, space, if you

(14:42):
have vehicles, if you're in a shop setting and, you know, if
you got a vehicle or a toolbox that's right there, you,
can get interference, which will make the calibration
fail. So space is a very important
part, of the calibration process.

Go ahead.

>> Jamie B (15:00):
What are the, effects of EV
on shops of the future? Is
that helping to advance the ADAS
systems?

So, a lot of Ev's do have
more complex and more advanced adas
components. you know, the EV's,
that's kind of a hot topic in the service industry.
You know, a lot of people are in the service side of things are
worrying. You know, they don't require as less main or they
require less maintenance. And so

(15:29):
you're not have as many trips to the service department.

>> Jamie B (15:32):
Yeah.

although they do still require maintenance,
some of the, you know, fluids still need to be changed, that type of
thing. but it's still, if you own an EV, it still is important
to visit your service center to get it
service.

And we are now here with Billy
Roark. Billy is a technician. He graduated
from automotive technical school as top of the class.
And he's worked at both Honda and Ford
dealerships. And right now he works at mobile
automotive service solutions, or mass. And
he is on the cutting edge of the
technology that we have here. he does

(16:07):
a diagnostics and calibrating of
advanced driving assistance systems.
Billy, welcome, to the show.

>> Billy Roark (16:14):
Hey, thank you for having me.

We appreciate you being here.
And I will start out quick.
walk us through the process of
diagnosing and repairing an ADAS
system failure.

Well, one of the most important things you need to do when you go to
diagnose any system, whether it be Adas or
otherwise, is to read how
that system works, how it's designed, where it
gets power from, what it talks to.
those are the important things because you might be chasing your
tail. And to get a direction, you really need to understand how

(16:48):
the system works.

Wow.

>> Jamie B (16:51):
Now, what type of sensors are used with the ADAS
system?

What kind of sensors are used with ADAS systems?

>> Jamie B (16:58):
Well, the cameras and your radar lidar.

Yeah. and also there's lights. you could have your,
blind spot indicators. It could be working with your radio
to display the camera for your rear view. the
lines are actually, controlled by your radio
module that are shown up on the camera. Those don't come from
the camera. and they all work together as well.
Like, if your blind spot indicators aren't working,
it could be a multitude of things. So you got to read the description

(17:23):
operation, because if blind spot indicators aren't working,
it could be your door module. It could be
receiving power from the actual blind spot
indicator. not, indicator, blind spot
module. So you really need to read how this.
Take your time. Look at wiring diagrams before
you attempt any diagnosis.

>> Jamie B (17:41):
So there's little cameras around the outside of the car. Like little
eyeballs stuck all over it.

Yeah, like on your side, your little eyeballs,
your outside rear view mirrors will have them for your
top down on the surround view, your front grille and your
rear camera as well.

>> Jamie B (17:56):
How'd you like that visual?

I love it.
What's some of the, levels? let's say
level zero. What would that be considered as far
as, automated driving?

Well, we don't necessarily classify them as levels, but if I were
to give a number to a zero, it would be something,
that does not have them or just
only parking.

You drive it yourself?

Yes. Yeah, like, a lot of people would like
it.

Yeah.

>> Jamie B (18:23):
All the old stuff that I have.

Well, I enjoy being able to cut something
off. I love it to be there because you never know. It might
be helpful for you, but I love to be able to push a button and
cut it off. But many times you're not able to cut certain things
off.

>> Jamie B (18:38):
Now, driver, assistance programs
like cruise, control, lane assist,
what is this? Can provide limited automation.

Yeah, that's mostly, for
level one as
far as cruise control, if I'm not mistaken. Is that correct?

Yes, sir. an example would be like, certain
ones that, would probably be. Level one would be lane keeping
assist to where it actually gives you an audible
indicator, that you're crossing, ah,
over the lines. And then there are some more
advanced lane, keeping assist that will actually apply the
brakes on certain wheels to actually pull you back into
the center. there's also haptic feedback that you get in

(19:19):
your seat and your steering, wheel that won't exist on some
makes and models.

Moving on into level two. And we're
starting to get a little bit more. The computer's taking a little bit
more control here. What does that include?

Well, I would probably consider, that, like, if you
have, your adaptive cruise control,
some of them with your radar, you'll be following behind a car
and it will keep a safe distance. But then there are
some of them where if you drop below 25 miles
an hour, that system shuts off. But on
some of the more advanced systems, the vehicle will come

(19:53):
to a complete stop. It will stay in cruise control
mode, and then it will shut off the auto start
stop. And then when that car moves in front of you, you
must slightly apply that accelerator pedal, and
then it will continue on in its adaptive cruise control
state.

>> Jamie B (20:08):
So all you have to do is steer.

Yes. And keep attentive.

>> Jamie B (20:12):
Yeah, yeah.

All right.

>> Jamie B (20:17):
so the levels with the higher automation where
the vehicle increasingly takes over driving tasks, level
five is full automation where no driver input
is required. So that's. Tesla tried
that. And then there's other companies that are
doing that with the, what is it, the
driverless cabs.

Yeah, I've heard a lot about that on the west coast,
personally. Where I live is not a huge city. Charleston's
a beautiful city, but it's not huge. So we don't have that kind of
infrastructure there yet for. Or even the parking for
those. And the correct street
size.

>> Jamie B (20:50):
Yeah, all kinds of stuff. Yeah, they're kind of narrow.

But in short, if you were using this type
scale, a level four and five would be more
considered, ah, autonomous driving.

Correct. And I would also stress, that
when you get into calibrating those types of vehicles,
you better do it, certainly because you're,
You could get sued. You could. There's a lot of things that
happen. You, could get sued for calibrating any of them
incorrectly. Because if that vehicle is an accident or it
does something that's not designed to do, which causes a vehicle

(21:21):
accident, that lawyer is going to come after you.
The collision shop, the person that hired you, person
that sold you coffee that morning, you're.

>> Jamie B (21:29):
Yeah, there's a lot of liability.

There's a lot of liability.

And to do it correctly, there's a lot of equipment. We talked about
the extra space and knowledge.

Correct. And we at mass, we actually use all
Oem tools. A, lot of the
aftermarket brands, they don't use
dealership, approved targets. And if something were to
happen, and this is just my opinion, and
you're not using OEM tools, that's an
easy way for you to get held liable.

>> Jamie B (21:58):
Yeah, well, you got to cover your own.

But in the service information, it tells you
exactly what target you need,
the part number of the target, what. You know what I
mean?

>> Jamie B (22:08):
Idiot proofs it.

Yes.

What do you think some of the technicians in the future will need to
know as far as the
type skills that would be very helpful for
them.

The most important skill that's helped me, is,
and I've mentioned this before, is reading the
service information, understanding how it works.
Understanding, and I work on a lot of collision cars
and I want to give credit to some of the technicians that call us
for diagnostic work. you know, they might be harping on
and they might call us for this one problem that they fix 99

(22:42):
other problems on this vehicle and they are just. They just
need another eye. Exactly.

That's what happens.

Not easy for me. My job is challenging,
but I'm coming there to solve one problem. You know what I mean?
They've already. And they can give me as much information or as little
information as they want about what they've done to the
car.

But, so when you're coming in, what's the good
side of yours is many times they've
already eliminated a huge number of things that could cause
or.

They think they have eliminated you. I
never trust anybody's, electrical diagnosis
before I arrive. Yeah, I've checked this. I've checked
that. Well, sometimes the little retainer inside
the connector of the PCM might have gotten
dislodged and is not connecting pin
seven to the PCM. And that's causing your

(23:30):
issue. And I come in there and I undo a
connector, I fix it back up, and I plug it in.

I checked everything but the fuse.

Yeah, that's, another big one. I
probably sell 150
fuses a year.

Wow. Amazing.

>> Jamie B (23:47):
it takes a special kind of person to be able to do electrical
diagnostic and then to do it. Well,
kudos to you.

As I said, just reading, like, not getting
stuck in this loop of I wonder if it could be this, I
wonder if it could be that. Read and find a direction of what it
could be and what it couldn't be.

And we got about a minute.
what's the most challenging part of your job?

personally, m in my field is
learning how different manufacturers
provide, their service information to the technician,
whether it be where to find wiring diagrams, where to find
connector pinouts, where to find what
reference values should be, and also learning how to
navigate the different OEM scan tools.

(24:32):
that's what's challenging for me in my job.

And what's, what's really weird about our job is
once you get it all down pat and you know exactly where
this is, they change it. Yeah,
everything changes. The system changes. They're
either making it lighter, smaller, faster,
or whatever, but it's under a constant change.
so that's what makes this industry a lot of fun.

(24:54):
And, it makes it fun, but challenging.
Now we're here with Tom Steele. He's an instructor
with the Napa tech. And,
Tom, welcome to the show.

>> Tom Steele (25:04):
Well, thanks for having us.

We appreciate you being here. What are some of the things that
you do, with, as far as, with Napa tech as
an instructor?

well, basically, I start out with most of what I do is
all the younger guys just coming out of OTEC school just getting
started, and we have a, what we call build a tech
program. And they're three, four day classes.
And I take them from here's a screwdriver to
do an electrical diagnosis like your last guest was talking about. So
it's very diversified. we basically take

(25:33):
young guys and get them ready to start being a line tech.

>> Jamie B (25:35):
Wow, so you do a, like, vehicle system one at a
time?

Yep. We start out with brakes, and then after we do
four days of breaks, and we also work with them to get their ase
certification. then the next thing we do is suspension. So
we do alignment angles and how to put ball joints and u
joints and. And, then next is, ah, an electrical class
where we teach them how to use a multimeter. And, then finally we
end up with, air conditioning. And two weeks from now,
we're rolling out our fifth module, which will be, engine repairs.

(26:01):
We'll actually have working engines that we'll be able to
take apart and use micrometers and do
compression tests and all that kind of stuff. So it's kind of neat.
I'm nearing the end of my career, and it's kind of funny. I look back and it's
like when I first got started, there was nothing like that,
just the basic stuff.

>> Jamie B (26:19):
Yeah.

You know, but, it's exciting. I really enjoy it.

Yeah, I think it's a bust now. I mean, for technicians,
and not only for the younger technicians coming
into the industry, but I think it's very important
for technicians that have been in the industry
for 1015, even 20
years. They need to stay updated. If you
don't, the information that you learned very, early on
all those years back is going to be

(26:44):
either obsolete or really not
needed, anymore. You have to stay
up to date. And I'm a strong proponent
of recommending that to technicians because
when, at our advisory board meeting,
which Jamie's a part of our, Augusta Technical
college advisory board also. And that's how we met,
I believe, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. but. And

(27:07):
they're doing some wonderful things. but when they're talking
about trying to get new technicians into the industry,
I say, well, let's keep the ones that are already
here. Also, we need new people coming
into the industry, but we have to train
more of the technicians that are already
here, and. Which is a little difficult because
most of them have families. they, they. When they get off

(27:30):
work, they're. They're tired, and they
really don't want to do that much. But we have to invest
in that training by either,
letting the technicians off early or doing things like
we're doing right here today. This is what
the SASA event
is about, management training, which
makes us able to serve the

(27:52):
consumer better. And it's about
technical training, which makes it where we can actually repair
the vehicles better or take care of the
concern that the customer has. So I think
all of that new, new
technicians and existing.
And while we're on that subject, I'm gonna go ahead and ask. That's
what. What's some of the,

(28:13):
importance of being part of an
association?

Associations are. It's
grassroots. You know, it's. It's, you
know, I'm working in a shop. You're working a shop.
Jamie's working in a shop, and it's impossible for us
to know it all. So all of a sudden now I've got a
friend I can reach out. Hey, you know, Aaron. Hey, can you help me out
with this? Do you have this tool? You have that tool, and it's. It's that
whole family thing that you get. You get created when you have

(28:40):
a good association. You know,
it's. It's invaluable, in my opinion. You know,
it's, the training, we get to pick
locally who we want, what training we want. You know, you brought
up training for some of the elderly guys, and it's just like, you
know, go back to something is bleeding brakes.
You know, we've been, you know, bleeding brakes since the. Since

(29:00):
cars came out. Yet today's cars are completely different.
And if you don't have the process down, then the next thing you know,
you're spinning your wheels, putting parts on a cart that ain't gonna fix
it because of a new process that comes out. So
I love the associations. I mean, I've been working with Napa
now for going on ten years, and, before that,
I was a president up in Pennsylvania, so I ran an

(29:20):
association for years. and it was really
nice. Some of the stuff that we did,
the community stuff, you know, food
drives and coat drives and things like that, that we did.
And it's a way to build
a group, invaluable.

Well, on my end, as a shop,
it would be very difficult if we were to call
someone like you. I know you handle the large,
more company, counts,
but, a company like ours, it's
a fairly large company, but even at our
size, it would be difficult for us to call up a

(29:56):
great instructor, and him
or her say, yeah, I'll drive down and we'll have a
class because we might have 10, 15,
20 technicians by ourself,
and they say, well no, it would be very difficult
for us to do that, but if you call and say, hey, we have an
associate association and we have about 40
or 50 to 100, 100 and 5200

(30:19):
members that would like that need this
training class, then it would make it
possible for you to do that so you can get
high level training into an area by being
a part of an association.
Numbers speak and great instructors
like you tend to

(30:39):
go there if you have the numbers.

You know, the other cool thing about an association, you know, you brought up
training outfit and you'll get 50 or 100 guys. And
what I always liked was the interaction
between, I you know, I go to training classes
constantly to keep up and it's amazing. I'll learn as much
sitting the guy next to me on either side
as I do from the instructor. You know, the networking and you

(31:01):
know, you worked on this car and I worked on that car and did you run
across this and where do you buy that and all that kind of stuff. The
networking that happens in an association, it's just
you can't put a price on it.

It's hard to beat that real world stuff.

>> Jamie B (31:13):
Yeah, yeah, no, it is, it is.
The more you know, the more people you know, the easier your life is.

Yeah.

and I'm some way when I come to an event like this, one of my best
parts is like we, we got Mike over there nearby
and we had Billy on the show here and
just technique. All the technicians that are here, I'm
able to spend some time talking to them and I learned as much
there as I do in the classroom. That's not to say that
I don't learn a lot in the classroom.

Oh yeah.

But but you can talk to that. What kind of tool do you
use for this? Or where do, where did you get that at?
Or what's the procedure for that? And they're talking this
real world stuff and it makes a huge difference
in, in what you do.

So you know, you get, you know, 50 texts in a
room and they all got a different way of attacking it and you, how can
you not spend 8 hours with somebody you know, And
not learn stuff? It's, it's, it's what we have to do. I
mean the amount of, I remember
when I first started out, you'd buy the motor guy would come in,
you'd buy $3 and that's all you needed. And now it's like,

(32:13):
no, I could fit it, you could fit it in his room.

The amount of information you never would.

No.

Now, we talked about some of the good parts on the training.
What's, some of the more challenging parts that you have as far
as training as being an instructor,
showing up.

And, it's funny, we're going to say hurricane power
outages, equipment failures, showing up
and it's your first time at a training facility and
you show up and the guy who's set has got no idea what
you need. So it gets a little challenging.
some of the younger guys, depending on who's paying
them, if they're coming on their dime or somebody else's,

(32:49):
sometimes the attendance is,
ah, what's the word I'm looking
for? The focus is not there.

And Tom, what we, what we've tried to do here, this
show is mostly just consumers. People who
want their car repaired. They have an issue with their
car, they're taking it and getting repaired. What we're trying to
do is bring a lot of our listeners into
the industry that we have here. We're letting them know some of the
things that we do to try to keep

(33:19):
the industry strong or to try to have their
car repaired where it could be safe,
dependable and last them a long, long time for less
money. And that's what we do. We appreciate you being here with
us. And we have somebody here that is Mike
Reynolds. Mike's with the, mobile,
automotive service solutions, or mass.
And he's, at one time he was an automotive

(33:42):
aftermarket technician and he did that for about ten
years. And then he started this mobile
diagnostic business. Now has about five vans in the
Charleston area. Very, very
knowledgeable in this area. And that's
how he got to where he is now. And of
course, he's got some, some of the
technicians we've talked to a little earlier, they were

(34:04):
great. Mike, welcome to the show.

>> Mike Reynolds (34:07):
Yeah, thank you. I'm grateful for the invitation. Excited to chat with you
guys today.

Well, I can't help but ask you this first question. How in the world do
you find these great technicians like we interviewed earlier
today?

we've been, we've been very lucky. you know, we, we try and
get a lot of guys to these events, shake hands and meet some people
within, our technician community. we get to do
a lot of the exciting stuff. So those sort of technicians are
the ones we tend to attract, which, it's a
recipe for success. It works really well.

Yeah. they like that
knowledge.

Exactly.

>> Jamie B (34:38):
So you send them to any training event that
pops up as often as possible.

Yeah, as much as I can. we were talking earlier. We've got a couple guys
that have, done two weekends in a row at training, which is a
big sacrifice, but it, it says a lot to
them, being willing to invest in their future and in their
career. So we're happy to encourage them along that
path.

>> Jamie B (34:59):
It's awesome.

Mike, during the earlier segments, we've talked a little bit about
some of the parts of the Ada system, as far
as the different, parking assists
and automatic braking and all of these
other things that are there.
this is an important part of the vehicle now. And
actually, it's been said that once the
vehicles, more and more vehicles have

(35:22):
aid us and have more of this
technology on it, even though it'll
be more autonomous, it'll be safer than
before. What do you think some of the challenges
that the technicians that are coming up now will face in
the future? And along with that, just a little view
of what you think the future will be in automotive
industry?

Yeah, I think, we have a lot of challenges ahead of us.
it's no longer just being mechanical
technicians working with nuts and bolts now. These
cars are essentially driving themselves. Right. And,
you know, we talk about a lot of the regular service procedures
that we used to perform. If you replace a radiator or an AC
condenser, now you're calibrating an ADAS system. Right.

(36:03):
not only does that make the repair cost more for the consumer, but
it also, when you look at the labor time involved
and the technical skills that those technicians need
to have in order to perform those services. so
we're seeing cost of repairs skyrocketing
now. And that's a big piece of it that I think is often overlooked
is it's not just a regular nuts

(36:23):
and bolts technician that you want to be performing those
services. and on the technician side, it's just a lot of
education and learning and you have to be willing to
learn. so that's one of the big challenges that.
The exciting thing about that, though, is that I believe the next
generation of technicians wants that. They grew up with tablets and
computers in their hands and they're excited about that more than

(36:44):
they're excited about changing brake pads. Right. So, we
are able to attract those people into the industry, but, at the
same time, it's much more challenging. There's a lot more to learn, a lot
more to understand.

Walk us through a AdAs
calibration. Let's say a vehicle is involved in an accident
and there were several sensors involved in
this vehicle will be needing Adas calibration.
What's, some of the steps? I mean, do you, you actually
put these targets in front of the vehicle
to aim these different cameras? And where do

(37:15):
you get the information on knowing
exactly where to set them?
Just walk through that a little bit.

That's a great question. And loaded, questions. So there
are just about every manufacturer has, a
different calibration procedure for different
components. Generally, when
the three big calibrations that we're performing are going to be our
front radars, front cameras and the windshield, and then also
blind spot radars in the rear of the vehicle, those are the most common.
and between one manufacturer, those are three different

(37:45):
procedures. So when we look at a Subaru
procedure versus a Honda, Toyota,
General Motors, they're all pretty different. And, I think Tyler
mentioned earlier, we have generally we can break
those into dynamic calibrations where we're driving the vehicle
and then the statics, which are more people are aware
with where you're placing targets in very specific locations.

(38:05):
We, like to call it shooting the target. Right. we set up our scan
tool and we hit calibrate. And if that target's placed in the correct
position, and usually if the component is oriented
correctly, which is where we struggle after a collision,
is that component mounted correctly, is it
off center? and then from there it'll set the calibration.

It's not a case of the vehicle just being
repaired in a way to where it looks good. The
measurements have to be perfect in order for
these angles to work, right, with the
calibration of the sensors.

Absolutely. And so a lot of manufacturers recommend that a
calibration is done even after a minor collision. so that
means that, if the things hit in the side of the door, we want to calibrate the
radar that's in the front of that vehicle. and often
calibrations are required after components are removed and
reinstalled. And the point of that is a lot of these, you look at
a front radar can read 800ft down the road.

(38:55):
If that radar is shifted, let's say, in an
accident, or it's removed from the vehicle and it's reinstalled,
that radar is two degrees off at half of the
workable distance. So again, we mentioned 800ft at
400ft, that radar center point is actually in the wrong
lane. Right. so if you think about the consequences
of that, if you don't calibrate that and that radar is looking off

(39:16):
to the left at half of the usable distance.
Now it's going to see a car coming in on coming traffic and lock up the
brakes because it thinks going to get in a head on collision.

that may not necessarily eliminate a light
to let you know it's off.

Exactly. These components have no idea to know that they've been
removed and reinstalled. They have no way to know that they're in a collision.
so that's why calibration is imperative and
that's the big challenge for technicians and also
consumers is knowing that we haven't been calibrating, we've been fixing
cars for years and years and years. Now these components
are in and we didn't realize that they needed calibrated.

(39:50):
Right. so that's very important is to make sure that we're
not overlooking those and understand the
consequences of not performing these calibrations.

>> Jamie B (39:59):
That's great information because I don't think a lot of people
realize the
capacity that these modules and sensors
have.

Exactly.

>> Jamie B (40:08):
And the importance of just a minor little
tweak.

How does the consumer know that the vehicle has been
calibrated correctly?

I guess that's a really good question. you're
taking it to a professional repair shop that is following
the procedures and doing the process right.
unfortunately there have been, we've seen some
instances, especially after collision repairs where
calibrations weren't performed. So I think the big thing is,
taking it to a professional repair shop.

Do they have printouts that they can.

Most manufacturers do in their software can give
you a screenshot, but that's actually one of the
challenges is that each manufacturer
software operates a little bit differently. Right. So
we as technicians, we know what a calibration, a
good calibration looks like, but to expect the consumer
to be able to identify that is kind of challenging. each

(40:58):
manufacturer has what we would call a completed screen that looks a little
bit different. So it's hard to kind of isolate that. the
big thing for us is in documentation and also test drives. So every
one of our calibrations we document, obviously
the screenshots showing that it completed successfully.
And then also we're going to perform a test drive, verify that the
systems are operating and everything's working properly.

So in short, you want to make sure that you have your car repaired. At a
good reputable, professional,
repair facility, when a collision is performed, even
if it might seem like a minor collision,
it's very important to have all of this
repaired and calibrated correctly.

Exactly. And even after general, ah,
service, if your vehicle has these systems,
there may be services that are performed where those components are removed and
reinstalled, and it's critical that they're calibrated.
So now more than ever, we've said for years,
make sure you take your vehicle. It's one of your biggest
investments. Take it to a reputable repair
facility. but now you've got a vehicle that's driving

(41:56):
itself. So it is imperative that these systems are repaired
properly and calibrated.

what can a consumer do,
to take care of their ada system? Are
there things that they can do themselves to make sure
that it's either working properly or that
it will last a long time?

with that, these systems are connected to
everything from the taillights to,
the hood latch on the
vehicle. Proper maintenance is going to be important,
but, as far as those systems, the systems are working until they're
nothing. You just have to be aware. You get in a
collision, make sure it's repaired properly. but
outside of that,

(42:37):
there's no maintenance. There's no cleaning the
wiping the sensors. You do need a clean windshield, but you got
windshield wipers for that. so, yeah, there really is no
maintenance. It's just making sure that all of the systems on the vehicle are
working. One of the things that we often find is we
get a light that we used to ignore for,
an emissions issue. And now that's going to disable

(42:57):
your adaptive cruise control because the adaptive cruise control
uses the engine controller. If the engine controller has an issue,
it's going to set a light and disable all those systems. What
often happens is people bring their vehicle in now
because their adaptive cruise control isn't working, and that's the system
that they like. They don't care about the check engine light.
But in fact, what has disabled the adaptive cruise
control was a, check engine light related issue.

We run into that in the mechanical side.
Also, as far as repairing vehicles, for instance,
vehicles, cruise control won't work. It could be the brake
lights out, one brake light bulb out in the back. And
many vehicles can disable the cruise control.
on, many, many vehicles, people
love their automatic start in the morning time so
that they can warm their car up before they go out.

(43:43):
Well, that check engine light, if it's on high probability
it will disable that.

Yep.

So if you have a vehicle that, let's say your
throttle body has an issue or your throttle pedal
sensor has an issue, boom, it just
sets a trouble code.
Cruise control is gone.

Yeah. Yeah.

And automatic cranking is gone, too.

Yeah. And it's important to stay on top of those because we see vehicles that
get to a point where they let one little issue go for,
a really long time and then finally decide to repair it. And in that
time, we've added two or three more issues that we
didn't know about because that system was already disabled. So
keeping on top of maintenance and repair is going to be critical,
for all systems on the vehicle.

As far as the maintenance
and calibration. is that
something that is
any issues, come up between the insurance
companies and the repairs that they have
to look at to make sure that different
calibrations are approved through the
insurance?

yeah, and we've fought that battle. I mean, on the
consumer end, most consumers are uneducated, but,
you know, big bad insurance companies don't want to pay for
repairs. Right. the manufacturers have published
statements. They say when this component is replaced,
this, calibration needs performed, or if the vehicle
is in a collision, this calibration needs performed. the burden is
on the repair shops and collision shops

(45:05):
to find that information, know where to find that information,
and then present it to the insurance company. And
by law, the insurance company has to pay for those
calibrations. Have we seen, and I will tell you that
we've, reported insurance agents
to, our department, that handles that,
and filed complaints with them for refusing to

(45:25):
pay, for those services. the truth is, if you have an
insurance policy, you purchase a policy that
gets your vehicle repaired back to the condition it was in prior
to the loss. And part of that is the calibration. But
generally speaking, that's what our job is. We make sure that
the insurance company is aware of this procedure needs performed.
Completely transparent. Here's why it needs to perform, because

(45:45):
XYZ happened in the vehicle or this repair is
performed. and then we go from there.

And of course, you can't help but say in defense, a little bit
of the insurance companies. A lot of times people say, all my
insurance, higher than ever. Well,
not all of it. I realize there's other factors involved, but some of
those factors have to do with it takes a lot more
money to repair these vehicles today
than years ago. I mean, you can have

(46:10):
a minor collision in the front
and crack a camera. That's a couple of
$1,000. Boom.

Yep. And insurance, believe it or not, drives
a lot of this technology. And one of the big pieces
was emergency braking. Right. Which, they say
lowers the severity of a collision. It keeps people
safer. But, what we found in the last couple years is, yes,
emergency braking may lower, the impact.
Right. They're not necessarily stopping the vehicle and preventing the
collision. but they're going to apply the brakes a little bit

(46:38):
faster than you would while driving. those systems have been around
for quite a while and yes, they've lowered the
impact, of the collision. But what we found is now we have a radar on the
front of the vehicle that needs replaced, most likely, and
also needs calibrated. So the cost of that repair has stayed
high. And I think that's a big piece of why
we've watched insurance rates go up a little bit when in theory you

(46:59):
would think, okay, well, it has this collision prevention system.
The insurance rates should eventually go down.
but it is key. We're keeping the vehicle owner safer,
which is the prime concern. Right.

And of course, your thought process is if, it's
in any case, repairing the radar or
whatever was damaged on the front is cheaper than a medical
claim.

Exactly.

And so if you can prevent it from happening
at all, then you prevent that medical claim and
then boom, it's, that saves a
huge amount of money when you get into that part of
it. but I think the two are closely tied together and I think that's
one thing that needs to be recognized very closely when we're
discussing the,
insurance paying for its calibration. This calibration,

(47:42):
that calibration is, all of that does make
insurance go higher. so, of course, it's
in all of our best interests, to not let an
accident happen.

>> Jamie B (47:51):
Yeah, yeah.

Well, and that's the other big thing that goes right back to making
sure you're taking your vehicle to, a good repair shop. Obviously,
insurance companies, if they can, legally they're not supposed to, but
they're going to try and steer the vehicle to wherever the repair is going
to be the most cost effective for them, which, that's the nature
of the business. Right. You want to save money. but unfortunately,
they're going to probably try and steer your vehicle to a

(48:12):
shop that's a less likely to perform that calibration because that
calibration is expensive. Right. so, you know, just
like picking your,
independent auto repair facility, you want to be very diligent about
picking the correct collision shop.

Now, we got about a minute. Do you have any
issues getting the information that you need to be able to
recalibrate these vehicles?

not really? No, fortunately, because of the right to
repair act, which needs revision, but
it does exist. We are allowed to obtain all that information
for passenger vehicles. that is a very big, important
piece of our industry that we need to keep working on to be able to
keep access to that information. But as of now, it's, all available
for us.

Well, Mike, we want to say thank you for being here. You
are on the cutting edge of what's going on, with
a lot of this technology. And I appreciate you sharing some
of that knowledge with us today because to me,
is very important. Not only the consumer don't
necessarily have to know how to recalibrate something or
how to do something, they just have to. It's good for them to know

(49:13):
how it works. And also if someone owns a
vehicle that they hear about some of this technology,
they might say, well that would be very beneficial for me.
Like maybe their head might not turn
as far as they'd like it to be able to.
And something like lane departure warnings can be a huge
asset to them and a lot of this adaptive cruise and

(49:33):
all that. So I think it's good for us all to know about this. We got a
new guest here with us. We got Darren, Darren
Dameron. And I'm going to mention
now that Darren is
actually kind of a big deal at Jasper engines and
transmissions.

Yeah, it's only because I'm tall, that's all.

well either way, you're sort of a big deal
and we appreciate you being here with us.

Thank you. It's great to be here.

Well I ah, think you just like
all of the other people here at this event,
you want knowledge, you you want to stay up to
date. And I think that's important in automotive industry
for people to stay up to date because things are just changing
so quickly. technology is just
boom, boom, boom. You add new things. Ah, it

(50:20):
used to be every couple of years you'd see some big
changes and then every year or so you'd see
change. Now monthly you're seeing
large changes in the industry.

100%.

Yeah. Ah, and the only way that we can stay up
to date and continue to repair our
consumers cars is to attend classes
like these or online classes,
webinars, which we do a lot
of, and talking to people like you,
because you have a lot of knowledge in your
area and you may be talking to somebody

(50:55):
like Mike that's getting knowledge in his
area and we all share in that information
together to make it a better experience for the
consumer.

That's right. Rising tides raise all ships.

one of the things that just comes to mind, one of the first
thoughts that I had when I knew I'd have the opportunity to talk
to you. the question I wanted to ask, why do you think so
many people are choosing to replace their
engine or their transmission as opposed to replacing their whole
car like they did many years ago? Used to be the
engine goes out or transmission goes out. A lot of them would

(51:27):
just say, well, I'll just get another vehicle.
Now. More and more of them saying, hey,
can I replace that engine? As opposed to.

Well, and one of the big major factors in
that is the cost of vehicles today.
They're exponentially higher than what they used
to be. And then also getting finance. You know, most people
cannot just go pay cash for a new vehicle, so they have
to finance that vehicle. So, you know, the interest rates are
higher, the cost, to pay that vehicle off is
higher. in most cases, it's out of

(51:58):
warranty before you even get halfway through finishing
paying for that vehicle. So if you've got a good
vehicle that, you know, okay, this is what's wrong with
it. And a lot of times, if you take the emotion out of it,
it's best to go ahead and repair that versus replace that,
and then you can pay that repair off within a year
or so versus financing a vehicle for five to seven

(52:18):
years.

Yeah. And that's especially true if you have a customer that's taken
good care of their car over the years.

Absolutely.

I mean, absolutely. And we see that it used
to be that, a car, when you hit
150 or so thousand
miles, the car would just need so much
other work till it wasn't really feasible to put an engine
in because you'd still have to do all the
cosmetic things that go along with it. Now we're seeing
cars with 200, 250,000 miles that still

(52:45):
look really, really good. You could drive them a long
distance. but in many cases, the engine has
just, in that length of time, has just got tired.

Yep, yep, absolutely.

And, same way with the transmission. So m. It
used to be, putting in an engine
and or transmission in a vehicle with a
couple of hundred thousand miles on it. You really didn't hear that
that much. Now, you probably did, Jamie, in the trucking
industry, because that would probably be small miles.

>> Jamie B (53:11):
Well, no, I mean, you're getting up to
7800,000 miles. You might be starting thinking about
an in frame. But unless something goes catastrophically wrong,
you're going to last a million plus miles. So.
But on cars, that's a lot different on cars.

Oh, yeah, yeah, it is on cars, two, hundred and
250. We do see a lot of cars that's going
much more than that. but we see
them would lessen that, too. Unfortunately, some people's
not as good with having their oil changed as
others. And when you don't service that
vehicle well in those first hundred thousand
miles, you're not going to get a lot of miles on that original

(53:48):
engine.

That's right.

But then many, times, but many times
people do get to 200, 250 and
they're choosing to replace the engine.
Can you walk us through the process, a little bit of what happens when
they, when the vehicle comes in
for the rebuild?

Yep, yep.

And, and what's the process that it goes through as far as
getting that taken care of?

So, you know, we, one of the biggest factors that we, we have to come
pick up that core. So, you know, we, we sell about 30,000
engines and transmissions a month. So we have 53
branches nationwide.

Did you say a month?

A month.

Whoa.

Absolutely amazing. That's a lot of
drivetrains. A lot throughout the country. we've got two main
distribution centers, one on the west coast, one in the part
of America, there in Indiana. And they're
rolling to all of our branches that are nationwide for
trucks over the road, trucks a week. So in those
branches, they house anywhere from 200 to 1000
units, depending on the size of the city and the branch that they're in.

(54:44):
but usually, you know, when a customer needs to replace an
engine, transmission or differential transfer case, they call
us, we're next day or within two days of delivery to
them. we pick up their core, they do the
repair on the vehicle, then we bring that core back into the
factory and that it begins the remanufacturing process at that
point in time. and usually we turn that
around within just a couple of days. so we're not

(55:07):
sitting on a bunch of cores. I mean, this process
is happening fast. I'm going, about 85%
of our deliveries over the road.
We drop them off at the branch and they get loaded onto a box truck
and they're already sold. They're going to a shop immediately.

Wow.

So it is a, we don't, we're lean, we don't keep a lot of
stuff in stock or anything like that outside of the, you know, the
main things that we're selling, but they turn fast within one
to two days.

>> Jamie B (55:31):
Well, yeah. The most popular things you're going to keep selling
through, you get a core back and as long as it's a rebuildable core, then
it's right back out the door.

That's exactly right. So it's important that we pick those cores up
fast. You know, sometimes, you know, it takes us a
little bit longer. Shops don't like that hanging around the shop at all. You
know, they're stubbing their toes on and it's in the way. So we try to get
those cores as soon as they're ready for us to come pick them up. We
give our installers 30 days, before we start hounding
them. But usually we can get those within four to five business days.

(55:59):
We can pick those cores up and start that process.

>> Jamie B (56:01):
So what is the consumer, on the consumer side,
the savings to buy a remanufactured
engine versus to buy a brand new OEM
engine?

Okay. so I would say, you know, we're comparable to the OEM
m. So we go by those standards, or
improvements. So through our R and D department,
we're able to see those inherent flaws that are coming from the
manufacturer and do updates. So that's one of the things that we're
known for.

>> Jamie B (56:25):
So it's really, you see
the OEM problems and then you have the capacity to tweak
it 100% and solve those problems as they appear.

So they design these vehicles to meet
certain standards within their controlled
parameters. They launch that vehicle out. Well, it
takes us two to three years to see, start seeing failures and
do research and development. So we're seeing the issues
with oil consumption, compression, you
know, whatever's causing the failure to happen. And we're able

(56:54):
to address that because we're taking that, that unit,
which it's a seasoned casting at that point in
time. So it's a better material than what it was brand new. So there's
one value there. And then we're doing those updates, we're doing those
machining updates and changing the parts that need to be changed that were
weak points. And then because we have to stand behind
this for three or hundred thousand miles, and it's going back

(57:14):
into a non perfect, perfect situation that's no longer
a brand new vehicle. It's a good vehicle, but it's got some
wear on it, right. So we have to make sure that we make it strong
enough that it, when it goes back into that
unperfect situation, that it's going
to last and stand behind it and the customer can have that peace of mind.

>> Jamie B (57:32):
Well, the warranty is a huge deal for
everybody. I mean when I buy something, I look at warranty and then
the longevity and then all the little, you know, the
small fine print that comes with it. But from a cost
standpoint, you guys versus
the OEM engine.

They'Re comparable. in a lot of cases we're going
to be less and then some cases we're going to live be a little
bit more. And it really depends on what we're offering. You got a,
you know, like a six, seven scorpion diesel. We offer
about $1,000 worth more parts than what you get when you
buy one from the, from the manufacturer, from the dealer.
so you have to weigh that in. You know, what does it cost you to

(58:11):
replace those parts? You know, what does it cost you to
change those parts? That the labor hours and
the liability that you could be getting into
by taking these parts on and off. So we reduce
that. So you have to look at the big picture when
seeing what the real cost is going to be.

>> Jamie B (58:27):
So you guys, you do long blocks and drop ins?

Yes, we've got running completes and then we've got complete what we call
a long block plus.

>> Jamie B (58:35):
So beyond that you also do the transmissions and the
rear ends and.

Yep.

And differentials transfer cases and we do the fuel and air as well.
Also if you've got a diesel, we do the injectors, pumps,
turbos, you know, all the things that go with that as
well.

>> Jamie B (58:47):
Good cover, everything.

We do have a custom and we do have authentic division,
as well. So even, you know, the old flatheads
and things like that. Really what's hot right now in that division
is, you know, seventies and eighties pickup trucks. So we're
getting a lot of authentic, you know, you know, units on that. People want
to keep those matching numbers but you know, to the point of
other, you know, the new unit versus our

(59:09):
units. you know, we work on about five to six
projects at a time before we launch out of it, launch out a new
unit. And our goal is to have a zero defect launch.
And there's a lot to go into that. So we have to do a lot of R and
D, a lot of updates. We look at all the
possibilities that cause the failure. Do a lot of
testing. The final test, it goes through what we call it's
a torture test and it runs for a week long

(59:32):
and it's basically half the life of a unit at 8000 revolutions
per minute. And it's, you know, our technicians that
are behind they're sitting behind bulletproof glass
because, you know, you throw a rod at 8000 revolutions per minute.
Yeah, I mean, it runs 8 hours a day. We change the oil
every single day, at the end. And then we, we tear
that engine down or that transmission down and we look at the wear.
Okay, did what, did our update fix

(59:55):
this inherent flaw? Did we make it better? Or do we see
something else that we need to address? So we go through a long
process before we even launch a unit out.
So, when a customer calls and they buy a unit from
us and they put it in that vehicle, they've got the peace of mind. It's
not the first time that it's been ran. We dyno test them before
we send them out, you know, in addition to that torture
test. So they know that that thing's going to operate. Right.

>> Aaron Clements (01:00:17):
And Jamie, I can tell you that everything he's
saying I have seen. I had the opportunity one
time to fly to Jasper, and I
was here at Augusta and I
was waiting. They said that they were going fly us
up there and I was expecting to get on some kind of commercial
plane. We walked outside this
brand new king air. I'm thinking, I mean,

(01:00:40):
this thing, I bet it only had about 8 hours on it or something like
that. And I was able to sit in the front
seat and it was beautiful because I love flying
anyway. And, we flew up there just as the sun
was coming up. It was beautiful. Well, get to this place
and it's the most amazing thing you've ever
seen. It looks like. I don't I'm guessing at this,
but it looks like about three or four Walmarts connected

(01:01:02):
together. It's so huge.

>> Jamie B (01:01:04):
Yeah.

And, get inside there and the quality control is just
unbelievable of what they do as far as it. They
took us through the process. It goes here, you could eat
off the floor with no problem.
And you just go from section to section and then it
shows all the quality control areas that it goes
into. Once the engine is, is
completed or transmission or other part is

(01:01:27):
completed. It's just, it's just an amazing sight
to see. And I'm one that I've been to some of the assembly lines
for Ford and GM and all of this and I've seen all
that and I looked at
this and it was amazing.

>> Darren Dameron (01:01:40):
Yeah. I'm very impressed. Every time I go to the factory
and I see how hard our associates
work, the time and effort they put into the
quality control to continuously improve.
I'm in awe every time that I go and see it. And when we take customers,
I mean, that's really our swinging the big stick right there. Right?

Yeah.

so when they go and see it and they're able to share that
experience with their customers to build that confidence
that this is the right thing to do with their vehicle, I mean, it's
just amazing. And most of them are like, how do we
ever have a warranty? Right? And we don't have a lot of
warranties. Zero to 90 days. We've got less than 1%
across the board on our products.
And that's not only because we're doing our job the right

(01:02:19):
way, but we're partnered with the right shops to do their job
the right way. And so it's 50 50 we got to work
together to make sure that the end user, the vehicle owner, has a
good experience.

Absolutely.

>> Jamie B (01:02:30):
That's impressive.

Yeah, yeah. Oh, it was, it was, it was very
impressive when I went there.

>> Jamie B (01:02:36):
Oh, it's like manufacturing facilities and warehouses and
just walking through, see how everything works. It's really neat.

I. Darren, I can't help but ask
you this. What's one of the more unusual
items that you have had, that's come through
Jasper? Engines and transmissions that was rebuilt and
that can be either an engine transmission or some
other item that was done there.

I've seen some crazy stuff that customers have
asked us to help them out with. It was some kind of part
like a front cover on a piece of equipment that they couldn't
even get from Europe and, and we were able to bring it back in and,
you know, through one of our welding processes, fix that for
them. Jasper probably doesn't like me talking about that because we don't
want that's out of the box of what we like to do, but we'll do that

(01:03:18):
for a special customer. But one of the coolest things
we did, I used to call on the city of Marietta up in Georgia,
and they took a tank and converted it to like
a water cannon, you know, riot control.
Not that there's a lot of riots in Marietta, Georgia, but it was, it
was cool. but the engine needed to be redone. It was, it was
an old 6.5 diesel. So we took that and

(01:03:38):
remanufactured that engine for them. They wanted matching numbers. It
made our, made our calendar. I mean, that was pretty, pretty
cool to be a part of that project and see them do that.
So you just never know what, what's going to have our
engine or transmission.

I've never thought of that. Turning a tank into a water
cannon that can control a riot situation.

Absolutely, absolutely. I doubt they've had to use it, but.
Pretty cool looking piece.

Not that I know of, but that is that really is
amazing. Now just go over one more time the
warranty that you mentioned,
Jasper engines, has, because like Jamie mentioned before
when we were talking about that warranty is really important to a
person. Average engine transmission, what
type warranty would they have?

Three year, 100,000 miles, parts and labor.
so that no matter where that customer goes, we've
got installers throughout the country. We've got 50,000
installers. So to compare that to like
the OEM, there might be 1500 gm
dealerships. We have 50,000 installers that we
vetted that no matter where that customer goes, if there's an
issue they can pull into that customer shop and they're gonna, they know

(01:04:41):
how to handle our warranty process. They can call us and get that
taken care of as soon as possible.

So that'd be a nationwide warranty.

That is a nationwide warranty. It's fully transferable. So we
put that, that warranty on that unit itself. So if that
customer sells that car or gives it to a family member or something like
that, that unit still has that warranty on it.

>> Jamie B (01:04:58):
Okay, so where can you buy a Jasper engine?
You can buy it directly from Jasper. And then.

Yeah, if you're a fleet and you have your own technicians,
we do sell to them directly. but the majority of
our business goes through our independent garages. So our installers
and our fleet installer shops that specialize in working on
fleets, so those shops have the relationship with
us. They're the ones that are buying and selling the product to the
customer. we're not really a retail type

(01:05:25):
business. So if a vehicle owner called us, I
mean you know, it's, it's not in our business model. You know, they
gotta, they gotta pay retail price, they gotta pay for core
skid taxes, all that stuff upfront. We have to deliver it to
a business. So it's just better to go to that shop,
that partner and have them do the job. And you can,
if you go to jasperengines.com on the home screen you

(01:05:45):
can click on, find an installer and all of our installers
are on there. So no matter what zip code you're in, I mean you're going
to find some in your area.

Darren, we're out of time.

Okay.

And it's been so such a great time
here at the whole event, talking to bike and talking to all
the others.

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