Fixed Ops Focus

Breakeven. It sounds simple — until you actually run the numbers. In Episode 63 of Fixed Ops Focus, Steve Shaw and Dave Rogers dig into breakeven analysis and why it's the true starting line for evaluating your fixed operations department.

In Episode 62 of Fixed Ops Focus, Dave Rogers and I break down what happens when you add additional items to the repair order before the customer ever arrives. A few extra dollars per RO feels small in the moment. Multiply it across every RO, every advisor, every month, for a full year — and it becomes one of the most powerful growth levers in your entire service department.

Steve Shaw and Dave Rogers have a spirited conversation about repair order marketing — and one idea that always gets people talking: what if you preloaded the OP codes right onto the repair order, so the service advisor has to present them every single time? This is Part 1 of a two-part series on what we call the Repair Order Preload.

You’re hired… now what? In Episode 60 of Fixed Ops Focus, Dave Rogers and Steve Shaw dig into the part of the dealership nobody seems to get right: what actually happens after the offer letter. As always, this one takes a lot of twists and turns.

Today we’ve got a powerhouse panel. We sit down with Jamie Rellis — co-founder of Dealer Focus and CEO of ME Technologies & Consulting — and David Securia, Service Director at Benzel-Busch Motor Car, NADA Academy graduate and NADA Show speaker, to talk about the one thing every dealer wants more of: GROWTH. This is the full conversation on how you actually grow a fixed operations business — not th...

Some people coach. Some people train. But almost nobody in our business has a real, structured coaching and mentoring program — and in Episode 58 of Fixed Ops Focus, Steve Shaw and Dave Rogers dig into why that’s one of the biggest missed opportunities in the dealership today.

Steve Shaw and Dave Rogers crack open one of the most honest — and weirdly hilarious — topics in this business: getting fired. It starts with a friend of Steve’s who just got let go. That one story sends Dave and Steve straight into the Wayback Machine, where they relive the times THEY got fired from the dealership, what those moments taught them, and how they came back stronger. Then they flip th...

It seems like everybody and their cousin is selling service contracts — on TV, on YouTube, on TikTok, you name it. These days even the customer can go buy their own. So how is a dealer supposed to handle the flood? Do you charge extra? Add a processing fee? Hire a dedicated extended-warranty expert just to keep up with all the paperwork? This is the discussion no one is having right now — and it’s...

One message. A dozen detours. Dave delivers an all-time rant about oil changes. Steve fires back on everything that’s broken about dealership training. There’s even a little conspiracy talk (hey, it happens). And buried in all the chaos is a genuine fixed ops masterclass on the monsters every service leader is fighting right now: employee retention, building a real career path, and the customer se...

This live episode features two power-hitters. Ed Kopec of Paul Miller Audi walks us through his career — from service manager of a small four-technician Porsche store to building a $1.5 million+ fixed ops gross powerhouse, and his trajectory from service manager to general manager to vice president. Then the Profit Partner Spotlight goes to Michael Scorcio, MBA, Vice President of Traxtion, on how...

Dave Rogers and Steve Shaw tackle one of the most under-trained skills in the dealership: the art of diffusing a hostile customer. They cover why most associates have poor customer-diffusion skills, what to do when a customer drops the F-bomb, how to define your line in the sand BEFORE the conflict starts, and a set of practical diffusion strategies for the service drive.

Dave Rogers and Steve Shaw expose what they're calling The Pseudo Warranty Conspiracy: a 25-year, quiet financial shift by automotive manufacturers that transferred billions in warranty cost off OEM books and onto dealers (via reinsurance liability) and customers (via repair bills). The mechanism: extending service intervals so that wear-and-tear failures fall outside warranty coverage, while vehi...

Episode 50 of Fixed Ops Focus Live tackles the difference between management and leadership—and what really separates a good service manager from a great one. Guest Bob Orozco of Wilmington Land Rover shares his path from service advisor to service manager to general manager, while Profit Partner Michael Keene of Chameleon shows how the right data helps managers grow into true leaders. Tune in for...

Steve Shaw and Dave Rogers tackle one of the most confusing — and most urgent — paradoxes in fixed operations today: customer satisfaction scores are at all-time highs, while customer retention and RO traffic are quietly collapsing. Those numbers should not be moving in opposite directions at the same time, and yet they are, everywhere in the country. Dave and Steve unpack the real economic forces...

Steve Shaw and Dave Rogers take on the single most misunderstood investment in the modern dealership: training. Steve walks through what real training looks like, how to hire a trainer, why the four training modalities (seminars, on-site workshops, structured webinars, microlearning) must be blended, why 15-second clickbait “training” is hurting the industry, why an on-site trainer pays for itself...

Dave Rogers and Steve Shaw tackle the single most urgent crisis facing the automotive service industry: how dealerships pay their technicians. Manufacturer warranty labor times have been squeezed to the point where flat-rate technicians cannot make a living on warranty work alone, and the industry is hemorrhaging talent. This episode covers the realities of flat-rate pay, the importance of techs b...

Dave Rogers and Steve Shaw sit down with Armen Mansouri, Service Director at Porsche South Bay — and a U.S. military veteran whose service shaped the leader he is today. This episode is built around honoring Armen's service, exploring why veterans make exceptional dealership personnel, his 1% Rule for building an elite service department, the mentor who shaped him, and the leadership principles he...

Episode 45 is the sequel — and the rematch — to Episode 42. This time the tables turn: Dave Rogers puts Steve Shaw head-to-head with ChatGPT. Dave skips the training questions and instead hits Steve with the real-world fixed operations scenarios from Steve's days running stores and consulting on service drives across the country. Steve has to take off his trainer hat, put his fixed ops director ha...

Steve Shaw and Dave Rogers celebrate the career service advisor — the often-overlooked professional whose dedication keeps customers safe and dealerships profitable. This episode makes the case that a young person can build an above-average income, raise a family, and enjoy a meaningful life as a career service advisor — no four-year degree required.

Steve Shaw and Dave Rogers tackle one of the most underrated challenges in the modern dealership: what happens when a high-volume domestic or import store suddenly decides it wants to play in the luxury sandbox? The case study hits close to home. Steve walks us through his own Jeep Grand Wagoneer experience at a Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram dealership — where a $100,000+ luxury SUV gets serviced in the...

In Episode 42, we put 30+ years of fixed operations expertise on trial against the most advanced AI on the planet. Steve Shaw asked Claude to generate ten of the toughest, most revealing questions a fixed ops expert could face — then handed the mic to Dave Rogers and let him answer them cold. We then compared Claude's AI-generated answers side-by-side with Dave's real-world, dealership-tested resp...

Dave Rogers and Steve Shaw sit down with service advisor Tyler Smith — an experienced young man who ends up schooling both of them on how to write service in 2026. The kicker: the fundamentals Tyler swears by today are the same fundamentals that drove top-performing service drives back in 1987. Key talking points covered in this episode: • Preparation for the appointment • Reviewing the repair ord...

In this powerful episode, Steve Shaw and Dave Rogers dive deep into the importance of having solid processes in your fixed operations department. They break down: What exactly is a process? Why every successful operation needs them How to start with the end in mind The critical role of accountability Steve and Dave use a compelling analogy: flying an airplane. Just like pilots rely on checklists t...

Steve Shaw and Dave Rogers tackle one of the hottest topics in fixed operations today: Should used car reconditioning be treated as a profit center or just a necessary expense? They break down the real pros and cons of each approach and deliver practical strategies including: · The power of a dedicated used car technician team · Why a 24–48-hour recon turnaround is a game-changer · The case for an...

Dave Rogers and Steve Shaw sit down with Janet Hayworth from Rainmaker Warranty Services for a deep dive into the evolving world of warranty claims and reimbursement for new car dealers. Manufacturers are tightening their belts — and if your dealership isn't keeping up, you're leaving money on the table (or worse, facing an audit). Janet breaks down exactly what's changing, what's being demanded,...