How Long Will They Last

[TB Roye]

In view of what is happening in the Auto industry and the GM and Chrysler dealerships. How long will MAC, MATCO, and SNAPON last with no sales to mechanics? Some of the mechanics have upwards of 100K in tools and the guys selling them have even more, and very little time to pay for them. The distributors have total resposibility for collecting what is owed them. Now the remaining mechanics will have to buy Fiat tools and maybe tools for cars made in China.

[Tom Slick]

Even with dealerships disappearing the vehicles still need repairs. Independent shops will grow to fill the void. They will always have industrial and military customers although the auto factories shutting down will put hurt on those accounts. a Good point about account collections.

[tfischer]

All the closing dealerships will be selling their tools as well. Seems like it's going to depress the market for awhile... This whole thing is going to have ripples for years to come.

[LCHIEN]

a contrarian view is that mechanics will have a heyday as cars will be made to last twice as long because people will
1. be in a recession for a while longer and not lay out big bucks for new cars and drive their old ones into the ground
2. The newly mandated high mileage green cars will not sell well because they aren't what the consumer wants, too expensive, too small, too underpowered, too unsafe and people keep driving their present cars into the ground.
3. right now the gov't is trying to pass a law paying $4500 for "clunkers" - this will raise the value of older cars
4. Its been suggested in 10 years america will look like cuba where new cars were largely not had for 40-50 years and old US cars from the 50's were kept running with all kinds of ingenuity and mechanics make-dos as a matter of necessity, except our cars will be from the 1990s and 2000's.

In these cases there will be a thriving market for mechanics, automotive salvage, remanufacturing and after-market parts and repair places.

[JR]

A friend of mine works for Snap-on. It sounds to me like like they're weathering the storm reasonably well. The good dealers are ok, and the less-good ones are starting to fall by the wayside.

If I understand it correctly, sales to dealerships is handled by corporate people, not the dealers.

JR

[dbhost]

Good, now if only I could figure out how a former mechanic can get replacement service and buy a couple of missing pieces from his old Snap On stuff I would be happy as a clam. I have 2 split metric deep well sockets, and a couple of missing metric combination long handle wrenches I need to replace...

Yeah you guys read that right, I AM a big cheapskate in the tool area sometimes, when paying extra doesn't make sense... When I was working as a professional wrench spinner buying Snap On meant not busting a socket once a week, and worse, hurting myself in the process. Craftsman sockets of the '80s were utter garbage, and anything forged in Taiwan was a joke... Both have gotten MUCH better since then... And yes I do have some Taiwan cheapie tools in my mechanics box that even though the Snap On stuff would be nicer, wouldn't have earned their keep. Specifically special spline tooth sockets for Dana Spicer 4WD front axle assemblies. Specifically the Dana 44 and Dana 60 axles... And my tool chest is Stanley Proto (nice chest actually for its age...) and the rolling cabinet is Craftsman before they started the whole "Craftsman Professional" stuff... Great stuff. Wish they still made my model rolling cabinet, I would buy a second one in a hot second...

[Stytooner]

My thoughts run more along the supply and demand of raw materials now rather than finished product. Since there will be less demand by auto makers for steel, aluminum and plastics, what will actually happen to the price or availability of those materials when demand drops so drastically?

It is already difficult enough to find and keep good sources for relatively low orders of raw materials now. In big business as demand goes down, supply tries to maintain that level that is needed and not keep making a surplus. Surplus nearly always drops the price.

Anybody else remember more of their Economics classes? Demand for my attention was very low in that class, so I was supplied a likewise low grade. Passing, but should have been better. I'm yawning just recalling it.

[LCHIEN]

My thoughts run more along the supply and demand of raw materials now rather than finished product. Since there will be less demand by auto makers for steel, aluminum and plastics, what will actually happen to the price or availability of those materials when demand drops so drastically?

It is already difficult enough to find and keep good sources for relatively low orders of raw materials now. In big business as demand goes down, supply tries to maintain that level that is needed and not keep making a surplus. Surplus nearly always drops the price.

Anybody else remember more of their Economics classes? Demand for my attention was very low in that class, so I was supplied a likewise low grade. Passing, but should have been better. I'm yawning just recalling it.

When demand initially drops, the prices will fall because there is overcapacity in the supply industry, this has probably already happened for the auto industry.

As the industry compensates for oversupply by closing its least efficienrt plants and laying off its least efficient workers (hopefully not constrained by labor agreements) and reducing overhead then the prices should come down to where they were before.
Possibly lower prices if demand was high and allowing inefficient producers to survive, as well as increased competition for the remaining market.
Possibly higher prices if the economies of scale are not met.

If replacement finished goods producers come on line then the raw material prices may hold, just selling to different customers, but if domestic production of cars shifts overseas then steel makers will lose to overseas producers because of the high costs of shipping.

[shoottx]

Good, now if only I could figure out how a former mechanic can get replacement service and buy a couple of missing pieces from his old Snap On stuff I would be happy as a clam. I have 2 split metric deep well sockets, and a couple of missing metric combination long handle wrenches I need to replace.....

http://www.snapon.com/

877-740-1900 (Snap-On Customer Service).

http://collectingsnapon.com/Site/Home-1.html