Coffey said he purchased a number of different flush machines and started educating his customers on the importance of preventive maintenance. He said most of his flush machines came from BG Services, including a machine for brake fluid, power steering fluid, and transmission fluid. He said he also has a BG fuel induction service machine and a SKYE Cool Jet coolant fluid flush machine.

"Our BG Services rep, Matt Porter, said we are their No. 1 shop in this market," Coffey said. "We do more flushes than anybody else."

Each car that comes into the shop gets every fluid checked in a drip tray, he said, which allows him to sell a lot of maintenance work.

"Doing maintenance is a lot easier than pulling heads or doing water pumps," he said. "So once my technicians find the dirty fluid, it is my job to sell it to the customer."

One thing Coffey said he offers his customers is the "Royal Flush," which includes changing four fluids: transmission, brake, power steering, and coolant. The packaged service costs $450.

He said he tries to get the customers into the mentality that they need to get their fluids changed about every 30,000. In fact, if fluids are changed with BG Services flush machines every 36,000 miles, BG will pay for any failures in those components up to $2,500.

A few months ago, Coffey said he did 40 power steering flushes in one month, at $85 a flush. The flush can be done in five minutes and the machine cost $1,500, so he said it didn't take long to get back his money on the investment.

Coffey said he has also seen a nice return on his investment since he started stocking 125 Yokohama tires through Friend Tire. 

"We hit our bonuses every quarter, which is 250 tires every three months," he said. "We are on the Internet with Friend Tire, so we can look at which tires they have in stock, which really helps with price quoting."

Any customer that purchases tires at Coffey Automotive receives free tire rotations for the life of the tires. Coffey said he recommends rotating the tires every 6,000 miles and uses the free rotations as a chance to look the car over for other problems in areas such as fluids, brakes, and suspension.

He said he also prints out maintenance schedules from ShopKey, his shop management system, along with the trouble service bulletins for customers' cars so they can keep an eye on common problems related to their vehicle.

Coffey said he has really stepped that up since he moved out of the shop last year and into the office.

"I can make much more money answering the phone and taking care of the customer rather than turning wrenches," he said. "I like to make people feel good about spending their money here."

About 50 cars a week roll through the shop, Coffey said, and the average ticket is about $300. He said he doesn't really do any advertising to bring customers except for Moving Targets, a company that track new residents in the St. Charles area. The company sends out a flier offering free oil changes to bring in new customers.

 For the most part, Coffey said his customers are generated through his involvement in the community and through a referral program.

 
"I bring a lot of business from my church, my health club, and Business Networking International (BNI), a group of 21 business owners that meet every Wednesday morning." The group works together to generate business for one another, he said.

He said one of his technicians attends a separate BNI group on Thursdays for lunch, which also brings in a lot of referrals.
Coffey said he has three technicians in shop and one service writer.

The shop is equipped with eight bays, each with a lift, four Rotary lifts, two new Challenger lifts, a Hunter Alignment rack, and lube rack. The shop also has six computer stations that technicians can use to access vehicle data, including Alldata, Mitchell on Demand, and iATN. 

 
Coffey said he recently purchased a Hunter laser alignment machine that has speeded up the alignment process.
"We do a lot of alignment and at least one alignment a day for Spirit West Auto body and Elite Auto Body," he said. "The new machine (is dependable and) reads everything so fast -- Hunter is really an unbelievable product."

Coffey said that overall, business has really increased in the last few years.

"In 2006, we had our best year ever, and we blew it away in 2007," he said. "I think the biggest thing we have done is really putting an effort into stocking tires, and it really made a difference when we really went after preventive maintenance work. That was really the turning point."