Thornton Auto-Care

The Automotive Industry has repair shops that have access to state-of-the-art tools and technology, both for repairing vehicles and also for documenting repairs. There are technicians that are trained so well that they can take an entire car apart to replace a broken part and then reassemble the car while torquing every bolt to specifications. But with all this skill, there is still something missing. What is the purpose of this service industry?

​

We believe that the purpose is to serve people, meet their needs, providing a sense of security and confidence as professionals. There is often a missing ingredient in any service industry. The ingredient could be described in one word, Jesus, but for someone that doesn't know much about Him, that doesn't make much sense. For a Christian, Jesus is our mediator between God and ourselves. Jesus lived a life that we couldn't live, teaching us a better way to live our own lives. Jesus was accountable to God for us, so we are accountable to Him. In a world without God, who is one accountable to? Should we be accountable to our peers? Conflict/Consequences? Money? Law? As an employee, what do we really have in our heart that pushes or pulls us to do a good job? Lets look at money first, I'd say its the most popular.

​

Put yourself in the boots of a technician who has one main goal of making good money. Something as simple as an air filter can take 3 minutes to install, while most service data could call for up to 0.3 labor hours (18min) to be charged to the customer. Someone who is profit driven is extremely motivated to sell a job like this because its something they can complete very quickly, while charging the customer for time that wasn't spent working on the vehicle. Another layer deeper is that technicians that are struggling with greed may even take the old air filter out, blow it out with some compressed air, put it back in, and STILL charge the customer for a new filter and the full amount of time allowed to replace it. Here is the point that I want to make about a technician being guided by money; If your operating with profit driven motives then your morality is for sale to the highest bidder. The bible says it this way, The love of money is the root of all evil. (1 Tim 6:10)

​

So maybe we have some sort of moral compass. We don't want to rip people off simply because we might get caught. Unfortunately this is a place that lot of people end up. If nobody is looking and your sure that you won't get caught, you might as well do what's best for you right? Wrong. There is no place secluded enough that God can't see exactly what you're doing. You may even be great at making up excuses, that part was gonna fail eventually, its probably best to replace it anyway, it had to have been broken when it got here...Here is the other thing about what God can see, He can see right into your heart.

​

Accountability to God for the work that we do changes everything that we touch. As a Christian, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. I am supposed to be living my life as an ambassador for the Kingdom of heaven. The bible tells us to go out and spread the good news saying “the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. So if Jesus lives through me, I'm carrying the kingdom in me heart, I am the hands and feet of Christ, and all of the sudden I'm working on someones vehicle for them; not only do I have an opportunity to show this person who Christ is, I now get to treat this person the way that Christ would treat them. How on earth could I sell this person a part that they don't need and be accountable to God? This moral compass is absolutely necessary for us to have and is the missing ingredient for technicians and business owners alike.

​

How does this missing ingredient effect the consumer side of the isle? The automotive industry has done a great job at burning bridges with its consumers. Customers have been cheated, stolen from, overcharged, lied to, and more. How on earth would a customer ever be able to trust what their mechanic says after all that? Accountability is still a huge factor, trust has been severely damaged and that is going to take time to rebuild. When I put myself in the shoes of the consumer and I ask the question, “How do I know I can trust them?”, there is usually no easy way to find that answer, most shops don't even tell you their labor rate upfront, let-alone go out of their way to build a relationship. This is where this article that you are reading right now comes into play. Here at Thornton Auto Care, we are bringing a standard of care to the industry that is meant to build trust. We are just normal human beings like the rest of you, and none of us are perfect. But we are serving someone greater. Let us prove that to you, not by our words, but by our deeds.