FATHER-SON DUO TACKLE TRANSMISSION REPAIRS WITH EASE
父子档维修店轻松解决变速器维修问题
By:Robert Bravender Thursday, June 7, 2018 - 06:00
Let’s face it, while the transmission is a crucial component in "transmitting" an engine’s power to the wheels,fixing one is completely unlike anything else on a vehicle. For one, outside of transferring torque, transmissions are pretty much self-contained systems.Secondly, ever since the advent of GM’s Hydra-Matic in the 1940s, automatic gearboxes have grown so complex that repairing them has become a specialty. And with automatic-equipped cars now accounting for around 95 percent of sales in the U.S., these specialists have their work cut out for them.
让我们面对现实吧，虽然变速器是将发动机动力“传递”到车轮的关键部件，但维修它与车辆上的其他部件完全不同。首先，除了传递扭矩外，变速箱几乎是独立的系统。其次，自从20世纪40年代通用汽车的液压变速箱问世以来，自动变速箱变得如此复杂，修理它们已成为一项专业。随着不同自动装置组装起来的汽车在美国的销量占到了95%左右，这些专家们的工作也为他们量身定做。
And yet, some of them diversify. Take Total Care Transmissions of National City, Calif., a suburb of San Diego. As the name denotes, they also do general maintenance and repair, even some engine rebuilding. “Being so close to the [U.S.-Mexican] border, you’ve got to find a way to keep up with how things are changing,” says Julio Zambrano, Total Care's owner.
然而，他们采用不同的经营模式。比如位于加州圣地亚哥郊区National City 的Total
Care Transmissions & Classic Restoration公司。顾名思义，他们还做一般的维护和修理，甚至一些发动机的重建。“距离（美墨）边境如此之近，你必须找到一种方法来跟上事态的变化，”Total Care的老板Julio Zambrano说。
“I think transmission work would be a good 65 percent to 70 percent of what we do, general auto repairs about 25 percent, and the rest being restoration,” he reports. “We do have to invest in some diagnostics; (about) once a year we upgrade our scanners to be able to diagnose newer vehicles.”
他报告说：“我认为变速器维修工作将是我们工作量的65%到70%，一般的汽车维修约25%，其余的工作将翻新。”“我们必须投资于一些解码器；（大约）每年我们升级一次解码器，以便能够诊断更新的车辆。”
Meanwhile transmission technology hasn’t stood still, either. “It’s been harder as the years go by,” notes Zambrano. “We started with the CVT, the continuously variable transmission. They’re not difficult to rebuild; we had a problem with finding parts, making them almost the same price as buying one from the dealer. It’s getting difficult in terms of keeping up, but that’s why we go to seminars every year, like ATSG and ATRA.”
同时，变速器技术也没有停滞不前。“随着时间的推移，情况变得更加艰难，” Zambrano说。“我们从CVT开始,就是无级变速器，它们不难重建；我们在寻找零件时遇到了问题，让维修变速器的价格几乎与从经销商处购买新变速器的价格相同。要跟上技术越来越困难，但这就是为什么我们每年都要参加研讨会的原因，比如ATSG和ATRA。”
Transmission fluid must be in the family’s blood: Julio’s uncle once owned three shops, which his father worked at as a technician, while Zambrano himself spent nearly a decade at another shop as well as a transmission parts supplier before also going to work for his uncle. “I was still going to (college),” he notes, “but I liked working in the shop,especially helping the customers.”
变速器润滑油一定融入了家族的血液：Julio的叔叔曾经拥有三家商店，他的父亲曾在那里当过技术员，而Zambrano本人在另一家商店以及一家变速器零件供应商工作了近十年，之后也为他的叔叔工作。“我还在上大学，”他说，“但我喜欢在店里工作，尤其是帮助顾客。”
So when his uncle decided to divest himself of two of the shops in 2014, he sold one to Zambrano and his father. “My uncle basically just sold us the equipment,” he explains. “We created an entirely new (company), with a new name, new phone number. As owners it’s 50/50 between me and my dad, but I handle the office and he and my brother handle the whole auto repair part of it.”
因此，2014年，当他的叔叔决定放弃两家商店时，他将其中一家卖给了Zambrano和他的父亲。“我叔叔基本上只是把设备卖给我们，”他解释说。“我们创建了一个全新的（公司），新的名字，新的电话号码。作为业主，我和我父亲之间的比例是50/50，但我负责办公室，他和我弟弟负责整个汽车修理部分。”
Admittedly starting from scratch was difficult at first. “A lot of
friends and family started sending people our way. That was the easy part,” Zambrano explains. “The hard part was getting more people to know about us. In the first couple of months my dad and I would sometimes hand out flyers on the weekends. I would advertise on Craig’s List, social media like Facebook, Instagram— sources I didn’t have to spend an arm and a leg on in order to get the word out.”
一开始从零开始是很困难的。“很多朋友和家人为我们介绍业务。这是最简单的部分，” Zambrano解释说。“最困难的是让更多人了解我们。在最初的几个月里，我和爸爸有时会在周末分发传单。我会在Craig的名单上做广告，在Facebook、Instagram等社交媒体上做广告，我不必为了帮助宣传而花一大笔钱。”
Now they count among their clientele three general repair shops. “We had to learn about various things, like how to build a website, how to handle social media,” Zambrano continues. “All of that was new to me, but it’s been getting easier and I’ve been learning so much; that’s why I think people started hearing about us and finding us online.”
现在他们把提供三项维修业务的修理店推荐给客户。“我们必须学习各种各样的东西，例如如何建立一个网站，如何处理社会媒体，”赞布拉诺继续说。“所有这些对我来说都是新的，但它变得越来越简单，我学到了很多东西；这就是为什么我认为人们开始听到我们的消息，并在网上找到我们。”
This learning curve was complicated somewhat by the fact Zambrano was working on finishing his Bachelor’s degree in business management. “I was working full time while also going to school full time, so it was a little bit crazy for those first two or three years,” he recalls. Now he’s applying everything he learned, like improving search engine optimization (SEO) for their website so it comes up sooner online.
这个学习曲线有些复杂，因为Zambrano正在努力完成他的商业管理学士学位。他回忆说：“我是全职工作，同时也是全职上学，所以头两三年有点疯狂。”现在，他正在应用他所学到的一切，比如改进他们网站的搜索引擎优化（SEO），使其更快地上线。
But things never slow down; over half a year ago Zambrano’s brother came aboard full time after his own stint at school. “So I’ve got to increase sales in order to pay for the extra time he’s going to be here,” Zambrano reports.“My goal is to increase our sales by about 20 percent in the fiscal year.”
但是事情从来没有放慢过；半年多以前，Zambrano的弟弟在学校呆过一段时间后，开始全职工作。“所以我必须增加销量，以支付他在这里相对过去更多的工作时间，”赞布拉诺报道。“我的目标是在这个财政年度将我们的销售额提高20%左右。”
He plans to do that by focusing more on the second half the shop’s title,Classic Restoration-- which isn’t so much getting old vehicles back to like-new condition as it is getting them on the road again. “Maybe in the future,”laughs Zambrano, “but at this point we’re not, because I don’t have a place where I can send a customer to get something painted or anything like that.
他计划通过更多地关注店名另一半“经典修复”（Classic
Restoration）业务来做到这一点，这并不是说让旧汽车重新回到喜欢的新状态，而是让它们重新上路。“也许在将来，”扎姆拉诺笑着说，“但在这一点上，我们不是，因为我没有一个地方可以让客户去油漆或其他类似的东西。
“We restore in the sense that we’ll replace or rebuild the engine,” he explains. “Anything 1975 or older are the only ones we rebuild in-house. We’ll also go through the transmission and the differential--sometimes customers want to make them limited slip. A customer might find a really good deal, like a ’64 F-100 for $1,000, but the truck has been sitting for 10-15 years. They bring it to us, we’ll get it started, and at that point the customer will decide whether he wants to keep it that way or go through the whole thing.
他解释说：“我们恢复的意义是，我们将更换或重建发动机。”“任何1975年或更久的东西都是我们在店里重建的。我们还将检查变速箱和差速器——有时客户希望使其限滑。一个客户可能会发现一个非常好的交易，比如一辆售价1000美元的64年F-100，但这辆卡车已经停了10-15年了。他们把它带给我们，我们会让它工作，在那一点上，客户将决定他是想保持这种方式，还是要翻新整个车。
“Even though we work on them continuously, I feel that there’s still a market out there for more people who just want to have their old car running in good condition,” Zambrano comments. “My dad enjoys working on them, and I feel that when you enjoy what you do it doesn’t feel like work. Meanwhile my brother’s building transmissions, and he really enjoys doing that—then maybe I can have both of them happy.
Zambrano评论说：“尽管我们一直在努力，但我觉得市场上仍有更多的人希望他们的旧汽车能正常运行。”“我爸爸喜欢为他们工作，我觉得当你享受你所做的事情的时候，你会觉得这不是工作。与此同时，我哥哥正在翻修变速器，他真的很喜欢这样做，也许我可以让他们两个都高兴。
“A lot of people ask if it’s really hard working with family,” Zambrano smiles, “because we each have our own ways of thinking. But I think we’ve learned to manage that by strictly treating each other as co-workers when we’rein the shop, as if we’re working for someone else. After hours we can joke around, we can do whatever we want as a family, but I think it’s really helped that we all have that kind of mindset.”
“很多人会问，和家人一起工作是否真的很辛苦，” Zambrano笑着说，“因为我们每个人都有自己的思维方式。但我认为我们已经学会了在商店里严格地把彼此当作同事来对待，就好像我们在为别人工作一样。几个小时后，我们可以开玩笑，我们可以做任何我们想做的事，作为一个家庭，但我认为这真的有助于我们所有人都有这种心态。”
At a Glance:
店面一览
Total Care Transmissions & Classic Restoration 店名
National City, Calif.
Location 地址
Julio Zambrano
Owner 老板
1 No. of shops 店面数
4 Years in business 经营时间
3 No. of employees 雇员数
2,200 Square footage of shop 店面面积
10 No. of vehicles per week 每周入厂车辆数
$1500 Avg. weekly restoration ticket平均每周翻修价格
$230,000 Annual gross revenue 年总收入
