Where in the world is Otto?
- Thread starter Blazer406
- Start date
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TR Custom Parts
Mark Hueffman - Owner
- Joined
- May 25, 2001
- Messages
- 12,737
Otto closed up shop.
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2009
- Messages
- 1,675
He had to be out of the shop by April 1st. It was sad.............
Pronto
No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot.
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2002
- Messages
- 16,804
Well, that sucks.
turboc87gn
Darkside in Detroit
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2008
- Messages
- 2,766
Do whaaaaaaa!!!! That Sucks I just met him and bison up there last summer was lookin forward to another visit or perhaps gettin my car tuned!! Is he gonna open a new place orrr...???
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2009
- Messages
- 1,675
He certainly is not going to open a shop anytime soon. He's building a boat for someone right now..............
xtremexnyc
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 29, 2001
- Messages
- 1,288
Unfortunately he closed shop. It doesn't look like he will be setting up any time soon. I wish him well.
T- Type Tim
Vice Chairman
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2001
- Messages
- 2,157
Ok , so I'll be the first to ask ....what happened?
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- Apr 10, 2009
- Messages
- 1,675
from what he told me........chit happened......too bad, loved bringing the car to Otto......honest as the day is long and a great tuner.
T- Type Tim
Vice Chairman
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2001
- Messages
- 2,157
hope he gets up and going again... like you said stand up guy to deal with
I hate that. He is one hell of a tuner and great guy....... I understand today's economy... the first thing people quit spending money on is hobbies..... such as turbo Buicks..... and other "toys". I wish him well in whatever he finds himself doing..... but I hope he will come back and at least keep in touch with the Buick board from time to time.
TURBOPOWERED68
David
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2006
- Messages
- 8,819
That Sucks
Otto Good luck to you .
Otto Good luck to you .
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2005
- Messages
- 25,758
I don't think it was economic thing as much as a life thing guys... I think he is doing great!
Its a huge overhead to run any business. The rent, equipment, insurance, EPA, tools, are a huge drain If you have employee's thats another one... You figure your hours spent doing what you love.. at the end of the month look at your bottom line.. its not pretty. Performance cars and doing work on vehicles that are old is a hard thing. There is way more money with the churn and burn tuneups, and general car repairs. Same with body shops.. the money is on the quick in and out jobs.. not the car that sits there 6 months doing a frame off. From the business i've been doing business with the last 8-10 years.. the pattern of those staying in business has been with newer cars and modifications thereof. Example the 2010 Camaro, the new Mustang, etc.. and selling packages for those cars. Or the imports.. Newer ones.
The catch 22 is you love the Turbo Buick.. The problem is the limited amount of Turbo Buicks to work on. And enough of them to allow you to pay your bills at the end of the month. The shops I deal with that do TR work.. God Bless them. It may be reducing the shops available allows the few to survive. I'm not even going to get in on once your specialized on these cars.. you end up getting all the junk that has been to the wrong shops to get sorted.. that is the worse as it consumes time like crazy. Even worse, you have a business working on cars that the customer is beating to death. Vs the Jiffy lube doing a 500 dollar tuneup and the engine is never floored or abused.
The Turbo Regal is a typically 5-15K car. Its hard to justify 10K jobs when the car is worth 10K. vs a new Camaro is 40K. A blower, tune, some headers.. 10k is no biggie. The 10K doesnt impact the same.
Otto.. good luck on your endeavors. You genuinely care, and in the automotive business.. thats a tough thing to find.
Julio
The catch 22 is you love the Turbo Buick.. The problem is the limited amount of Turbo Buicks to work on. And enough of them to allow you to pay your bills at the end of the month. The shops I deal with that do TR work.. God Bless them. It may be reducing the shops available allows the few to survive. I'm not even going to get in on once your specialized on these cars.. you end up getting all the junk that has been to the wrong shops to get sorted.. that is the worse as it consumes time like crazy. Even worse, you have a business working on cars that the customer is beating to death. Vs the Jiffy lube doing a 500 dollar tuneup and the engine is never floored or abused.
The Turbo Regal is a typically 5-15K car. Its hard to justify 10K jobs when the car is worth 10K. vs a new Camaro is 40K. A blower, tune, some headers.. 10k is no biggie. The 10K doesnt impact the same.
Otto.. good luck on your endeavors. You genuinely care, and in the automotive business.. thats a tough thing to find.
Julio
I don't know his situation, but I do know I've met him (once or twice in person) and talked to him several times on the board or on the phone and he really knows his stuff when it comes to Turbo Buicks and XFI's. The first time I saw him in person was in BG many years back.... he was running TSM I believe and blew up his rear end.... seemed like he was having a run of bad luck at the nats that year..... a couple years later he helped Alan in the black IROC in Reynolds work on his tune..... back when we were running low 10's with an iron headed 231 in motor.....he has been a source of no BS help for years. Great guy. I wish him well.
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