A good rinse is half a repair

A good rinse is half a repair

Tire retailers have been suffering from tough online competition for a long time. Reifen Nemetz in Oberegging, led by owner Willibald Nemetz, recognized the signs of the times early on and, in addition to the tire shop, also runs two gas stations and an independent workshop including a paint shop and plumbing shop - the company seems to be prepared for the future. One reason is probably the far-sighted boss himself: "In the last year, customer inquiries regarding automatic transmission flushes and transmission oil changes have increased. So I found out who offers this in our area and at what cost," says Nemetz, who has been a point-S tire partner since 2006. About two months ago the time had come and a Liqui Moly Gear Tronic transmission oil service station was purchased. The compact complete service device comes from Mahle. 

Clean work

The trend towards automatic transmissions is unmistakable. Depending on the vehicle model, the transmission oil change intervals are between 60,000 and around 100,000 kilometers. Since automatic transmissions, due to their design, contain significantly more oil than manual transmissions, careful replacement is absolutely necessary. If you drain the gearbox oil conventionally, including changing the filter, only half or two-thirds of the used oil can be disposed of - depending on the gearbox type. The rest, including contamination and abrasion, remains in the gearbox.

The old oil is then mixed with the new gear oil, and in fact no full oil change has been carried out. Liqui Moly has recognized exactly this problem and, with the Gear Tronic, not only offers a convenient solution for changing transmission oil, but the device also has a fully automatic flushing function. “This allows us to extract 99 to 100 percent of the used oil, including impurities and abrasion, and fill the cleaned gearbox completely with fresh oil,” says Michael Mehlem, listing the advantages.

Willibald Nemetz confirms the conceptual advantages: "At first I was rather skeptical. Then we had a customer with an old Range Rover whose automatic transmission was pulling and jerking badly. We almost assumed that the transmission would have to be completely replaced. Because we wanted to know exactly, we first tried flushing the transmission. The result was excellent." 

Economy as a trump card

Instead of replacing the gearbox, the Range Rover was running smoothly again after around two hours of work and a few liters of gear oil. “That convinced me. And also the customers, who we saved a lot of money with,” says Nemetz. The motorsport-savvy managing director calculates: “To be very conservative, we recouped the purchase costs of the device after around 30 to 40 flushes.” The good customer feedback and the additional income opportunity convinced Nemetz. After selling 22 devices, Mehlem also has only positive things to report: “The market for transmission flushing will grow.

Simply changing the oil is often just a relief, not a cure. Our device works cleanly, efficiently and is easy to use.” Nemetz confirms all the good features and says like a bullet when we ask him whether he would buy the Gear Tronic again: "Sure. Of course the device has its price, but it is robust, of high quality and is profitable after a very short time. Ideally, it saves the customer money because we can fix certain gearbox problems quickly and cost-effectively. And you keep such customers for a very long time," says Nemetz as he says goodbye with a wink.