good car related bussiness ideas?

i've been in the car industry for a while now, and i know there lots of money to be made...
 
lets here everyones dream bussiness that is car related...  repair shop, sterio shop, body shop, smog shop, tire, towing, windshield, muffler, performace, used car lot.. etc..
 
let me start it out, if i had the money to make money, it would be to own a salvage yard (wreaking yard)... 
look how much these guys make off one car.... 
 
but over the years, i've been collecting lots of shop tools such as shop press, trans jack, tire machine, ac machine, scanners,  brake lathe, etc..  and open a repair shop if i had the money to back it up because i would rather open up a bussiness i know well and know how to make money off it.. 
 
lets hear everyones opinion on what car related shop they would open if they had the money....

General repair makes the bucks..not aftermarket.  Only the light truck aftermarket makes any bank.  Any current shop owner will tell you it's not a big money maker..but more to enjoy what you're doing and pay the bills.  The ones that do end up getting lucky and making the money get too big for their britches and fail in the end or sell the business to a larger entity.  So it can also be a double edged sword.  Just keep yourself and your finances in check and you should be ok.

my dream shop: an east coast Autofashion branch.

:)

to make any business successful, you really need to do what you love...i know flexin loves what he does so this isn't an issue for him...but if you have a passion for your trade, it makes it easier to work long, necessary hours and will make your business more tolerable when times are tough...
 
i want to open my own collision repair shop...insurance jobs are where the money is imo...at the shop i'm at now, we do a few restorations and aftermarket body kits but they are more favors than profit making...they take up too much time and eventhough customers pay upwards of $20K, the car may sit for a few years and just takes up a lot of space...not to say i won't do some favors to keep my crative juices flowing but its hard for a company to base itself strictly off walk in customers...
 
i always wanted to start off buying wrecked vehicles that need minor repairs and/or complete paint jobs...not salvaged though...you can buy quality cars from the auction for ~$500-$1500...after pulling out some dents, replacing some parts with used or aftermarket parts and a complete paint, you have yourself a $7k-$8k car...
 
my buddy has a shop here in hawaii that does mostly custom work...his rent is $7k/month and he buys one car from the auction every month and fixes them up and resells them...one car is enough to pay his rent for the entire month...
 
only one problem i have, i need a mechanic :pat:

yea i feel u... but buying junk car and selling as a good running car is kinda hard now in our area now... everyone on craigslist sell there junk car lik its worth something.... and at all the auctions, people r bidding way to high and making less profit out of them... i wish it was lik back in the days when u can buy cars for dirt cheap and sell them for double, triple the price lik a week later.. and since the economy is so bad rite now, no one wants to sell there junk cars...

[quote=flexinsteelz;143376]yea i feel u... but buying junk car and selling as a good running car is kinda hard now in our area now... everyone on craigslist sell there junk car lik its worth something.... and at all the auctions, people r bidding way to high and making less profit out of them... i wish it was lik back in the days when u can buy cars for dirt cheap and sell them for double, triple the price lik a week later.. and since the economy is so bad rite now, no one wants to sell there junk cars...[/quote]
 
yeah...people have settled for fixing their own car instead of going into more debt and buying something new/newer...there will always be sweet deals out there though...just gotta find cars that will always have a market..i.e. acura's, toyota's, etc.  something that has a lot of bang for the buck...leather, A/C, new paint, straight body and great gas mileage...
 
take something cheap and sell it under kbb...you'll make less profit but at least it's a quick turnaround...

My ideal business would be tuning cars and selling them.... if there was any money to be made there :P

[quote=firelizard;143440]My ideal business would be tuning cars and selling them.... if there was any money to be made there :P[/quote]word. that would be a dream job.  i see alot of those dealers at japan.

[quote=firelizard;143440]My ideal business would be tuning cars and selling them.... if there was any money to be made there :P[/quote]
word x 2. ideal would be to be able to build cars how i envision them and sell them as a whole, but i doubt that would ever be steady enough to count on.
 
a little more realistic would be something like how boyd had it. top quality customization and parts manufacturing.