Author: Rob Morris

We look over your vehicle every time you come into Lowell’s to identify service items which might need your attention. We put our recommendations (if any) at the bottom of your invoice, and we prioritize and color-code them for you.

But what do those color codes mean, exactly? What’s the difference between “Needed” and “Needed Soon”? What is “Due by Mileage”?

We have five classifications we use here at Lowell’s based on your future costs and your safety. Here are the guidelines we use when we prioritize your recommendations, from low to high severity:

1. DUE BY MILEAGE – For these service items, we can’t  tell whether the service is needed through a visual inspection alone, but your vehicle’s mileage indicates that the service is due.In other words, the service may have been done elsewhere, but we can’t tell. This is why DUE BY MILEAGE often comes up with newer Lowell’s customers. If you’ve recently had the service done, then it probably isn’t necessary. (And be sure to let us know so that we stop bugging you about it.)
2. NEEDED – These items are likely to create long-term damage to your vehicle if left untreated. They are not safety risks, and we haven’t seen any damage occuring on your vehicle yet.If you choose not to address this item today, monitor that part of the vehicle and consider scheduling this service or repair with your next regular visit with Lowell’s (i.e., the next time you change your oil).
3. NEEDED SOON – These items are likely to create moderate vehicle damage (less than $750) in the next six months if left untreated. They are not safety risks, but they could be currently damaging your vehicle.If you don’t address this item today, consider scheduling an appointment with us in the next one to two months.
4. URGENT – These items represent a near-term safety risk or are likely to create significant near-term vehicle damage (over $750) if left untreated. In other words, something could easily go wrong in the near future.If you don’t address this item today, schedule an appointment with us in the next three weeks to repair your vehicle.
5. CRITICAL – These items are immediate safety risks or are currently creating significant vehicle damage. Vehicles with a CRITICAL classification shouldn’t be driven.If you don’t address this item today, please consider towing the vehicle from the shop.

Based on our experiences with vehicles like yours, we assess how severe the service item could become. Most of our recommendations fall into the DUE BY MILEAGE or NEEDED categories. We only rarely use the URGENT or CRITICAL classifications on a vehicle.

You and your car are unique. You may be able to drive with a problem we’ve identified for quite some time, or you may experience problems sooner than we predicted.

We hope that these categories help give you a general idea of the importance of each item as you review your recommendations. And, as always, you should feel free to contact us whenever you have questions about your invoice or your vehicle.

Every customer deserves to understand exactly what we’ve done while servicing their vehicle at Lowell’s. Over the past few months, we’ve introduced a new invoice design which helps do just that. We built it from scratch to make  it easier to see just what you are getting with every visit to Lowell’s.

After looking at a lot of invoices, we think ours is the best invoice in the repair industry.

But why care about your mechanic’s invoice? Because the invoice tells you a lot about your mechanic, and whether they want you to be informed about your car and their work. Here’s what our invoice does for you:

Easier Reading

We’ve placed basic information about you and your vehicle along the left side of the invoice, while the main part of the invoice shows details about this visit to Lowell’s.

Making Our Work Clearer for You

We’ve organized the core of our invoice into three sections to help you see what we did (and what we did not do). A dark red bar visually marks the beginning of each section.

Your Service Request outlines the reasons you brought your car into Lowell’s.

What We Did contains the details surrounding the work we’ve done to your vehicle.

What We Recommend tells you about items we noticed during your service which might need your attention soon, along with estimates for addressing each issue.

Job by Job

Lots of repair places lump their work into a big jumble which makes it hard for customers to figure out what they’re paying for. Many dealers, for example, take the labor from several separate jobs and smush it all together into a single big labor charge. That makes it really, really hard to decode what they’re really, really charging you for.

At Lowell’s, we want you to see exactly what you are paying for. For each distinct job in our What We Did section, we show you our labor (in bold) and every part used (indented). These items are grouped together by job – a Lubrication Service, say, is clearly separated from other work, like a Brake System Flush. Our charges for each component of a job are also clearly shown.

The Best Warranty in the Business

We really stand behind our work here at Lowell’s. Most of our repair work carries an unmatched 3 year, 36,000 mile warranty – three to twelve times the warranty of most dealers and other shops for the same work.

Whenever we do work for you which carries a warranty, your invoice will clearly show that with a green “warranty box”, which describes the duration of the warranty for that particular work.

Because we also note the date and your vehicle’s mileage on each invoice, you can easily see whether a repair is still covered. (And if it is, we’ll fix it, of course.)

You Can Plan Ahead

When we notice things during your service which might need your attention, we try to prioritize those items for you in the What We Recommend section of the new invoice.

Related Post: How we make recommendations at Lowell’s.

We color-code each recommendation to help you understand its urgency: Red means that the item represents a potential safety issue, and should be addressed immediately; Orange means that the item could damage your vehicle soon if left untreated; Yellow denotes items which you should address to keep your vehicle operating smoothly; and Gray indicates items which might be due according to your vehicle’s mileage (usually these are items we can’t confirm the need for with a simple visual check and which might have been done elsewhere).

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Our new invoice clarifies our work, and helps you plan how to keep your car running long into the future. We think it reflects the unique ‘spirit’ of Lowell’s toward automotive repair: open, direct, clear, and easy to understand.

As always, we’d love to know how we can do better (with this invoice or any other aspect of our service). Let us know what you’d like to see in the comments below.

Reason #54 from our Why Should I Choose Lowell’s? series.

Since the economy slowed a few years ago, it seems that a lot of businesses have found some ‘creative’ ways to inflate their prices with unexplained (and inexplicable) charges.

These silly fees have found their way into the auto repair industry, too. Some places tack on up to 15% more to your invoice with them.

Here’s a screwball example from a local dealer:

This invoice describes a fairly standard brake job for $252.88.  But then the dealer goes on to add $18.89 in “miscellaneous” charges:

In this case, the miscellaneous charges magically add another 7.5% to the bill!

Document Retention Fees. Shop Supplies Charges. Environmental Disposal Fees. Fuel Surcharges. What the heck are these things, anyway?

This dealer is basically making customers pay its bills.  Next thing you know, they’ll just forward their electrical bill to you.  Or tack on a “staff training charge” or a “we-just-bought-new-equipment fee”.  Just kidding.  Hopefully.

We think the whole idea is just silly.

We don’t like it when our suppliers apply stupid fees to us. And we bet you don’t like it either.

So we don’t do it at Lowell’s.

Instead, we figure out a fair price for our service, and quote that to you.  Then – and this is the key – we deliver our work for that price.

That’s it.  Pretty simple, huh?

At Lowell’s, the price we quote is the price you pay. No silly games. No hidden fees. No unpleasant surprises when you pick up your car.

We think that’s a smarter way to run a business. We hope you do, too.