Lowell's

What we did on winter break

While we were closed for the last week of 2011, we began to redecorate our lobby for 2012. 

We unintentionally chose a color-shifting paint: it was supposed to be a neutral beige color, but in different lights, it can look gold, greenish, or peach.

In any case, the result - we hope - is a lighter, brighter, and more pleasant place to visit and to wait in. 

In coming months, we'll continue to update the decor at Lowell's.

Please drop in and let us know what you think! (Or make an appointment online!)

 

When your car still isn't right

Hi everyone!  Keith here and today's topic is a difficult - but important - one.  

What do you do when there is a problem with your car soon after you pick it up from Lowell's? Do you bring it back or do you take it somewhere else?   

While you may be tempted to take your vehicle elsewhere, we hope that you will bring it back to us so we may address your concern.  If we ever let you down, we ask for the chance to make things right.  

I can honestly say everyone here is dedicated to doing the job right the first time. Sometimes, though, we might miss something or may not communicate something that you need to know.  

As such, we'd like to correct any discrepancy there may be.  We try to resolve any issues with customers -- however large or small.   

If you bring your vehicle back to Lowell's, I can promise we will do our best to make it right.  If we made mistakes during your service, we can usually resolve the problem at no extra cost to you.  If for some reason you still are not satisfied, please contact Rob personally.  

We appreciate the trust you place in Lowell's, and will always work hard to keep it.

Introducing the Lowell's Courtesy iPad

We're always looking for ways to make your Lowell's experience better.

You might have gotten a ride to work in our courtesy shuttle van.  If we needed to keep your car for a while, you might have driven one of our courtesy loaner vehicles.  Some of you have even ridden our courtesy bikes around downtown!

Now, the next time you are waiting in our lobby, try out our new courtesy iPad 2!

Use our iPad to cruise the internet, to catch up on news, or even to play a few rounds of Angry Birds while we fix your car!

 

Lowell's Black Friday Specials

If you'd rather not fight the crowds in search of a good deal on Black Friday, why not get great deals at Lowell's this year instead?

This Friday, November 25th, we're offering the best prices all year on some of your most important services!

Here's what we're offering:

• FREE brake inspection! (A $43 savings).
• A $5 oil change! (A savings of $15 to $25).
• Save 50% on a transmission flush! (A savings of $83).
• 50% off of a brake flush! (A savings of $69).

That's a potential savings of over $200 on the award-winning service you expect from Lowell's!

Be sure to reserve your slot for this Friday by calling Lowell's at 233-1173 or by making your appointment online today.  We can't wait to see you!

UPDATE: Because so many customers are traveling this weekend, we're extending our Black Friday deals to "Cyber Monday" - Monday, November 28th - as well. 

Share the Knowlege

Hello everyone!  My name is Keith Shelburne. I have been working for Lowells for just over 6 years now, and have been asked by Rob to be a  contributor to the blog. 

I have been turning wrenches (as they say) for over 26 years and am an ASE Master Certified Technician.  

My objective will be to share my knowlege with everyone on the blog.  Things from the write up to service to what we do when we technicians get your car, as well as any specifics on the cars.

I will try to be as informative as possible without being too technical.  I would like to hear any questions about appointments, personnel, write-ups, training,  service work or technical topics.  

Do you have a topic already? Just let me know what you would like to see covered.  Check back soon to see what the first topic may be.

Thanks,  Keith S

Lowell's wins 2011 Best of Lex Award

Thanks to your generous votes, Lowell's has been chosen "Best Fear-Free Mechanic" in Ace Weekly's Best of Lex 2011.

This is the ninth time Ace readers have voted us Lexington's best mechanic, and we are deeply grateful that you have honored us once again.

And be sure to check out all of this year's Best of Lex winners.

 

Easier Appointments

We're pleased to release a long-needed upgrade to our online system for making service appointments or checking your service history.

If you used the application over the past couple of years, you were taken to an older section of our site which looked very different from our main site: different logo, different background, different navigation.  

In fact, it looked so different that it confused some customers.  Were they even on the same site?

We've tried to update the look and feel of the application to make it clearer and easier to use.

Try it out and let us know how you like it.  And, as always, please let us know what we can do better.

"Do You Always Use Genuine Toyota Parts?"

Customers often ask us, "Do you always use genuine Toyota parts?"

No, not always.

Throughout our history, we've consistently used a mixture of genuine Toyota parts and high-quality aftermarket (in other words, "non-Toyota") parts.  

We choose parts based on part quality, availability, and price.  If a Toyota part costs too much or takes too long to get in, and we can offer a high-quality alternative, we will.

On critical categories of parts - such as brake pads, oil filters, antifreeze, and ignition coils - we use only Toyota materials because we think Toyota offers superior quality.

When we do use aftermarket parts, we try to ensure that they are equivalent in quality to Toyota parts - usually by choosing a supplier who also supplies Toyota (such as NGK or Denso). 

We know that our parts quality is key to our customers' satisfaction - and to the future of Lowell's. Without great parts, we wouldn't be able to stand behind our exceptional three-year / 36,000-mile warranty on most repairs (where other shops and dealers usually offer 1-year or 90-day warranties).

If you ever have questions about your parts, please feel free to ask.  We're always happy to explain how we work on your car.

Lowell's wins 2011 Readers' Choice Award

For the fifth time, Lexington Herald-Leader readers have voted Lowell's their "Favorite Auto Repair Place" in the 2011 Readers' Choice Awards.  

We are humbled and honored to have the support of our wonderful, wonderful customers. We are also very grateful to have such thoughtful and skilled employees.

Lowell's won the category even when matched up against other great finalists who have multiple locations (S&S Tire) or who service multiple vehicle brands (our friends at Auto Tech).

Lowell's was also the top pick for Herald-Leader readers in 2010, 2009, 2007, and 1994 - to our knowledge, that's every time the auto repair category has been offered.

Thank you so much,
Rob, Suzanne, and your Friends at Lowell's

Mitch Payton Joins Lowell's

Facing a very busy summer season, we knew we'd need additional help working on vehicles at Lowell's. And it was important for us to find an employee who'd help us build upon our award-winning culture.

So we had each potential technician interview with a group of Lowell's employees to ensure that they would enhance how we do things here.

After that process, we are pleased to (belatedly) welcome Mitch Payton to the Lowell's team.  Mitch joined us on April 1st.  

Mitch is an accomplished dart player - He played professionally for about 5 years!  He also has twelve years of combined experience at Green's Toyota in Lexington and Toyota South in Richmond.  

But we won't hold that against him.

All kidding aside, Mitch is a valuable addition to Lowell's.  In addition to providing us with even deeper Toyota experience and expertise, Mitch is thorough and conscientious - qualities we hold dear here at Lowell's.

We are very happy to add Mitch to our roster of stellar Lowell's employees.

Lowell's Joins Local First Lexington

Here at Lowell's, we have long supported buying goods and services from small, local businesses to spur Lexington's economic development. 

We believe that buying from local businesses keeps more of Lexington's money at home - helping to create jobs and greater opportunity here.  (See more of our rationale in our "Local First" post.) 

So - in a long-overdue step - we are pleased to announce that Lowell's has now joined Local First Lexington. 

So... what is Local First Lexington?

Local First Lexington is an alliance of nearly 200 independent, Lexington-owned businesses, aimed at celebrating and promoting buying locally-produced products.

If you're interested in buying more local goods and services, please visit LFL's directory of great local businesses.

Year-End Schedule

Following our long-standing tradition, Lowell's will be closed for the last week of the year.  

That means we will be closing early (at 2 PM) on December 24th, and will remain closed until we reopen for business on January 3rd, 2011.

If you need to schedule service with us prior to your holiday travel, please keep this schedule in mind.  You can make an appointment online, or call us the shop at 233-1173.

Thank you so much for a great 2010, and we look forward to seeing you again in 2011!

Rob, Suzanne, and your friends at Lowell's

The Next Best Thing

We love our awards.

 Over the years, Lowell's has been voted "Best Mechanic" eight times by Ace Weekly readers, including a win in 2009.  

We've also been voted Readers' Choice "Favorite Auto Repair Shop" four times by Herald-Leader readers, including the last three times the repair shop category has been available: 2007, 2009, and 2010.

Our awards are vital to our growth as a business - they tell prospective customers that our current customers really like doing business with us.

So you might imagine our disappointment when we found out that Ace dropped the "Best Mechanic" category from its 2010 Best of Lex [PDF link] awards.

When the Best of Lex awards came out recently, however, we were in for a pleasant surprise:

"Some 'classic' categories are retired this year to make room for new ones to rotate in — best veterinarian and best mechanic always generate a frenzy of votes, for example — but Chevy Chase Small Animal and Lowell's (respectively) have won so often that it was time to let the readers vote for something new..."

While it isn't quite as prestigious as a 'win', having a category retired because we've won it so often is still a considerable honor.

Thank you so much for supporting us (and voting for us!) over the years.  And here's hoping the "Best Mechanic" award makes a return in 2011.

Lowell's Wins 2010 Readers' Choice Award

Lowell's is honored to win our third consecutive Readers' Choice Award for "Favorite Auto Repair Place" in voting submitted by Lexington Herald-Leader readers.

Lowell's won the voting even when matched up against other finalists (our good friends at Auto Tech and S&S Tire) who service all brands or who have multiple locations around the region.

We are grateful to our loyal customers for voting for us.  We are especially grateful to our very talented employees who earn this award through their thoughtful hard work and excellent service every day.

Thank you.

David Bullard Leaving Lowell's

After nearly four years with Lowell's in Lexington, David Bullard - one of our highly-skilled technicians - is returning to his hometown shop in Florence, Kentucky. While we are sad to see David leave, we really appreciate his contributions here over the past four years. 

We'd love for you to help us say goodbye to David. This Friday, July 30th at noon, we'll be having a pizza party at the shop, and we're inviting our friends and customers to join us. We'll be bringing in lots of Mellow Mushroom pizza for you (Kosmic Karma is David's favorite), and - as always - you can get 5-cent Cokes from our machine. 

Please join us as we bid farewell to one of our own. 

We hope to see you this Friday, 
Rob, Suzanne, and your Friends at Lowell's

"What is that thing?!?"

Lowell's customers and pedestrians on Mechanic Street have noticed that we have a strange vehicle in our garage which is most definitely not a Toyota.

Some folks giggle when they see it.  Some just shake their heads.  Most smile.  Everyone wants to know, "What is that thing?!?"

It is a wildly-colorful, whimsical, bicycle-powered, musical, and Seuss-ical contraption known as "PRESTO: The People-Powered Pianobike".  

What's a people-powered pianobike?  It is pulled by two bikes.  It is powered by a third bike.  It is an electronic keyboard with amp.  It is a community work of art utilizing recycled materials and musical instruments.  It is a celebration of music, fitness, recycling, and fun.  And we keep it here at Lowell's.

PRESTO is the brainchild of Debra Hensley (that's her on the right) of Debra's Social $timulus, and it will be making appearances at public events all over Lexington.  

On Memorial Day, PRESTO led 3,000 bicyclists through downtown Lexington for Bike Lexington's Family Fun Ride.

In conjunction with Debra's Social $timulus, Lowell's is storing PRESTO here at the shop.  We've already had several passersby interact with PRESTO, including a swarm of kids honking PRESTO's many horns.

We think PRESTO is a lot of fun.  If you come by the shop, be sure to look it over.  And smile.

We're baaack!

After a much-too-long hiatus from participating in the online world, we're going to fire up the keyboard again.  Sorry to have been away for so long.

Look for more from us soon here on the blog, on Twitter, and on Facebook!

Get Your Blue On!

If you're like us, you're pretty excited about how well Kentucky is doing this season.  New coach, new style, new successes - the Cats are finally back.

If you're a Cats fan, we've created something just for you.

A 4x6" Kentucky blue oval car magnet inscribed with "The Blue is Back, Baby!", it is designed to help you cheer the Cats to victory.

They're free to Lowell's customers.  You can get extras for $5 per magnet, with all proceeds going to the American Red Cross for earthquake relief in Haiti and Chile.

Show your pride in your team.  Pick one up at Lowell's today!

Thoughts on Toyota

You have probably heard about the many recent recalls from Toyota. Toyota's quality problems have received an enormous amount of press coverage.  Today, Akio Toyoda - the grandson of the company's founder - will testify in a congressional investigation into Toyota's response to their quality issues.

If you own a Toyota-made vehicle, you may be concerned about your safety. You might be frustrated with Toyota's lack of clarity around the recalls. 

We share your concern, and wanted to let you know where we stand with regard to the Toyota quality issue. 

As an independent repair shop which exclusively services Toyota, Lexus, and Scion, we feel that Toyota's lack of transparency is frustrating, inexplicable, and, frankly, unacceptable. Anything which hurts Toyota's reputation can damage our business.  

We wish that Toyota had been more forthright about each problem, its extent, and its severity. 

That said, the issues with acceleration, braking, and steering still appear to be extremely rare: Thankfully, we know of no instances where a Lowell's customer has encountered these kinds of problems. 

We don't excuse Toyota for their recent quality problems (or for their poor reaction to them).  

But we do feel that the Toyota story has snowballed into an out-of-control overreaction.  As emotionally-charged stories about Toyota's issues lead the evening news, similar recalls for rare, sometimes-deadly defects from Honda, Hyundai, Ford, and Pontiac have received comparably little press coverage.

Toyota definitely needs to find and eliminate quality problems.  

But we would prefer that such intense media, congressional, and public attention be laser-focused on exponentially larger issues affecting American well-being - such as the many failures of our healthcare system or the loss of millions of jobs in the past two years.

Note to our customers: We at Lowell's have offered our assistance to local dealers in getting recalled cars fixed as quickly as possible. Currently, however, the only way to get a recall issue resolved is to go through a Toyota dealer. 

Lowell's Teams with Debra’s Social $timulus for Haitian relief

Lowell's is joining Debra Hensley's brilliant campaign to support Haitian earthquake relief efforts.   Together, we will match the first $2000 that you donate toward helping the quake victims. You can drop off a check at Debra’s office at 1513 Nicholasville Road or at our shop at 111 Mechanic Street in Lexington.

Make checks payable to the Red Cross International Fund or the 501(c)(3) of your choice that is helping HAITI. Texting HAITI to 90999 will donate $10 to the Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti.  If you donate by text message, forward a copy of your confirmation to us at:

[email protected]
debrassocialstimulus.com
859-333-3431

Thank you for your help in this global effort!

*** UPDATE: 1/15/2010 ***

We delivered the first batch of Haitian relief checks to Terry Burkhart of the Bluegrass Chapter of the American Red Cross this afternoon, collected from across our generous community.

Thank you so much for your donations.  Here's how Debra said it:

We just delivered the first set of checks to the Red Cross. 100% of these funds will get to the Haiti Relief Fund very quickly. You have also supported - Doctors Without Borders, Food For the Poor, Salvation Army, Oxfam America, and so many other fine organizations.

We asked you to step up and you did.  We told you we would match the first $2,000 and we did.  We will continue to ask other like businesses and organizations to join with matching funds for the need is so great.  As of this moment we have raised $6520, including our match. We will post an entire list of contributors once we have cleared it with them. Thank you, thank you and more later.

If you haven't had a chance to donate yet, we will continue to collect your contributions - as you can see in the photos and stories emerging from the tragedy, the need is profound.  Let's do all we can.

*** UPDATE: 1/19/2010 ***

Your tremendous generosity continues to mount!  Including our match, Debra and Lowell's have raised over $9600 in relief from over 100 people.  We just delivered another batch of relief checks to the Red Cross this afternoon.

If you haven't had a chance to contribute yet, we are still collecting your contributions.  Keep 'em coming!