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Automotive Industry

Editor's Report

Motor, Sep 2005 by Lypen, John

For 14 years now, our Top 20 Tools award program has sought to make our readers aware of great new products and give recognition to hard-working manufacturers.

The first time I glanced down at my wristwatch today was on the morning drive to the office. I knew it was a few minutes after 7:00 but, according to my fine timepiece, it was 1:00 p.m. yesterday. By most measures-cost, complexity and country of origin-I suppose it really does qualify as a fine timepiece and, no, its not broken. In fact, by stopping on a Sunday afternoon, after I hadn't worn it for about 36 hours, the watch was acting exactly the way it was designed to.

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A few years ago I made the decision to treat myself to a good new watch. Before I even started shopping Fd already decided that the more a watch cost, the better it had to be and, darn it, I deserved a good watch!

Prior to this decision, a watch -wasn't anything I'd ever spent a long time pondering. It was simply a dependable appliance that helped me get places on time-something received as a gift or bought in a discount store. When it became lost, broken to bits in an accident or just grossly unfashionable, I got a new one. In my entire adult life, I could probably count on one hand the number of times I had to replace a watch battery, or adjust the time.

What I hadn't realized before my quest for a "good" watch began is that there are two basic types of watch operating mechanisms-quartz and mechanical. Since the mechanical ones are more expensive, they've got to be better, so that's what I bought and that's why I rarely know what time it is. The fact of the matter, and one which I learned too late, is that quartz watches are significantly better time keepers than their mechanical counterparts.*

It may seem like an apples-to-oranges comparison, but there are parallels between my search for a new watch and your never-ending quest for the new tools and equipment that will make your business operate more efficiently and profitably.

Questions I should have asked myself, and that you certainly should consider before making any new tool purchase, include:

* How will it benefit me?

* Do I really need it?

* Is it overly complicated for its intended purpose?

* What are its limitations?

* How does it compare to similar products?

* What are my options?

No matter what category of tool purchase you plan to make, its always in your best interest to educate yourself and avoid impulsive decisions like mine.

For the 14th consecutive year, MOTOR Magazine's editors scoured the automotive tool and equipment industry to identify the top 20 newly introduced products. Each winning tool is unique and ingenious in its own way and has the potential to become a good investment, assuming it fits a need in your shop.

These 20 tools are by no means the only great products introduced in the past year, but I encourage you to use the results as one weapon in your arsenal of information needed to make the right buying decisions for your business.

Wearing an expensive watch that keeps lousy time is an inconvenience. Having an expensive tool sit in your shop unused is an operating expense you can't afford.

* According to the American Watch Association, the typical quartz watch runs on a battery that lasts up to ten years and is accurate to within ten seconds a month. A typical mechanical watch, on the other hand, needs to be worn for at least 12 hours a day by a semiactive person to keep it going and is accurate to within ten minutes a month. I've also learned that couch potatoes, or people like me who don't wear a watch on weekends, can buy a "watch winder"-a device that rotates the watch mechanically to keep it wound.

John Lypen

jlypen@motor.com

Automotive Industry

Editor's Report

Motor, Sep 2005 by Lypen, John

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