Matt-98AHU
Loose Nut Behind the Wheel Vendor
As some have heard me discuss in person in recent months, things have been in motion in the background for awhile to move out of state. Some of my family has moved to Oregon and deegingerkid and I are deciding to follow.
It wasn't taken lightly on my part since I have a decent customer base built up with the Bay Area, and largely been great.
But, it's not affordable. If I want to actually own property instead of just see thousands of dollars every month disappear for rent just to buy another month, I have to go. This is the primary reason.
The other reason is that there will be a dwindling customer base with these cars in the coming years thanks to dieselgate and us not getting any new ones for 5 years now. I will have to diversify one way or another and I suppose I might as well just rip the band aid off and move to where it's affordable and be closer to family, since at the end of the day that's going to take higher importance in personal life than where it happens to be easier to get business due to shear numbers.
Originally, the shop lease here in San Anselmo was set to expire end of October this year. We got a new landlord just before the COVID shut down happened in our area. It took awhile of us pestering him to at least get us a short extension of the lease, but we finally got it. Officially, I am open for business through the end of the calendar year. The lease actually has us through the end of January per our request, but I mostly suggested the end of January so I could focus on customer cars through year's end and leave January for me to finish up my own projects, then pack up and get out without having to stress about customer appointments in the mix and having to move out during the holidays.
The first Bay Area TDI GTG I went to was just over 10 years ago. Even though at the time I was living closer to LA being in the central coast, you Bay Area types seemed to have more work for me more frequently. I choose to come up here for that reason and I appreciate all the repeat business I've gotten, even though I had to stop TDI work for over a year to give the dealer world a trial, partly to get caught up on more recent tech and also to ensure I had a stable income for the rent I was paying.
I do feel a little bad about leaving my loyal customers, but family and cost reasons are too large to ignore.
It wasn't taken lightly on my part since I have a decent customer base built up with the Bay Area, and largely been great.
But, it's not affordable. If I want to actually own property instead of just see thousands of dollars every month disappear for rent just to buy another month, I have to go. This is the primary reason.
The other reason is that there will be a dwindling customer base with these cars in the coming years thanks to dieselgate and us not getting any new ones for 5 years now. I will have to diversify one way or another and I suppose I might as well just rip the band aid off and move to where it's affordable and be closer to family, since at the end of the day that's going to take higher importance in personal life than where it happens to be easier to get business due to shear numbers.
Originally, the shop lease here in San Anselmo was set to expire end of October this year. We got a new landlord just before the COVID shut down happened in our area. It took awhile of us pestering him to at least get us a short extension of the lease, but we finally got it. Officially, I am open for business through the end of the calendar year. The lease actually has us through the end of January per our request, but I mostly suggested the end of January so I could focus on customer cars through year's end and leave January for me to finish up my own projects, then pack up and get out without having to stress about customer appointments in the mix and having to move out during the holidays.
The first Bay Area TDI GTG I went to was just over 10 years ago. Even though at the time I was living closer to LA being in the central coast, you Bay Area types seemed to have more work for me more frequently. I choose to come up here for that reason and I appreciate all the repeat business I've gotten, even though I had to stop TDI work for over a year to give the dealer world a trial, partly to get caught up on more recent tech and also to ensure I had a stable income for the rent I was paying.
I do feel a little bad about leaving my loyal customers, but family and cost reasons are too large to ignore.