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Garage Life Motoring


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UPDATE: 10/14/2020

I'd like to take a moment to let everyone know that I am no longer running Garage Life Motoring.  With my current job it would be a conflict of interest so regretfully, I had to let it go.  Thankfully I was able to find someone to take the business over and continue to support the community and grow the business!  My brother in law, Devin, has officially taken over the business as of 10/1/2020!  He's a car guy himself and has a passion for euro's.  Audi/VW in particular but please don't hold that against him.  Him and his wife run a photography business full time doing weddings, getaways, elopements and engagements around the world.  He's even had the opportunity to shoot engagement photo's for racecar driver, Kenton Koch!  You can check them out on Instagram and Facebook at degrootfilmco.  Devin can be reached at the same email address I was using, garagelifemotoring@gmail.com.  

At this time I'd like to take a moment to personally thank all of you who have supported me throughout this experience!  I have truly been humbled by the amount of support I've received from all of you!  I never would have expected that this small business could have helped me build so many long lasting relationships!  There are quite a few of you that I've grown close to over the years simply because of this business and that's what I'm taking away from this experience.  Thank you!

I'll still be around here obviously and I've committed to Devin to "officially" support him with technical assistance for the next few months but beyond that, unofficially I'm still available to him for any technical support you guys may need.  Some of you have worked with him already and some of you have even met him in person at car shows or at Road America and I trust that you are all in good hands.

 

Hello!  I'm excited to announce that I am open for business!  I've started a small business selling performance parts with tons of vendors for various makes and models! More details to come!

UPDATE:

We're currently working on putting our e-store together and curating our assortment!  It's exciting stuff for us but a bit tedious.  We're trying to narrow down which models we want to advertise parts for but we can get parts for over 400 manufacturers and 900 lines!  Some of these include:  HRE, Advan, DINAN, AFE, Cobb, BMS, APR, KW/ST, Koni, Corsa, Borla, H&R and MANY MORE!

Garage%20Life%20Trans_zpsc4kyd0jv.png

 

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Pat who's the "we" in garage life motoring? Is this a solo venture or did you partner with someone? Will you have a physical store front or drop ship stuff?

^because if you drop ship, it makes it pretty much impossible to draw male genitalia on boxes and send them out

But for seriousness this is pretty cool!

You can sell rad parts

Spence for website/shirts

Dave can do decals

I can eat burritos two at a time

What a team!

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8 hours ago, KaiserRolls said:

Pat who's the "we" in garage life motoring? Is this a solo venture or did you partner with someone? Will you have a physical store front or drop ship stuff?

^because if you drop ship, it makes it pretty much impossible to draw male genitalia on boxes and send them out

But for seriousness this is pretty cool!

You can sell rad parts

Spence for website/shirts

Dave can do decals

I can eat burritos two at a time

What a team!

For an extra fee we will draw genitalia on boxes!  I have recruited my Brother in Law to help out since he's more of the VW/Audi guy.  At this moment we don't have a store front but it's a plan for the future so everything will be drop shipped or hand delivered.  We have a plan for the next 5 years and if we make it that far then you guys will find out more lol.  At this time I am narrowing our focus and working on an assortment that makes sense for us.  This means finding models that share parts and are popular so we can maximize the space we have on the site.  At the moment for BMW I've selected 1 series and 3 series (e36, e46, e90) and debating whether to add 5er (e34, e39, e60).  We still have access to a huge number of parts for just about every OEM out there.  I want the assortment to reflect "Quality parts and low prices".  I know that because i'm a little guy I can't always have the lowest price but that's the goal.  For example, The Cobb AP3 for the N54 will be selling for $835 before shipping which is extremely competitive.  I am very competitive on ST coil overs but KW is typically a bit more expensive from me.

I have been in the auto industry in various capacities for 10 years now from being a tech to service manager, automotive recruiting and now a regional manager overseeing op's for 12 large retail service centers.  I've wanted to do my own thing for a long time but it could never conflict with my "real" job and that means I couldn't advertise doing installations for services that are also done at work.  The retail idea came to me last Wednesday night while I was laying in bed and couldn't sleep.  This idea popped into my head and overtook me, that Friday I had Garage Life Motoring registered as an LLC and distributor figured out.  Not having a store front limits the number of distributors that I can work with because some have very strict requirements.

Apparel/stickers is definitely on our list but I have a to do list with priority numbers assigned and that's towards the lower end right now.  We're working on our e-store right now and I'll be in touch with some of you to look at it once we're done and make sure we haven't completely fucked it up.  We're building it on 3dcart right now.

These are just tidbits of whats going through my head right now and where we're at.  I've been balancing a busy "real" job schedule, family life and trying to get this started so nothing has been at a lightning pace but i'm excited to see the support is out there already!

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31 minutes ago, patsbimmer1 said:

For an extra fee we will draw genitalia on boxes!  I have recruited my Brother in Law to help out since he's more of the VW/Audi guy.  At this moment we don't have a store front but it's a plan for the future so everything will be drop shipped or hand delivered.  We have a plan for the next 5 years and if we make it that far then you guys will find out more lol.  At this time I am narrowing our focus and working on an assortment that makes sense for us.  This means finding models that share parts and are popular so we can maximize the space we have on the site.  At the moment for BMW I've selected 1 series and 3 series (e36, e46, e90) and debating whether to add 5er (e34, e39, e60).  We still have access to a huge number of parts for just about every OEM out there.  I want the assortment to reflect "Quality parts and low prices".  I know that because i'm a little guy I can't always have the lowest price but that's the goal.  For example, The Cobb AP3 for the N54 will be selling for $835 before shipping which is extremely competitive.  I am very competitive on ST coil overs but KW is typically a bit more expensive from me.

I have been in the auto industry in various capacities for 10 years now from being a tech to service manager, automotive recruiting and now a regional manager overseeing op's for 12 large retail service centers.  I've wanted to do my own thing for a long time but it could never conflict with my "real" job and that means I couldn't advertise doing installations for services that are also done at work.  The retail idea came to me last Wednesday night while I was laying in bed and couldn't sleep.  This idea popped into my head and overtook me, that Friday I had Garage Life Motoring registered as an LLC and distributor figured out.  Not having a store front limits the number of distributors that I can work with because some have very strict requirements.

Apparel/stickers is definitely on our list but I have a to do list with priority numbers assigned and that's towards the lower end right now.  We're working on our e-store right now and I'll be in touch with some of you to look at it once we're done and make sure we haven't completely fucked it up.  We're building it on 3dcart right now.

These are just tidbits of whats going through my head right now and where we're at.  I've been balancing a busy "real" job schedule, family life and trying to get this started so nothing has been at a lightning pace but i'm excited to see the support is out there already!

I'm glad you have your ducks in a row. Apparel and stickers are cool and all, but not a real business priority. I'll always interject my shameless t-shirt plug tho!

I've never heard of 3DCart but their website doesn't look bad. I've used Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce.

When I was running my hookah business, I did about $15k through my Shopify website that was costing me a whopping $30/month. It's a very easy to use platform as well. Etsy was a more popular sales platform for me, but obviously you won't be using that.

I'm not sure how far along with 3DCart you are, but good luck!

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3 minutes ago, suspenceful said:

I'm glad you have your ducks in a row. Apparel and stickers are cool and all, but not a real business priority. I'll always interject my shameless t-shirt plug tho!

I've never heard of 3DCart but their website doesn't look bad. I've used Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce.

When I was running my hookah business, I did about $15k through my Shopify website that was costing me a whopping $30/month. It's a very easy to use platform as well. Etsy was a more popular sales platform for me, but obviously you won't be using that.

I'm not sure how far along with 3DCart you are, but good luck!

We started on Shopify but we found 3dcart to be easier for us to work with.  The nice thing is that if we don't like it then we can always try something different.  The most difficult part was finding something that allowed a Y/M/M lookup but that was extremely expensive so our solution was to just limit the pathway to Make>Model>Chassis.  It's not as precise but easier and cheaper on our end.  I'll try and send you what we have so far.

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5 minutes ago, straight6pwr said:

WHA NO E30? WHY U NO E30?

but really, will be cool to have a local supplier of parts! i would really like picking up parts instead of shipping them.

hahaha, I was waiting the e30 comment from someone!  If anyone wants e30 stuff I can order it, just off the top of my head I can get control arms, eibach and H&R springs, Bilstein/Koni/Sachs shocks, various brake parts from EBC/Stoptech and many other parts.

To clarify, we don't have a store front at this time but it's a plan in the future.  For now I won't be carrying inventory but am happy to order something and meet up if need be.

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  • 1 year later...
45 minutes ago, Rekpoint said:

How does that work? You can sell stuff from ECStuning and a lower price?

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 

I have a wholesale account with ECS do installation and repair aside from my normal job and use them almost exclusively for parts so I try and pass on my wholesale pricing to the community.

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  • 2 months later...

07 335i Stella - sport package, BMS DCI, zhp knob, TMS cf parking brake lever, VRSF downpipes, MHD tune, Bilstein B14 coilovers, other stuff *sold*

97 328i Lola - sport package, m50 intake manifold, m50 manifold.com install kit, custom CAI, K&N filter, Borla exhaust, FK silverline coilovers, 25.5mm front sway bar, Powerflex front sway bushings, Turner Radiator, fan delete *sold*
95 325is *sold*
93 nissan 240sx KA-T *sold*

BMWCCA #473306

Instagram @patsbimmer1

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