ididit's 2008 Seminar Series & Effects on Gas Prices

OK, so doing a blog is harder than I thought. I am sorry for the delay; I hope to get into a weekly addition to this blog.

Ididit is really busy, which means I am really busy! We ended our seminar series in April. Doing these seminars is really great for those that attend and for Ken and me. Our first hope is to educate the buyer so he receives the correct part the first time. I know you guys hate planning a garage day only to find out you have the wrong part so your project gets delayed another week, or month! Our sales staff has been educated on many products, but we carry hundreds of lines and thousands of parts, it is impossible to know everything. This year we had the key people from The Welder Series, Vintage Air, Classic Instruments, and Wise Guys Seats. The questions from our audiences are outstanding. We have “hands on” builders that test the knowledge of all of the above representatives. The gentlemen we had speak were up to the challenge which made for some lively discussions. We will post next year’s seminars on our web site in October. Click here to see each of the speakers in action!

Let’s talk about gas prices. Do you think they will affect this hobby? Will you still be going to NSRA and Goodguy events? Will you still have a street rod or street machine in 5 years? We have not changed our own schedule at all this year. I believe that you may not drive as far away as you have in other years, but you will still enjoy the moment. First, let’s consider the fact that the average street rod is driven about 5,000 miles a year. If you get 20 mpg, you have consumed 250 gallons. In Michigan, we only drive our hot rods six months out of a year. That equates to 41.6 gallons a month, or just over 10 gallons a week. Today’s gas prices are $3.60 per gallon, which means, you would spend $36.00 a week to enjoy the ride. When Ken and I went to a movie a few weeks ago, we spent $22.00 to get into the show and $9.50 on popcorn and sodas. So that means you would spend $31.50 to go to a movie or $36.00 to go for an all day ride in you hot rod. Which would you rather do?

If you see fewer vendors at the shows, remember that we all generally own dually crew cabs powered by diesel fuel. These trucks get much less gas mileage because they are hauling a trailer. Diesel fuel was $4.25 a gallon the last time I checked. We at ididit, believe that you should understand a steering column and the best way to install it so you will still see us at the shows. If you stop driving to the shows, we will have to re-evaluate our decisions at the end of this year. Being the optimistic person that I am, I believe that our customers build wonderful cars and cherish their time behind the steering wheel. Feel free to comment, I am interested! We will recap this subject in October when the season is over. I hope to see you soon! Enjoy the moment!

Jane

Welcome New Comers!

Jane Callison

President of ididit

WOW, my first blog. This is a big technological step for me, not that I am computer challenged, but I never want to lose the human contact in our business. I believe that computers are important for sales staff and accounting staff and inventory control. Our business needs to be run by a human being that listens to the customer. The goal of this blog is exchange ideas, initiate new products and improve existing products. We can exchange ideas about the growth of the industry and trends that we see. How you, and our business will be affected by them.

Occasionally, I will have Ken, CEO and the chief designer, or Scott who does the production launch of new products, or Kimberly, my right hand; help to address an issue that you may bring up. Together we will address all serious inquires you may have. We will also address some fun things. We hear some funny stories on the phone we may pass along. We may talk about the last car show we attended. I hope we will always have a sense of humor!

MADE IN THE USA . My first topic will be “Made in the USA”. As you may know, we are located in Michigan the”Motor City Capital”. We have always been proud of that fact. More than half of my neighborhood is directly or indirectly employed by the motor companies. We are all aware that only a part of the vehicle is required to be built here in the US to make the claim that it is American made. Ken has watched the jobs at the Saline, Michigan Ford Plant leave the US before he retired from there. He has always been a proponent of keeping ALL the monies within the US borders.

Two years ago, ididit began investigating the possibilities of each part being made on our own soil. We had to discover sources for each of the more than 50 internal parts of our steering column. When we found these sources, often we found that our production numbers were too high, or too low, for their production to be practical. Ken and Scott were constantly checking new companies for each part. We found manufacturers that would produce the part at a price we were happy with, but would not have on time delivery. Also, this is a very important detail. Imagine the stress around here!

We have finally finished the last two parts in-house. If you have ordered from us, you know it is the column shift steering columns. We ordered a machine, which arrived (prepaid). It did not work! Engineers came to show us how to produce the part. The first time they turned it on, they broke the tooling! (Better them than us!) As I write, we are catching up on all the back orders and intend to have columns on the shelf in the near future. Our goal is to ship from inventory. We did that two years ago and we are close to doing that again!

Another reason we are proud to say “ididit” in the USA.