The Hidden Warts That Are Costing Your Auto Repair Shop Time, Money, and Trust

Every auto repair shop has them. They lurk beneath the surface, eating away at trust, efficiency, and profitability. They frustrate teams, drive customers away, and weaken culture.

They’re called warts—the hidden habits, blind spots, and broken systems you may not even realize are there.

The danger isn’t just that they exist. The real problem is that, as the shop owner, you’re often the last one to see them.

What Are Warts in a Shop?

Warts show up in three main forms:

• Mindset – The way you think about your shop, your team, and your customers can help you—or hold you back.
• Habits – Daily routines that either support growth or silently sabotage it.
• Actions – Behaviors that send the wrong message, like being short with your team or tolerating inefficiency.
  
  

Even one of these can damage trust, slow workflow, and chip away at the culture you’ve worked so hard to build.

The 3 Stages of Warts

Warts don’t go from harmless to harmful overnight. They follow a predictable pattern:

1. Blind

You don’t see the problem at all. You may be snappy with your crew, let a broken process linger, or overlook mistakes because from your perspective, everything seems fine.

2. Ignore

You notice the issue but decide it’s not urgent. Maybe you chalk it up to a bad week, convince yourself it will sort itself out, or tell a story that makes it seem okay to leave it alone.

3. Deny

You push back when someone brings it up. Admitting the problem feels like admitting you’re not the leader you want to be, so you dig in and defend it.

Here’s the hard truth: while you’re blind, ignoring, or denying, everyone else sees it.

• Your team sees it and tiptoes around it.
• Your customers see it and go somewhere else.
• Your vendors see it and don’t go the extra mile for you.
• Your family sees it and feels the strain.
  
  

You can’t read the label when you’re inside the jar—and warts are easier to spot from the outside.

The 3 A’s: A Simple Formula to Remove Warts

The good news? Warts aren’t permanent. You can get rid of them using a simple three-step approach:

Accept - Own the fact that you have warts. Everyone does. This isn’t about being a bad owner—it’s about being self-aware enough to deal with reality.

Start by asking the right questions:

• What’s working?
• What isn’t working?

Ask your team and even your family what they see that might be hurting relationships, performance, or morale. Be ready for honest answers.

 Acknowledge - Once you see a wart, stop justifying it. Don’t make excuses or blame others. It might not be your fault, but it’s still your responsibility to fix.

Address - Take action. Decide what needs to change and get to work on it. If it’s a shop-wide issue, bring your team into the process. Ask, “What’s hurting us the most right now? What’s keeping us from being our best?” Then work together to remove it.

Common Warts in Auto Repair Shops

You don’t have to look far to find examples:

• Staying short-handed for months – Running at less than full staff for five months or more isn’t just a hiring issue—it’s a sign you’re accepting a problem that’s damaging productivity every day.
• Tolerating subpar performance – Allowing a team member to consistently underperform tells the rest of your staff that mediocrity is acceptable. It kills morale and hurts culture.
• Clinging to broken systems – Outdated scheduling, inefficient parts ordering, or any process you’ve “just learned to live with” is a wart. Every day you leave it alone, it steals time and trust.
  
  

These aren’t just annoyances—they’re roadblocks to growth.

Your Challenge This Week

1. Identify one wart in your shop.

2. Identify one wart in yourself.

3. Do something about both.
   
   

Small changes can lead to big results—but only if you’re willing to see what’s been in plain sight all along.

Bottom line: Warts won’t fix themselves. The sooner you accept, acknowledge, and address them, the sooner you’ll have a stronger team, happier customers, and a shop that runs the way it should.