This survey consists of responses from 274 auto repair shops throughout the United States. The survey was mailed first class on June 21, 2002 to 1,000 Motor Age subscribers with a cutoff date for completed questionnaires of July 26, 2002. We received 134 completed questionnaires in the mail, a 13.4 percent return rate. We also conducted the survey via phone. Calls were placed July 22, 2002 thru Aug. 2, 2002 to 1,000 Motor Age subscribers. The phone survey resulted in 140 interviews, a 14 percent response rate.

Overall, 66 percent of those responding were Owners/Partners/Presidents of their shops. Sixty-nine percent classified those locations as Full Service Shops.

The response rates put our results at the 95-percent confidence level with a ±5.5 confidence interval. This means that we can be 95-percent sure that if we had completed interviews with all auto repair shops, the results would range within ±5.5 percentage points of the results obtained in this study.