Between 9/1/25 and 8/31/26 — 12 months — 2,398 repair orders were written across 1,486 vehicles.
64 of them were a vehicle coming back for the same thing.
Over the year, they cost the shop $185,376.
A comeback is any vehicle back inside 90 days for the same concern, whether the counter called it one or not. Anything that vehicle came in for afterwards is not part of it.
By the system the customer came in about. Each comeback is counted once.
41 more vehicles were back inside 90 days and are not in your number. Each one is listed in the working file with its reason, so the count can be checked.
Two that count and two that do not, read the same way as the other 101.
First visit: battery replaced. No cause written.
Back: same no-start. Starter relay socket burnt.
DIAGNOSTIC · PART BEFORE THE FAULTFirst visit: oil and filter.
Back: oil on the driveway. Old drain-plug gasket left on, new one stacked over it.
WORKMANSHIPFirst visit: rear pads replaced. Front pads at 3 mm, declined, on the ticket.
Back: front brake noise.
NOT COUNTED · DECLINED LAST VISITFirst visit: front pads and rotors.
Back: A/C blowing warm.
NOT COUNTED · NEW PROBLEMYour baseline. The same six are read again at six months, against these numbers.
A part went on at the first visit and the fault was still there. 39 of the 44 diagnostic comebacks.
Median. Half came back sooner than this.
Counted only on vehicles with at least 127 days of file left after their last visit.
Repair work only. 307 oil changes, rotations, inspections and fluid or tire jobs are left out, because there is no fault on them to find. Most shop systems do not require a cause; it is what your paperwork cannot tell you afterwards.
$264 technician time (2 hr at $132/hr) · $150 parts eaten · $45 writer time (1.5 hr at $30/hr) · $75 goodwill.
Trips made that did not fix the vehicle: one for each of the 64, and two vehicles that came back a third time. None of it appears in your accounts.
Every input is shown, so you can put in your own and redo the math.
| Comebacks in a year | 64 | 64 over 12 months |
| Cost of each | $534 | from your own rate and figures |
| $34,176 | comebacks a year × cost of each | |
| Customers never seen again, a year | 28 | |
| What a customer is worth a year | $900 | your figure |
| Years they keep a vehicle | 6 | your figure |
| $151,200 | customers lost × value × years | |
| Total | $185,376 |