RENO, NV (Dec. 23) – We have a new and very appreciated sponsor, General Transmission shop and power train specialist. It’s been around for several years and continues to grow in a changing industry.
Owner Pete Attashian related how the business got started.
“My dad, Victor, started it 25-years ago and I started to work with him ever since I was a kid,” he said. “Went through college here, drifted away and came back.”
For a while he worked at RMS and other places.
“After I graduated I did my own thing for a couple years then got a call that my dad was sick as he had cancer. I didn’t hesitate, came here and started with one employee, two lifts and really nothing else.”
Fortunately his father was able to overcome the cancer, is now retired and living in Orange County in Southern California. Attashian added he’s now a proud grand father.
While Attashian is a Reno native his family is from Syria as is his wife. They have two young children so his life is pretty full between the shop and home life.
So far it’s been a learning experience for him, especially with all the changes happening in the industry.
“Even though I worked all those years with my dad I really didn’t know much about transmissions,” he said. “Now in the last eight years the shop’s progression is pretty amazing. The things we’re seeing is changing and all this new stuff I love.”
While he’s focused on the new developments he has his builders take care of the older transmissions.
“I’m better with all the computerized stuff.”
When he took over the shop it was pretty small but now there are nine employees and 10 lifts.
“My dad did a great job with those 18 years working within his boundaries,” he said. “For me I saw an opportunity in the market where a lot of people didn’t and I saw it even before I took over from my dad when I was working in Southern California at the time.”
Back then he was seeing things change for the industry especially since some were saying the transmission would become obsolete.
“If anything it became more specialized. I saw that and said, ‘there’s opportunity in this market,’ and in multiple ways. As long as we stay focused in that industry there’s multiple avenues of income as well as multiple avenues of competition and that’s what we look for.”
His business model is actually a bit different than many shops of this kind use.
“We’re not trying to compete with other shops as we actually are more of a service. So we work with other top tier transmission and automotive shops,” he said.
General Transmission also sells black box transmission as well as doing repairs as well as working on performance transmissions.
He explained a black box transmission is one that has been pretested, arrives in a black box and the shop is a vendor for several types. The volume allows for better pricing on these units.
“So that’s one side of our business and the other aspect is we have a performance side, which is diesel, gas or racing towing trucks like that. We have two builders specifically for those,” he said.
When this interview was conducted an area of the shop was being remodeled for that part of the business.
As far as transmissions go there have been major changes over the past few years. Now days they don’t get many manual ones as most cars come with automatic transmissions.
“There are so many things you can do like on a Chevy Camaro or Corvette to make those things, ‘boom, boom’ shift and they are more reliable than a manual,” he said.
He added because manuals are such a small part of the current fleet their parts are expensive. As an example he said the input shaft on a Dodge is $850 and there are 10 versions of that part.
The current versions of transmissions have dramatically changed over the past few years.
“Now we’re up to a 10-speed and that will be the norm for Chevy and Ford,” he said. “Drivability and economy wise it’s a lot better. This 10-speed a better than GM’s 8-speed, better for fuel economy and I’m excited to get our hand on the as they just came out about a year ago.”
He added transmissions are lasting longer than they did in the past as the new ones are more computer controlled than mechanically controlled. However the breaking point could be from 180 to 200 thousand miles.
“We see a lot of cars in our area where 15 years old is the norm around here. The national average I think is 12 so in Reno and our area we tend to see a little older cars,” he said.
Attashian explained they’ve gone from a 4-speed to at 10-speed within half a decade. Something he felt was a little extreme as they are chasing the EPA on how to get better gas mileage.
He did have a suggestion on how a person can help keep their transmission healthy.
“On the newer cars it’s tough because can’t check the levels but you have monitors in your car telling you if transmissions levels are getting low,” he said. “I actually just advise doing regular service every two years or 24,000 miles usually right before summer.”
He also mentioned that the companies advertising lifetime for the fluids are just a marketing tool since the fluids affect how a transmission shifts.
He added the best service is to change the filter, not flush it and add new fluids. There is a machine where they can recirculate the fluids but while it is the best way it is also more expensive.
As far as timing the service he said, “We see more of an influx in the summer time because heat is not a friend of a transmission. That’s why I say servicing right before summer is your best bet. You get a lot more people traveling in the summer, a lot more activity going on and a lot more mileage put on cars.”
While business is pretty steady there is a bit of a fall off during the holidays then it picks back up in January.
One of the shop’s specialties is service for those that tow cars, boats and other things.
“I love working on those transmission. Towing is huge because you put heat and stress on it,” he said. “There are things we can do to make them better so they handle the heat and stress and a lot of updates that are constantly coming out.mWe handle those guys and it’s like our niche market. The technicians are making the towing packages a lot better than the factory transmissions.”
Attashian used to race motorcycles but that’s on hold right now due to his business and family obligations. Still he has great memories from that time and keeps in touch with the racers.
“I love them, they helped me out when I was at RMS so I continue that relationship. Being friends with everybody around them has helped my business,” he said. “Even though I’m pretty quiet and don’t make too much noise I have a lot of respect for what they gave me. There’s a lot of benefits especially if you’re looking for a business whether is MRANN, UTV;s or 500’s doesn’t matter as long as you’re in that community.”
Asked about the future he’s very optimistic.
“As we’re progressing we’re seeing more and more different things. About 20-years ago there were only a handful of different transmissions and now I think we’re above 20 different types,” he said. “There used to be only about 5,000 different part numbers for transmissions now there’s 25,000 part numbers.
“But there’s a lot of opportunity for growing. Especially me being a young transmission shop owner, there isn’t too many of us left around as we’re slowly dwindling down. Fortunately I get to be at the good end.”
Attashian does some sponsoring like for MRANN racer Reece Honea.
For further information about the shop their phone number is 775-786-5888 and the website is www.generaltransmissionreno.com. The shop is located at 2815 Sutro Street in Reno, a couple blocks off McCarran and below Hug High School
Disclaimer: This past summer the transmission in my car failed. I was recommended to this shop and am very pleased with the work they did to get me back on the road.
OTHER RACING NEWS:
• We here at nvracingnews want to extend our best holiday greetings to all our readers and sponsors. Hope the New Year is the best ever for you out there.
• Teresa’s Garage Radio Show will be on the air Christmas Eve from 2 until 3 p.m. While I won’t be there this week I’ll have several things in my preview article for Thursday.
You can hear the show over the air in the Reno/Sparks area, streaming in a Podcast on the Internet and live of Face Book.
