(EXCLUSIVE) Attendees of Mister Transmission’s Annual Dealer Conference and AGM must be breathing a sigh of relief at the prospects for the transmission repair market.

Some 160 Mister Transmission franchisees, builders, and suppliers gathered in Toronto to advance their skillsets and honour high achieving and long serving members of the Mister Transmission family.

Mister Transmission President & CEO Tony Kuczynski pledged to keep the organization a technology leader.

“Many people came from long distances to be here today,” said Tony Kuczynski, President & CEO of Mister Transmission, “Mister Transmission has achieved a major milestone. This is the 55^th anniversary of Mister Transmission as a company and as Canada’s auto service technology leader.  Strong plans have been developed to ensure Mister Transmission continues to be a technology leader and continues to be successful for the next 55 years. For Mister Transmission to be successful, our franchisees must be successful. That means strong sales and strong profits for our franchisees.”

Technical presentations for the many builders in attendance joined with marketing presentations on traditional and digital sales and marketing initiatives were highlighted at the day-long event.

Key among the discussions was concern over the growing need to effectively service CVTs (continuously variable transmissions), which have been entering their prime failure window. Some shop owners had expressed frustrations that units had been failing, but cost-effective repair options had largely been lacking.

Recent moves by Mister Transmission to partner with suppliers on this front were highlighted at the event; with access to kits and components for this growing category now available through the organization’s supply partners as well as specialized training.

Among the special presentations was an award presented to Board Advisor Randy Moore for his 40 plus year commitment to Mister Transmission and the automotive aftermarket. Among many industry activities, Moore has also served as the chair the Automotive Industries Association of Canada, and has been involved with what is now the Automotive Business School at Georgian College.

Mister Transmission Chairman Paul Craven presented former CEO Randy Moore with a special long-service award.

“We try to make this company better every day. Randy had that promise to himself, to make himself better every day, every month, every year,” said Paul Craven, Chairman of the Board, Mister Transmission.

Randy Moore ended the event with an inspirational “Technology is the Force of the Future” keynote.

In his closing keynote, Board Advisor Randy Moore drew parallels with Star Wars and the importance of embracing technology, seeing it as an inspiration for change as Elon Musk did, and realizing that seemingly insurmountable barriers—which he likened to the Death Star—are in fact, very beatable.

“If you look at what we do today, the common truth was that you will never be able to fix a CV transmission: ’Customers won’t pay the price, you’ll never get the parts, it’s a dealer item, you’ll put in used ones, etc.’

“That was the common truth 10 months ago. It’s not the truth today.”