HUNT VALLEY -- No, former mechanic Dave Mewshaw politely but firmly tells the repairman in Illinois, a PHH Corp. client's car with 20,000 miles on it shouldn't need new shocks. A few minutes later, he cross-examines a Delaware repairman about another car's symptoms, agrees the car needs minor repairs, but says a tuneup would be a waste of money.
For nearly 25 years, a small but elite corps of former mechanics like Mr. Mewshaw, armed with telephones and computers, has been fighting a war of wits against dishonest or over-eager car repair shops on behalf of PHH's corporate clients.
Now, PHH says, its greasy berets will be the key to success in its latest business venture, as it prepares to offer the driving public its car management services -- also including maps, emergency towing and parts discounts.
It's a daring move for PHH, because it sends one of the nation's most unknown $2 billion-a-year companies into a consumer market already dominated by one of the nation's best-known organizations: the 36 million-strong American Automobile Association.
Although dwarfed by the AAA, PHH is still formidable.
Founded in 1946 by three Baltimore businessmen to manage companies' car and truck fleets, the Hunt Valley-based company manages 500,000 business vehicles worldwide. It is also one of the biggest mortgage lenders in the country, having sold more than 357,000 homes for transferred workers.
But the PHH name means little to most consumers because the company has, until recently, focused almost exclusively on the corporate market.
That niche was sufficient until last year when PHH, the nation's second-largest fleet manager with about 9 percent of the market, decided there was little growth left in the corporate vehicle management business.
The corporate business was a "mature marketplace," so PHH decided to test the consumer market, where Americans drive (and often repair) 180 million cars, said Russ Miller, project manager of the expansion.
One reason PHH decided to try the consumer market: Its car management and repair advice services had been so popular that PHH had to turn down corporate clients' requests to allow workers to sign up their personal cars, Mr. Miller said.
So PHH started testing the consumer waters this summer by offering its new "Driver's One" card to members of a few organizations, such as nurses associations and employees of client corporations.
