snap on tools: opinions?

More like once a month, at most.

You've only ever worked in an office-type environment, I'm guessing.

Trades-folk generally are expected (and often prefer) to purchase their own hand tools. Rarely, they may be supplied, and sometimes an allowance for replacement is paid.

Larger pieces of equipment, especially if specialised, are purchased by the employer.

This applies to pretty much all trades across all industries.

AIUI, Snap-on come with a lifetime guarantee against breakage.

With respect, you would need an understanding of both tools and the motor trade to make a success of such an enterprise.

Chris

The main reason mechanics may buy them is cheap credit and convenience. In much the same way as catalogue sales were once very popular domestically - even although the value might have been poor. I suspect the ease of internet ordering has hit Snap On same as so many others.

I've got a socket set bought some 50 years ago. Not Snap On and has never broken. Odd bits get lost, of course. But that hasn't stopped me buying more similar tools. Any decent brand (and some quite obscure makes like say Lidl sell) won't normally break if not abused. Although things like screwdrivers do wear.

Like all these things it requires building up a decent customer base to succeed. So you'd need to investigate carefully the area(s) on offer. If you are taking over an existing area, it should be possible to see accounts.

From what I hear, truck tools are getting harder to shift. Sure, Snap-On are still great tools, but there's a lot of other good stuff out there (always has been) and at half the price. Also, some of the cheaper makes have improved in quality in leaps and bounds until they're serious contenders for full-time, all-day, all-year use, which is where S-O excelled. When a lot of the designs that really made their name expired, the market was flooded with S-O copies and some of them were bloody good - I picked up several Taskmaster spanners and sockets to fill in the gaps in the S-O kit I had and I certainly don't notice that they're not the Real McCoy. Nowadays, Halfords Pro is the go-to source for Snap-On-alikes, also with an extensive warranty.

One thing about S-O - I always felt I got sufficient value for money, as the tools were immediately put to use earning a living and the lifetime guarantee, not needed more than twice, was immediately honoured hundreds of miles and years away from where I bought the tool.