TechShop – Equipment, Tools & Supplies magazine is pleased to announce the winners of its 2008 Top 5 Tools Award. Only 20 manufacturers were awarded this honor in 2008. First-time winners include Blue-Point (a Snap-on brand) and Ben Pearson. Since its inception, the following companies have won this recognition each year: ALLDATA, Ingersoll Rand, Mac Tools, Makita, Matco Tools, OTC/SPX, Power Probe, Snap-on Diagnostics and Snap-on Tools. The other winners this year include: BG Products, Fluke, GearWrench, Hunter Engineering Co, iATN, Mitchell 1, Raytek, RO Writer Shop Management Software and Streamlight.

Each month, TechShop readers tell us the top 5 tools they use in their shop and on the job. Award winners are determined based on the number of times a company or product is mentioned by shop owners and technicians in the previous six issues of TechShop in the Top 5 Favorite Tools section. This month, Eddie Alarcon of Daytona Toyota in Daytona Beach, FL, had this to say about the Snap-on Locking Flex Head Ratchet, “it’s good for when you need angles.” And Joseph Myers, owner of Myers for Tires in Gladwin, MI, said, “the Snap-on MODIS EEMS 300 is a diagnostic time-saver. It works as a scanner and a scope, and has troubleshooting capability.” For Michael Papadopoulos, president of Mike’s Imported Car Clinic in Naperville, IL, the GearWrench Tools are in his top 5 due to their turning precision.

Because the winners of the Top 5 Tools Award are picked by the shop owners and technicians who read TechShop magazine, it is the only true equipment and tool award chosen by the ultimate customer – the end user technician or shop owner. It is real recognition of a company’s exceptional brand strength, technological leadership and product innovation by the people who matter most – their customers.

“The Top 5 Tools section is one of our best-read sections in the magazine,” said Beth Skove, publisher of TechShop. “Many technicians like to share their success stories, and reasons why they love their individual tools. The Top 5 Tools section gives them the opportunity to do both. We simply tally the companies who get mentioned most often by our readers and provide the awards accordingly.”

“In the October issue of TechShop, we announced the winners to our 110,000 repair shop recipients and approximately 7,000 tool and equipment distributors,” Skove said.

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