Editor’s Observe: This is the 12th in a series about legendary Westerville businesses that are highlighted regular monthly.
Westerville Automotive, 31 E. Key St., has been servicing customers’ cars for 25 many years.
Ken Maginn, manager, explained the small business focuses on the community, as effectively as consumer pleasure.
“We have quite a few here who arrived from dealership positions (seeking) far more group-centered, little-business-based (focus) to consider care of the consumers and have the loyalty of consumers,” he stated. “What we consider to do is be a section of the neighborhood. Which is what sets us apart. We seriously try to draw business from in Westerville. We have a good deal of clients outdoors Westerville, but we like being element of the neighborhood remaining a compact business enterprise.”
Maginn, who has been with Westerville Automotive for 20 a long time, said owner Richard Aumann purchased the site at 5591 Westerville Highway a several decades prior to the Uptown area that was opened in 1997.
“This setting up we have photos when it was basically an automotive dealership way back in the early 1900s,” he said. “I have a photo of a Hudson dealership in 1915, I consider. It just claims ‘Westerville Car Product sales.’ In the ’40s and ’50s, it was a dealership Vern Bailey owned.”
He pointed out a hearth at the making in the 1930s. In 2017, it underwent a significant façade transform, showcasing a retro glance.
Maginn said Scott McClure, who has been with the company because the mid-1980s, is the basic supervisor of the two destinations, introducing that McClure is a standard on Car Smarts Radio on Saturday mornings on 610 WTVN with host Dan “Boots” Longenette.
“You can simply call in and ask concerns,” Maginn stated. “People contact in and say, ‘Hey, my auto is accomplishing this.’ It is 3 auto men speaking, generally. If they just cannot determine it out or if it is not something they just cannot deal with by them selves, he may say you may well want to check out out Westerville Automotive.”
The Reynoldsburg resident said the organization offers all the things from modifying a headlight bulb to replacing an full motor.
“The only matter we really don’t do in this article is collision mend,” he stated. “We do all styles of mechanical repair on all sorts of cars. We’re a NAPA AutoCare Center.”
In a the latest Google review, Stephanie Reduced wrote,” I have been going right here for decades. Utilised to only have the one spot, but the Uptown is so nearer for me now. I you should not have faith in anybody else with my cars. They are normally up front and reasonable in their pricing.”
In a further critique, Chris Ray wrorte, “These fellas are great! The staff is knowledgeable and helpful. My technician, Zach, did a great mend job to the front suspension in my Jeep, and it now rides the greatest considering that I have owned the car. Their provider has been remarkable.”
Maginn claimed the Uptown location has 5 complete-time and two portion-time workforce, and the Westerville Highway store has seven complete-time and two component-time staff.
Brad Copen, the center’s provider adviser, has labored at the Uptown store for 6 years.
“I go household and snooze incredibly effectively at night,” he mentioned. “The management here desires you to get care of the consumer. I worked at dealerships for about 20 years. There is very little improper with dealerships, but they drive, force, thrust to want you to do more and additional. I felt I wasn’t getting treatment of the shopper the way they ought to have been.”
When h
e interviewed for the career, Copen claimed, the management explained to him the primary intention is to get care of the purchaser.
“You listen to that all the time, but you could see it in their eyes,” he reported. “They intended just that. I strategy on retiring from listed here if I can.”
Copen, a Grove Town resident, stated he follows tips his father had provided him quite a few years back – to treat persons the way you want to be addressed.
“The Bible tells me, how can I enjoy another person if I really don’t really like myself?” he mentioned. “When folks walk through that door, I like these people today up below in Westerville. I actually do. They’re excellent men and women. They get to the stage the place they believe in you. They will say, even ahead of we know what’s improper, ‘Just fix it.’ I nevertheless call them. That is how significantly they believe in us, and they rely on we’re likely to choose treatment of them in the correct way.”
Copen explained the company heart begun out by carrying out 30 to 40 repairs a month it now averages 80 to 85.
“We could have the greatest month we have ever had this thirty day period, and that will be close to 96,” he claimed. “We have a superior team of men who perform very really hard. They will continue to be following hrs to fix automobiles to make positive the buyer is taken treatment of.”
Organization hrs are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays by means of Fridays and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. It is closed Sundays.
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This short article at first appeared on ThisWeek: Iconic Westerville Businesses: Westerville Automotive’s longevity driven by gratification