ABJ to close or change ownership

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

(ABJ Auto Repair is in Somerville, and I know that many davis square people go there).  The scoop: Al, the owner of ABJ Auto Repair, died last year.  Since then, one of his employees took over the business, but he has decided that managing is not his cup of tea, and he's retiring as of this Saturday.  Al's daughter hopes to take over, but that's not certain yet.  Let's hope Al's daughter is able to take over the business and not only keep the crew of very skilled mechanics employed, but keep the business running!

Comments

[cos]

I really liked that place back when I had a Ford and used to go there.

[gingicat]

Well, that explains why they couldn't take my car today...

[ceo]

Oh, that's unfortunate. Wendell (I assume that's who you're referring to) was one of their best people.

I realized recently that I never knew Al's last name.

[gingicat]

Al's obituary is posted in the crowded little office.

Last I was there, for a timing-belt-and-things-along-it checkup, I dealt mainly with Michael, who is good with paperwork and with fixing of things. Wendell was pretty flustered much of the time.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

Michael is great, and if they close I'm going to go to wherever Michael works.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is Wendel (Wendell?) who took over ownership after Al died. They had a really hard winter, but things perked up after spring started. The problem is that Al made some (what turned out to be) unwise business decisions towards the end which Wendell had to deal with. Apparently one decision was to use cheapo Chinese parts that had flooded the market. Makes repairing the car cheaper, but they are liable to break, and ABJ has a credo of guaranteeing their work for like a year for some repairs. So they had to eat the cost of broken cheap parts. If they give the customer a choice of cheap parts or better US made parts, the customer thinks that ABJ is trying to rip them off because "that other shop" said that their parts were great (even tho it was a quote using the substandard cheap parts).

[red-queen.livejournal.com]

shit. I depend on ABJ to keep my 19 year old Mazda going.

moderator note

[ron_newman]

(regarding the parenthetical note at the beginning of your post)
News about this business is always on-topic here.