Today we’d like to introduce you to John Eppstein.
John, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started in the automotive industry in 1983. I wanted a job that I loved to do where I could help people. I was hired on at a Texaco station to pump gas and service vehicles which soon turned into working on cars exclusively. It didn’t take long for me to figure out that I wanted to run my own shop. Every chance I got I was taking classes by Sun, dealerships, various parts stores, and NAPA. My boss at the time placed no importance on the ASE program so I did not earn my first ASE cert until 1994.
In February 1998, I opened John’s Automotive Care. I opted to stay in my neighborhood because of the relationships I had built with my customers. My business model was going to be based on high quality customer service and giving back to my community. In 1999, I completed my ASE Master Technician certification. For the first 2 ½ years in business I worked by myself. After that I moved to a new facility where I had enough room to expand my business. This allowed me the time to start giving my efforts to The Boys & Girls Clubs of East County and a few other organizations. We worked at this location for another 2 ½ years, until I was offered a chance to move into a much larger facility by a shop owner that wanted to retire but he didn’t want just anyone to take it over. He wanted someone who would take care of his customers and employees as I had done with mine. We have been in our current location since 2003.
Having used NAPA parts for many years and having a GREAT relationship with my NAPA store I became a NAPA AutoCare Center in early 1999. I plan to serve my customers for a long time and I feel that I can do that with NAPA by my side.
In 1999, I joined The Automotive Service Councils of California and shortly after my NAPA Business Development Group (BDG). This has allowed me to work with other successful shops in San Diego and share my knowledge with them as well as learn from their experience. I have also been involved with the RLO Training, Bottom Line Impact Group (BLIG), since 2005.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Growing my business has always been a challenge. Being a GREAT technician does not equate to being a GREAT business owner. Fortunately, I admitted to myself that I needed some help and I went out and found it. By joining The Automotive Service Councils of California, my NAPA Business Development Group and The Bottom Line Impact Group as well as taking numerous classes on automotive business management, leadership and marketing I learned to be a good business owner.
Finding and keeping the right employees is always a challenge and continues to be the hardest part of the business. Training is an important part for all my employees and we have put together a program for each of our employees to help them be as successful as they can in the work and home/family life.
Please tell us about John’s Automotive Care.
We are your EXPERTS in full service auto repair, truck repair and vehicle maintenance in San Diego CA and surrounding areas. Were dedicated to delivering customer satisfaction! We provide everything from oil changes alignments, smog testing and repair, engine repair or replacement to the most intricate repairs imaginable. No matter what automotive problem you may experience, you can depend on us for quality professional service. Your satisfaction is our top priority! We offer a customer focused approach to your automotive care.
We go out of our way to make sure that we help our customers with anything that is related to their vehicle issue to include fixing the vehicle and providing a 3 year/36k mile nationwide warranty so they won’t have to worry about that same problem for a long time. Getting to where they need to go while we have their vehicle by providing low cost rental cars to a free shuttle service. Helping them to pick out a replacement vehicle that best fits their needs when it is time for a new one. Helping them to get rid of the old vehicle by offering info on how to sell it themselves, putting them in contact with someone to sell it for them and giving them an option to donate it to the vehicle donation program that we run for The Boys & Girls Clubs of East County.
Our customers interests and wellbeing always come first at John’s Automotive Care.
Our community service is the thing that we are most proud of. We are on the board of The Boys & Girls Clubs of East County and run the Cars for Kids program for them as well as working on several of their big fundraisers. I am also the President of the California State Alliance which works with 120 Boys & Girls Clubs across the state of CA. We give away a vehicle or two with our NAPA BDG each year and we generally do the repairs for those vehicles. We do a toy drive every year and provide toys for The Boys & Girls Club as well as Children’s Hospital. We send many boxes of Girl Scout cookies to the troops, sponsor many walkers for the 3-day breast cancer walk, large supporters of our local Little League, coach soccer teams at the local soccer center, adopt families during the holidays, we always fix a few vehicles for free for those families in dire need as well as many other causes that we support one way or another throughout the year…
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Having the opportunity to play sports as often as I could after school and on the weekends.
Contact Info:
- Address: 6267 Riverdale St., SD CA 92120
- Website: johnsautomotivecare.com
- Phone: 619-280-9315
- Email: john@johnsautomotivecare.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JohnsAutomotiveCare/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/?refsrc=email
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/johns-automotive-care-san-diego
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
