It was 1975 when Paul Huffman began working at Shadetree Automotive. The mechanic shop had opened a few years prior, and he was a high school student entering the job market then.
“I got work experience for free in the afternoon, because I bought a car from him,” Huffman says of shop founder Fred Stier. “It just went on from there.”
Fast-forward to 2022, and Huffman is now the owner of the shop after taking over for Stier in the 1980s. Over the years, Shadetree has continued to earn the respect and admiration of the community as San Clemente Times readers routinely vote it as Best Mechanic in town.
Now in its 17th edition, the Best of San Clemente People’s Choice Ole Awards once again have Shadetree winning the gold medal in the category for 2022. For six consecutive years, Shadetree was the runner-up, taking the Silver Ole. This is the shop’s first Golden Ole since 2015.
“It’s just consistency. We’ve got customers that are fourth-generation coming through now,” Huffman says, reflecting on why customers keep coming back. “A couple have been here since I was kid. (Trust in the community) is it. We have a commitment to keeping up with technology. Our partnerships, affiliations with AAA imbues trust. They look after us and make sure the customer gets a fair shake.”
Rounding out the mechanic category is Silver Ole medalist Jay’s Car Repair, which performs scheduled maintenance and safety inspections, as well as brake and air conditioning repairs, among other services.
For Shadetree, happy customers, happy employees and making a profit form the business matrix, Huffman says.
“We kind of ignore everything else and stick to those principles,” Huffman says. “It’s the guys. It’s mainly keeping the same guys here. They’re seeing the same customer’s car, over and over again.”
The technicians at Shadetree mostly grew up in the local area and are pretty much longtime employees. The newest employee has been around for almost seven years, according to Huffman.
The range of services that Shadetree offers covers mostly everything, except for tires and body work.
“We used to just be Volkswagens. That was in the ’70s, when probably every third car was a Volkswagen. It was packed. We were working outside in the old days,” Huffman says. “Basically, (now we do) service work. We do oil changes and what-not. We’re not a quick lube. We service the car when it comes in. General repair and diagnosis.”
What a typical day looks like at Shadetree has changed over the years. People used to drop their cars off, and there would be notes in a basket since everyone had to leave to go to work.
“Now, anywhere from 8 to 10 o’clock, people start milling in, bringing their cars in, dropping it off for service,” Huffman says. “Then we diagnose them and get back to the customer.”
Because of the supply-chain crisis, more time is spent during the day finding parts.
“Hugely,” Huffman responds when asked whether they’ve been affected by supply-chain issues. “We used to call: boom, boom, get the parts, showed up. Now, the local suppliers don’t stock the parts as much anymore, so everything’s a day out—where it used to just be an hour to get here.”
Some cars requiring a quality factory part to run efficiently can mean newfound delays, because suppliers don’t always have fresh equipment right away.
“Then, in the general sense, COVID’s still out there. Our employees are still out there,” Huffman says of other challenges Shadetree has faced in current times. “We deal more with employees being off than we ever have in the past. When they’re off now, they’re off a week, whereas it used to be a day. Everybody’s afraid to come to work sick.”
Even so, Shadetree has still done a good job adapting to these challenges, he adds.
“People don’t have to leave the community to get their car serviced. They have a group of repair shops, because we’re just one shop and don’t do everything. We have a list of other repair shops we send people to when they call us,” Huffman says of what being able to repair cars for locals means for the community.
“People can stay local and not just from the sense of shopping local, but stay local and not have to drive up to Irvine to drop your car off,” he adds. “If you can have it right here and drop the car off and go back to your office and start working again, it’s really convenient.”
Being a part of the community is also important for Shadetree, and Huffman has donated money to local educational causes and is involved in other community endeavors.
“It just makes it more of a small community,” Huffman says.
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