Hard times are good times for Valley auto repair businesses

These may be hard times at your house, but they're boom times for many Treasure Valley car and truck repair shops.

Some shop owners and managers say they are doing better business now than they were when times were better, because drivers are opting to make do with the cars they have rather than trade them in.

"Over the last six months, business has doubled," said Sean Sullivan, service adviser at John's Auto Care Center, 499 S. Meridian Road.

Sullivan's customers are paying more attention to general maintenance like belts, hoses and fluids. But they're coughing up money for big repairs, too - like a new engine, which costs $4,000 to $12,000 (the latter for diesel), or a new transmission for $2,500 to $4,000.

That's a fraction of the cost of a new car. New car and light-truck sales fell to their lowest level in 25 years last month, according to industry figures from Autodata Corp. The Idaho market has not been this depressed in 25 to 30 years, the Idaho Automobile Dealers Association says.

Auto body shops are also benefiting. Larry Feigles' auto-body shop is refurbishing cars that in better times would have been traded for something newer. Feigles operates Maaco Collision Repair and Auto Painting at 9309 Fairview Ave.

"The great thing is vehicles are being built better and lasting longer," Feigles said. "More 10-year-old vehicles are mechanically sound and just need a little body and paint work to restore the new-car feeling."

Terry George, owner of State Street Auto Body at 3508 W. State St., says he is seeing more drivers buy back wrecked vehicles from insurance companies.

"If the insurance company totals the car, they only get a portion of the car's value," he said. "They can buy the car back from the insurance company, and we can often fix them up using aftermarket parts and a salvage title. It's still a lot cheaper than buying a new car."

Tighter credit restrictions have helped the repair industry. Customers nationwide are struggling to buy new vehicles with insufficient credit, said Ron Pyle, president of the Automotive Service Association.

"People tend to believe that cars are built to last longer and therefore put off normal maintenance," Pyle said. "But now they are realizing they should have been paying attention to this."

Chris Evans has been general manager at Dowdy's Automotive, 3183 Federal Way, for 16 years. She says her shop has seen an increase in general maintenance work in the last three to six months.

"We've seen more older cars that people are trying to make pass emissions tests," Evans said. "Sometimes it's as simple as an oil change, a tune-up, or warming the car up long enough. "

But sometimes getting an older car to pass emissions can be cost-prohibitive. They can get an emissions waiver for a year."

Not all mechanics have escaped the repercussions of a sagging economy.

Most of the cars in Jason Phan's Garland, Texas, shop are older models brought in for basic service, whose owners are opting to spend the minimum. That has led to a 50 percent drop in Phan's business since last year.

"People just don't have money to spend," he said. They'll pay for mandatory patch jobs or scheduled tune-ups but little in between.

The Dallas Morning News contributed.