03/18/2025
I am going to take a moment to go down memory lane; last Friday night I asked my youngest son if he knew what Angela and I were doing on this night exactly 30 years ago. Of course he thought I was going to say something gross or stupid but in reality we were making the biggest decision of our lives. The next day, March 15th, 1995 Bullet Auto Service was opening and we were busy cleaning this shop we had rented at 1688 St Anne's Road. I was 24 years old and not afraid of hard work......
Myself, Ang, Doug Gagnon, his dad Bob, and likely Eldon P were sweeping, vacumming, cleaning, and trying to make an old floor jack not leak - we didnt have a hoist. Someone went to Costco to buy Castrol oil, Landau Lincoln Mercury got us some oil filters, batteries, and some belts. We had an account at Furby Auto Supply and informed them of the new address. It was family and friends at first, all the people we were already working on their vehicles. But now we got to charge, collect cash and cheques and learn all these business procedures. As the weeks went by we got the manual sliding credit card machine with our template in it and a bunch of Visa and Mastercard slips. Write an amount on the slip, line up the credit card and kaching it back and forth. Ang would often bring supper by or ask me who we had for customers and I would excitedly tell her we had some strangers in; people we didn't know.
We convinced a friend with access to a photocopier to print a bunch of phamplets with our name, address, and phone number on it 255-AUTO (255-2886 same phone number as today) At lunch time or late afternoons I would go to some of the newer apartment building parking lots and St Vital mall and put these phamplets under wiper blades. Tried to target Toyota and Honda vehicles but Chevrolet Blazers were the money makers! At this time on St Anne's Road the city stopped at Compark road - the rest was field all the way to the perimeter.
The spring of 2001 was a tough one, business was good but staffing, partnerships, keeping track of business finances, planning for growth, and keeping up with all the provincial, federal, and city by laws was getting harder. A new plan was needed....after some difficult decisions Bullet Auto Service closed down and the next day Discovery Automotive Centre opened with Kevin as the sole owner. A part time office person was hired and a great friendship developed. The voice and main person of contact Cathy had arrived. Cathy took on more and more hours and her son even got on and off the bus at the shop. As a little note of interest - if you were to call the shop this week on a Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday there is a good chance you may end up speaking to Cathy! She came out of retirement to help Louise as Logan is on maternity leave. Logan came to work with us in May of 2012 and under Cathy's guidance was ready to go solo in the office a year later. A few wingwomen came and went until July 2023 when Louise joined Logan in the office. We have been praised, congratulated, and used as a positive example from many customers, suppliers and dealerships over the years. They all agree this is how an automotive front desk should be staffed. I have been blessed to have such knowledgable, caring, and overall great ladies run the front end of the shop all these years.
Technicians came and went, some stayed for many years, others just a short stint realizing we work in a fast paced, professional, and modern business and they were in over their heads. Training, professional developement courses, tooling, computers, current model advancements, tech forums, so many scan tools and tpms tools - all part of the job keeping up with new advancements.
Fast forward to today and we are one of the most known shops for servicing Hybrid and full EV vehicles. I started servicing Hybrid vehicles in 2003 and word got around. Hybrids are not the future, from the first designs to todays plug in models they are here to stay and are very popular. Full EV's have their own service program but still have a cooling system, steering, suspension, tires and wonderful Winnipeg roads to mess it all up. They also have great acceleration and handling which helps with tire wear......
Thank you to my wife and kids, the staff that has come and gone, present staff and all the customers/friends we have come to meet in the last 30 years!
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