Business Profile
The Main Street Garage: building a dream
Toby Cossette, co-owner of The Main Street Garage in St. Augustine, Fla., obtained an associate of arts degree from North Dakota State College of Science. However, he followed his passion and served as a master technician for import and exotic import diagnostics and repairs at Sports Car Engineering. For one year he was a full-time Formula Continental sports car road racing driver and service tech. He also worked for many years as a master tech for GM, Mazda and Chevy dealerships. In his own A relatively small shop in terms of square words, he explains his journey to shop ownership. footage, business has been increasing at a “Within St. Augustine, U.S. 1 is named Ponce De brisk pace as the shop’s reputation expands. Leon Blvd. after the Spanish explorer who explored and named this new land ‘la Florida,’ which is now level and variety of vehicles we service. We work on our state name. We are located less than two miles everything including, but certainly not limited to, from what he claimed was a ‘Fountain of Youth.’ Chevrolet, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Toyota, Porsche, This site, along with the existence of the oldest standJeep, Ford, Honda and Land Rover. ing school building in the U.S., which is located in “I am one of the few who still works on all the downtown Old St. Augustine, attracts thousands of classics and custom-built vehicles such as a 1949 visitors yearly and many must drive right past our Desoto, a 1973 Charger, 1932 and 1925 Rat Rods. business. This provides us with ongoing expoWe have the knowledge and equipment to sure and helps draw business from those touraddress every module on the new vehicles ists who break down while visiting. but still rebuild carburetors and distributors “I opened the shop, on my own, in 2010. on the old vehicles, such as 6-volt systems, Back then I was service technician, recep12-volt systems, and positive ground systionist, accountant, clerk and cashier. Fortutems. Yes, we do! nately, the business has steadily grown, and “Gross profit is only running about we now have three full-time employees. $1,223 per month due to extensive purchas“In mid-2015, an opportunity arose for Toby Cossette ing of new equipment and tools. However, me to purchase the property. Unfortunately, that figure is steadily climbing every single I was not in a financial position to purchase this week. Our average expenditure on tools and equipprime location. It was then that my father, LeRoy ment over the last two years has been about $12,000 Cossette, and his wife, Lynn Adams, stepped in each year. with the needed finances and we formed our part“We are very thorough on our diagnostics and nership. I knew then that this repair shop was here guarantee, to our customers, that ‘if we diagnose an to stay. issue and perform the necessary repairs based on “I am ASE Master Certified with L1 advanced that diagnosis, should it subsequently not repair the certification. I also am GM Master Certified and issue presented, the customer will not be charged a Mazda Certified. The other certifications with othdime for that repair!’ We never replace parts based er manufacturers are not worth mentioning since on a fault code! they carry no weight. I will not hire any tech with“I absolutely love what I do and could never out at least 10 years full-time experience due to the imagine doing anything else. Unfortunately, far too
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ASP
October 2018
COURTESY STEVE WALKER
T
A shop owner driven to succeed
