Experience, attention to detail power Carfix's success

Carfix in Garner recently celebrated its 15th birthday, but co-owner Mike Allen’s roots in the auto service industry date back much farther.

His grandfather, Louis Allen, opened Allen’s Service Station in White Cross in 1927 and operated it for over 50 years. His father, James, owned Auto ProtoCall in Chapel Hill for 30 years. So, one might say that fixing cars is in his DNA.

“My father grew up in his dad’s shop,” Allen said. “He went away to college and tried other fields for a short time before coming back to the industry. I grew up in my father’s shop. I went away to college and tried other fields for a short time before coming back to the industry. Now my kids are growing up at Carfix! I guess time will tell if we are a four-generation family business.”

It’s impossible to stay in business in a small community without referrals and good customer service. Carfix is no exception, listing a set of core values on its website that include things like, “act with integrity and honesty,” “treat everyone how you want to be treated” and “see a need, take action.”

“Our core values were a collaborative effort,” Allen said. “Several years ago my father and I, along with several of our key staff (members), worked on this over a period of a few weeks. We wanted to speak to our personal core values.

“Fixing cars is what we ‘do,’ but it’s not who we are. Ultimately, we enjoy helping people. We want to do right by people — our clients, our community and our team. I think the core values are a good reflection of that commitment.”

Doing right by people extends outside the garage walls as well. Carfix is also a community partner, sponsoring sports teams, hosting booster club events and helping sponsor the annual Strawberry Festival.

“We’ve been fortunate enough to be involved in many different events in the area over the years,” Allen said. “We’ve had fundraiser events for wounded veterans. We’ve been able to bless several families with refurbished cars through Raleigh’s ‘Wheels 4 Hope’ program.

“My favorite community event by far was last year’s ‘Ryder’s Race’ — a 5K charity fun run that we co-hosted along with Cleveland Family Health and Charlie’s BBQ. We were able to raise a lot of money to help a wonderful little boy in our community and I was able to run my first (and only!) 5K race. If you were there, I was the crazy guy running in a giraffe costume!”

Inside the garage, Carfix takes its customerdriven approach a step further. What are the largest obstacles people face when getting a vehicle serviced? Time, convenience and cost.

Carfix takes aim at all three.

“My wife and I have three small children and work full time, so we know how important time is and how hard it is to juggle busy schedules, especially with kids and work responsibilities,” Allen said. “Plus, we both drive cars with over 300,000 miles on them.

“In order for a car to last that long, it needs to get regular maintenance and repairs. That means, like every car, our cars spend some time in the shop, too. We know how difficult it is to keep up with the kids, work and responsibilities when your car is in the shop.

“We don’t want our customers to sacrifice their lives and schedules just because they are being responsible and taking care of their vehicles. So we do everything, and I mean everything, we can to make it easy and convenient for our customers to take care of their vehicles. We offer free loaner cars, free valet services — we will pick up your car from work, home or anywhere locally, drive it to the shop and return it back to you for free so you never need to miss work or life — free rides to work or home from the shop (and back) so you don’t need to coordinate with friends and family and get someone else to pick you up and more.”

On top of that, there are financing options available so clients don’t have to pay all of a large repair bill at once.

Having a positive attitude and good customer service is a good start for an auto service business, but it also needs skilled personnel to complete repairs completely and efficiently.

“Carfix tries to offer complete transportation solutions for our clients — if it involves your vehicle, we can help,” Allen said. “To that end, we employ only ASE certified mechanics, and we invest heavily in the latest training so we can stay up to date on the rapid evolution of our industry. Every mechanic at Carfix undergoes at least 40 hours of continuing education every year.

“Currently, all of our technicians are either Master Certified Mechanics or they will be by the end of the year. Our technicians have a combined 110 years of experience and our front office has 55 combined years of experience, so I guess you could say we are well rounded.”

Carfix stands behind its work, too.

“We have the best auto repair warranty in all of North Carolina — five years, 50,000 miles,” Allen said. “We want all our customers to be 100 percent satisfied, and we go above and beyond to serve people well!

Carfix has plans to help even more people, as it has added to its leadership team.

“The Carfix ‘family’ has expanded,” Allen said. “We now have Jonathan Harris as a partner in our ventures — he joined the team as a partner in 2017 and has really been key in helping us grow. He has also spent most of his life in the auto industry and he has three amazing children.

“Jonathan will be here every day making sure that we keep giving the Cleveland community the great level of service they deserve.”

To learn more about Carfix, visit www.carfixautorepair.com.

Owner, Mike Allen, is a third generation repair shop owner in the area and loves serving the local community.