Do YOU know your local business owners?
TAKE ONE - IT’S FREE! The We s t E n d Community paper
Local See ker
Vo l u m e 2 , I s s u e 6 , M a r c h 1 8 , 2 0 1 1 New, second West End location for Raffi, this time in Montreal West There are three terrible things you will face in life, as surely as I live and breathe: death, taxes… and being ripped off at an automobile repair shop. While there are indeed honest mechanics out there, everyone who owns a car will eventually come face to face with a business that changes parts unnecessarily, refuses to honour warranties, hangs onto your car forever or, quite simply, does terrible work. It’s a sure thing.
For almost 20 years now, I have been taking my cars (three of them over that period) to Raffi Shell in Cote Saint-Luc. Raffi Abikian is something of a legend in The Luc, because not only does he know how to run a business, but also because he hires knowledgeable mechanics, hangs onto them (he never fires them, because they are far too good) and has a lifelong passion for his craft. “When I was a kid, I was already car-crazy,” the 50-year old Raffi told me. “My father owned a shop called Garage American and, when I was 12, I would skip school sometimes so that I could help him out. There was nothing I loved more than to go home at the end of the day covered in dirt,” said the career grease-monkey. Cont. p.2 George Soulahian(left) and Raffi Abikian are all about cars and will give you complete service that no one else can (Photo: Bram Eisenthal)