"You have to be very conscious of taking care of every single person who comes through the door," Hutchins said.

"If you don't do a good job, word will spread quickly around here.  One disgruntled customer can spoil years of hard work, so we make certain everyone leaves here happy.  And I think we've done a pretty good job of it because we're still busy and we've got repeat customers whose cars we've been fixing since we opened."

Hutchins said he believes in building long-term relationships with his customers.  "If you give someone good service, you'll have a customer for life," he said.  "I learned a long time ago that if you give a little you'll get a lot back.  Overcharge them and they'll get a bad taste in their mouth, and you'll never get them back."

Hutchins operates out of a 10,000-square-foot facility with nine lifts and 12 bays, he said.  The shop employs eight employees, including four technicians, two of whom are Masters, a general manager, a service writer, an office manager, and a cleanup person, he said.

Finding and keeping top-tier technicians has been an ordeal at times, Hutchins said.  "It's hard to get good mechanics," he said.  "We've been able to get new guys from the local tech schools, which has been a real asset.  Jeremy (Miller), our newest tech, came from UTI.  He's fresh and enthusiastic and willing to learn, which is so important.  It can be difficult for some of the older guys to grasp the new car technologies, but the younger techs grew up with computers, so they're able to pick it up faster." 

  
All of the technicians at Hutchins are paid hourly rather than flat rate, Hutchins said.  "We like to pay them hourly, because flat rate causes too much controversy, in my opinion," he said.  "We did flat rate long ago, and it created problems within the shop.  Techs tend to rush when it means more money, and you can't watch them every five minutes.  So to make sure we get an honest day's work out of them, we pay them hourly."

Hutchins, 63, a former technician who worked for dealerships for 18 years before opening his own shop with his wife and co-owner Susan, said he tried to retire in 2007 and hand the business over to his son.  But, when the economy hit a flat point he was forced to return, he said.

"I kind of stepped back last year, but the economy hasn't allowed me to stay retired," he said.  "I may get to quit eventually because things look as though they're going to turn around.  We're doing better so far this year, primarily because people in this area bought new trucks at zero percent interest from 2002 to 2007, and now they're no longer under warranty.  So, we're starting to see a lot of them coming through here, which is obviously a very good sign."

Hutchins Auto Repair became a NAPA Auto Care Center in 1994 and was accredited as a NAPA Master Tech facility shortly thereafter, Hutchins said. 

 
"Our affiliation with NAPA has been good for us," he said.  "We like their nationwide warranty because it's honored throughout North America.  We were the very first shop in all of Northern California to adopt the NAPA signage, and it's helped our business because people know and respect the NAPA name."

Hutchins said he also appreciates NAPA's training school and makes sure that all of his technicians take advantage of it whenever classes become available.

"I pay for the training NAPA provides, and all my techs take courses every two months," he said.  "They learn about things like airbags, ABS brakes, and diesel engines, so it's been extremely valuable."

Hutchins said he gets 80 percent of his parts from NAPA and carries a very small inventory of parts in-house.  "I carry approximately $8,000 of day-to-day parts," he said.  "These are things like hoses, fluids, and filters.  Everything else I need comes from NAPA, Franklin Auto Parts here in town, and some of the local dealerships."

When it comes to using OE parts versus aftermarket parts, Hutchins said he prefers OE even though he will buy certain items from the aftermarket.

"NAPA is getting better and better all the time when it comes to OE stuff," he said.  "They tied in with Delphi a few years back, which really helped them compete with OE, especially when it domes to GM parts. 

"I was born and raised working for dealerships, so I'm an OE guy all the way, but you can save money on aftermarket parts in some cases," Hutchins said.  "When it comes to alternators, starters, sparkplugs, and sparkplug wires, I'll use aftermarket parts, for example."