If it's got four wheels that mainly drive on island roads, there is a good chance Chris Leigh's had a look at it at some point. Leigh has been running Leigh Automotive, the island's car repair shop, for over 25 years. "I still remember when I was working with my father, William Rathie, the ex-mayor of Vancouver, brought in his Rolls Royce. We told him that the starter motor would cost $800; the labour was $35." Over the years, Leigh has observed an evolution of island vehicles. "Everyone used to say the beater was the Bowen car," he says with a smile. "Now it is the five-year-old Lexus."
Leigh thinks that working at Leigh Automotive is a great experience for a general mechanic. "We work on every make and model.Occasionally, there might be a specific problem that we can't solve but we try to fix everything. It's good for apprentices to learn to cope with different vehicles. They get a broader knowledge than by looking at the same type of car every day," Leigh says. "Most of our work is general: brakes, clutches, tune-ups, steering, suspension, computer diagnostics, tires, wheels, all types of servicing. We focus on cars and light trucks, but we make some exceptions and end up having to do other things." He laughs and says they have fixed the occasional wheelbarrow.
"When I was a teen, I bought a car at the pump island," says Leigh who used to work at the Chevron Station that was owned by his father. "A woman drove up in an old Vega and, when she got out, the door fell off because the hinge pins were gone. She said, 'That's it, I'm done with this, can you take it off me?' I gave her the $65 I had on me." Leigh fixed the car and drove it all the way to Lake Tahoe. He said, "These cars were notorious for noisy engines and burning oil. On the way to Lake Tahoe, just when you leave L.A., the road is really steep and there are broken-down cars all along that stretch. I was in my little car with a case of spare oil in the back and I thought that if it broke down, I would just take the plates off and go home by bus. But it just kept going."
Leigh has been in the automotive repair business for a long time. "I served my apprenticeship under my father," he said. "He had taken over the Chevron Station in 1977. At that time, it was called Island Service. Then he changed it to his own name: Leigh Automotive."
Leigh Automotive still carries on the tradition of a family business. Chris Leigh works as a mechanic and his wife Mary does the service writing, reception, bookkeeping and accounting. Their son Curtis has recently joined them as an apprentice. Harley Mercer, the second mechanic, has worked there for 10 years.
Leigh recalls that during his teenage years, he and his brothers Alan and Jeff worked evenings, weekends and during the summer. "For the first year, we didn't get paid at all, we thought it was fun. The second year, we made $1.50 per hour. For us, that was good money."
Leigh completed his apprenticeship in three years and in 1986, he took over the gas station and the repair business.
Chris and Mary Leigh have been married for over 20 years. Their sons are now 18 and 19 years old. Mary Leigh joined the family business shortly after they were born. "Mary got involved because my mom had always done the accounting and the bookkeeping," Leigh said. "She wanted to give that up because she wasn't well and Mary had to take over."
In June 2000, Chevron decided to close down. "After 23 years [of our family operating the station], they gave us four week's notice," Leigh said. He began to search for a place where he could continue the car repair business but that proved to be a challenge. "There was no [suitable] place that was zoned for light industrial as our business is classified," Leigh recalls. "And there was no building that fit our purpose. Thankfully, Wolfgang [Duntz] stepped up and offered us that spot [near Artisan Square]. We started construction in the summer of 2001 and moved into the building at the end of September," Leigh said. "We've already passed our ten-year mark there."
When Leigh Automotive moved to this location, they predicted servicing 10 to 12 cars a day and planned the parking lot accordingly. "We ended up having to excavate more land," Leigh said. "We planned 12 customer parking spots but sometimes the cars cannot be finished or picked up right away."
Leigh says that the same type of cars quite often have the same problems. "I just had someone bring in a Chevrolet Tahoe that had a burning smell in the cab. It turned out to be the heater and, in next two months, I saw four more with the same problem." Five cars with similar problems are not unusual but most of the time, they come in threes. "It's a funny thing," he says. "A car comes in and the starter's gone and then we get two. If a fuel pump goes, we are sure to see two more with the same problem."
Leigh says that Mary makes the schedule. "She juggles a lot of things. Sometimes people call her on the phone and say, 'My wheel is making a funny noise.' And she pulls out the file and advises them."
Leigh says that he also works on new vehicles. "Even if your car is still under warranty, you don't necessarily need to go to the dealership, as long as you get a licensed mechanic to service it." He added that he is sometimes shocked by the high prices that people pay for services on a car that is only a few years old. Leigh can also recommend the best option for Bowen. "I know what kind of tires are good on our roads, they are not necessarily the same tires that are recommended for the city."
The couple often drives into Vancouver on their days off to return parts and tires and do the banking. "We have Artisan Express pick up parts but if anything is wrong, they have to go back to the point of sale and it's not cost effective to pay someone to do that. It is all about cost efficiency," Leigh said. "When you're running a small business, you put in lot of extra hours you so you don't have so many wages to pay."
And the service the Leighs provide doesn't end at the garage door. "Sometimes we even give people a ride. There's the difference when you are dealing with a person instead of a company," says Leigh. "And we value our customers who have been supporting us for many years, some of them since our time at the Chevron station."
