Business & Tech

50 Years Of Cars, Loyal Customers, Exhaust Fumes

Bob Berger, owner of Hubbard Woods Motors, is celebrating his company's golden anniversary this year.

Bob Berger knew he wanted to be a mechanic as soon as he had his first job while in high school. The work, and the atmosphere, was alluring.

"I was so drawn to mechanical things that I took a job in a lawn mower repair shop just so I could be around exhaust fumes," Berger said.

Berger knew what he liked, and he still does. As the owner-operator of Hubbard Woods Motors, Berger is celebrating 50 years of business this year.

At 72, Berger keeps his hands out of the Volvos and Minis that roll into his shop everyday for repairs or other services. Now, he says his job is to innovate and adapt his business to a changing world.

Despite the changes, the auto shop proprietor says many things about owning a business stay the same, no matter the size of the company.

"I've had all the same problems as a CEO, but it's all your own doing," Berger said. "Whether it's fixing cars or changing the business, it's all about solving problems."

Hubbard Woods Motors has undergone a few transformations over the decades. After working for a few years at a gasoline station, Berger ran his own service station at Oak Street and Lincoln Avenue--now the site of condos--with a high school friend.

"We each borrowed $2,500 from our respective grandmothers and went into business," Berger recalled about startup.

He then ended up at the current location of Hubbard Woods Motors in 1966, and expanded the business to include snowplowing services and the first automatic car wash in the area--an informative business tool.

"With all the traffic the car wash generated, it was very clear which cars people were driving," Berger said.

There were Buicks, Cadillacs, Lincolns and foreign cars, but what caught his eye were the Volvos. A steady stream of them, and the owners were loyal to the Volvo brand.

Berger said he still services Volvos owned by the children of some of his original clients, who owned Volvos in the '60s.

"That made the Volvo a particularly good choice because of the brand loyalty," Berger said. "We really like the cars because they're built by engineers and not accountants. They're built to be repaired."

Hubbard Woods Motors, which still specializes in Volvos and now services Minis, draws clients from Chicago and its suburbs. But many longtime patrons live blocks away.

Jim Nothnagel said Hubbard Woods Motors is a "personal, bend-over-backwards, always-customer-in-mind kind of place." He has been a customer for 11 years.

"I heard about their service and that made me go out and buy two Volvo station wagons. Usually, it's the other way around," Nothnagel said.

Cathy Nowaki has owned six Volvos since 1980, three of which are still in commission.

"Bob fixed everything," Nowacki said. "It's the fact that we've owned six cars in 40 years of marriage and we still have three of them."

"I have never looked at another car because Hubbard Woods was there," she said.

Besides loyal customers, Berger also has loyal employees. Tad Lucas has worked at the auto service shop since 1981.

"I see our customers with their kids driving the cars they've owned for 15 years," Lucas said. "The relationship with the cars is sometimes secondary to the relationship with the people who own them."

About 10 years ago, Berger flirted with the idea of retirement. He had several employees interested in buying the business over the years, since the shop was successful and Volvos were still a popular brand.

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Berger was more involved in shaping the business than fixing the cars. Just as it started to look like the right time, Berger got a call from a Volvo shop owner in Alexandria who wanted to organize a collective of independent Volvo shops.

"And I just got totally re-energized," Berger said. "I decided, 'I love it, and what else am I going to do?' "

About three times each year, Berger and a group of other shop owners meet--sometimes at a destination location because their families are now close--to talk business.

"It's been an interesting transition to go from dirty fingernails trying to fix every car that came in to this," Berger said.

"At this point, I still wake up in the morning and can't wait to get here," he added.

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Berger will be recognized at the Recognition Lunch on May 4.


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