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Auto care company good alternative to dealerships
Duxler owner, Brian Moak, has been working for the company since he was 15, and full time since he graduated from college in 2004. He bought the company from his father 4 years ago. | Jackie Pilossoph~for Sun-Times Media
Duxler Complete Auto Care
280 Skokie Blvd., Northbrook
(847) 498-0505
www.duxlerautocare.com
Other locations: Skokie, Evanston, Wilmette
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NORTHBROOK — Ted Roberts puts about 40,000 miles per year on his car. The medical device sales representative from Crystal Lake visits hospitals and physicians all over the North Shore almost every day, and therefore must make sure he keeps up on maintenance and repairs for his vehicle.
“If something happens to my car, I can’t work,” said Roberts, “I have to keep up with oil changes, break work, changing out my tires in the winter, just everything.”
Roberts has been a customer of Duxler Complete Auto Care for four years, and said he continues to go there because of the prices, and because he trusts the quality of workmanship.
Duxler Complete Auto Care is a full-service auto repair facility with locations in Northbrook, Skokie, Evanston and Wilmette.
Owner, Brian Moak bought the company four years ago from his father, Glenn, who started working for the Duxler family more than 30 years ago as a mechanic at the Evanston location, and then bought the shop a few years later when it was going bankrupt.
“The Duxler family was going to close the shop and my dad bought it,” said Moak, “His reputation and his energy and work ethic started to catch on and people started to come, and he saved the business.”
Over the years, Glenn opened the other locations, including Northbrook five years ago.
“I’ve never met a more determined, hard working individual in my life,” Moak said of his father, who still works for the company, “He’s been my model of what’s supposed to happen and how to run a business. He’s optimistic and positive and he never gets tired.”
Moak started working for the company when he was 15, cleaning bathrooms, stocking tires, and doing whatever was needed around the shops. He has worked for Duxler full time since he graduated college in 2004.
“When I first started, my dad let me run the Skokie location, and I called him 100 times a day for advice, and then it went to 50 and then 20 and I learned from him,” said Moak, “I had to learn how to be a business owner.”
Duxler Complete Auto Care performs vehicle maintenance, everything from simple light bulbs to electrical wiring issues, engine repair, emissions work, air condition repair, and heating systems. The company also sells tires, snow tires and repairs tires, as well. The company doesn’t offer body work.
“We are basically the equivalent of going to the dealer without the free lunch or ice cream bar,” said Moak, “You go to the dealer and you trust they have the best equipment and you get a loaner car and you have expectations. You can get all of those things right here for 30-40 percent less.”
Moak said the parts they use are original equipment parts they get from the dealer, and that he receives a discounted price, so there’s no additional mark up.
“Where we save the customer money is on the labor,” he said, “Our labor rate is less, and our employees are salaried, so they are paid to think fast because they aren’t working by the hour.”
“They’re unbelievable,” said Betsy Epton of Northbrook, who has been a customer for several years, “It’s a family-owned business and they make you feel like family.”
Epton said there are four drivers in her family, all who have cars.
“I never feel like I’m being cheated,” she said, “They’re so honest with us and they’re not always trying to sell you something like the dealers are.”
“Just like a good doctor, once you find a good mechanic, you stick with them,” said Roberts.
