For nearly two decades, Garrin’s Automotive has kept drivers on the road by keeping their vehicles in working order through various maintenance and repair needs.
The auto repair shop, located in the heart of Lehi’s Main Street, opened in 2009, but husband-and-wife duo owners Garrin and Stefanie Ellis said there were some twists and turns along the way.
Garrin Ellis grew up on a farm and has been working on cars since he was a teenager.
Garrin and Stefanie got married while living in Texas in the late 1980s. They moved to Utah so Stefanie could attend college at Brigham Young University.
Garrin had been working as a certified master technician in Texas, performing everything from inspections, repairs, and vehicle maintenance work. He landed a job at a Toyota dealership in Orem, where he worked for 18 years.
“I worked on [Toyotas] so long that I knew them like the back of my hand. And so it was easy to diagnose and repair Toyotas,” Garrin said.
But Garrin said that he eventually wanted to get out of the corporate manufacturer side of the industry.
He left the job in 2006, and along with a former co-worker from the Toyota dealership, the Ellises opened their own business near the I-15 American Fork Main Street exit where they sold and repaired vehicles.
“And then when Pioneer Crossing was going to be built, UDOT came in and said, ‘we're using eminent domain and we're taking your property’, so we had to make a decision about] where to go and what to do,” Stefanie recounted.
Garrin and Stefanie said the business had been suffering, partly due to the “Cash for Clunkers” program, a federal initiative enacted under former President Barack Obama to encourage consumers to turn in their old cars in exchange for rebates that could be used towards purchasing a new vehicle.
The couple decided to split with their business partner and open a new shop with a focus solely on repairs.
In June 2009, they opened Garrin’s Automotive. Stefanie said for about the first year of the shop's opening, Garrin was sort of a one-man operation, but they made it work until they could afford to hire employees.
“We literally just hung a shingle and we had some customers that had followed us from Toyota and also from our partnership,” she said.
Garrin said one of the first early challenges he faced in opening his own auto repair shop was transitioning from working on a single manufacturer to dealing with various makes and models—and eventually electric vehicles (EVs)
“Once you get away from the corporate [manufacturers] and go independent, you're working on everything,” Garrin said. “So I was just doing everything I could to learn about the other manufacturers; to learn about the domestics; about Chevy, about Ford, Chrysler, about Nissans and Hondas.”
Garrin said an ongoing challenge is navigating a shortage of skilled technicians, so Garrin’s typically ends up training their own.
‘We have a tech right now that has just turned into an awesome tech that we've just trained, mainly from the ground up,” Garrin said.
As with any business, Garrin and Stefanie said building trust with customers is paramount, so transparency and honesty are key to maintaining their customer trust and satisfaction.
“I think it's extremely important, especially as a woman,” Stefanie said. “They need to be able to trust that everything's done right; that we're not trying to sell work they don't need. You have to build that trust one interaction at a time.”
Garrin’s uses digital inspections to provide detailed information about the condition of a customer’s vehicle, helping the technicians prioritize repairs and showing exactly what needs to be fixed.
To prevent the need for repairs, Garrin and Stefanie both stress the importance of investing in good upkeep of a person’s vehicle through regular maintenance and checkups.
“I think maintenance helps to [create] peace of mind that you have a good running vehicle,” Stefanie said.
The Ellises have been residing in Lehi since 2001 and say they cherish their time living in the city. They love participating in local events like the Lehi Round Up parade and Trick-or-Treat on Main Street through Garrin’s Automotive.
“We just love Lehi and all that it represents and stands for, and as much growth as we've had. We just love being here,” Stefanie said.
The Ellises also say education is important to them. They enjoy supporting various programs and activities at both Lehi and Skyridge High Schools.
“We support a lot of things with the high schools, with athletics, with ballroom dance [and] a lot of different things,” Garrin said.
The Ellises also encourage customers to donate to support local charities. This past Christmas season, Garrin’s hosted a Fill Santa’s Sleigh event, benefitting Toys for Tots and Tabitha’s Way Local Food Pantry. When every bin was filled with donations, the Ellises doubled their personal donation from $500 to $1,000!