Columbus’ all-female auto-care business defies mechanic stereotypes

COLUMBUS — A green awning above the purple door frame marking the entrance to a small Short North mechanic says “AUTO CARE” in bold white letters, but the “alter- native” hinted is only apparent after stepping inside.

Alternative Auto Care oper- ates on the automotive expertise of women.

Just inside the door, ser- vice manager Heather Murphy answered phones and customer questions in the tiny office, which also serves as the waiting room.

In the back, Jenni Hoover played Amy Winehouse songs while working on a customer’s 1986 Plymouth Reliant.

Owner Chris Cozad checked on her technicians and chatted with customers, who can take home a complimentary bag of Cozad’s white-chocolate Chex mix or a treat for their dogs.

Both the makeup of her auto shop — all four of her employees are female — and When Patrick Roach first the personal attention are brought his car to Alternative part of Cozad’s mission to Auto Care eight or nine years flip the script on what cusago, his mechanic clearly tomers expect from auto- outlined what needed to be motive technicians. fixed and what didn’t.

Which, she said, is that They could have charged their mechanic will take him money for an unnecadvantage of them. essary service, he said, but

“We (the auto-repair indusinstead put his interests first. try) have a terrible reputaThat’s when he decided to tion still,” she said. “We’re stay. battling a perception probdon’t know a damn thing lem, and I believe a good about cars so it’s nice to get bit of that is about unmet an explanation that’s given expectations and poor com- in a way I can really take in munication.” and fully interact with,” the

Many technicians speak 35-year-old Clintonville res“car,” she said, and aren’t ident said. sure how to communicate in Roach, who works in infor- ways nonmechanics under- mation techno l o g y, also stand. designs board games on the

Building relationships with side. After one tuneup sevcustomers — through work- eral years ago, a mechanic shops, using plain language asked to borrow a game she instead of technical jargon saw in his back seat. and choosing to explain costs “That, of course, made me up front — has turned skep- love them more,” he said. tics into long-time customers. “It was very personable and

“My ultimate goal,” she fun to find a shared interest. said, “is to have customers Nerds unite and all that. I who walk in and hand me had already been their custheir keys and say, ‘Fix it, tomer but that sealed the Chris.’” deal for the rest of my auto- motive life.”

In Alternative Auto Care’s first years, women made up most of the customer base. Now, it’s an even split between genders.

Many Ohio State students also take their cars to Cozad and her team. Cozad, who is lesbian, also works to make LGBT people feel welcome.

No one, Cozad said, wants to be talked down to or muscled out of the way when it comes to a car.

Especially female tech- nicians.

“I like to give women who are interested in the field an opportunity to learn and work in the field without having to deal with some of the crap they have to deal with in a mainstream shop, when they’re the only woman, (like) the subtle discrimina- tion (and) the sexual harass- ment,” she said.

Jenni Hoover has worked as a technician at Alterna- tive Auto Care on and off for 25 years.

In between, she worked as a heavy-machine oper- ator on an all-male crew, her the basics — changing where she endured constant the oil, recharging the batharassment. “I broke down tery, regulating the engine’s and cried so many times,” temperature — to keep her Hoover, 50, said. on the road.

Women comprise 1.4 perWhen she moved to cent of working auto tech- Columbus in the early 1980s nicians, making recruiting to pursue a master’s degree new workers difficult. in biology at Ohio State Uni

Cozad teaches automotive versity (she didn’t attend), technology classes at Colum- Cozad needed a job, fast. bus State Community ColFriends started calling her lege and scopes out potento repair brakes or change oil tial employees. In an indus- several times a week. try struggling with high turnHer new career was writover rates, most members ten in the headlights. of the Alternative Auto Care “I thought, ‘Heck, I can do crew have worked there at this,’” Cozad, now 62, said. least five years. “I had business cards printed

She treats her employees and had my tool box in my right; they treat the cars and truck so I worked on the the customers right. Simple, streets until winter came.” Cozad said. Cozad has been at her cur

Also simple: the drive fuel- rent location, at West 5th ing her through her 35 years and Hunter avenues, for 11 in the auto-care business. years.“I always say I got into While attending Hiram Colthe business in self-defense,” lege in northeastern Ohio in she said. “I learned about the late 1970s, her beat-up cars basically to protect 1969 AMC Rebel continually myself and to keep myself broke down when she was mobile ... I pretty quickly figtoo strapped for cash to take ured out, wow, there really is it to a shop. a need for this. And I never

A mechanic friend taught looked back.”