Olivera’s celebrates 61 years, Emmet Hickey is in the driver’s seat.
The patient is gray in color, four appendages dangling, insides open, guts being explored. We are awaiting a prognosis when the chief’s cell phone, attached to his black leather belt, rings. “This is Emmet. How can I help?’’ The doctor is in.
Meet Emmet Hickey, car doctor of the Santa Ynez Valley. In addition to attending to the gray 2005 Chrysler 300 on the lift (ran over a boulder), he will get an office visit from an ailing 2001 tan Volvo (won’t start), a 2000 black GMC Sierra (left catalytic converter—there are two), a 1967 green Mustang fast-back (new dash), plus some 20 other lame and halts, both young and new. Emmet, a silver-haired graduate of Santa Ynez High (Class of 1973), is president and CEO of Olivera’s Repair Inc. in Buellton. His credo: “Let’s keep the wheels turning.” Olivera’s began in 1949 when the late Bill Olivera began fixing cars at the corner of the Coast Highway and State Route 246. At the time a new car was $1,400 and gas sold for 17 cents a gallon.
More than 60 years later and Olivera’s has moved up the street to 609 & 611 Avenue of the Flags and has grown to be the Valley’s oldest, largest and busiest independent auto repair shop and towing service. What used to be grease monkey labor is today high-tech diagnosis done by well-schooled technicians who now wear latex gloves on the job. Dirty hands? Nope. “So much more of the business has gone to diagnosis because of the computers on cars,” said Emmet, who joined Olivera as a partner in 1999 and took over in 2003. “We have a lot of cases where it may take two hours to figure out what is wrong and the actual repair then may take only a few minutes. In the old days a customer would come in and say his car is making a funny noise.
The mechanic would listen to it and know it was a water pump and then simply replace it,” he said. “Now you may have a ‘check engine’ light on and have to hook up the equipment to find out what is wrong,” he continued. “About half the work is actual repairs while the other half is diagnostic.” To accomplish this, Olivera’s has a staff of 19 employees. There are six service bays doing auto repair, tune-ups, brake jobs and smog checks, plus 24-hour towing service, AAA roadside assistance and an Express Lube store with two bays.
“With the bad economy, people are keeping their cars longer rather than just deciding to go out and get a new one,” said Emmet. “And the ones that aren’t taking care of them we are towing in.” In the last two years business has thrived. This is not to say that Olivera’s only works on newer cars. Call it a diverse patient list. “This is probably the only shop in town that still does carburetor work,” said shop manager Tim Black, now in his 22nd year at the business. “There are so many ranches around here that keep their old ’65 Chevy pick-up for the ranch hands.” Black even installed a stereo system in a horse-drawn farm wagon after the owner told him to “pimp it out.”
One of their latest reclamations is a 1950 Chevy tow truck with a Holmes wrecker assembly and the original (working) cherry-top dome light that Emmet bought on-line in Maryland and had shipped West. They intend to restore it as the company mascot. “It was one of those things I always wanted,” said Emmet. “I have more projects than time to do them.” Past projects include an 1898 Winton, a 1926 Cadillac V-16, a 1986 Mustang GT 5.0 liter and, his pride and joy, a maroon 1966 Pontiac GTO. “The joy was in building it. I never drove it much except to car shows.” Emmet said. In addition to oil and gas fumes, there is Valley in his blood.
“Every time I go to the grocery store it takes me 45 minutes to shop—about five minutes to buy what I need and 40 minutes to talk with everyone.” Emmet’s parents, Marge and Jack Hickey, ran the Wooden Shoe, a candy and gift shop in Solvang where the family lived. The son helped out at the store while in high school, but his ardor was for a different sort of endeavor. “If it had an engine on it, I wanted to take it apart,” he said. “I always had a passion about anything mechanical.’’ One of his first encounters involved his father’s brand new Montgomery Ward lawnmower. “I was 12 or 13 and he asked me to clean it. So I took the whole thing apart.
It was in pieces. He went ballistic.” Next came a 1956 Chevy which he bought in high school. The engine was in pieces in the car’s trunk. Within two weeks he had it running. “High school buddies brought me their cars because I seemed to be able to make them work,” said Emmet. His dad left him with this adage: “If you want to be successful in life, you need to be in business for yourself. You need to control your own destiny.” Emmet, who is 56, has shared this advice with daughter Leah, who previously ran the Express Lube, and son Matthew, who races dirt bikes and has his own restoration project—a 1974 Chevy four-wheel-drive pick-up truck. Emmet’s wife, Leeanne, also helps out at the business. They live in Buellton. After high school Emmet decided he wanted to work on aircraft engines so he joined the Air Force, spending most of his four-year tour in chilly Minot, N.D.
There he worked on electrical and communications equipment of U.S. Minuteman missile defense system. This paid dividends later. After two years of automotive study at Santa Barbara City College, Emmet held a series of positions in Santa Barbara and in the Santa Ynez Valley. A specialty was carburetor work, but he realized early that the automotive industry was changing. “It started in the early 1980s, going from purely mechanical to electronic,” he said. His Air Force training helped him adapt to which way the wind was blowing.
By the 1990s Emmet had opened his own repair business in Buellton, starting with one service bay. Soon it grew to a second bay and three mechanics. In 1999 the late Bill Olivera approached him with the idea of buying in. There was never any idea of changing the name of the business. “Olivera’s has been around forever. I didn’t care what it was called as long as it made money,” said Emmet. Karen Pacheco, who has been Olivera’s office manager for 29 years, witnessed the transaction between the two men. “It was like the 1950s when a person’s word was good and a handshake meant something,” she said. One of the things the boss stresses is education. Emmet and an employee just completed a 20-hour night course on the knowledge and repair of hybrid cars.
“Today it is just insane. It takes a lot more schooling just to master this stuff,” Emmet said. Examples: • Some new cars have built-in sensors in windows that automatically tint to reduce glare. Others have sensors that automatically dim out glare in a rear view mirror. • Some new Mercedes Benz vehicles do not have a dip stick to check oil levels. Oil levels is automatically read by the onboard computer.
“I don’t even know why they even put owner’s manuals in cars today,” said Emmet. “No one ever reads them and even if they do, how many people can understand them?” For him, most days start at 7:20 a.m. in the office with the computer and end at 5:30 p.m. People are constantly dropping in or calling him to say hello, to gab with the doc. He even keeps a box of Milk Bone (crunchy) biscuits for visitors with four legs. “About 99 per cent of our business is local. It’s really great to be able to grow up in this community and then to become a part of it in business. The best part is the relationship with the customer. I cherish that.
“I’m a nostalgic guy by nature so I love the Valley and the people in it. It still has a small town feel to it. I raised my kids here and I hope they are able to raise theirs here, too.” Although an observer can tell he loves the nuts and bolts, the smell of the shop, Emmet says his days as a grease-stained wretch mostly are behind him. “It is a talent that doesn’t leave you. I can still walk out there and do it if I have to,” he said. “But as far as getting out there and getting dirty, not so much anymore. “Running the business is what I really love. Problem solving. That’s what keeps my interest. Find out what is wrong and get it fixed and back on the road. “Let’s keep the wheels turning.”
INFORMATION: Olivera’s is located at 611 Avenue of the Flags, Buellton. Open Mon-Fri 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Express Lube open Saturdays. Repair: 805.688.4113 Express lube: 805.688.0201 Towing: 805.688.3811
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