Ever since playing with Hot Wheels as a young child, Paul Boyd said he's always had a love for cars.
"It started basically out of necessity," he said. "I just had to fix my own stuff to keep going, and I used to help buddies out and just kind of got into it."
Now on a much larger scale, Boyd is helping out the drivers of the Fremont community at P&L Automotive, an automotive repair shop at 2600 N. Yager Road.
Having grown up in Fremont, Boyd attended college in Milford after graduating high school. He worked at another auto shop for a decade, where he worked on fine-tuning his automotive skills.
In January 2010, Boyd finally got the opportunity from a friend to start his own business at the previous location for Custom Transmissions.
"I knew the old owner for years before I bought the place, and it came up for sale," he said. "And the time was right and the price was right, and it was just time for me to move on and do my own thing."
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Although working at an auto shop taught him many lessons, Boyd said owning his own business took everything to the next level.
"It's just a lot of hours and a lot of time," he said. "I took a big leap of faith, and it's just been a lot of work."
At P&L Automotive, which stands for "Parts and Labor," Boyd said he works on all aspects of vehicle, including anything mechanicalized, bumper-to-bumper, brakes, suspensions, engines, transmissions, diagnostics, drivability and check engine lights.
"We do everything import and domestic, light trucks," he said. "We don't do much with diesels, but just a lot of light trucks stuff, pretty much anything mechanical."
Boyd said P&L Automotive sees an average of six to 10 cars a day drive through its doors. Some of the more interesting vehicles he's worked on includes 1925 Studebakers, as well as hot rods.
With P&L Automotive's customer base, Boyd said he treats every customer with respect and makes sure all of their needs are met.
"That's pretty much it, just honesty and realism," he said. "If the car isn't worth fixing, we'll tell you that and give you some options and try to find you a more affordable route and tell you what needs to be fixed and what can wait and what doesn't have to be worried about."
Although the COVID-19 pandemic affected many businesses after hitting the United States in early 2020, auto repair shops weren't impacted like others were.
According to a survey conducted by auto repair loan agency DigniFi, auto repair shops saw a 62.3% increase in the need for car maintenance during the pandemic.
But additionally, 57.6% of dealerships also saw an increase in the number of customers denying or postponing maintenance, and 60.8% saw an increase in customers needing financing.
Like many auto shops across the country, Boyd said the pandemic didn't have as much as an impact on P&L Automotive as it did on other businesses.
"When it first came out, we slowed down for probably the first couple of weeks, and then it picked back up," he said. "It actually got a little bit busier because everybody's home more than they're working, so they had to have their vehicle to get places to run errands and that kind of stuff."
Although P&L Automotive has had a few employees in its decade of operation, the shop was mostly a one-man show for Boyd, taking every car that came through its door alone.
"It's a lot of hours, a lot of nights and a lot of weekends," he told the Fremont Tribune in 2020. "Between phone calls and customers in the daytime, you can get more done between 6 and 10 at night than you do all day."
However, Boyd now has additional help as the shop gained a second employee, Aaron Mallett, in July 2020.
"I was looking for a technician, and he reached out to me," Boyd said. "And he was a good fit and we get along great and he does a good job, so I brought him on."
Similar to Boyd, Mallett has a long history with vehicles, having worked in the business full time for the last 12 years.
"I've worked on cars since I was probably 13, 14 years old," he said. "I started learning from my grandpa and just kind of had to fix my own stuff and on from there."
Knowing that Boyd was looking for help in servicing vehicles at P&L Automotive, Mallett knew he wanted to take the position.
"I've known him since high school, and we always got along great outside of work," he said. "And the opportunity arose, and I gave him a call and he said, 'Come on in.'"
Like Boyd, Mallett works on all aspects of the vehicles, including engine swaps, transmissions, diagnostics and drivability.
"It's a better environment than what I've had, and I'm definitely treated better," he said. "It's great to just have a better relationship with the owner."
As he's dedicated to taking care of each customer that comes to P&L Automotive, Boyd said he couldn't be happier at the auto shop.
"I've just learned to have patience, a lot of patience," he said. "With cars and customers and just a lot of stuff like that, it's just basically taking it as it goes and just working with it."