Honest-1 Auto Care Spring Hill

Honest-1 Auto Care Spring Hill
Where ‘the most important part is you’

By Jason Zasky

 

When Rod Holliman opened Honest-1 Auto Care on Port Royal Rd. in Spring Hill in April 2018, he did so after a 35-year career in healthcare. He managed hospitals and large physician practices.

“Everybody asks me how you go from healthcare to auto repair,” he begins. “Quite frankly, it’s very similar in a lot of ways,” noting that making repairs to both cars and the human body can be pricey.

“In healthcare, you work really hard to convince people that health maintenance is the way to go. You need to take care of yourself and treat yourself well to stay healthy. What we try to do at Honest-1 is convince people that it’s really important to do your routine maintenance on your car. If you don’t take care of it …. it’s expensive to get it fixed.”

At Honest-1 Auto Care, they do everything from routine maintenance like oil changes and fluid exchanges to brakes and installing engines. In a nutshell, everything except bodywork, glass, and transmission rebuilds.

But at Honest-1 Spring Hill, “an oil change is a little more than an oil change,” as Holliman puts it. “It’s $34.99 for a semi-synthetic with five quarts, while full-synthetic is $64.99. But we also do an 83-point visual inspection and a tire rotation as part of the service,” the latter of which is an often-neglected aspect of maintenance, in part because most auto repair shops charge extra for that.

Customers who remain onsite while their car is being serviced can relax in Honest-1’s family-friendly waiting room, which features free Wi-Fi, leather easy chairs and couches, and complimentary beverages & snacks, plus large screen televisions and a children’s play area.

“We focus on doing everything we can to meet a customer’s needs,” offers Holliman. “It’s all about educating and explaining what we are trying to get accomplished. That and knowing that we have talented, well-qualified people to work on your car while treating you the way we would treat our own families.”

Those talented individuals include three master-level ASE-certified technicians—one of whom is GM certified, another Ford certified, and another European certified—all of whom relish the idea of helping customers avoid future expenses. Or better yet, helping them out of a jam.

Just recently, two young ladies who were driving from Louisiana to Nashville arrived late on a Friday afternoon in a Nissan Juke that was running really rough. 

“One of the master mechanics stayed late, took the car for a test drive, and soon discovered that a vacuum hose had come off and it wasn’t getting enough air to the engine,” recalls Holliman. “He attached the vacuum hose, and they were on their way. That’s the kind of thing that makes us feel good about what we do—when it helps someone out in a difficult situation.” 

It seems that helping people out and giving back to the community is par for the course with Holliman, who is president of the local Rotary Club and on the board of the local Chamber of Commerce. He also supports a number of the area’s high school sports teams. He even invites groups of local high school students to the shop to show them how to do basic maintenance. 

“I grew up in a small community on the border of Kansas and Colorado, and It was all about taking care of everybody in the community,” says Holliman. With Denver 186 miles away, neighbors had to rely on each other.

“I try to treat people with dignity and respect,” he adds, and at Honest-1, “we treat everybody like family.” 

That also helps explain why he likes the name of the business. “I like the idea of putting ‘honest’ on the sign and then living up to it every day,” he concludes. “Some people say if you put ‘honest’ on the sign, you can’t be, but I look at it positively. If you put it out there, it gives everybody a goal to shoot for on your team.”

Honest-1 Auto Care Spring Hill

4875 Port Royal Rd., Spring Hill, TN 37174

(615) 392-1856

honest1springhill.com