Today we’d like to introduce you to Barry Rosenberg.
Barry, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started with my first Triumph which I put on blocks to join the army. When I returned, I drove from Savannah to Marietta twice a weekend getting parts from a junk yard. I eventually moved to Marietta where I started going to Southern Tech and working at the junk yard. My cousin who was letting me stay with him, had a date with a girl whom I did not know. The next day I asked him her name and said I was going to marry her.
That was over 44 years ago and we are still together. My cousin and I opened a small shop in Powder Springs and called it Kosher Garage. What else would two Jews call a shop. We worked on what we liked and that was old (new back then) British cars. After our marriage, Patty insisted I get a real job so I became the only foreign car mechanic at Andy’s Sports Car Center in Marietta. It was an American Motors dealership and he had the Triumph dealership as well. After being fired for honesty, honestly, I opened British Car Service in a basement of a Parts store in Marietta. The store was owned by the Palmer family, some of the best people in Marietta. From there, I continued to operate British Car Service in several locations over the years. Patty and I built our first house together using one of my shops for work space building huge 52-foot-long trusses. We moved to Villa Rica for a number of years where I semi-retired in a custom-built shop, Patty and I built it, Patty wanted to move to the mountains so we designed a log cabin.
We sold the house in Villa Rica and moved to a rental house in Marietta while we again built our new home on a mountain in Talking Rock, between Jasper and Ellijay. I had planned on retiring again from old British cars and sell log homes like we built but the downturn in the economy killed the market in the mountains.
So I opened BCS again in my basement in Marietta and all my customers returned. All thru my career, I hired and trained young mechanics. Even while working in the basement, I hired some friends that were out of work and tried to train them. Craig Fowlkes has been my partner now for over 5 years. Patty and I live in our log cabin in Talking Rock and drive back and forth to Marietta every day. We bring our great friend, Bolt, a rescue dog, with us every day. I have been lucky enough to take my dog to work with me for 40 years now. We play frisbee every day in a small field next to my Marietta shop. Craig and I see some of my original customers from when I worked at the dealer. When I opened my shop in the basement of the parts store, my first customer was a 3′ 6″ tall black Midget who drove a 1967 Austin Healey 3000. We have put over 976,000 miles on the car. And while he is too old to drive it now, I still see him with the Honda S2000 sports car I sold him to replace the Healey. Craig and I work, my wife calls it play, with British cars every day.
We do anything from oil changes to rebuilding engines and transmissions to V-8 engine installation in small cars. We get cars from up and down the east coast that have been sitting in basements, garages and yards for over 30 years that the owner decides they just have to drive again. I always recommend against it but that never deters them. It takes us a few weeks or months, but we give them back a great running car. I have belonged to British car clubs throughout the years and have volunteered to be a technical director for them. We host tech seminars at our shop teaching others how to work on their own cars. I have taught everything from minor tune up to complete engine and transmission overhauls. Up until a few years ago, Patty and I hosted a huge pig roast for our friends and customers, this is something I wish to do again. I am Jewish but I tell people that I am a bad Jew because I cook the best whole hog you ever want to taste. I now cook one a year for Chateau Meichtry in Talking Rock for a wine and swine event they hold. I plan to continue working, playing, with old British cars for as long as I am able.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Patty and I have done ok for the most part. Since 2006 when the economy tanked, we lost a lot. My business depends on other people’s wellbeing. When Eastern Airlines closed suddenly, we felt it in our business for over a year. A lot of our customers worked for them. The same happens every time there is a down turn in the economy. Old British cars are not required daily transportation and people only spend money on them when they have some to spare. Work at the shop is on the increase, more than we can handle right now, but it will not stay this way we are sure. Health wise we have been pretty lucky over the years. But it is a struggle financially at times. And then you have the quality of our reproduction parts. It makes it very hard at times to do a repair as correctly as we demand. It may take us two or three tries to get it right. Quality parts are not as available as for modern cars. As there are so few of our cars still on the road.
Please tell us about British Car Service.
British Car Service specializes in old British cars made before 1980. We work on nothing made after that year. We can take a rusted hulk and return a fine running car, for enough time and money. Our customers appreciate that we are honest with them as we explain in great detail what their car needs. We give them the best work to make sure they are safe driving their pride and joy when they leave. I have always believed that a person or business should be have integrity; be honest, fair and knowledgeable in what they do. My Mama taught me that. I can rebuild or repair every part on any old British car. As the quality of a lot of the reproduction parts we use sucks, we try to repair as much old stuff as we can. I have machine shop tools that I use to custom make parts so we do not have to use the poor quality stuff on the market. Over the 43 years I have been in business, I have freely trained about a dozen people to work on these cars. Most have gone to other careers in the automotive business with their own small businesses. I have built race cars for customers who have been able to enjoy their cars at speed. I have built show winning cars for a different type customer. But by far the largest segment of my customers have been every day drivers who have put thousands of safe fun miles on their cars. As a tech director of car clubs, I have traveled to many locations along the east coast to shows and events repairing cars, for free, if they break down on the trip. We believe in customer service first and have hundreds of customers who would confirm this. Each one recommends new people to us all the time. If anyone calls or emails, a new thing for me, a question, I spend the time to answer as honestly and informatively as I can. Our knowledge and honesty keeps our customers, friends really coming back.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Living at Tybee Island with my parents and grandparents from a day or two after school let out to just before it started again the next school year. My grandparents owned a two-story house three blocks from the beach and two blocks from what we called the back river. We would swim and crab all summer long.
Our parents would play bingo on the boardwalk at night and we played in the cool sand. Absolutely nothing to do with cars.
Pricing:
- We have a shop labor rate of $100 per hour based on a labor guide for old British cars.
- We never actually charge $100 per hour based on that guide but based on how long it takes to do the repairs correctly.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2140 Canton Rd., Building C, Marietta, GA 30066
- Website: www.britishcarservicega.com
- Phone: 678-355-0877
- Email: contactus@britishcarservicega.com
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