Steve’s Auto Pro

By Tom Williams

At 673 W. Main Street in Hendersonville, Tenn., stands a historical landmark. It is not a monument to a famous general. It is a monument to honest, hard work. Some readers of The Automotive Report may recognize it as Adcock’s Garage & Wrecker Service.

In 1952, as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started building the Old Hickory Lock and Dam, George Adcock realized his shop on E. Main Street was in the path of the coming lake. He built his new shop, the current location of Steve’s Auto Pro, and moved just before the dam was completed. 

In 1952, Main Street was a two-lane road in a sleepy little town 20 miles north of Nashville. Today, Hendersonville is the 11th largest city in Tennessee, and Main Street, aka Johnny Cash Boulevard, is a major thoroughfare. 

Steve Mirenda, who was born in 1961, has made his way in the automotive repair business for over 40 years. His dad bought him his first car, a 1957 Chevy, when he was just 13, and he started tinkering on it right away. He quit school at 15 and started working in a transmission shop where he stayed for 15 years.

Mirenda, the owner of Steve’s Auto Pro, moved to Hendersonville in 1988 from Long Island, N.Y., to escape the rat race of big city life.

“I lived in the city and worked in Queens,” he said. “It took me four or five hours to get home every night.”

He also didn’t feel Long Island was the best place to raise a family. 

When asked what brought him to Middle Tennessee, Mirenda said he had a cousin who lived in Hendersonville, and his dad also moved here and started a home repair business. So Hendersonville had a lot to offer a young man looking to jump-start his life.

He opened his first shop, Steve’s Auto Pro Co., in an industrial/commercial park shortly after moving to Hendersonville. The 2,000-square-foot shop had low ceilings and could not accommodate lifts. So Mirenda spent the next 18 years on his back, literally. 

During this first 18 years, he developed a reputation for quality work and honesty, and his business grew. But to grow, he needed more space — floor and ceiling. Mirenda told Johnny Adcock at Adcock’s Garage if he ever wanted to sell, he wanted to be first in line.

Mirenda bought Adcock’s in May 2006. With the “new” location and increased car count, his business continued to grow. Then in 2009, the economy hit a snag and the next five years were gloomy. He said the Obama Administration’s “Cash For Clunkers” took a lot of repairable cars out of the market.

“It really hurt the repair business, body shops and salvage yards,” he said.

Steve’s Auto Pro is a 4,000-square-foot, full-service mechanical shop. It sits on just over two acres, which gives them plenty of room for storage.

Mirenda has four employees, plus himself. Jorge Corsi immigrated from Argentina about 19 years ago and has been with him over 13 years.  The other two mechanics, Don Smith and Robert Torrence, have been here for five years and one year, respectively. 

Lance Woodall, service writer/office manager, had been a store manager for Goodyear for over 20 years.

Mirenda still works in the shop but not as much as he used to. A few years ago, Mirenda had a minor heart attack. On top of that, he has had back surgery and a knee replacement. He decided to “slow down” a bit. He still works in the shop when needed, and runs the company-owned roll-back picking up customers’ cars.

Steve Mirenda is at a point in his life and career where he can get some time away from the shop and not worry about it. His guys have his back.

They will work on almost anything with wheels. About the only thing they don’t do is tires, because there is not enough space, and collision work. They don’t work on fully electric cars either but will work on hybrids.

It isn’t one of those eat-off-the-floor kind of shops. It is busy, even in the days of Covid-19. Mirenda says they put out about 30 to 40 cars a week.

With four 10,000 lb. lifts (two Bend Pak and two Magnums), one John Bean brake machine, and one Aamco, two Robinair AC recovery units and two diagnostic consoles, there is barely enough room for tool boxes.

He buys most of his parts from the dealers. Most parts stores have a more liberal return policy and will often pay for mechanics’ time if the part is faulty. But he still prefers OEM because that is what his customers expect. 

Among the challenges facing Steve’s Auto Pro and other shops like it are keeping up with technology and the advent of electric cars. Diagnostics is a big part of their work here, but it is difficult getting customers to understand the higher fees for diagnosis.

Steve Mirenda has never advertised. He has relied on his reputation and customer reviews to bolster his business. Social media has helped, and the shop was named one of the top auto repair shops in Tennessee in 2019. Also, community involvement hasn’t hurt. They have sponsored youth baseball and football teams.  

Steve Mirenda’s wife comes in from time to time to do the books. They have four children and four granddaughters. One daughter lives in Jacksonville, Fla., one owns a bar in Nashville, and the other farms just north of Nashville. His son is a top song-writer and singer on the country music scene.

Steve Mirenda isn’t planning on gong anywhere any time soon, but has a tentative retirement date for somewhere around age 70. He still has plenty of time and the future is looking good.  •