C&S Auto Repair

By Tom Williams

Over the years, Automotive Report has talked with almost 400 independent shop owners, most of whom told us they got into the business because of their dad or grandfather or just a very influential friend who ran a shop somewhere.

Chances are, many of them started out sweeping floors in the family business or running parts and watching and learning a trade from a master. Or, they grew up taking bicycles and wagons apart and then putting them back together.

It is safe to say most of today’s shop owners — first, second or even third generation — grew up in the business.

For Doyle Rust who owns C&S Auto Repair in Clarksville, Tenn., it wasn’t that cut and dry. As a young man in the 1982, trying to find his way, his father-in-law offered him a job at a new car dealership in Murfreesboro, Tenn., selling cars. He applied himself, learned the trade, and worked his way up to general manager of a large General Motors dealership.

Doyle then bought his own dealership, a Volkswagen-Subaru dealership in Murfreesboro. According to Rust, this was at a time when Subaru hadn’t quite caught on yet, and Volkswagen had the “Jetta”.

He eventually sold the dealership and moved to …

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