Golden Anniversaries for Two ATRA Members
proud. Because this past December 2nd, two ATRA Members celebrated their 50th year in the transmission business. Fifty years of repairing transmissions! That’s an astounding achievement; one which deserves our respect… and our celebration. Who are these trailblazers of the
who’ve been married for 50 years, or spent 50 years on a single endeavor. You can probably count them on the fingers of one hand; it’s that rare. It’s why we call 50 the Golden Anniversary: It’s something to celebrate… a badge of honor to wear with pride. And here at ATRA, we’re twice as
F
Williams Automotive & Transmission opened their doors on December 4th, 1961 and have been operating in the same location since 1967 in Napa, California.
industry? Lee Williams of Williams Automotive in the Napa Valley, California; and Marvin Keyser and Mark Schwartzman of Glen Burnie Transmissions in Glen Burnie, Maryland.
Lee Williams; Williams Automotive Talking with Lee Williams is like
passing through a portal in time. He’s able to offer a perspective on this busi- ness that most of us can only imagine. He opened his first shop in 1961. It was a full service repair shop, and back then ATRA wouldn’t accept general shops as Members. He was finally able to join ATRA in 1964. “When we started doing transmis-
sions, there were maybe 10 different automatics in the world,” says Lee. “None of the foreign cars used them; they were all domestic. “Back in the 60s you could pull
a transmission out, rebuild it, and put it back in, all for under $100. Once
42 An ATRA member sign circa 1968 still hangs proudly at Williams Automotive & Transmission.
they came out with a welded torque converter, you could buy a converter, the kit, and all the parts for less than thirty bucks. We’d charge $80 for one of those units, and we were making a lot of money on it. Today you charge $3000 for a transmission and you bare- ly make a thing.” Williams Automotive charges a
labor rate of $117 an hour, a rate they’ve charged for a couple years now. But it wasn’t always the case.
“[In 1961] our hourly rate was $1.50; when we raised our rates to $3.00 an hour, people claimed we were charg- ing more than a lawyer! I just laughed about that.” The first lockup converters were
a real wakeup call to Lee and his staff. “How were we going to fix something like that? It was hard for us to wrap our heads around those things, and those early models only used a pressure switch!”
GEARS January/February 2012
ifty years is a long time to do just about anything. Think of the number of people you know
by Steve Bodofsky
members.atra.com www.atra.com
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