BTA Breaking News...
Win Blake Shelton Concert Tickets!
Bob Thomas Automotive is joining The Wolf 105.1 to give away a pair of 2 tickets to the Blake Shelton concert at the Rose Garden on March 11th! Please come down today to 535 Rossanley Drive to enter for your chance to win!
We Have A New Winner for January 2012!
The winner of our January Business Card Drawing for a $50 gift certificate is Gene & Alanda Brown of Pre-paid Legal Services.
BTA & Lite 102's Joy Fund!
One of our holiday season's charities this year [2011] is with Lite 102's Joy Fund. Bob Thomas Automotive will be helping families in the community by providing toys, food, clothing, & more. We have chosen to provide enough to help 3 local families this year.
BTA & Jackson County Foster Parent Association!
Bob Thomas Automotive is also helping Jackson County Foster Parent Association. They provided us with a tree of tags with children's names & toys they would appreciate this Christmas. Every employee from our shop will be purchasing a toy for a foster child this year.
People from the community are also encouraged to come get a tag to help a foster child this Christmas!
We Have A New Winner for November!
The winner of our November Business Card Drawing for a $50 gift certificate is Dave Wetzell, of Southern Oregon Signs.
Our Partnership with ACCESS Food
Bob Thomas Automotive has partnered up with ACCESS Food and we are accepting non-perishable food donations. We are offering $1 off per donation item, up to $5 off any service or repair at Bob Thomas Automotive.
Special offer through November 2011.
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BOB THOMAS AUTOMOTIVE
Gift Certificates are available for Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers! |
We Have A New Winner for September!
The winner of our September Business Card Drawing for a $50 gift certificate is Dan Friesen, of Friesen Sheet Metal .
Bob Thomas Is Now Hiring! August 10th 2011
Bob Thomas is now hiring two full-time positions in our newly expanded facility. Our employees mean as much to us as our valued customers and car repair.
Auto Technician:
Must be ASE certified, have valid ODL and be insurable. Must have your own hand tools. Experience in gas and light duty diesel engines is preferred. Position is Monday-Friday 8:00-5:00.
Apply in person at Bob Thomas Automotive 535 Rossanley Drive, Medford.
Service Advisor:
Must have 3-5 years experience as service writer/advisor. Must have valid ODL and experience with Mitchell Manual Software.
Position is Monday-Friday 8:00-5:30.
Apply in person at Bob Thomas Automotive 535 Rossanley Drive, Medford.
New Website Design! August 2011
Thanks to Web From The Wild, we have a new website layout and design. Bob Thomas Automotive's online presence now represents our high quality automotive repair and outstanding services!
Bob Thomas Automotive Expansion 2010
Bob Thomas Automotive is expanding its current facilities to include a new 6000 sq. ft. shop at our current location to serve the needs of our customers better. It will allow us to focus on expanding our fleet customer base in the new shop, while still giving our current customers the service and attention that they have come to expect at Bob Thomas Automotive.
Thank You in Medford Mail Tribune
When Oregon Army National Guard Spec. Chris Robertson arrived at the Medford airport from Iraq just before midnight Friday night, he was greeted with hugs by his parents and girlfriend.
After helping him grab his luggage, Paul Robertson told his citizen-soldier son — who is home on leave — that they had to swing by Bob Thomas Automotive in Medford so they could pick up his four-wheel-drive 1977 Ford F-150 truck.
That would be the rust bucket the 2006 Crater High School graduate drove in high school, the one that was dented, rusted, scraped, scratched and peeling paint.
"Dad told me they finally got the brakes fixed — he said that Bob wanted us to pick it up that night because it would be easier than opening up the shop on the weekend," Chris said Saturday.
But when they stepped into the shop, he didn't see his old truck. Instead, there was a shiny 1977 Ford pickup glistening with new paint, new rims and new tires.
That's when more than two dozen volunteers, who had spent the past two months working for free on his truck, jumped out of their hiding places to greet him with applause.
"He was totally stunned — he couldn't stop smiling," said his fiancee, Jessica Rickman. "He was just speechless."
None of the volunteers or business owners who donated parts and labor knew the soldier. But it was a labor of love — for all those in uniform.
"A lot of the guys said they enjoyed doing this for Christopher but it was really done in their minds and hearts for all the service men and women out there serving their country," Paul Robertson said.
The undercover operation was launched by Steve Banry of Central Point. Robertson had served as a volunteer wrestling coach in Central Point — in a community program that included Banry's two young sons — before being sent overseas.
"He volunteered his time — he was very unselfish," said Banry, who served in the Guard. "I knew his truck meant a lot to him, that it was given to him by an uncle. When I started calling people and businesses, everybody said they wanted to help."
"That guy put his life on the line for us — it's the least we could do," observed volunteer Rob Massey, a painter who does hot rods and custom jobs for Star Body Works.
Like the other volunteers, Massey didn't know the soldier. But Massey's older brother is a helicopter pilot in the Army and his wife, Kelsey, is expected to be deployed next year with the Guard.
"We need to support our troops," Massey said.
When he and others began stripping the truck to repaint it, they found it rusted and in need of body work. Massey found another truck bed, doors and fenders.
"Whoever we called, they were willing to pitch in," Massey said. "The best example of that was Christmas Eve, when we found we were short a lift kit. Tom's Bronco Parts immediately put one together that day for the truck.
" In addition to Tom's Bronco Parts, Bob Thomas Automotive and Star Body Works, local businesses volunteering expertise, labor or parts included Automotive Paint Specialities/PPG, Auto Glass Creations, Baxter Auto Parts, Burn's Upholstery, Bernie's Sure Fit Upholstery, J&L Muffler, Medford Paints, Mirror Image Polishing, Advantage Tire, Ashland Les Schwab and Sun Scape Window Tinting.
"People were coming in and volunteering to sand the truck — I couldn't keep track of all of them," Banry said. "It was amazing. It was a very unselfish act by these businesses and people.
"These were just people saying to those in uniform, 'We remember you are there,' " he added.
A standout wrestler in high school, Robertson, 21, had earned a scholarship to wrestle for the University of Oregon. However, the school later dropped its wrestling program, replacing it with baseball.
Robertson joined the Guard two years ago. He is one of 600 soldiers of the Guard's 1st Battalion of the 186th Infantry, headquartered in Ashland, which arrived in Iraq in July. Providing security for convoys, they are expected to return home next spring.
When Robertson left for Iraq, he knew the truck needed work.
"We had started getting it looking good, then I went off to college and everything," he said. "It sat around and rusted up.
" But now the truck looks like it was just driven off the showroom floor. And the volunteers aren't done yet.
"There are a few more cosmetic things they want to do after Chris goes back," his father said. "Sun Scape is going to tint the windows and put some graphics on the back."
"This isn't just for Chris — this is to show people in uniform that we care," Banry said, adding that anyone who wants to help in similar efforts can contact him at 944-4260.
Meanwhile, Robertson is still adjusting to his new truck.
"It wasn't just one person doing something nice — it was a lot of people," he said. "I can't get over what they did. It's awesome."
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Best Auto Shop in Medford Mail Tribune
Best Auto Service in Medford Mail Tribune For everything from oil changes to repair and diagnostic services, readers chose Bob Thomas Automotive as Best Auto Service two years' running. The company's motto, "We care about your repair," has been the focus since it opened 12 years ago in Medford, said manager Tom Whelan. The company's namesake struck out on his own after years in the automotive industry and opened the Rossanley location 1997. Whelan said Thomas is "more about the people" than the vehicles he fixes. "Bob has always had this saying or belief that we're in the people business, not the car business," he said. "That's where it starts. Hopefully, we're doing something right." Date: November 01, 2009 |
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Best Auto Shop in Medford Mail Tribune
In its first year making the Readers' Choice finalists, Bob Thomas Automotive headed straight to the top. The Medford shop has been serving customers for 11 years. "We've never been on the list and we've tried really hard. This is our first time and we got first place, so I'm ecstatic," said owner Bob Thomas of the recognition. First working in the auto repair business for dealerships and independent shops, the 48-year-old Thomas struck out on his own in 1997 at his Rossanley location. His business slogan, "We care about your repair," rings true for each and every job, Thomas said. "I think people are finally noticing we're not in the car business. We're in the people business. If you take care of people, the business will come." Date: October 26, 2008 |
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Car Repair by Computer in Medford Mail Tribune, 1999Mechanics such as Bob Thomas have toolboxes that resemble something more like you’d see on "The Jetsons" than on "Dukes of Hazzard" reruns.
Lab scopes, laser scan tools and other computer diagnostic equipment are used to ferret out engine trouble by comparing mathematical readings with charts of numbers in auto-repair manuals.
"It’s not black tape and bailing wire any more," Thomas says.
"Now," he says, "the joke is that you go through all the diagnostics and the manual says, "replace with known good ECU."
ECU stands for the on-board computers in newer model cars, highlighting just how high-tech automotive repair work has come in the past 20 years — and providing a glimpse of where it’s going.
Independent repair shops such as Thomas Automotive in Medford now look more like science labs than the old havens for grease monkeys to dive under hoods with wrenches and screwdrivers and keep cars road-worthy.
The world of auto mechanics is driving forward as well. A trade once steeped in hands-on practice has become one that now leans just as heavily on math, science and computer skills.
"Years ago, you could pretty much learn the industry hands-on," says Chris Simper, an automotive instructor at Rogue Community College in Grants Pass. "Now, you just can’t learn the stuff by osmosis. If you don’t have some specific training, you won’t get it."
Consider that a decade ago, most cars used carburetors similar to pre-World War II cars. Now, computer fuel-injection systems and sophisticated emission controls contain dozens of sensors and other doodads.
Some new Cadillacs, Simper says, sport 18 on-board computers that can conduct 40 million calculations per second.
But that’s nothing compared to other features creeping into cars in recent years:
Holograms that display speedometer images on windshields.
Telemetric systems and computer hookups with satellites that provide directions and other navigational material electronically.
nComputers that allow satellites to unlock cars whose owners have locked their keys inside, even scan the vehicle to test emissions as it travels down the highway.
Infrared technology that scans ahead of a car’s headlights to search for deer, people or other objects on or near the road. A computer beams an image of the roadside deer onto the windshield in the line of sight between the deer and driver.
"We’re definitely seeing some pretty radical things," Simper says.
And automotive technicians are scurrying to keep up.
Schools like Rogue Community College offer one- and two-year courses in mechanics that are heavily weighted in trigonometry, algebra, chemistry and electrical theory — many of which are college-level courses, Simper says.
And that’s a big change for mechanics such as Kandace Boehm, a 44-year-old Shady Cove woman who works seasonally at a Shady Cove shop and takes courses at RCC when she can.
When she began her RCC training two years ago, she had barely remembered her high school math or science.
She had never worked on a computer. But she has since brought her math and computer skills in line with the basic shade-tree mechanic skills of her youth.
"It’s so completely different now than what I used to do, working on carburetors or changing water pumps," Boehm says.
"You have to know how the different electronics and sensors all work so you can keep vehicles running."
But it’s not all roses.
Older, seasoned auto technicians are either forced to scramble to keep up, or get out of the way.
"A tech who used to be good 10-15 years ago is dead in the water if he’s not re-schooled or knows ways to beat the computer," Thomas says.
High-tech skills also bring a demand for pricey high-tech equipment — so pricey that small shop owners have a tough time keeping up.
Independent shops such as Thomas Automotive are becoming more and more rare.
"The average repair shop will have to spend $25,000-$45,000 a year in equipment to keep up with the manufacturers," Thomas says.
"In the next 10-15 years, if technology keeps going the way it is, the only way you can get your car fixed is to take it to a dealership — unless the small independents can keep up," Thomas says. by Mark Freeman |
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