Auto Tech Services Inc. was founded in 1979 (incorporated in the state of Texas). Originally founded by Brian Brunson and Rick Gardner as a wholesale repair facility, we concentrated on the used car inventories of dealerships and independents alike in the Dallas-Fort Worth market. Within our first year of operations, the emphasis on used car repairs grew to include warranty work on new vehicles with several major dealerships in the Dallas, Irving, Arlington, Fort Worth areas. Most often, these were brand new vehicles that had not yet been sold. Due to this expanded inventory of vehicles, we quickly outgrew our original leased facility in Arlington and looked for a larger facility.
Our first thought was to lease a larger facility, but we were unable to find one that was properly zoned and suitable for our needs. We decided to purchase our own property and bought 1.7 acres of land in our current location in Mansfield, Texas. This is where we built our 8500 sq ft facility in July 2000. In doing this, we overbuilt to allow us to expand into the retail sector of collision repair.
With construction complete, we moved in and began our first day of operations in this current facility on October 1, 2000. This retail expansion began with our first day (of operations) here and within a year had overtaken the wholesale side from the number of units repaired. In December of 2011, we reluctantly allowed our wholesale vendor agreements with various dealerships to expire in order to allow us to better focus on cycle times with our retail customers. Cycle times become very important if you do not have rental insurance or if you happen to be paying out of pocket for a rental car.
Through the years, we have entered into “Direct Repair” agreements with various insurance companies. One of the benefits to this type of arrangement is less downtime during a repair due to waiting on an insurance company approval for a supplement for additional damage found during the course of the repair. As a “direct repair facility” we are generally able to skip the insurance company inspection process and continue on with the repairs through the documentation of additional damage with photographs or computer generated printed measurements. This allows us to deliver your repaired vehicle back to you a little quicker than the industry standard time.
