Shop Name: Autovisions
Owner(s): Nathan Bryant
Location (city, state): Englewood, Colorado
Staff Size: 2
Shop Size (in square feet): 2,800 square feet
Number of Bays: 3
Average Monthly Car Count: 65
Annual Revenue ($): 450,000
Autovisions occupies one-twelfth a dodecagonal building—that’s the geometric term for a 12-sided polygon. In simpler terms, the shop is pie-shaped. The building’s owner envisioned that his uniquely designed building would serve as an import auto mall that housed 12 specialty shops. At least that was the plan.
“It was an interesting idea; it failed completely,” says Nathan Bryant, mentioning that he and the neighboring brewery are the building’s sole tenants.
A Piece of the Pie
While it may be hard to imagine operating an auto repair shop from a wedge-shaped space, Bryant tactfully positions his shop to handle the workflow.
“Because it's a round building and everything was built as like pieces of pie, it's kind of an odd shape. I have one door to enter the building that comes in on what would be the wide piece of the pie, and then straight in front of you is a scissor lift alignment rack with a two-post lift on each side of it. In one corner, I have a tire machine, and balancer, and then on the other walls is where I have the toolbox,” he says. “We’ve also got laptops in the shop, and I don't think you can go 15 feet around here without running into a computer.”
Plug’ N Play
With electrification, a hot topic within the industry, Bryant, an ASE-certified technician in hybrids and electric vehicles, has begun adding necessary equipment to service electric vehicles.
“I've already got a charging station here at the shop for electric vehicles. We do have OE equipment for reprogramming at least a couple of makes of vehicles, but we're not going to do everything,” he says. “But as the world changes, we have every intention of keeping up with it.”
Initially, he wanted a charging station for public use, but the price installation cost deterred him from making that investment.
“I looked at getting one outside that could be used by the public and that ended up not being realistic because of the cost, of me leasing the building and the shape of the parking lot. It would have ended up costing I think $20,000 or $30,000,” he says.
Instead, he purchased one online and made it private use for vehicle work in the shop. The charging station cost the shop $1,000 and Bryant had an electrician install it, a process he says took 15 minutes.
“I've got a charging station that's inside my building that's just for me to use when there's a vehicle here. That was really simple to set up. I ended up ordering a station off of Amazon and then had an electrician install it.” Bryant says
