Blogocentric Formulations

Tuneup Masters

Day 3818 ▼

Write your entry about a place that no longer exists. Tell us why you believe it's gone. Did you miss it?

When I first moved down to Long Beach for film school, I had to find a mechanic for one of our cars. There was something wrong with it, and the dealership quoted us like $1,200 for the repair, which my wife and I didn't have as poor college students. We took it to this small little corner repair shop a few blocks from our apartment for a second opinion, and the guy who worked there told us it was a $300 part and they would only charge us $100 for the labor, where the dealership was going to charge us $900 for the labor. A few days and $400 later, they had a loyal customer.

Over the years, I came to know the manager and the owner of the business pretty well, and I found out the reason they were so good with cars is that they actually hired ex-dealership mechanics from all over. They had a guy who knew Japanese cars from working at Honda, Toyota, Lexus, etc., and another guy who was familiar with American cars like Fords and Chevys, and another guy who specialized in high-end foreign models like BMWs and Mercedes. Over the years, I brought them Jeeps, Hondas, Toyotas, and Volkswagens and they never met a problem they couldn't fix (often for much less than the dealership would have charged).

Even when I moved down to Orange County, I'd bring my car up to Long Beach for every single service that I could manage, because these guys were trustworthy, hard-working, and affordable. They were also super friendly and half the time if I was just there for an oil change and they were going to be done in an hour or so, I'd just hang out and chat with them while they worked on the car. To this day, I still remember the funniest conversation I had with the owner, where he was asking what I do for a living and I told him I worked for Disney/Marvel. I'm used to people getting super excited about the fact that I work in the entertainment business and the owner was like, "Did you say marble? Like, are you a wholesaler or something? Do you do custom work?" And I said, "No, not marble. Marvel. Superheroes. Like Iron Man, The Avengers, etc." And without missing a beat the owner was like, "Huh. That's cool, I guess. To be honest, I was more interested when I thought you worked with marble."

The shop moved to a different part of Long Beach around 2018 or 2019 (I think they were struggling financially and needed a cheaper place to work out of), but then COVID hit in 2020 and one day I called to ask if they were open for a service when the world started opening back up again, and the number was disconnected. I drove by once and they weren't at their most recent address, so the place must have either relocated or — more likely — folded.

I definitely miss Tuneup Masters, both for the quality of service they provided me for over ten years, and also for the tragedy of so many small businesses we lost in the economic hardship of the pandemic.