25 Years of Business!
Celebrating 25 Years of Serving Franklin Families
Grove Street is Celebrating 25 Years of Serving Franklin Families!
Link to Press Release
In July, 2023, Grove Street Auto Repair celebrated its 25th anniversary! Owned by Patrick Weidman, Grove Street Auto Repair is a locally owned, full service auto repair shop located at 79 Grove Street in Franklin. The Weidman family and the entire Grove Street Auto team are looking forward to another phenomenal 25 years!
“Your Family Depends On Our Family.” Since 1998, that has been the philosophy of Grove Street Auto Repair. This philosophy includes not only their clients, but all of their employees as well. It is part of their culture, written everywhere in the shop, emphasized during weekly meetings and present every day.
The beginning: For years, Patrick and Bobby worked for an uncle who owned a large auto repair shop in Westboro, MA. In fact, three other siblings also worked at the uncle’s shop performing various duties such as pumping gas, driving a tow truck, bookkeeping and repairing cars and trucks.
In 1995, the uncle sold his shop and both Bobby and Patrick continued to work for the new owner. Tired of the commute, in 1998 Patrick and Bobby decided to “hang their own shingle” and rented a small, old and tired building at 15 Grove Street in Franklin.
As time went on and they earned a great reputation for honest and accurate service, they outgrew their early beginnings and purchased land further down Grove Street (good thing too, they didn’t even have to change the name!) In 2005, they completed construction on a brand new, state-of-the-art facility at 79 Grove Street. This new building enabled them to continue providing exceptional service to their clients and had room to expand. Initially they rented out several of the rear bays to various tenants. Over the subsequent years, Grove Street Auto Repair expanded into those bays and now have the entire 9,600 square feet, continuing to provide their clients with honest and accurate service.
A true family business, all but one of the six siblings have had a stint working at the shop. Some have only stayed for a short time, like one brother who helped drive a tow truck at night, or the youngest sister who did bookkeeping before going off to college. But others have stuck it out and never left. Bob Sr. came out of retirement (again) in 2002 and began helping the brothers out. The resident shuttle driver, he may have given you a ride home if all of our courtesy cars were booked! He will be 88 this year and still comes to the shop 3 days a week. Just the other day, when told that Dad was doing their inspection sticker, a customer said, “I wondered if this was a family business! You all are so friendly and welcoming. You don’t get that feeling in most places.” Patrick considers their employees to be extended family, especially Tom who has been with them since 1999.
In 2005, with the move to the new facility right around the corner, Patrick and Bobby made the key decision to hire their sister, Jean, to work at the front counter. With her background in accounting, a natural curiosity and her love of helping people, she quickly absorbed the technical portion as well as the numbers part of the business and became one of their biggest assets.
The Weidman family has long, deep roots in the Franklin community. Bob, Sr., was born and raised in Franklin, and stayed to raise his family. Patrick and most of his siblings still live locally. As a family, they were taught that helping people was an integral part of who they were. This was played out on family vacations when they stopped on the side of the road to provide assistance to other families who had broken down. Having old family vehicles themselves, they were keenly aware of what it meant to be on the receiving end, and that lesson was never forgotten. Now, at Grove Street Auto Repair, they pride themselves on customer service that goes above and beyond what most repair shops do.
With multiple ways to stay in touch (including text and email) during your service visit, it’s easy to get updates while your car or truck is being serviced. They know what it’s like to have to get from one side of town for a baseball game to the other side of town for a lacrosse game so they have a fleet of free courtesy cars you can use when you leave your car with them for service. It really is a seamless experience!
As we move into an era where technology drives vehicle safety and convenience features more and more along with advancements in hybrid and fully electric vehicles, Grove Street Auto continues to invest in updated technology, equipment and technician training. Most recently, technicians attended a 3-day advanced Tesla training class in electric vehicles and a 5-day class for other EV’s.
Being a part of the community is a big part of operating a small business. Grove Street Auto knows it is important to support local organizations. They sponsor kids’ sports teams in both Franklin and Bellingham, give to the local food pantry, donate gift certificates to the local PTO organizations and raise money for various local charities every year. A few of their favorites are Brakes for Breasts, (learn more at brakesforbreasts.com) and PanCan, (a pancreatic cancer support organization.) These in particular are close to their heart as their mother battled breast cancer twice as well as pancreatic cancer. Both the Pan-Mass Challenge and PMC kids ride bike-a-thons are also critical organizations they support to aid in cancer research. Another favorite is The Santa Foundation, a local non-profit providing families in need with gifts during the holiday season and helping with other needs during the rest of the year.
“I’m very fortunate because we’ve had a ton of support from the community,” Patrick says. “So we try to give back in any way that we can.”
Another way Grove Street Auto engages the community is with their “Ladies Night” and teen driver events. The goal is to demystify the auto maintenance and repair world as well as empower the participants to be able to take care of minor issues like checking their oil and tire air pressure. With the increase in the number of catalytic converter thefts nationally, the next community event will be a Catalytic Converter Identification Program so watch for details to be released soon.
Making sure the customer and community are well taken care of is the priority every day. Patrick would like to thank all the wonderful customers who have supported them for years, and give a special shout out to the group of customers who have been with them since they started in 1998. Together, they have celebrated many life events together, and their friendships are so appreciated.
Family is everything to the Grove Street Auto Repair team. Your family can depend on our family for honest and thorough auto repair. It doesn’t matter if you need preventative maintenance or a more complex auto repair, we will be by your side each step of the way. Schedule an appointment today for service with the ASE-Certified technicians at Grove Street Auto Repair in Franklin. We are located at 79 Grove Street, Franklin, MA, 02038.
Photos From Our 25th Anniversary Celebration!
