Ask Patty and Amy Mattinat Featured in Vermont's Alternative WebWeekly
Published Jun 28th 2007, 1:22am by Jody DeVere in Pressroom Articles
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AMY MATTINAT
PHOTO: MATTHEW THORSEN |
by Mike Ives (06/20/07).
Amy Mattinat’s not your stereotypical haggler o’ the fabled used-car lot; she is so beyond that. Sure, the 48-year-old co-owns Auto Craftsmen,
an independent repair shop and used-car dealership on Route 2 in
Montpelier. But this gregarious guru is also one of the most prolific
female-car-owner educators in the nation. Her 2005 manual, How to Buy a Great Used Car,
offers innovative insider tips. For the past two years she’s penned a
column called “Under the Hood” for the monthly newspaper Vermont Woman,
deciphering such nuts-and-bolts topics as the “check engine” light and
air filters. Recently, Mattinat joined the advisory crew at www.askpatty.com,
an all-purpose car website catering to women. And as a board member and
education committee advisor to the national Women’s Car Care Council,
she travels the country for conferences and trade shows.
Translation? With these impressive credentials in her tool belt,
Mattinat offers a fresh, female-centric perspective on one of the most
male-dominated industries in the world.
On a recent Friday afternoon, Mattinat greets a reporter in the
Auto Craftsmen waiting area. Settling in here to kill time, wheel-less
pilgrims might reasonably think they’ve died and gone to
customer-service heaven. Many comparable spaces feature half-decomposed
couches, weak instant coffee and an insufferable parade of scratchy
Meatloaf albums. But this room, with its classical music, spider plants
and toddler toys, seems more like a pediatric office.
Mattinat, who is also Auto Craftsmen’s office manager, is slender
and petite, and has a squarish face and short brown hair. Today she’s
dressed in business casual: dangly earrings, polka-dotted,
short-sleeved shirt, and jeans. After a glimpse of the front room, it’s
no surprise that her back office exudes serious Nurture Instinct.
Mattinat’s screensaver streams the phrase “Visualize your goal . . .
allow yourself to receive!” A pink tote bag hangs in a corner. And
behind her hangs a poster about . . . uh, cooking demos.
Turns out the image isn’t just filler décor but a window into
Mattinat’s past. Back in the early ’80s, after earning a degree in
hotel and restaurant management, she worked as a crunchy caterer,
helping people plan “healing diets” — an occupation as far removed from
Honda Civics as shoeing horses. Still, suggests Mattinat, the foodie
biz taught her the invaluable skill of turning “techy talk” into
everyday language.
Twelve years ago, this licensed caterer dropped her parsley garnish
for the metaphorical wrench. The decision wasn’t totally random,
though: Mattinat had always loved cars — or rather, anything with a
motor, including bulldozers and tractors. Luckily, her knack for
layman’s ed proved invaluable when assisting a certain kind of client:
the vehicular know-nothing.
Soon after she started bookkeeping and customer-servicing at Auto
Craftsmen, Mattinat began to notice curious patterns emerging from the
daily herd of needy, oft-disgruntled used-car owners. Chief among her
observations: Customers were placing too much faith in slapdash
used-car appraisals. According to Mattinat, the only way to properly
evaluate any car — whether beater or Beemer — is by thorough
inspection. “Yes, you can find a reliable $4000 car,” she notes, “and,
yes, you can find a $12,000 car that’s unreliable.”
Her customers appreciate this type of counsel. In the Auto Craftsmen waiting room, a plastic binder overflows with rave reviews. One of them, written by Montpelier resident and VPIRG staffer Andrea Stander, reads, “You’re expensive, but like fine wine or well-made furniture.”
When reached by phone, Stander, 55, elaborates that
Mattinat’s prices are a fair trade for her unmatched customer service.
Though “knowledgeable to a point” about cars herself, Stander notes
that she’s been rooked by mechanics in the past — all the more reason
to approve Mattinat’s candor. Auto Craftsmen employees are “very
straightforward about telling you what you need,” she attests. “And
they don’t give you a lot of mumbo-jumbo.”
Stander confirms that Mattinat’s shop isn’t just consumer-oriented;
it may be the most female-friendly in the area. “I think Amy’s done
amazing things for raising the conscience, and the confidence level, of
a lot of women,” she suggests.
Mattinat says the automotive industry is ripe for a genderized
tune-up. Today’s “old-boy network” of car buffs has more to do with
ingrained employment patterns than anything else, she opines. “Ten
years ago, nobody told a girl that [working in the car industry] was an
opportunity for her,” Mattinat notes. “But they’re telling them now.”
She’s aware of about 50 women nationally who run their own shops and
200 who work in prominent management positions. She also knows a couple
of female mechanics in Vermont. “Our voices are getting stronger, and
they can’t ignore us,” Mattinat contends. “We’re gonna hold guys
accountable, and we’re gonna make this industry better.”
Perhaps no young person better personifies Mattinat’s prediction than Demeny Tollit. The 28-year-old graduated last year from Vermont Technical College
with a degree in automotive technology — she chose a career in car
maintenance over one in psychology. Like Mattinat, she’d never had much
previous experience with automobiles. “I was a social worker for years,
having no money,” Tollit explains. “The only thing I thought that could
keep my attention for more than six months was working on cars.”
In July, Tollit will start a new job as a service writer at Berlin
City in Williston. But her vision stretches farther down the road: She
wants to own an all-women’s shop that would incorporate a holistic,
Mattinat-esque approach to car ownership. “I’m really interested in
creating a welcoming environment that people trust,” Tollit notes.
“It’s exciting to think of having a place that would be a different
kind of shop, sort of like what Amy does.”
Meanwhile, as Tollit racks up experience and street cred, Mattinat
continues to help drivers — especially female ones — become informed
and assiduous squeaky wheels. Earlier this month, she appeared on a
National Public Radio segment called “The Road to Better Gas Mileage.” She expects her second book, tentatively titled The Fab Women’s Guide to Owning Wheels,
to come out next spring. Fortunately, Mattinat’s husband is a
stay-at-home dad, so he’ll be around to watch their 13-year-old
daughter in case mom has to work late. “He’s not automotive anything,”
she says with a laugh.
Fortunately for Mattinat, though, the Auto Craftsmen garage is
something of a home away from home. Around 5 o’clock, she steps out of
her office to check in with her “boys” — a team of hearty-looking
technicians and service dudes. Instead of naked women, the sales office
calendar features Labrador retrievers.
Mattinat strolls around the shop as if she owned the place — which
she does, with Chip Tremper. In each room, her employees look up from
their tasks to greet her with a grin. In addition to professionalism,
Mattinat radiates a boundless, youthful enthusiasm about cars that, if
you didn’t know better, would pass for naiveté. It’s as if she
were touring a candy store. “Tools! Tools! Tools!” she exclaims at one
point, opening up drawers in a metal cabinet. “I love it! There are so
many little parts and pieces.”
It makes sense that Mattinat understands the minutiae of the auto
biz: Over the last several years, she’s done almost everything at this
establishment, from bookkeeping to marketing. But she’s never worked as
a mechanic. Why not? “It’s not like art, or cooking, where you can
throw in oregano or basil,” she explains. “I know I don’t want to be a
mechanic, ’cause it’s dirty.”
But that doesn’t mean other women shouldn’t muck it up. “The
true masters and fixers are a breed of their own,” Mattinat asserts,
neatly placing the tools back in their respective compartments. “It’s
not a male-dominated skill by any means.”
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