Michael Keane and his 1957 Chevy in front of his new auto service business. The building dates from the 1920s and was once one of the town’s first auto service stations. —Reece Alvarez photo
Earlier this month Michael Keane, a 25-year-old lifelong resident of South Salem, N.Y., opened his second Keane’s Autoworks, this one in Ridgefield, just three years after starting his own business in Bedford Hills, N.Y.
A Western Connecticut State University graduate who studied justice and law, as well as business management, Mr. Keane had planned to follow relatives into the criminal justice field, but having worked in a range of mechanic shops since he was 16, he found himself in a unique position to invest in one of his former employer’s businesses.
“I graduated and I figured I would start sending my résumé out, and it just happened the same week I had this opportunity,” Mr. Keane said. “I started as the underdog.”
That first business opportunity was Benny’s Towing in Bedford Hills, where he bought the property and built the mechanic shop from the ground up.
“It was just an empty building,” the John Jay graduate said. “We filled the whole thing. We bought all the diagnostic equipment for all these high-end cars. We have all the equipment to do these Audis and Range Rovers and everything.”
With the support and technical experience of mechanics with whom he worked for years and now employs, Mr. Keane said, the shop was quickly off to a good start and motivated him to open his Ridgefield location at the site of a former scooter and motorcycle shop on Ethan Allen Highway (Route 7).
The stone building just north of The Little Pub dates from the 1920s, when it was operated by the Shornick family as one of the town’s first service stations.
The shop has opened with a warm reception that Mr. Keane attributes to the word-of-mouth referrals that have fueled his business from the beginning.
“Everyone always says the stereotype of the mechanic shop is that you are getting taken advantage of,” he said, “but literally, from day one, honesty and trust go so far, that’s it. You treat people right, you fix the cars right and you treat them fair, that’s it. It is a very simple concept and they keep coming back. In the beginning it went slow to steady [at Bedford Hills]; now it is every day 35 to 40 cars, just chaos.”
Taking a risk
With the two new businesses at such a young age, Mr. Keane said, he has not been a stranger to criticism, saying that some have assumed he has been funded by family members. While he acknowledged his father has helped around the new shop, he is the sole owner of the shops and has realized the investments through the long-standing entrepreneurial tradition of risk-taking and debt.
“I borrowed $10,000 from my grandma,” he said. “I had $5,000 in my own bank account and I was 22 years old and $75,000 in debt. It was definitely a big risk.”
The new location has also been gutted and filled with new equipment, requiring an investment of almost all of his profits from the Bedford Hills shop, he said.
“Everyone said, ‘No, don’t do it.’ But I figured if I was ever going to make a name for myself, I needed to expand,” Mr. Keane said. “Everyone said, ‘You’re crazy, big is not better, it is just another headache,’ but that is what they all told me about the other place.”
While rents are high and require a lot of business just to break even, Mr. Keane said, the steady stream of cars needing work and consumers frustrated with unscrupulous repair jobs at outrageous prices have driven an abundance of work his way.
Mr. Keane acknowledged that many people are skeptical of the integrity of the auto repair industry and in many cases rightfully so.
“People get so fed up with going to the dealer and getting taken advantage of over and over,” he said. “Every time they go, it is a $1,000-plus bill for everything. It is the biggest ripoff 100%.”
His, he said, “is just a simple concept — honesty and trust goes a long way.”
Keane’s Autoworks services all makes and models of cars. The shop can be reached at 203-493 5045.