After decades of cars and loyal customers, a Salt Lake City auto shop closes for the last time

Todd Oliver was not eager to share his stories.

The Salt Lake City mechanic was days away from closing Brigham Street Service, a business his family has been connected with for 70 years, and owned for 40. He said he would get teary eyed and be unable to speak if he thought too deeply about the customers he’s leaving behind.

Sitting in his nearly empty shop last month, Oliver looked around the garage that he and co-owner Mike McDonald — who bought a stake in the business nine years ago — had been working to vacate since Dec. 31, the last day Oliver said they were fully operating.

The shop building will still sit in its place on 622 S. 200 West, but with a new name and operated by a new owner, Brigham Street Service will be no more.

The pair had stripped decorations from the walls and started cleaning the unseen corners. They also shared one near-death experience, when they tried to move a tall tool box and nearly crushed someone as the cabinet came clattering to the floor.

The only vehicle left in the garage was Oliver’s Ford F-250, which he said was in need of a new vacuum pump after the part went bad just a few days earlier.

An auto part salesman walked into the shop to sell him the lone part, the last delivery Brigham Street Service would receive.

Todd Oliver’s dad, Ron Oliver, had worked at Brigham Street Service for almost 30 years before he and a partner bought the business in 1984, according to a 1989 article from The Salt Lake Tribune.

At the time, Brigham Street Service sat at the intersection of South Temple and E Street (where an Einstein Bros. bagel shop now stands), and was one of the few remaining service stations where people could still go to buy gas and have their cars repaired, the article stated.

In 1989, though, facing expensive insurance costs for his underground gas tanks, Ron Oliver closed the station and moved across town, The Tribune reported.

Todd Oliver said he took over the shop 20 years ago, after his dad died.

The grueling job, however, had become too hard on the aging mechanics’ bodies, Todd Oliver explained. McDonald would soon be undergoing back surgery, Todd Oliver said, and he might need another operation on his knee.

“I’ve had too many surgeries because of this place,” he said. “New knee, two back surgeries, two finger surgeries — and it’s still bent.”

In August, McDonald said he and Oliver decided it was time to close shop and retire. In the months since, the pair had been calling their regular customers, breaking the news that they would soon close the business. Some of the customers’ responses, he said, were tearful.

“Mentally, I would still love to keep doing it,” Oliver said. “I just know I can’t.”

Following the tradition of his father, Oliver said he had treated his customers like family — no overcharging, no overselling and always being nice to people.

Oliver and McDonald might not have been ready to share some of the stories that had earned their shop a loyal, devoted following of customers. Those customers weren’t so hesitant, and shared why the mechanics had earned their trust.

At a Jan. 31 retirement party, a mass of Brigham Street Service patrons filled a back room of Legends Pub & Grill. Over sliders and drinks, they chuckled and smiled, and tried their hardest not to get misty-eyed as they talked about what made Brigham Street Service special, and why they would miss Oliver and McDonald.

At one table sat John Bates, who said he used to work for Ron Oliver in the mid-’80s. He said Ron Oliver was “beloved in the community.”

“He was a really, really good guy,” Bates said, explaining that Todd Oliver has become a similar figure to his community.

At another table, Dennis Sizemore laughed as he said Todd Oliver was the only mechanic he could find who would work on his wife’s Lancia, an Italian make, in the mid-‘80s.

“Todd was going, ‘This is going to be fun!’” Sizemore said.

After working on the car, he added, Oliver offered valuable advice: quit pouring money into the faulty vehicle.

“He finally gave up too, said, ‘No, this thing doesn’t run! It’s Italian!’” Sizemore said.

Sitting nearby, Richard Merrill recalled a time when he took his SUV to Brigham Street Service for a pre-trip inspection, and shortly after saw coolant dripping from the vehicle.

“I called [Oliver] and I said, ‘I got coolant flowing off all over,’” Sizemore said. “And he says, ‘Great. … that means the pressure test on the radiator worked.’ ... He put a new radiator in that afternoon, and I didn’t lose any time on my trip.”

If Oliver had not run the pressure test, Merrill said he would have been stranded in the middle of nowhere — while he was taking his mother’s body to Colorado to be buried.

“I would have been stuck in southern Utah with a coffin and my mother in the back,” he said, his voice catching with something between laughter and tears.

“Cars break,” Oliver said, as he was preparing to close his shop. “I was just here to help people.”

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