Shop Profile: Top Auto Center

So yeah, no investigative journalism needed today. Turns out that Top Auto’s “secret” to success boils down to a refreshingly simple throwback business model that barely qualifies as one by the hoity-toity definition of that term, and doesn’t need to. This place keeps no secrets at all, period. Judging from the level of activity I see while waiting my chance to get a word in edgewise with General Manager Sam Kabani, I’m not sure if I’ve stumbled into a repair shop or a reality show. Kabani is a dervish who’s swiveling left and right in a desk chair, somehow managing three separate rapid-fire conversations pinballing around the room. Every so often he turns his attention to a phone call from his dad (the owner), near-shouting over the office din into the cell hunched on his shoulder in some kind of oddly lyrical hybrid dialect blending his native Arabic with flawless English. He holds up a finger, motioning for me to make myself comfortable while he finishes conducting this rather amusing repair shop office chorale.

After he does, what happens next tells me everything I really need to know about how Top Auto has a 4.6 rating on Google from 120 totally unsolicited customer reviews, and why this place is bursting at the seams.

The tail does not wag the dog here

From online research resources to digital documentation, carmakers have troweled on applications of tech wizardry to every step of the dealership car buying process in a laudable effort to make it more appealing to customers. Despite—or perhaps because of that—an informal survey of my reasonably diverse family and friends revealed that if given the choice, all but one of them would rather get a colonoscopy. And that one guy actually works at a dealership. That’s an anomaly that can’t possibly further corrupt my flagrantly statistically invalid (but still provocative) poll results of American drivers represented by the demographic of my peculiar social life.

Why the hate for the car buying experience? Let us count just three ways:

1. It takes too long.
2. You’re forced to pretend to want to schmooze with multiple complete strangers while being keenly aware that they are forced to pretend they want to schmooze with you…all while repressing the knowledge that your respective individual goals are 100% opposite one another: You want to pay less, they want you to pay more. What could possibly go wrong?
3. Have I mentioned it takes too long?

That, in a nutshell, is why shops like Top Auto are often the destination of choice for customers shopping for their next reliable and affordable ride. New and used cars are more expensive than ever on dealership lots, which means purchasing a preowned vehicle that’s been evaluated and prepped for sale by a trusted local mechanic is more appealing than ever.

Making money at it, however, demands the kind of savvy and network of contacts that Top Auto has built. Kabani gets first crack at trade-ins from reliable sources all over the country and is very picky about the brands and models he’ll buy, overhaul, and sell. The lot is door-to-door packed with pristinely-detailed vehicles known for reliability and repairability, with a few eye-candy highline coupes and convertibles sprinkled in to attract customers who are in the market for something more than a solid daily driver.

The formula here sure seems to work. In the fifteen minutes I waited to interview Kabani for this profile, he sold two used vehicles and finalized delivery for a third. I kid you not—this happened right in front of me, and after I’d offered to step outside to allow the privacy I assumed both parties would need. All three customers waved my offer off as unnecessary and kept right on talking through the details of their deals with Kabani. All three left the office smiling, in sharp contrast to the dazed, shoulda-stopped-at-that-third-beer look I wear after yours truly has bought or leased a car.

After car buyer #3 departs in his new-to-him 2013 BMW 3-Series, I finally get my turn to talk to Kabani and have to ask: is this a repair shop or a used car dealership? “We’re techs that also sell good used cars. Eighty percent of our repair business is from customers who’ve never bought a car or truck from us,” he replies.

As our conversation continues and each of the shop’s three techs bop in and out to inject their own uninhibited (read: hilariously candid and occasionally profane) take on my questions about Top Auto, it’s clear to me that Kabani and his team run their Quakertown, Pennsylvania business like an open book externally and internally. They share with customers all the facts and figures affecting every repair, potential car sale, financing options—even extended warranties. One of the pre-interview conversations I was privy to during my visit consisted of Kabani talking a customer out of buying an extended warranty. I’ve been in enough dealership-based transactions to tell you that such a scenario is as rare as a truly excellent marinara sauce. Top Auto has eliminated the mystery that often shrouds auto service and used car sales and the accompanying layers of time-sucking communications, and replaced it with honest candor that builds customer loyalty. These days it ain’t exactly axiomatic that nice guys finish first, but on this dream corner location off one of the busiest highways in eastern Pennsylvania, they do and have been for 22 years.

A background that goes way, way back

Top Auto opened for business in 2013 and in a way, Kabani explains, the business is the logical evolution of a family tradition of honest auto repair and customer care that goes all the way back to his great-grandfather’s machinery repair shop in Syria in the late 1890s. “I’m 27 years old but tradition and history are huge for me and for my family. We’ve always believed that if we take care of our customers and treat them fairly in service and sales, we’ll be okay,” he explains.

Lead and ASE Master-certified technician Serge (“just ‘Serge,’ he says, claiming that his last name takes too long to spell) chimes in with a laugh and adds, “We all know it’s important to do whatever it takes to satisfy a good customer. There’s a saying in Arabic that doesn’t translate completely in English but gets close enough: ‘Insult your wallet instead of yourself.’” He asks me if I understand. I tell him that I do, recalling that my late Dad used to remind me that “a fish rots from the head.” Different sayings, same idea: Do the right thing whether anyone’s watching or not.

Serge continues, “Look, if you can fix cars, you can sell cars. Our customers count on us for great service at reasonable prices. More often than not they come here because they were quoted a price for a repair that they either thought was too high or was simply unaffordable. They hear about us from a friend, check us out on Google, and often will eventually buy a car for themselves or a family member after we’ve serviced their vehicle.”

Being the objective journalist and dedicated Dorman goodwill ambassador that I am, I use the opportunity to ask about their view of my employer, prefacing the question with a candid disclaimer that I’m not there to sell auto parts. As luck would have it, I don’t need to. Kabani, Serge, and their fellow techs Rich and Glenn have been Dorman fans for quite a while. “Your valve covers for 3-Series Beemers are the best out there,” declares Kabani, adding an unprintable epithet about what is to him the infuriating design of the factory covers. “In fact, we sell a lot of preowned, higher-mileage BMWs, so we buy just about anything Dorman makes for those 3.0 inline engines.”

The aptly named (if incorrectly spelled) irrepressible Serge adds, “Same with those Dorman skid plates for JK Wranglers. They’re the only ones we buy because they’re packaged so they don’t arrive bent like everyone else’s!” I make a shameless mental note to let the shipping department gang back at headquarters know they don’t have to send me a Christmas card this year. But it would be nice.

Technically, they were friends first…

We’ve all heard and read ad nauseum about one of our industry’s biggest challenges: finding and retaining techs. But when I ask Kabani to name Top Auto’s biggest business challenges, that doesn’t even make the list. His three longtime mechanics were among his network of friends long before they came to work here. Fine, I harumph inwardly, and press the point further. “What about the future, as you continue to grow? Can’t just rely on friends to find more techs, right? Kabani smiles and replies, “Well, here’s the deal. I’m a car guy. All my close friends are car guys. Many of them are techs. So, when I need another tech, I’ll just pick up the phone.” I tell him that sounds a little like the industry equivalent of discovering the Holy Grail without even looking very hard for it and he laughs, saying the only real challenge he’s facing right now is finding good cars for waiting customers, much like his counterparts at dealerships everywhere in post-COVID America.

And at that point, just when I’m about to throw in the towel on my weak attempt at finding some kind—any kind for that matter—of Achilles heel for this shop, Kabani appears to reflect for a moment.

“I can think one challenge I’d like to overcome right now,” he slowly says. I lean in, steno pad and pen ready to pounce.

“I just got married, and I’d like to be able to spend my two days off without being interrupted by the business,” he confesses.

And as if on cue, the phone rings.

Top Auto Center Vituals: