THOUSAND OAKS : A Woman’s Place Is in the Auto Shop
Every so often, a customer new to Boykin Automotive in Thousand Oaks balks when Donna Boykin comes out to diagnose the problem. The customer usually asks to see the owner.
So Boykin refers him to one of the mechanics who works for her, rather than explain that she is the owner and has been working on cars for 16 years.
“If they feel really uncomfortable talking with me, I let them talk to one of the guys,†Boykin, 31, said. “I’d rather they feel comfortable than prove a point.â€
The approach is typical of Boykin’s low-key way of running her auto-repair shop.
The walls are free of pinups, and the mechanics--â€the guys,†Boykin calls them--are a little less colorful with their language than employees at the typical repair shop. Boykin’s closet-size office, while Spartan, is wallpapered and accented with a vase of flowers.
But if it is unusual for a woman to own an auto shop, it is not unusual for a Boykin. Donna is just the latest in a series of Boykins who have been fixing cars on Thousand Oaks Boulevard since 1946. “She’s been swinging wrenches for years,†said Melanie Fiske, a family friend.
When Boykin was divorced three years ago and needed to support her two sons, opening her own shop was a natural choice. “This is what I knew,†she said. She learned to patch a flat tire when she was 15 by working at the Chevron station her father, Bill, owned. Soon she was doing just about every kind of repair job there was and would run the station when he went on vacation.
The timing of her new venture was fortuitous. Chevron closed down her father’s gas station after 17 years. So Bill Boykin and his brother Macon, also a mechanic, went to work for her.
Boykin said most of her customers know her and enjoy working with her. Her mechanics said only the occasional newcomer has problems dealing with her.
“You get a man my age coming in or you get some of these macho guys, and some of them just don’t want to talk to a woman,†said Macon Boykin. “But once they start talking to her and see she knows what she’s talking about, they settle down.â€
Because the business is so successful, Donna Boykin’s job is mostly administrative. But occasionally, she still gets her hands greasy. As proof, she extended her fingers to show one long, manicured nail surrounded by nine stubby ones. “I don’t know how that one survived,†she said.
