14—The Daily Collegian Tuesday, Jan. 11, 1983 Car trouble? By MARY STEPHENS when its time to jack up the key and put 'a new Collegian Staff Writer ' ' car under it.". For this reason Hardin and Guyon are developing A brown Ford sits on the side of deserted Waddle a new service that offers car owners what they call Road on a bitter cold night. The driver turns the a preventive maintenance system. For a fee of $lO key in the ignition expecting to hear the hum of the per year they will inspect the wearable systems on motor, but instead hears nothing but silence. the car about every two months and keep an As despair begins to sink in, he notices the accutate service history. If the car needs service, headlights of a car pulling up behind him. It is the the owner may choose to have Auto-medic, himself red and white Oldsmobile of Auto-medic, the para- or someone else do the work. medlics of car service, to the aid of the motorist Hardin and Guyon met when they were both victimized by a dead battery. interviewing for a sales position in a car dealer- Auto-medic offers a new type of car service, say ship. Hardin, 26, who studied mechanics at a co-owners Keith Hardin and Bernie Guyon. For a vocational-technical high school, received further fee slightly less than a garage will charge, Auto- training at a Midas Muffler Shop and car dealer medic will come to a home, office, a roadway, ships. Guyon, 39, a Youngstown College graduate in parking lot or wherever a car is in need of service. geography, was a ship machinist in the Navy and They also stop when they see motorists having has held business and management jobs. They • trouble on the 'side of a roadway as in the above • decided to join forces and try to make it despite the example. risks. "If we're at home and you say, 'My car won't "I don't basically have anything to lose and a lot start' we'll be there in a matter of minutes," Guyon to gain," says Hardin, who has been unemployed says. "That's primarily what we're offering for three months. "Work is hard to find. I know :convenience. Our philosophy is fix cars and see quite a feir mechanics working as janitors for the 'they don't break again." „ University." Auto-medic does not have a garage, but instead Guyon and Hardin say they like being their own 'fixes the problem on the spot or at a customer's boss. "It's nice not worrying if your boss will get home. The mechanics will not haul a car away, but involved with politics and fire you the next day," will help a stranded motorist make arrangements Guyon says. to have it towed, if Auto-medic cannot fix it on the The independence and satisfaction derived from spot. • their new business makes it worth the risk, they The.only work Auto-medic will not do is rear- and say. Even though they started with nothing, they front-end alignments and engine rebuilding, Har- broke even with about a $5OO profit in the first din says. Alignments require equipment to lift the month and a half. car that they ,do not have and rebuiding an engine "Both of our wives work, which really helped us becomes too involved. to make ends meet," Hardin says. One in 20 times, Hardin estimates, he and Guyon "We're serving people and that's gratifying," cannot repair the car. Guyon says. "In my experiences as a mechanic," Hardin "There are two reasons why I get satisfaction says, "I've found that people call when it's' too late from this kind of work," Hardin says. "First I'm Lion's Guard Drill Team • • New Members Welcome ' Meeting Thurs., 13 Jan. Room 318/319 HUB For more info., call 234-093 7or 237-8420 Men's, Women's &,Co-ed teams competing intercollegiately in various basic and trick drill exhibitions R• 126 • T.V., Stereo Broken Down? I 1 , : t t :1,3- , ,,.. . , r 77, , • Our Service is Exceptional! , '-.-------_-T-'7 . • - , ii I . l i A f ..--------- EXCEPTIONALLY .. * Competent * Fast * Economical We service all brands, all types of electronic equipment T & R ELECTRONICS 225 S. Allen St., State College (next to Centre Hardware) 238.3800 un 4 )3€111150. nplass . ammo 4:160z4444, vkitna.. 16801 ...at,. do .. ‘<4. • -. 10 0 42 e • is p • WITH CARTOON THE PHYRST BOTTLE SHOP HAS YOUR BRAND DON'''T!DONIT!DON'TIDON'T! drinkndrivelittersmokpstartfiresoranythingelseforthatmatteryoutroublemakeryou ft rot exioensve t'a not dilleudt re not the Ulg i , , its CCULTURAL AWAIR7HI - 7:,001 waxing - irefreohments te Roun trmvel Ups 6:00-p Cell it airllment n o in 9 11 9 12, guezt alxeokers Auto-medic can save the day and maybe some money helping someone else and secondly I'm helping myself." Auto-medic's clients seem pleased with Hardin and Guyon. One is Dave .Walker, a freshman majoring theatre who worked as the Santa Claus at the Nittany Mall this holiday season. "They came every time my old Ford has not been running," he says. Auto-medic gave Walker's car a tune-up for $5 or $6 cheaper than the garage to which he formerly went. Kathy Janles of 511 Bishop St., Bellefonte, says she called Auto-medic after a garage gave her an estimate of $370 for repairs before her car could pass inspection. Auto-medic repaired her car for $174. Although Guyon and Hardin enjoy their work, it is not without its problems. One of the most difficUlt problems Auto-medic faces is earning people's trust, they say. Guyon and Hardin hope that once people know they exist and have something to offer they will be trusted. Their clients have been increasing by word-of mouth. ' "We're not out to rip anyone off," Hardin says. "We're not out to make a million dollars. The whole thing is very profitable for the customer by saving him major repair bills in the future." "The first reaction," Guyon says, "is that we're a fly-by-night operation. Now it's like we're door-to door salesmen." To establish tehmselves as a legitimate business, Auto-medic encourages people to watch them crit ically, Guyon says. "We want you to know exactly what we're doing." State College is a good place to a business of this type, he says. "In a small town," Guyon says, "You can't make many mistakes." • Guyon 'and Hardin are optimistic about making Auto-medic a success. THE PENNSYLVANIA LEGAL SOCIETY Presents representatives from STANLEY KAPLANand SHOEMAKER-KUSKO on"HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE LSAT" WHEN: Wednesday, Jan. 12th 7:30 p.m. WHERE: 305 HUB ALL MEMBERS AND NON-MEMBERS ARE WELCOME! R 204 WE'LL PAY YOU 10• GET INTO SHAPE ' I .HIS .SU.•'..=-9...-ii:::ER. \ ...., \ •-•-e, United Way surpasses funding goal by $5,000, By MIKE NETHERLAND Collegian Staff Writer Because of the depressed econ omy, especially in the mining and manufacturing sectors, the Centre County United Way had a tougher than usual time meeting its annual fund raising goal, the agency's executive director Dennis Kul chycki said. After extending the Thanksgiv ing Day deadline, the $440,000 mark was reached on Christmas Eve and was eventually surpassed by $5,863. Kulch e ycki attributed Most of the excess to the incentive of tax-deductible contributions. "We had some difficulty be cause of unemployment in some areas, but fortunately there were some areas not as severely af fected by the recession. Those who were working, contributed gener ously," Kulchycki said. ' Unfortunately, a successful campaign was not the case for about 25 percent of the 98 United Way offices in the state. Kulchycki said his native Beaver County, for example, raised only. $1.4 million this year while in 1981 it was able to raise more than $2.1 million. Kulchycki said management of this year's campaign, which cost $36,000 to run, was simplified be- Cause of a donation by HRB Singer Inc. The State College-based firm, which develops and produces high ly-classified §ignakprocesiing sys tems for the U.S. Department ,of Defense, donated one of its com puter programmers for "three solid months" last May, he said. The programmer developed a program for the United Way's mini-computer to compile finan cial data and ran a word proc essor. Kulchycki said the programmer's time would nor mally have cost between $lO,OOO and $12,000. "Larger United Way offices have been computerized for some time," he said, but added that it's difficult for smaller offices to ob tain the necessary equipment and software. Detailed allocations of the $445,- 863 will not be made until the Centre County United Way. board of directors' meeting on Jan. 18, Kulehycki said. He added, howev er, that funds requested by the 28 agencies served by the Centre County' United Way were ap proved in December, and so far those agencies should get 100 per cent of the requested funds. ~0~ If you have at least two years of college left, you can spend six weeks at our Army ROTC Basic Camp this summer and earn approximately $6OO. . And if you qualify, you can enter the ROTC 2- Year Program this fall and receive up to $l,OOO a year. But the big payoff happens on graduation day That swhen you receive an officer's commission.: So get your body in shape (not to mention your hank account). Enroll in Army ROTC. For more information, contact your Professor of Military Science. ...::::,...:,.„: ~,,, „,4 i. ~x,. ARMY ROTC. BE ALLYOU CAN BE. trL m C O P I.I r NFORMATION JIM ELDER U 863.0368 or STOP IN 212 WAGNER
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