He’s there when you’re in a fix

Steve Simmons says he was forced into a career 27 years ago. But don’t feel bad for this mechanic. He has fine-tuned his livelihood into a job that affords him interesting work, a steady income and a flexible schedule. It has helped his pursuits and responsibilities as musician, disc golfer, dad and dog-lover, to name a few.

Simmons is the guy behind Mechanic on the Move. He conducts his business on a cell phone and operates it out of an old Chevy van loaded with tools and car parts.

With 700 people in the Spokane area who depend on him to fix their cars, Simmons enjoys a business schedule that’s as brisk as he wants it to be.

He’ll do most any job on any sort of vehicle, short of working diesels, transmissions and pulling engines. He’s happy to crawl under a car parked on the street or peek under a hood in a heated garage.

Without the overhead costs associated with buildings and employees, Simmons claims his labor charges are 15 percent to 40 percent cheaper than full-service repair shops. He charges the same standard price for parts, he says.

His is a story of small-business adaptation. He has operated Mechanic on the Move in three different cities — Denver, San Francisco and Spokane. He selected Spokane 17 years ago for its quality of life, including having his children attend smaller-city schools.

“There’s just enough hustle-bustle here for someone like me,” Simmons says.

The business is about as basic as it gets. People have car problems; they call him on a referral or see a Yellow Pages advertisement, and viola! he shows up at their door within days.

“It really appeals to seniors and mothers who don’t want to drive to a garage and spend a day waiting for their only car to be fixed,” Simmons says.

On his business card, Simmons calls himself the “World’s Most Famous” mechanic.

Asked for an explanation, Simmons indulges.

In the early 1980s when he was working in downtown San Francisco, he saw a statistic that bothered him: Women were being paid 59 cents on the dollar to perform the same work as men. It was an inequality that he decided to do something about, especially when he saw the need among his customers.

He recalled a lesbian couple who were poor, driving a beat-up Volvo with little chance of cobbling together enough money for a thorough repair.

“I just thought, ‘I’m going to give some of these customers a break,’.” he says. “There was just no way they could afford to have their car fixed when they were making far less than men.”

So he offered an unusual discount called the “Equality Sale.” In the month of March he charged women 59 percent of what he normally charged men for car work.

It was a novel idea in a progressive city that made Simmons something of a celebrity.

After a newspaper article, Simmons suddenly found himself featured on television newscasts and in the Wall Street Journal.

The discount became an annual event. He chose March, he says, because it’s Women’s History Month.

The enthusiasm eventually wore out. It never really took hold in Spokane, so Simmons dropped it after several years.

There are other mechanics offering mobile services similar to Simmons’. Some have been in business for many years. Others come and go, enticed by the low start-up costs and flexible schedule, Simmons says.

Most, however, don’t last much more than two years, he says. Running a small business takes a healthy dose of risk and patience.

When he’s not working on cars or arranging disc-golf tournaments, Simmons can be seen on Public Access Channel 14 with his own music show called “On the Front Porch,” which features bluegrass, folk, jazz and world music.

“That’s one of the things about being in business for yourself,” he says. “Sure, it’s a lot of work, but it gives you the chance to do what you want.”