One of the oldest names in the car repair business in Oak Harbor is serving customers from a new location.

The crew at Martin’s Auto Electric moved into their new building on Midway Boulevard last winter and is looking forward to their first busy summer.

Owners Steve and Leah Abrahamse purchased the auto repair business from Steve’s father, Martin, who gave it its present name when he bought Herb’s Auto Electric in 1959. Steve, a 1972 graduate of Oak Harbor High School, has been working on cars about as long as he can remember.

Steve recalls working on the muscle cars of the ‘60s and then the low-powered cars of the late ‘70s, but he says the best cars are being built today in terms of reliability and power. “Now they go like a rocket and burn a lot less fuel, they use a lot of racing technology,” he said.

The Abrahamses have one son, Jason, 22, but he’s not interested in following the family tradition in auto mechanics. He’s attending the Art Institute of Seattle.

Keeping up with the continuous changes in automobiles requires constant study by Abrahamse and his crew. He said it takes two years of fulltime experience and “a multiple of tests taken in different areas,” for a technician to earn certification. And they’re always studying car manuals and the latest information from Automotive Service Association.

For decades, Martin’s Auto Electric was located downtown on Jensen Street, above what is today the WAIF thrift shop. The space on the second floor was leased, and Steve laughs when he recalls customers asking how they could get their cars up a flight of stairs to be repaired. Actually, you could drive up there around back, but it wasn’t the ideal location for a car repair business.

The Abrahamses decided it was time to build their own shop in a better location, choosing a site at 152 NE Midway Blvd. Steve described the move as an investment in their lives as they now own their building, which provides customers “a better building in a better location.”

The two-story, 4,700 square foot building features a comfortable customer waiting area and office in front, and a workshop in back with three hoists where three full-time technicians, watched over by the head of a huge elk shot by Martin in the early ‘60s, fix every imaginable kind of car problem.

While the name Martin’s Electric suggests specialization in electrical problems, that’s not the case. “We’ll deal with anything that comes through the door,” Steve said. The crew deals with a lot of electrical malfunctions in modern cars, but also undertakes the full gamut of car repairs regardless of make, model or age. This week, a 1955 Chevy station wagon was in for repairs.

“Leah runs the books and the office, and I act as foreman, but we share whatever’s here,” Martin said, describing their partnership.

Leah, a 1977 OHHS graduate, clearly enjoys her job. “It’s different every day,” she said. “You never know what’s coming through the door.”