Auto Doctors on Harvey Street Has been Servicing Cars With Smile for 34 Years

Spirit of Esperanza: The second in a TAPinto New Brunswick series focusing on five business owners' triumphs and travails in pursuit of the American Dream in a 50-block section of the city.

NEW BRUNSWICK – Mark Stephenson’s hands have replaced rusty radiators, fixed flats and changed brake shoes with the same ease as changing his socks.

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It’s been his smile and warm personality, though, that have kept customers coming back over the past 32 years as the owner and operator of Auto Doctors at 5 Harvey St.

As Stephenson got ready to open up his one-bay shop one morning last week, he greeted each person who happened past with the same hearty hello that you can’t be sure if he’s known them for years or this is his first time meeting them.

“You look good, keep working out,” he called out to one young man in a yellow soccer jersey.

The guy turned back to Stephenson and gave him a thumbs-up.

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“They are real respectable,” Stephenson said. “Whether they’re the foreigners or the ones who have problems, I relate to all of them. I treat them like I want to be treated. And I find out that it’s better than, ‘Hey, get out of here. I’m gonna call the cops. Do this. Do that.’ I’d rather reason with them and say, ‘Hey, listen, y’all. You know this ain’t right. So, do the right thing.’

“Over the 32 years, it’s been that way. Hey, I love it. I really do. Whether it’s my neighbor here or my neighbor there.”

Love for thy neighbors and the pursuit of the American Dream – that’s the Spirit of Esperanza, a 50-block melting pot where entrepreneurship is seen as the ticket to a better life.

Longtime business owners such as Stephenson, who started out working as a janitor in the Franklin Public School District and fixing friends’ cars on the side, have seen some big changes to this part of the city. The hope of getting ahead if you just work hard enough, however, remains the same, Stephenson said.

“It’s easier nowadays,” he said about fixing cars. “I go back to when they had these thick books that you would have to look through if you were trying to troubleshoot a problem. And then they had the video phase. You know, VHS.”

Long before Stephenson could just punch search terms into Google – something like, “1998 Geo Tracker carburetor” – he was a young man with a wife and a kid trying to find a way out of a one-bedroom apartment.

Stephenson set up a plan: In five years, we’ll save up money to get our own place. In time, he’d scope out houses on the weekend with a real estate agent.

At about the same time, he began looking for a shop to move his side hustle into. Stephenson had graduated from repairing mufflers and shocks in the parking lot of the Oak Leaf Village Apartments in North Brunswick to using space in his uncle’s car wash business to fix cars.

He would walk the streets of New Brunswick early in the morning. “You can see a lot when it’s quiet,” Stephenson said. One morning, he noticed a for-sale sign posted on this humble brick building on Harvey Street.

It seemed doubtful Stephenson could get a mortgage to buy the place, so he agreed to rent the place at a negotiated rate of $900 a month.

After five years, the owners made him an offer.

“They said, ‘Well, how much do you have?’ ” Stephenson said. “I said ‘I got about $30,000.’ They said, ‘We’ll play bank, and we’ll sell it to you for $100,000, and in 15 years, you’ll pay it off.’ You know something? That was one of the best deals I made. In 15 years, I paid it off.”

With a comfortable home and a space to call his own, Stephenson went about building a business, one satisfied customer at a time. Hospital workers, Rutgers students, newly settled immigrants – they all bring their cars to him to fix.

The very face of the community continues to change – even the Hungarian bar on the corner now has a Spanish name.

What has never changed for Stephenson is the joy of diagnosing and fixing that rattle in the steering column of that 2013 Ford Focus, or the hesitation when that 2008 Toyota Camry accelerates.

“The people are the best part, being able to help them,” he said. “The worst part? When you can’t solve the problem. It could be some of the simplest stuff, but you’re missing it. I found out over the years that when things get tough like that, step away. You lose a bolt or something, you know it’s somewhere. You just have to step away.”

SPIRIT OF ESPERANZA:
Cocina de Chencha serving up authentic Mexican food, one bowl of mole at a time.

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