About JE Robison Service
Robison Service is in the business of leasing, selling and servicing late model European vehicles. The company has subsidiary and affiliated businesses that also service domestic and Japanese vehicles, and provide auto detailing and appearance services. Our family also operates an unrelated business, RobisonPhoto.John Robison founded the company in 1986. Its original offices were in Belchertown, Massachusetts. The company maintains this office as a satellite location today. At first the company focused exclusively on Mercedes and Porsche cars, but gradually the focus broadened to include BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Rolls Royce, Saab, and the exotic makes.
The 1990s saw a dramatic expansion of service operations, and because of our good reputation, we were appointed a Bosch authorized service centers. The Bosch Car Service program gives us access to technical support and advanced technical training. In addition, it allows us to provide nationwide warranty on Bosch repairs and honor manufacturer warranties on repairs of Bosch systems in new cars.
Our company is one of the top ranked Bosch Car Service facilities in the United States.
At the same time, we developed our CustomFind™ car-buying program. Now, ten years later, almost all our car sales are through this unique program.
The company first opened in Springfield in 1990. Having outgrown its original building Robison Service moved to its present Page Boulevard facility in 1995.
We have grown to become the largest independent sales and service facility for high-end European vehicles in western Massachusetts. We are proud to count many of the region’s leading citizens as valued clients. Our reputation is based upon delivering first-rate service at a fair price.
As of 2012, JE Robison Service employs 11 people, six of whom are in the service department.
About John Robison
I’ve been a car enthusiast all my life. When I was four, I had a fire engine named Chippy that I worked on all day. When I was twelve I ran over my grandmother's fence with her Buick, and I fixed it afterwards. When I was a little bigger, I learned to fix the cars and machinery on my grandparents’ farm in Georgia. We had Porsches, Cadillacs, Massey-Fergusons and Fords. Cars, go-karts, tractors and even bulldozers. Later I figured out how to keep my own cars running. And that's what led me to where I am today.
My family comes from Georgia. I was born in Athens while my parents attended college there. We moved north when my father attended graduate school in Pennsylvania. We came to western Massachusetts in 1966 and I've lived here since. My brother, writing as Augusten Burroughs chronicled our family’s shabby story in the NY Times bestseller “Running With Scissors” and Sony Pictures made it into a movie. So now you can watch Annette Benning and Alec Baldwin play our parents and wonder what they were really like?
After attending the University of Massachusetts at 13 and dropping out of high school at 15 I left home and went on the road. I started out in the music business, designing electronic devices for local bands. I worked for bigger and bigger shows until I ended up touring the world with KISS and others in the late 1970s. In 1979 I decided that lifestyle was too destructive, and I looked for a tamer job. I landed a job designing talking toys and games for Milton Bradley.
After that I worked for several other electronics companies, moving from creative engineering work that I loved to administrative work that I hated. My work in these years had nothing to do with cars — it was electronic toys, fire alarms, standby power systems, laser power systems, and a host of other products. But to unwind, I started restoring old Mercedes and Porsche cars in my garage at home. Gradually my hobby turned into paying work as people came to know of me. In the late ’80s I quit my job with a laser manufacturer to pursue the auto business full-time, and I’ve never looked back. Well, actually, I did look back, having lost everything in the recession of 1990, but by that time I was in it to stay. I worked my way out, and here I am today.
Over the past 20 years we’ve grown from no employees to a dozen, and we've moved from a 17 by 20 foot garage to an 8,000 square foot building. Through it all we've remained an independent service center, meaning we are not affiliated with any carmaker — though we are authorized Bosch Car Service. I’ve always felt that without a franchise we have to try harder. No manufacturer directs business to our shop. The only thing that brings us business is our reputation and the goodwill of our customers.
Today I'm active in regional Rolls-Royce, Mercedes, BMW, and Land Rover off-road clubs. We show cars at events throughout New England every summer. I'm a Tech Inspector for Porsche and BMW club track events, and a technical advisor to the Rolls-Royce Owners Club and others. I respond to emails and letters from car enthusiasts all over the world, and my articles and stories can be found in a number of car magazines both online and in print.
I am also known as an author and advocate for people with disabilities. I serve on the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee for the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The IACC creates and maintains the Federal strategic plan for autism in the areas of medical treatment, research, education, and disability support. I am also a member of the science board of Autism Speaks, the largest private source of autism research funding, and I am an advisor or participant to a number of ongoing research studies.
My book Look Me in the Eye is a bestseller on three continents with three-quarters of a million copies in print in 20+ editions. Be Different — Adventures of a Free-Range Aspergian is following in its footsteps. I appear at workshops and speaking events worldwide, and offer graduate classes and professional development programs in autism awareness. Read more about my writing and public speaking at www.johnrobison.com.
My latest book – Raising Cubby – is an entertaining memoir of parenthood, Aspergerer's, tractors, and high explosives. It will be released in January 2013. Preorder your copy here.