About JE Robison Service
JE Robison Service of Springfield, Massachusetts is in the business of selling and servicing late model European vehicles. We’re part of John Robison’s Springfield Automotive Complex, which also includes Tech Auto Service (domestic and foreign cars) Mr. Detail (the Auto Appearance Artists) and Line Rite (front end and under car service.)
Long time car enthusiast and author John Elder Robison founded our 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 now one of the top ranked Bosch Car Service facilities in the United States.
At the same time, we developed our CustomFind™ car-buying program. Today almost all our car sales are through this unique program.
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 2009, JE Robison Service employs 11 people, six of whom are in the service department.
About John Robison
I’ve been a car enthusiast most of my life. I guess it started when I was four, and my parents gave me a pedal fire engine named Chippy. Most kids rode their pedal cars, but even then I knew the importance of preventative maintenance.
I got my uncle Bill to take me to the local A&P where we picked up some of the wooden crates they used to pack vegetables in, back in the 1960s. We jacked up Chippy and set him on two of those crates, and we upended two more for seats, and went to work.
Bill was a Pontiac Man, but he knew fire trucks too, and he had a set of tools in the trunk of his car. We did a lot of work on that fire engine. I even rode it a few times. From that humble beginning, I went from one vehicle to another to get where I am today.There was the blue True Test scooter, and the red Rollfast bicycle. There was the spyder bike with a banana seat and ape hanger bars. And I can’t forget the tractors. A Craftsman to mow the grass and a Massey Ferguson to mow the fields. I fixed them all.
Eventually I grew tall enough to see above the steering wheel, and I tackled my grandmother’s Electra 225. I ran that car over the fence, and the mailbox, but I fixed it all before my grandfather got home.
A few summers later, I got a Volkswagen, and a Triumph Spitfire, and I set to making them run. I’ve never looked back. Now I’m fifty-two years old, so I’ve been fixing cars and machines for over forty years. I’ve lived here in western Massachusetts most of that time.
I was born in Athens, Georgia while my parents attended college. 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 Augusten Burroughs (we have the same parents; he just changed his name) chronicled our family’s shabby story in the NY Times bestseller “Running With Scissors” which Sony Pictures made it into a movie in 2006.
I studied engineering at the University of Massachusetts at 13 and dropped out of high school at 15. That’s when I left home and joined a rock’n’roll band. I started out doing sound and fixing equipment and quickly progressed to building sound systems and sound effects. 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 1989 I quit my job with a laser manufacturer to pursue my dream of being in business full-time, and I’ve been here ever since.
Over the past 20 years Robison Service has 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 Land Rover and 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 also have a second life as a book author and speaker. My book, Look Me in the Eye, is a bestseller on three continents with over half a million copies in print in 20+ editions. I invite you to read more about my writing and public speaking at www.johnrobison.com.
Look for my next book in the spring of 2011.
