It’s an environment that has been carefully cultivated over the years by owner Daniel Avila, who told the Standard-Examiner that he learned the importance of customer service and mutual respect from his father.

“My dad, he used to be a waiter,” Avila said. “I helped him when I was little and he taught me that the customer is always right. So, I am always thinking I’m gonna do that in my business. … And one more thing he taught me was if you can learn every single one of your customers’ names and call them by their name, they’re gonna trust you more. So, I started building that with my customers.”

Avila says his shop specializes in suspensions, tires and wheels, but he and his mechanics can fix or replace almost anything on a car, from brakes to engines, timing chains, emissions systems, catalytic converters — whatever might need fixing on a gasoline-powered vehicle. He added that he has worked on everything from standard-fare American cars to foreign models and luxury cars made by Maserati, Mercedes-Benz and others. He has even worked on Teslas.

As a boy growing up in Guadalajara, Mexico, Avila told his grandmother that he wanted to be a mechanic when he was older, not quite knowing all that the job entailed. After moving to Utah as an 18-year-old — and meeting his future wife in Salt Lake City the following year — he entered the automotive field as a tire technician.

Before he would progress toward fully realizing his childhood dream, though, he and his wife worked toward their mutual dream of starting and raising a family, something that they weren’t sure would be in the cards for them during those early days as they contended with fertility issues.

“She was sad, and we tried, we went to doctors, we (tried other things) to see if we could get pregnant and we couldn’t,” Avila said.

Eventually, the Avilas found a doctor who was able to help them and they were given what seemed like a miracle at the time in the birth of their first child, a son (also named Daniel).

“It was a blessing, and after that we had five more kids (three more boys and two girls) just normal, and that’s my family,” Avila said. “The last two girls are my hearts … so, they’re gonna be a little spoiled.”

Along the way, he decided to go into business for himself, identifying the 3rd Street building as a potential location and literally knocking on the owner’s door to inquire about its availability. He credits the previous owner, retired Weber County attorney Reed Richards — and also Ogden City — for helping him get established in those early days.

“(Richards) said, ‘I’m gonna give you six months with no rent payment because I know the building it needs a lot of work,'” Avila said, noting that all the copper inside, the furnace and even the toilet seat had been stolen from the boarded-up building.

Rebuilding the location, working with the city on permits and starting the business and, later, running the shop, instilled a love of the Ogden area, something he hadn’t envisioned himself developing as a younger man.

“Ogden gave me the opportunity to feed my family, feed many families — I’ve got six workers who work for me — and I feel Ogden let me put my roots deep,” Avila said.

Flash forward to now and Dany’s Tire & Auto Repair has become a family business in every sense of the phrase. Through the experience of owning and operating the shop, Avila has become a fully fledged mechanic, his wife handles much of the paper work and financials and their children are following in their footsteps.

“My oldest, he has been helping me since he’s 8 or 10 years old,” Avila said. “My other ones, we wait a little longer, maybe 12 or 14, but they have known about the business; they have a really good idea. One more important thing is they have leadership skills. They’re like leaders and they talk to customers like I’ve taught them.”

One day, Avila hopes to see his children continue on in the family business, if they so choose. In the meantime, he hopes to keep solving his customers’ car problems at the best possible price and keeping them safe in an era where the state no longer requires annual safety checks.

“There are cars sometimes that come in with really bad suspension, really bad brakes, and they can cause accidents,” Avila said. “Our goal is to keep everybody safe … When the customer comes, I see their issues as my issues.”