In 1969, Ken Hering apprenticed with the former Olson Auto owner, Harold Olson, for 3 years. After completing his requirements, Ken continued to work for Harold until Harold's retirement. This gave Ken the opportunity to purchase the business. Harold not only taught Ken how to fix cars, but how to treat people - how to be fair and honest with everyone. This has been the cornerstone of Olson Auto Service through all the changes we've seen.

The mid-80's and early 90's saw a big change in the car repair industry. What we knew before about automotive repair could not be applied to the new cars. We took advantage of seminars whenever they were offered, but most of our knowledge is hands-on right at the shop. We generally don't see any car newer than 3 to 5 years old because the dealerships take care of the warranty work up to that point.

In the early years we did everything in house, but the cars today have changed so much that it's no longer possible. Now, there are specialty shops, such as tires, transmission repair, and foreign car repair. We work on front end alignments, brakes, struts, tune-ups, exhaust (stock and custom), and trailer hitch sales and installation.

The cars have altered physically so much that it has become a problem to push a disabled car into the shop without running the risk of damaging it. That's why I built the Push Bumper - to push the cars into the shop easily and not damage the vehicle. This has worked so well for us that we decided to offer it for sale to the public. For easier use of the push bumper, a front mounted trailer hitch would be needed. While a rear 2" receiver can be used, there is better control when it's in front. To help with acquiring the correct hitch, we became a representative for the Curt Manufacturing line of hitches.