SHOP VIEW

Autovisions

Englewood, Colorado

BY CHRIS JONES PHOTOS BY MELANIE WATSON

Autovisions occupies one-twelfth a dodecagonal building—that’s the geometric term for a 12-sided polygon. In simpler terms, the shop is pie-shaped. The building’s owner envisioned that his uniquey-designed building would serve as an import auto mall that housed 12 specialty shops. At least that was the plan.

“It was an interesting idea; it failed completely.” says Nathan Bryant, owner of Autovisions, mentioning that he and the neighboring brewery are the building’s sole tenants.

A Piece of the Pie

While it may be hard imagine operating an auto repair shop from a wedgeshaped space, Bryant tactfully positions his shop to handle the workflow.

“Because it’s a round building and everything was built as like pieces of pie, it’s kind of an odd shape. I have one door to enter the building that comes in on what would be the wide piece of the pie, and then straight in front of you is a scissor lift alignment rack with a two-post lift on each side of it. In one corner, I have a tire machine, and balancer, and then on the other walls is where I have the toolbox,” he says. “We’ve also got laptops in the shop, and I don’t think you can go 15 feet around here without running into a computer.”

Plug ‘N Play

With electrification a hot topic within the industry, Bryant, an ASEcertificied technician in hybrids and electric vehicles, has begun adding necessary equipment to service electric vehicles.

“I’ve already got a charging station here at the shop for electric vehicles. We do have OE equipment for reprogramming at least a couple of makes of vehicles, but we’re not going to do everything,” he says. “But as the

SHOP STATS

Owner: Nathan Bryant

Location: Englewood, Colorado

Staff Size: 2

Shop Size: 2,800 square feet

Number of bays 3

Average Monthly Car Count: 65

Annual Revenue: $450,000

as the world changes, we have every intention of keeping up with it.”

Initially, he wanted a charging station for public use, but the installation cost deterred him from making that investment.

“I looked getting one outside that could be used by the public and that ended up not being realistic because of

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the cost, of me leasing the building, and the shape of the parking lot. It would have ended up costing I think $20,000 or $30,000,” he says.

Instead, he purchased one online for private use in the shop. The charging station cost the shop $1,000 and Bryant had an electrician install it, a process he says took 15 minutes.

“I’ve got a charging station that’s inside my building that’s just for me to use when there’s a vehicle here. That was really simple to set up. I ended up ordering a station off of Amazon and then had an electrician install it,” Bryant says.