History

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I have always loved making cars look great. When I was a little boy, all of my Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars had a fresh coat of paint, carefully applied by my little fingers and a small paint brush. I’m sure they looked terrible, but to me, they were awesome.  The satisfaction I found in turning a green ’69 Mustang to candy apple red with flames could not be beat.  In my eyes, that smeared on paint looked as perfect and shiny as the cars on a showroom floor.

As I grew, I couldn’t wait to get a job in a body shop.  At 16, I got my first job in the collision shop of a local dealership. I fell in love with the industry, so I went on to earn a degree in Auto Collision Technology in Des Moines, Iowa, and continued at Ferris State University, studying Automotive Management. I returned to the area where I grew up, and worked as an Auto Collision Technician, learning the day-to-day activities involved in running an auto body business. Eleven years working as a tech taught me a lot of lessons. I was faced with every scenario imaginable, and I spent a lot of time analyzing what I felt were the “best practices” in serving the customer. I was always thinking about how I would run my own shop and how I would make it the best.

Eventually, my desire for my own shop was so great, I knew it was time to go out on my own. In 2002, I started Wilson Auto Collision, Inc.  I purchased a parcel of land from the city of Niagara and built my shop in the beautiful, new business park.  With youth on my side and a whole lot of ambition, I was determined to build the very best facility with the most state-of-the-art equipment in the area.

For the first year, I was the only employee. It was not uncommon to work 20 hour days. I took on all the jobs that I could, and I had to be sure the repairs were perfect and on time. Many of my “first” customers were becoming “repeat” customers, and better yet, they were telling their friends! When customers began stopping by at 9:00 at night for an estimate, I knew it was getting too busy to handle myself. I hired my first employee, and it didn’t take long before I needed another. There were three technicians working in the shop before I even hired my first office person. The business was growing so quickly, I knew that the only way to keep doing it right was to set high-quality standards for both repairs and operations.

In an effort to make Wilson Auto Collision more customer friendly and make dealing with an accident a little easier, I added light-duty towing. Towing proved to be a convenient service for my customers which helped the business grow significantly. However, what followed was the request for truck towing and repair, so I moved ahead to medium-duty towing in 2005, and heavy-duty in 2006.  I wasn’t anticipating such a demand for these services, but towing and heavy truck repair became a large and very important part of my business structure.

Since then, the facility has more than doubled in size to accommodate all of our customers. We’ve acquired a second location in Norway, MI, which ironically is a shop I worked in for nine years as a tech. Wilson Auto Collision, Inc. is now home to ten full-time employees. It is my goal to continue making good decisions, run an ethical business, and serve our customers like they are family. I hope that the values on which this business was built are apparent every time you walk through our doors.

-Kevin J. Wilson