Columbia and Marion County are built on the backs of family-run businesses, and Cook’s Garage may be the textbook example.
Carl Cook has owned Cook’s Garage since 2004, taking over for his father, C.H. Cook Jr. Cook Jr. took over for his father, C.H. Cook Sr., in 1955. The eldest Cook started the business in 1932 and built the current building, located at 425 Lumberton Road, following World War II in 1947.
While his father originally wanted something different for Cook, and he said his persistence finally convinced his dad.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” he said. “I grew up in this business, and my dad always told me I wanted to be something else like a doctor or a lawyer. But I like this business; it’s in my blood. I went to college and came back, then went into the military and came back. He finally said ‘Well, I guess you do want it.’”
Cook’s Garage does everything from minor tune-ups to major engine replacements and everything in between.
“(We do) transmission rebuilds, air conditioning service — my dad was actually the first person to install an air conditioner in a car in Marion County in 1958 or 1959 — and do pretty much everything but body shop work and front-end alignments,” Cook explained. “We do front-end work, electrical work and things like that. From A to Z, you can name it and we do it in pretty much all makes and models, foreign and domestic.”
The shop is dedicated to its customers and takes a great deal of pride in customer service.
“We’re up there around 100 percent, top notch. That’s where we try to be. We treat customers like we want to be treated. We try to do everything that they ask and above that. That’s how my father taught me and his father taught him,” Cook said. “The customer is always right in most senses. We’ve had good customer loyalty and a lot of it has been passed down from generation to generation. We get a lot of customers from out of town because they hear about us.”
Cook learned the trade as he grew up around the business and trained under his dad’s employees.
“I’d stay down here during the summer time Monday through Friday, and I was always watching the guys work, asking questions and was hands on,” he said. “They’d let me do some stuff, and I learned by watching and trying to do stuff myself.”
Cook has plans to paint the building and reinstate the awning on the front of the structure to keep his grandfather’s and his father’s hard work intact.
“A lot of friends have asked why I don’t tear down this old building and build a new one. My grandfather built it; that’s why,” he said. “It’s the original Cook’s Garage and a family building. It may not look as pretty as all these new buildings, but we’re going to throw some paint on it, fix it up and keep on going.”
The house he lives in is also the house his grandfather built in the early 1930s and his dad grew up in. Family is everything to the Cooks, as is customer satisfaction.
“We try to do the job right the first time and not have any come backs. We try to be competitive in this market,” Cook said. “There’s a lot of garages in this town, and we all know each other. I don’t think we compete with each other because they send me work and I send them work. We all work together in a way. We try to get the car fixed in a timely manner and get them back on the road.”
Cook is extremely supportive of local business and keeping money inside Marion County, and he said Cook’s Garage owes everything to its customers.
“We really appreciate their loyalty, their return business and allowing us to stay in business because without them we wouldn’t be in business,” he said.
Cook’s Garage is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. and can be reached at (601) 736-2521.
Pictured Above: C.H. Cook Jr., left, who owned Cook’s Garage until his son, Carl, took ownership in 2004, looks at an engine with fellow employee Chris Carrier. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
