Several years ago, Automatic Transmission Service was one of two transmission specialist shops in Columbia.
However, both shops shut down and Columbians were left with having to travel out of town to get their transmissions in their cars fixed. But now, Leta and Karl Yates are back at it, reopening Automatic Transmission Service, located at 924 Main Street, in May.
“We had been in it years ago and we were down the road by Meat Masters,” Leta said. “We did pretty good up there, but he (Karl) ran into some health problems and we had to shut it down. He got better and we just decided it was time to do it again.”
Leta, Karl and their son, K.J., run the shop and are ready to fix any type of issue a transmission is having.
“We try to stay with transmissions and transmission related stuff,” Leta said. “We’ll do axles, CV Joints, automatics, standards, transfer cases, foreign and domestic, high performance, everything.”
“We do any kind, doesn’t matter to us,” Karl, who has been a mechanic for more than 30 years, added. “Pretty much anything to do with a transmission.”
Although Automatic Transmission Service reopened only a little more than two months ago, it is already becoming rather busy.
“It’s picking up,” Karl said. “We started out fairly busy, but it’s been steadily picking up. We already know the market from being here before.”
Most of the business has come from word of mouth as mechanic shops send their transmission customers to Automatic Transmission Service.
“The people at Napa, CarQuest and Mike’s Auto have told us that they’re so glad that we’re back and Columbia needs a transmission specialist,” Leta said. “They have told us that people stop by all the time to get a transmission done and they’ve been sending us a lot of business.”
Leta added that the transmission business is a niche market because Automatic Transmission Service is the only transmission specialist shop in Marion County.
“We’re specialists in transmissions and there’s nobody around here that specializes in transmissions,” she said.
Karl said that the majority of mechanics won’t even bother dealing with a transmission, but he enjoys being able to help people get their cars back up and running.
“It’s mainly because very few people will do it,” he said. “Even the best mechanics you know won’t mess with transmissions because they’re scared of them. I like that. To me, it doesn’t matter where it’s from or who made it, we’ll fix it. We’re specialists and specialize in that area that nobody else does.”
Karl learned his trade as a transmission specialist working in a high volume shop in Vicksburg for 11 years.
“It started out as they needed a guy to pull them out and put new ones back in and not rebuild them,” Leta explained. “He had the knowledge as a mechanic and he got the opportunity to take them in the back, take them apart and put them back together. That’s how he became a transmission builder.”
While Karl said he enjoys helping people the most, Leta enjoys working as a team with Karl and K.J.
“I would say that through the time that we’ve been married for 35 years, we’ve pretty much done the job together,” she said. “I enjoy us doing it as a team.”
Leta and Karl have a few goals in mind going forward with Automatic Transmission Service, beginning with keeping up with the high demand.
“We would like to get some more guys and get some more racks in, so we can pick up the pace as we progress and more people find out about us,” Leta said.
Karl would like Automatic Transmission Service to earn the reputation as the best transmission shop around.
“We want to be the No. 1 transmission shop in the area,” he said. “That’s short and long term.”
While the shop is technically open from 7:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, the Yates’ don’t mind staying late to finish a job.
“We’ll be here until 9 p.m. sometimes depending on what we need to get done,” Leta said. “If we need to stay late, we’ll stay late to get it done.”
Automatic Transmission Service can be reach by phone at (601) 633-5233, by fax at (601) 633-5234, by email at autotranssvc@gmail.com and on Facebook.
Pictured Above: Karl and Leta Yates team up to run Automatic Transmission Service in Columbia. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
