Whether taking a vehicle in for routine maintenance, or to figure out why the "check engine" light won't stop flashing, one thing is for sure: You want the most qualified mechanics to work on your vehicles.
The local Ford dealership has two of the nation's top Ford Motor Company' technicians, earning first and third place in the company's regional "Ultimate Master Technician Challenge.
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Kevin Boehmer, left, and Gerald Najvar, right, proudly hold their third, and first-place trophies with Tipton Ford's service and body shop manager, Ronnie Coats.
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Only Ford's top mechanics are even given the opportunity to qualify for the competition, which makes the fact that two of the top-place winners were from a local dealership, Tipton Ford, even more remarkable.
"You have to be a master, or senior master technician, which are the top levels of Ford technicians, to even take the test," Tipton Ford's service and body shop manager Ronnie Coats said. "This competition is for the best, of the best."
To become a master technician, a mechanic must have extensive training within an area of automotive repair. Once the mechanic receives master technician training in every area, they become a senior technician.
"Senior technician is a major accomplishment," Coats said. "It's Ford's equivalent to a PhD and takes hundreds of hours to get there."
Those master and senior technicians were given a written test, and only the top 55 scores from the nation qualified for the competition. Two of those 55 were local technicians from Tipton Ford.
"There were around 2,900 people who took the qualifying exam," Coats said. "Within our region, Gerald Najvar had the highest score on the written test, and Kevin Boehmer had third."
The Southwest region is made up of Ford dealerships within Texas and Oklahoma, and is one of Ford's 11 regions nationwide.
Najvar and Boehmer and three other technicians from their region traveled to Houston to compete in the hands-on portion of the competition with a chance to win $3,000 along with other prizes, and the chance to compete nationally.
"We were all given a Towncar that was bugged identically," Najvar said. "We had an hour and a half to fix those bugs and return the vehicle to factory specs."
Each vehicle had eight needed repairs and only 90 minutes to make them, but the repairs were only part of the test. The quality of the repairs was just as important as the repairs themselves.
"After they are done, the cars are reviewed by Ford experts," Coats said, "and not only did they have to repair the car, they had to make sure they wore their safety glasses and even wore their seatbelt as they drove the car across the finish line."
Najvar was the first man in Houston to drive across that finish line, and Boehmer wasn't far behind coming in third.
"You got all the big guys from Ford watching and saying, let's see what you got. So it gets pretty intimidating," Boehmer said. "The best feedback we got was, they couldn't remember the last time they had two people from the same dealership, at the same time."
Though that was only one of several things that impressed the people at Ford. This was also the second year in a row that Tipton Ford had sent a technician to compete.
"That was a very big benefit to us, because we knew what to expect," Boehmer said. "Pat went in there blind, where we didn't have to. If he hadn't gone last year, I wouldn't have done as well as I did."
Patrick Walton competed in the Ultimate Master Technician Challenge last year after a fifth-place score in the exam allowed him to qualify.
"I was the first to qualify and compete in the regional competition," Walton said. "I made fifth in the written competition and third in the hands-on section last year."
With the help of Walton's insight and the Najvar's skills, Tipton Ford is now sending their first technician to nationals on June 26, in Dearborn, Mich.
"This is our second year, and Gerald is now headed to nationals," Walton said. "Part of that comes from the support we get right here from the Ronnie. He pushed us to learn more and got us to this point."
"They are always looking to reward us for our work," Boehmer said. "If they end up with tickets to a baseball game or something, it's liable to land in one of our laps for a job well done."
Technicians from the 10 other regions will compete June 26 for $350,000 in prizes including vehicles, tools and other items, including a first place prize of $40,000 in cash.
"It's a whole new culture for technicians now," Coats said. "These guys are not grease-monkeys, they are real professionals. And we've got some really good people here and it's great to see them get some recognition."
