Bryce Neighbors – From Dealership Floors to Owning His Own Shop

Bryce Neighbors runs Young's Automotive Service Center in Covina, California. The path that led there did not begin under a car. It began in a retirement home kitchen in San Dimas, where his first job had him helping elderly residents and cooking meals for them. After that came a stretch at an Arby's in Pomona, a job that forced him to juggle several tasks at once during a fast-paced shift. Neither job touched an engine, but both taught him something he would lean on later: how to manage people and time under pressure.

Cars had been part of his life long before any paycheck. Growing up in San Dimas, he spent weekends in the garage with his father, working on machines and bicycles. That early curiosity about how things worked is what eventually pointed him toward the automotive industry once he was old enough to take a job in it.

Learning the trade one shop at a time

Neighbors' first automotive job was at a Big O Tire shop, where he learned to replace tires and perform wheel alignments. From there, he moved to a Chrysler dealership, doing oil changes and inspections in the service department. After attending Toyota training at Citrus College, he took a position at a Lexus dealership.

It was at the Lexus store that he made a decision that shaped the rest of his career: he did not want to work at a large dealership. He wanted a small, independent shop where he could build relationships with the people whose cars he worked on. That decision led him to Benders Automotive in Covina, where he stayed for more than ten years and earned master technician status through the ASE, the Automotive Service Excellence organization.

Finishing school while already working

While building his career on the shop floor, Neighbors also kept at his education. He earned his Associate's Degree in Science from Citrus Community College, the same school where he had once taken Toyota training. Finishing that degree opened a door he had not expected to walk through.

Teaching what he had learned

Once he completed his degree, Neighbors started teaching part-time in the automotive technology department at Citrus College. When a full-time position opened, he applied and got it. He spent six years teaching automotive technology full-time, passing on what more than a decade at Benders Automotive had taught him about diagnosing and fixing vehicles.

Teaching is a different skill from turning wrenches. It asks someone to take what they know by instinct and explain it clearly enough for a beginner to follow. Spending six years doing that, on top of years in an independent shop, gave Neighbors a way of breaking down complicated repairs into something a customer without any mechanical background could understand.

Buying a shop during a pandemic

In 2020, Neighbors had the chance to purchase his own independent auto shop. He bought Young's Automotive Service Center in Covina, taking over a business that already had a name in the community. Deciding to buy a shop in the middle of a pandemic was its own kind of bet, made at a moment when a lot of small businesses were closing rather than changing hands.

Running the shop today

Neighbors still owns and operates Young's Automotive Service Center. The shop handles full-service auto repair and diagnostics, the same work he built his reputation on at Benders Automotive and taught in the classroom at Citrus College. He also belongs to the N.F.I.B., an organization built around helping small businesses succeed, a fitting membership for someone running a shop he bought with his own money and his own retirement savings.

Looking at the full arc, from a retirement home kitchen to a fast food counter to tire shops, a Chrysler dealership, a Lexus dealership, a classroom, and finally a shop of his own, the throughline is clear. Each stop taught Neighbors something the next one needed. The patience from the retirement home, the pace from Arby's, the hands-on repair work from Big O Tire and the dealerships, the depth from Benders Automotive, and the ability to explain things plainly from Citrus College all show up now in how he runs Young's Automotive Service Center.