Mary Nohr at
home under the hood
Mary
Nohr almost always has stood alone in whatever she’s
pursued.
As
owner of Nohr’s Auto Haus
Inc. in Buellton with Richard, her husband of 28 years, Mary continues the
pattern as the valley’s only woman mechanic, and only mechanic in the area to
work strictly on Mercedes, BMWs, Volvos and Porsches.
Of
German descent, Nohr was raised on a farm near
Madison, Wisc.; there is little else in her upbringing that would
indicate a life under the hood of European vehicles.
“I
grew up on a truck farm, drove tractors and trucks, but didn’t become
mechanically involved until I went to school,” Nohr
said.
Nohr graduated in 1976 from a two-year
technical college near Madison, with an associate’s degree in automotive
technology. While working summers at a Chevrolet dealer, she continued her
education at Blackhawk Tech, an aircraft maintenance school in Janesville, Wisc.
After
graduation, Nohr accepted a position at the Napa
airport as an aircraft maintenance technician. It was there that she met
Richard, under the wing of a Piper, as she explained it, and went on to
complete the test for Inspection Authorization, at the time a Federal Aviation
Administration certification held by just six other women.
From
Napa, the newlyweds moved to jobs at Vandenberg Air Force Base, where Richard
worked on the space shuttle project and Mary became the only woman working for
Martin Marietta as a Titan missile mechanical technician. But Richard and Mary
realized aviation was not as lucrative as they had hoped.
“The
transition from planes to cars was chance,” Nohr
said.
“Richard
was born in Germany and speaks German, and we drove German cars, so it seemed
natural to have an auto repair business that specializes. We jumped on the
chance to have our own business in Santa Ynez,” Nohr
explains.
In
1987, Nohr’s Auto Haus,
Inc. took over an existing mechanic shop on Sagunto Street behind Santa Ynez
Paint and Glass. Richard and Mary had an immediate following.
“I
think women especially like working with a woman mechanic. I have some
customers who will only buy cars we service just so they can keep us as their
mechanic,” Nohr said.
One
such customer is valley resident Trini Mitchum, owner of a 1985 Mercedes-Benz and a 2005 BMW 3
Series station wagon.
“I
call Mary the ‘Glam Mechanic.’ She is very straightforward and friendly. I
trust her, and she always looks so beautiful. At Christmas she wore big
sparkling earrings — not your typical grease monkey,” Mitchum
said.
It
is people like Jodi White, customer since 1988, who gladly followed Mary and
Richard when they made the move to a bigger facility in Buellton five years
ago.
“Mary
has worked through two of my cars. She is thorough without a fault in her
knowledge. I have been driving Mercedes for 50 years and Mary has given them
the best of care,” White said.
The
move proved to have a two-fold benefit: a bigger space and an astounding
increase in their customer base, which now stands at 265 clients. That’s a lot
of grease for someone who has surprisingly no signs of being under the hood.
With a fresh face, long blond hair and pristine nails, Nohr
defies the grease monkey image most mechanics have come to own; as does the
space where she and Richard work. Divided in two parts by a sliding glass door,
the shop deck is just as impeccable and grease-free as the office. There’s
hardly even a whiff of oil in the air as you pass through the brightly lit work
area.
“To
me a clean garage is very important. If you are that meticulous about your
surroundings, it says something about how you care for an automobile,” White
said.
A
multi-talented woman, Nohr also holds a position as
events coordinator for the Central Coast section of the Mercedes-Benz Club of
America and recently became one of the featured women in the Club’s magazine,
“The Star,” under the title “The Ladies of Mercedes.”
The
article highlights the women who shaped the history of the Mercedes-Benz label;
modern women who share the name, as well as the women who work in the field of
Mercedes-Benz. Mary is the only mechanic it cites.
So
what does someone like Nohr do for fun? After hours
she turns her attention to her home studio, where she designs and creates
stained glass windows. Several of Nohr’s windows have
been national award winners in the “Glastar”
company’s competition, and many of her creations have found an unexpected place
in the Auto Haus office, brightening up an otherwise
sparse, if efficient, space.
Trini Mitchum is
also one of Mary’s glass customers.
“She
designed a door with glass inserts that pick up on a very modern theme
throughout my house. I was a glass customer before I was a car customer; she
does beautiful work. She is talented in many ways,” she said.
More
than 20 years ago, Mary taught herself how to create stained glass, and more
recently how to etch glass. It is the flip-side of her passion — European cars
on one side, and on the other huge panels of color and light that serve as
windows, shower doors, and overhead light fixtures.
Nohr explained, “I’m really all about the
details. When it comes to cars, I have an internal check list; it is second
nature to me now; I just know what needs to be done.
And
the glass work is fun, creative; it’s what I hope to do when I retire from
mechanics.”
Nohr’s Auto Haus, Inc.
141 E. Highway 246, Buellton
805-688-7153