It’s said that if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. That means Michael McNeil, although he seems like one of our hardest workers and best techs, isn’t really working at all.
“I absolutely LOVE my job,” he said. “There’s nothing I’d rather do. I’ve loved everything mechanical since I was a kid taking apart electrical gadgets.” That early love stayed with him during his Portland childhood at Fernwood Middle School and Grant High School, through his time at Mt. Hood Community College where he earned his Automotive Tech degree, and beyond to his ASE Master Certification.
“There’s something challenging and yet meditative about working on mechanical things”, said Michael, “plus I enjoy being the hero. When you get somebody back on the road quickly with a problem they thought couldn’t be fixed, they’re really appreciative.” To Michael the most demanding repair problems are the most interesting. “I see every vehicle I work on as a challenge. I make an all-out assault on the problem, and will spend time planning my strategy before I ever pick up a tool” Information is the key to speedy diagnosis and repair on any job, and Michael depends on information access in a way that the last generation of techs never considered. “Once, an owner of a big diesel truck had spent 2 months and over $10,000 to find the problem with his rig. When I got hold of it, I spent 45 minutes on IATN (a subscription resource for communication between technicians about automotive issues) looking up his symptoms on similar vehicles. Other techs immediately responded that they had seen his problem before, and it was fixable with an inexpensive part that we had in stock. We had him back on the road in about an hour, with the problem actually fixed. Imagine how relieved HE was!”
Michael hasn’t been a shop-hopper in his career, preferring to stay put as much as possible. “I started at Murray Chevyrolet, and for the next 18 years I worked at a couple other Chevy places in Tigard,” he said. During that time he became aware of Tom Dwyer Automotive through our radio ads on KPOJ. “I loved Tom’s politics, and the business and client philosopy he talked about on the radio. Plus, we both believe a vehicle should be FIXED RIGHT THE FIRST TIME! He thinks the same way I do, and I knew I wanted to work for him.” Although Michael applied at the time we weren’t looking for anyone then, so we didn’t connect. “I was working through Craigslist for a while after that, and making good money. Anytime someone can access an ASE Master Tech for a reasonable rate they will, and it was definitely working to my advantage. But, there’s lots of headaches in running your own business, and I still had in the back of my mind that I wanted to work for Tom.” When Michael ran across our own Craigslist ad he immediately called, and when we saw his qualifications we were just as excited, so Michael became part of the team. It’s worked out well for both of us; as Michael’s wife Heeyeon will testify: “He’s a LOT more mellow since he started working there!”
Michael’s big passion (aside from machinery and his family; not necessarily in that order) is skiing. He’s an expert at the sport and used to go helicopter skiing at least once a year. When he’s not doing that, you’ll find him at home in Milwaukie. “Heeyeon and I have been trying to live as much off-the-grid as possible. We have our own garden and chickens, and are thinking about getting a cow.” He has a distrust of most commercially available foods, which is one of the reasons he’s being spotlighted this month- Michael was the inspiration for our Health Notes article on the benefits of Live Milk. “I won’t drink anything other kind of milk, and it’s done wonders for me personally. The industrial processes of homogenization and pasteurization are great for marketing, selling, and transporting the milk, but they destroy its nutritional value. Raw Milk gives you all the vitamins and nutrients that milk is supposed to have. If you go with organic milk, you also avoid the BGH and other chemicals that can come from cows in factory farms.”
Portland native, mechanical wizard, skiier, perfectionist, Raw Milk advocate; that’s Michael McNeill, our Tech Spotlight for the May Newsletter!
