San Francisco - John Gardiner Automotive, Inc. completed its move February 2000 to a two story, 30,000 square foot site at 1023 Mission Street, between 6th and 7th Street. The move makes Gardiner Automotive not only one of the largest automotive repair facilities in the San Francisco Bay Area, but also a center offering customers various services at a single site. In conjunction with its move from Townsend Street where John Gardiner founded the independent automotive repair company in 1994, Gardiner has taken over ownership of a Big 0 Tires franchise located at the new site. His brother Thomas Gardiner is directing operations and managing the Big-0 dealership.

Also available at 1023 Mission Street are a full detailing service and complimentary listing of vehicles owned by customers of John Gardiner Automotive that are for sale. Service records are available for the customer-owned cars that may be viewed at this site. John Gardiner also provides pre-purchase diagnostic inspections.

Whether you are driving high or standard performing foreign or domestic models, John Gardiner Automotive has the technology and expertise to keep vehicles operating at peak efficiency - at an affordable cost.

John Gardiner Automotive's technicians use state-of-the-art electronics and continually updated computer data to maintain and repair vehicles according to factory specifications.

"Excellent service begins with the correct diagnosis," John Gardiner, says. "While we have the electronic scanners and monitors that can quickly and accurately uncover malfunctions in a vehicle's computer and electrical systems, we also have the most important elements - experience, expertise and training to determine what is wrong with a vehicle," he adds.

John and Tom Gardiner are natives of Marin County who lived in Sedona, Arizona with their family while John attended high school, and Tom finished grammar and began high school. John went on to study geology and meteorology at Northern Arizona University while working for a local Mercedes Benz dealer.

John Gardiner Automotive maintains excellent ratings with the California Bureau of Automobile Repair and San Francisco Better Business Bureau. All technicians are ASE certified.


About Big O Tires

The Gardiner-owned Big 0 Tires franchise at 1023 Mission Street is one of more than 438 independent dealers and company-owned stores across the U.S. and Canada.

Tom Gardiner says the independently owned Big 0 dealership is offering all major tire brands at prices comparable with those at the major wholesale outlets. He says "we also are providing customers with highest quality and efficient services, including tires, wheels, brakes, shocks, struts and alignments."The dealership also offers under-car brake, front-end and suspension service. And for those in a hurry, Tom Gardiner says, "on most vehicles it's possible to install and balance four new tires in 30 minutes."

The company began in 1935 as O.K. Rubber Welders that had been founded in Nebraska by a group of independent tire retailers who had invented an improved tire-repair machine.

By 1953 O.K. Rubber Welders was the largest tread rubber account in the U.S..with over 1300 dealers in this nation, Canada, South America, Honduras and Mexico.

Nine years later, in 1962, a group from O.K. Rubber left that company to form Big O Tires. TBC Corp., the largest wholesale tire company in the world, acquired Big 0 in 1996.