S&S Complete Auto Care: Downtown Oceanside's one stop auto repair shop

Ken Cashmore wasn't a mechanic and had no experience fixing cars when he set out to buy a business and found to his liking.

So he bought it a year ago.

Cashmore had owned a restaurant in his native Illinois and had worked with a medical-devices firm upon his arrival in California more than 20 years ago after giving up his home and business in a divorce.

“I'm glad I'm not there anymore,” Cashmore said of the Midwest as he went about his business in shorts in sunny Oceanside in the middle of winter.

The important thing about S&S, Cashmore said, is that the same three technicians are still on the job.  They're the mechanics with lots of experience fixing everything from radiators to air conditioners to electrical systems.

Radiators had been a specialty of the previous owner, but, Cashmore said, “we do absolutely every kind of car repair.”

He especially gets a lot of very old cars that have been sitting around for years.

And Cashmore's found they often come with rats' nests and evidence the critters have chewed up the wires and made themselves at home in the air conditioning.

Other shops often refer electrical problems to S&S, he said.

The S&S name came with the business, which has a four-decade history at 620 S. Tremont St.  Nearby businessman John Daley, also a local historian, said the name came from previous owners, Jim Smith and his father-in-law, Victor Joseph Sciba.

“Why change it?,” Cashmore asked rhetorically.

After he retired from the medical firm and his second wife, Linnea Wells, retired after 35 years with the Oceanside Public Library, Cashmore said, she decided one of them had to get out of the house.

He contacted 18 businesses he found for sale online, but only three responded: a hair  salon, a yogurt shop “and this one.”

Cashmore said he and the owner went next door to Daley's 101 Cafe and “struck a deal.”

He already knew how to keep the books and handle a payroll and now he's “learning a whole bunch of stuff” about car maintenance, Cashmore said. And he enjoys the contact with his clients.

“They love to chat, and that's the one thing I can do,” Cashmore said.

As for how business is faring, he said “It's going OK.  I can not say it's the best in the world.  The economy is tough, but we're plugging right along.”  And, he said, his booth at MainStreet Oceanside's Thursday night Sunset Market has helped bring new business. 

S & S Automotive is located at 620 S. Tremont Street in downtown Oceanside. Call them at (760) 722-0188 or visit their WEBSITE.

Story and photos by Lola Sherman