Master technician keeps in tune with times

By Judy Babb

Tucked away in a corner of Lake Highlands where I- 635 and Plano Road intersect is a place with a lot of history and credibility. Both of those come from Rico Padilla, the owner and backbone of Rico and Son’s Automotive. 

Rico, as everyone calls him, brings 47 years of automotive experience and is an Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) Master Technician. Fewer than 60,000 ASE Master Technicians exist and only a handful have held that certification since 1976. Rico said there are none for miles and miles from his location. He wears the patch he earned proudly, as it indicates he has passed and stays current in eight different categories from engine repair to heating and air conditioning, brakes, suspension and electrical systems. What’s more, his shop is ASE certified. Few others have that.

Despite the business name, his three-man shop doesn’t include his son Mark Anthony Padilla, who is 13 years old. And it probably never will. Rico said his son is interested in sports cars and, specifically, he’s into video games.

“In the real world, he’s interested in working his thumbs,” Rico said with a laugh. “He doesn’t like working. He doesn’t like real cars. But that could turn around in a couple of years.” 

Rico’s office showcases photos and mementos that say a lot about the business and the man. Two photos show a group of children gathered around a bright red Corvette. 

A woman had stopped at a gas station he had owned where he kept a number of his cars and told about her son “breaking his neck looking at your cars.” She asked if he would go to St. Patrick’s Catholic School, take a car and do a show and tell. Rico smiled and laughed at the memory of talking to 25 or 30 first graders, who, as he said, all wanted to talk at once. 

The wall opposite the photos has the front end of a Chevy truck jutting into the room. Above the grill is the name of his business. And while he does give of himself out of the business, he is most proud of what his shop does.

His ASE Master Technician status sets Rico’s shop above most of the others in the area. Frequently area shops work together and sometimes hire Rico’s shop for things they are not comfortable with. 

His experience puts him above a lot of the shops. It also gives him a niche other shops don’t have.

“A lot of the older cars come in my direction,” he said. “A lot of the younger mechanics are afraid to work on older cars. The information on them is harder to find and they don’t know how to work on the older technology.”

Rico’s advantage is that he can work on all cars without regard to age of the vehicle or its technology.

The longevity of automotive technicians is apparently short. Rico said few last more than eight to 12 years. He’s always on the lookout for talent. One of those is his new mechanic Scott Griffin.

He spotted Griffin at another shop and could see he was a thinker and cared about workmanship. Griffin liked to figure out what was wrong rather than say he did not know. 

So, Rico tried twice to get Griffin to his shop. On separate occasions, he had two friends go to the shop where Griffin worked and say they were headhunters. 

“I like to surround myself with winners,” Rico said. “The second approach worked. He realized he had made a mistake and he came over and talked to me.”

Griffin now works down the road from where he used to work.

“I say, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong’ all the time,” Griffin said. “Because that’s the truth. Rico gives me a hard time about that but then I say, ‘I don’t know yet.’”

Griffin says he brings knowledge and experience to Rico’s shop. He also brought two toolboxes full of tools, although nothing Rico didn’t have. He enjoys the work and the routine but the thing he likes best is the problem-solving part of it. 

“It can be kind of a challenge sometimes,” he said. He used a problem on his wife’s car as an example. “I’ve looked at it two or three times and I still don’t know what it is.” He plans to figure it out this weekend.

Griffin said people are pretty good about keeping up their maintenance these days — getting their oil changed and the like and said cars don’t break as much as they used to — but he did offer advice for having fewer problems with cars. 

“Take your car into your person every six months,” he said. “You don’t [just] have anyone checking your belts, your hoses, your other fluids. Take it in to a competent mechanic and have those things checked.”

COVID has changed a lot of things, including the miles people put on their cars. Griffin suggested people still take their cars in to be checked twice a year. He said that would cost about $50. He suggested doing an oil change as well, which would cost about $60 and would get the maintenance checks to improve the life of the car.

Now its back to Rico, who ended with a joke. 

Do you know the difference between a good mechanic and a doctor? 

A doctor gets to bury his mistakes.