After 43 years, Hower will close Jim’s Garage

NORTH CANAAN — Close on the heels of closing the Brewer Bros. car dealership, Bill Hower is marking the end of an era with the closing of Jim’s Garage and Subaru dealership.

June 5 was the last day in the repair shop, where he has worked on countless cars for 43 years, starting for his dad when he was just 14.

“Forty-three years is a long time to be in any business,” Hower said earlier this week, dismissing the requisite rumors of insolvency.

It was eerily quiet in the shop, where he has worked on every car that many of his customers have owned. The usual greasy coveralls were gone, and customers were dribbling in to resolve business or buy tires and other parts at bargain prices from his garage stock.

Answering the endless questions is exhausting, but he appreciates that he will be missed, and is satisfied that he can say he helped build an institution on Railroad Street.

On the door, his Facebook page and his phone message, customers were advised the decision is due to a family member’s illness.

That is true to a degree, but it is only part of the realization that there is more to life than work. Business has been very good. But it’s time.

“I’ve done enough work, and I’ve made enough money,” he said. “I was on vacation recently, the first real vacation in decades, and it started to hit me. I could actually spend a day doing nothing. I was thinking about the 100 oil filters and all the other stuff I had just stocked up on, and so I just dismissed any ideas.”

Hower is hopeful someone will come along and buy the business. Maybe as his father, Bill Sr., did they will keep the original name of Jim’s Garage. But it has to be someone absolutely qualified before he will turn over his customer database, and they have to be able to buy the property as well. He is getting out completely.

At the end of April, he closed the Chrysler dealership, saying that in his two years with it, he had increased sales to an unmanageable level. For the last month at Jim’s, things went incredibly smoothly, and that was the final sign.

“For once, I wasn’t putting out fires. I could see a way to end.”

The plan is to spend time at the home he and his wife bought seven years ago in Montana. He won’t be retiring just yet. Whatever he decides to do, it won’t be fixing cars.

For the next two months, people are welcome to leave a message or stop by to buy car parts and repair equipment. On Aug. 15, whatever is left, including computers and office furnishings, will be part of a live auction on site.