Hoxie’s Garage to call it a day

WINSTED — After many years of repairing cars and trucks in town, and after seven years of owning his own garage, Cliff Hoxie is planning to close Hoxie’s Garage at 942 Main St. and retire in April.“My license to operate the garage is up in April, and I do not plan to renew it at that point,” Hoxie said. “I’m looking to sell the business much earlier than I had originally planned. April 15 is tax time. and it has become increasingly hard to make it.”Hoxie said the poor economy is a major factor in shutting down the business.“By the time I make payroll for my employees and by the time I pay my vendors, I have very little money left,” Hoxie said. “Plus, that power outage we had in November closed our shop for four days. That in itself was just enough to close the doors.”Hoxie graduated from The Gilbert School in 1971 and he said that, from a very young age, he was a “gearhead.”“My father was a do-it-yourself type of guy,” Hoxie said. “He always had a lot of cars to experiment with. He had a 40-acre farm and had lots of dirt roads. I have always grown up around cars. I used to be able to make one car out of three cars.”Hoxie said that, for years, he has been a die-hard General Motors enthusiast.“For a long time it was strictly Chevrolets for me,” he said. “But after being in business for a while I’ve grown a lot of respect for Asian cars. I still like older cars the best.”For many years Hoxie worked at various garages in town before he opened up Hoxie’s Garage in 2004.Since he has owned the garage, many members of his family have worked for him, including his brother, daughter and grandson.“I have fixed everything from lawn mowers to Volkswagons,” he said. “I also sell affordable used cars to people. I like matching vehicles to my customers driving habits. I also enjoy going to vehicle auctions. Some people rescue dogs and horses. I rescue cars.”Hoxie said he plans to continue to fix automobiles and sell cards until the garage is closed in April.He hopes that the garage will be purchased by a local resident.“I will miss my customers, employees and vendors,” Hoxie said. “I met some really great and supportive people over the years. It was a lot of long hours, but I really enjoyed it.”