Shops from around the country fill out the top 10 of the fourth annual Motor Age Top Shops Contest. The top shop in 2009 is Menke Automotive Repair in Newburgh, Ind., while shops from Colorado, Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, California, Michigan, Arizona and another Indiana shop round out the list.

Despit their location around the United States, all of the shops demonstrated strenghths in marketing, technology in the bays, customer relations and community service, among other attributes.

Shops and their owners or presidents rounding out the top 10 are:
• Certified Automotive Specialists, Glendora, Calif., Gene and Robin Morrill

• Duebber’s Automotive, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio, Al Duebber and Marc Duebber

• Downing Street Garage, Denver, Colo., Douglass and Rebecca Kirchdorfer

• Hires Automotive, Fort Wayne, Ind., Tom Hire and Charley Hire

• Keller Bros. Auto Repair, Littleton, Colo., Terry and Margaret Keller

• Wilhelm Automotive Service Centers, Peoria, Ariz., Thomas Gyder

• Terry Wynter Auto Service Center Inc., Fort Myers, Fla., Terry and Kay Wynter

• Frantz Automotive Center, Cary, N.C., Don and Lisa Frantz

• Marathon Automotive, Traverse City, Mich., Ross Schofield

Shops were asked to tell Motor Age about the history of their business, business, customer service and employee philosophies, supplier relationships, shop management procedures, marketing, merchandising techniques, Web site, events, parts philosophy and more. And all in just 1,500 words.

So what makes a top shop? They have to be unique, innovative and ready to go above and beyond in all of these categories and more. Just doing what’s been done for decades doesn’t cut it anymore.

Check out each of the shop’s stories and check back for added audio interviews with the owners and presidents of the companies.