Westgate Auto’s Next Chapter

When you enter the Westgate Auto office, a big dog named Buck greets you at the door. After returning Buck’s friendly hello, you enter a pleasantly cluttered office – family photos, landscape paintings, and other memorabilia decorate the walls. The energy in the office feels less like an auto shop and more like a community center.

Westgate Auto has bounced along a one-block section of Wallace Rd. NW for the past 60 years. The business, started by Leroy Barfknecht’s father in 1964, has moved three times in its multi-decade history, before settling back into the shop where it started all those years ago. 

Now the auto shop is entering its next chapter. This October, Barfknecht, 79, finalized the sale of the business to his longtime collaborator, Jose Gonzalez, 44, who joined the shop as a mechanic in 2014 - following his father’s tenure as a mechanic at the shop.  In 2020, he transitioned to more of the administrative side of the business and has been helping run it since then. 

Gonzalez says he feels a lot of responsibility taking over the shop, a West Salem institution that has served generations of local families. 

“The relationships are a really nice part of it, getting to know the customers, getting to see their children grow up and learn to drive,” Gonzalez said. 

Customers come in and out with histories entwined with Barfknecht and his family. With one customer, Barfknecht reminisces about coaching his youth basketball team 40 years ago. Another customer tells him he’s been patronizing the business for 30 years, beginning with a recommendation from his brother. 

“They’ve aged right along with me,” Barfknecht said of his customers. 

As Barfknecht has gotten older, he’s stepped away from the day-to-day operations. Gonzalez has helped with the transition to fast-changing technology, both in terms of running the business and in the cars that come through the shop. 

“He automatically slid into this chair because he's so good at it, handling the people and all the bookwork,” Barfknecht said. 

The change in command has been a long time coming, in a way. 

“We would daydream, my dad and I, about taking over the shop someday,” Gonzalez said. “Leroy has grown to trust me, and it’s important to me to uphold his reputation and standards.” 

Running a business has changed a bit in the decades since the shop opened. The costs of running a business have certainly increased—Barfknecht remembers wages of $1.25 an hour, back in the 1960s—and West Salem has continued to develop and become a busier neighborhood. 

But he says one thing has been consistent: the people he works with. The shop currently employs two technicians.

“In all my years of being in car repair, I ended up with probably the best technicians. It’s a blessing, really,” Barfknecht said. 

Barfknecht and Gonzalez have become close over the years. Sharing close quarters in the office has brought them together, along with Barfknecht’s trusting management style, and the pair share a sense of humor. They have developed an ongoing joke of hiding small photo cutouts of each other and other family members around the office. Looking closely, one can see the photos tucked into toy cars and picture frames. Gonzalez laughs that Barfknecht has created a fun environment to work in. 

“I don’t feel like he’s my boss, I feel like Leroy’s my friend,” Gonzalez said.  

Now that the sale of Westgate Auto has been finalized, Barfknecht is looking toward his own future. His wife, Diana, wants to travel, and they have a trip planned to visit family in Wisconsin. 

He also has aspirations of making music. He’s already collaborated with his daughter, Jerusha Malaer, on two albums. He’s received the moniker “the singing mechanic” due to his exploits. 

Malaer recalls Barfknecht encouraging her and her siblings to sing as children, both at home and in the church choir. A recording of Malaer’s childhood singing voice even made it onto their first album in a song called “Daddy, I’ll Miss You,” that the father-daughter duo created together. 

“That’s the one that went big on the air in Dublin, Ireland,” Malear said. “We got fan mail, people would write to the singing mechanic. You’re never sure if there’s another song in you: I don’t want to die with music still in me.”

Barfknecht’s passion for music comes through clearly. He has copies of their CDs ready to share in the office, and he excitedly discusses his songwriting process, often drawing on old memories for inspiration. 

Malaer and Barfknecht say he has ideas for at least a couple more songs that they want to record together. The business, the family, the music - together part of his legacy.