Keller’s Pro Auto & Diesel
Steve Edison and Nate Knepp: Store Managers
Tom Keller has been in the automotive service for over 40 years. His Keller’s Pro Auto and Diesel covers three locations (Parker, Aurora and Centennial in Colorado), all with about eight to nine full-service bays. Each location is a one-stop shop offering anything from simple service and overhauls, to upgrades and suspension installation. “We do everything but bodywork,” says the Parker store’s manager Steve Edison. The company has been around for a long time, and it seems to be a great environment to work in.
Owner Tom Keller puts his faith and confidence in the managers and employees to run the company with a caring and proud attitude that translates to employee retention, keeping them with the company for an average of eight to nine years. Nate Knepp, the Aurora location’s Store Manager and a second-generation employee that’s been with Keller’s for 11 years now, says “the success the individual managers and employees bring has boosted the growth of the company spinning off a single location into three in a relatively short period of time. And we have plans to keep growing with more locations,” says Nate. “We have employees that have been here for a long time, and we’d love to bump them up to by having them work in a location of their own, so to speak. I personally have been working in automotive shops since I was 13, and really this is what I know. It’s a good business to be in, and this is the right place to be. I hope to be able to hand down this down to my kid and teach him, like my dad did me, that this is a great way to make a living and take care of his family.”
Nate, Steve and the other’s share a company objective to ensure confidence in their work for the customer. Service and the right atmosphere is one way, with the other being an exclusive 5 year/ 60,000 mile warranty on part and labor for anything that they sell. This goes beyond the warranties of many of the products that they sell, and if there is a problem, they will make sure that it is taken care of post haste. They believe in what they sell and their work, standing behind it all for the long haul. That’s one of the reasons why they sell Banks products. “The research and development that goes into a Banks product is what awes me,” says Steve. “I own several banks products that are on my truck, but it’s not only the actual performance that I get from the products that I like, it’s the way that they REALLY work. There are so many products out there that the engineering just doesn’t go into them, and they just don’t do what they say it’ll do.”
When asked about his truck with the Banks product on it Steve was excited to answer any questions. “My Duramax is a 2006, and has just barely over 100,000 miles. I can crank that baby up for some fun with the Six-Gun, then turn on the Banks SpeedBrake and come down the Eisenhower Tunnel with no problem. Now that has a 6.5 to 7% grade and the truck will hold 45 miles an hour all the way down with no problem. The way that the products perform makes me proud to be associate with Banks through the company. When I sell a product I know it’s going to work, and I’m happy that to sell it. Heck, I hand them the keys to my truck so that they can test it for themselves and tell them, ‘This is what I can do for your truck.'”
Keller’s – Aurora
18385 E. Girard Ave
Aurora, CO 80013
303-343-9200
Keller’s – Centennial
5646 S. Gibraltar Way
Centennial, CO 80015
720-876-1111
Keller’s – Parker
10841 S. Crossroads Dr. Unit 19
Parker, CO 80134
303-840-7500