Precision Auto Parts opened its doors in 1954 as Precision Auto Service and began pumping gas as a filling station and auto mechanical repair facility. We were the first repair facility in Arizona to acquire the Dynamometer, used to diagnose problems while the vehicle wheels were rotating 35 miles per hour. As an adjunct to our gas and repair facility, we added a body shop repair division, servicing insurance companies and individual customers. Our body shop division encompassed auto body repair, a frame machine, and auto painting. To enhance our customer service, we began steam-cleaning vehicles, which then sparked the idea of expanding to a mobile 24-foot trailer for mobile steam and high pressure cleaning of industrial equipment, large storage tanks, restaurants, airports, and numerous other businesses.

We later purchased a tow truck to recover our customer’s disabled vehicles for repair and began observing the increasing traffic and accidents in the Phoenix area. We proceeded to purchase additional used tow trucks, refurbished them, and began accident recovery of vehicles for the Phoenix Police Department. Within a year, we had five class C tow trucks and were towing wrecked vehicles off the city streets and winching them from the deep canyons of South Mountain Park. As an off shoot of recovering wrecked vehicles, insurance companies began requesting repair estimates and salvage bids on wrecked vehicles in our storage lot that were deemed a total loss. This fostered the beginning of Precision Auto Parts.