Hoffmann 76 was the last downtown service station standing when its owners decided it was time to shift gears.

So successful was the repair and maintenance aspect of Jeff and Rick Hoffmanns business, they often couldnt find enough space to queue the cars to which they wereattending.

In 2005, the brothers sold their property at Fifth and G streets, moving to new digs at 2613Second St. where Hoffmann Automotive was born.

The business legacy began in the 1970s when Davis High graduates Jeff and Rick worked at what once was known as Ray Moss Union.

I was working nights, my wife was at the university days and we never really saw each other, recalls Jeff, who with wife Susan was expecting the birth of son Jason.

Then in 1979, Jeff had an opportunity to buy the place from Ray, explains Rick, who had served six years in the National Guard and hadnt worked at Moss when his brother did.

No escrow, nothing like that, Jeff says. I just wrote Ray a check at the dinner table and it was done. It was a different time.

That was 1979. The Union 76 folks had a mandate called Minuteman Service.

(Union) was really, really big on customer service, customer focus and we believed it, too, Rick says.

We knew how to treat people, or we thought we did: Treat them the way youd want to be treated, Jeff explains. I didnt know (anything) about being in business for myself. I just knew I liked cars and I had the opportunity to buy this gas station.

Rick concurs: We just did (business) the common-sense way. We were nice to people, we did things other places didnt do.

Remember getting your oil checked, windows washed, tire pressure topped off? Long time ago, but

To this day, that lets-get-it-right approach remains evident at Hoffmann Automotive.

Nine employees, including Jeffs wife and son Jason, are on staff.

The elements that 26-year-old Jeff Hoffmann embraced when he took over as one of the youngest 76 dealers in America are stillin place.

Its pretty simple, Rick adds.

Oh, and about that policy of being nice to customers?

Rick Hoffmann met his wife Diane the gas station

She kept coming in kept dropping hints and dropping hints. She kept trying to ask me out, but I was oblivious to all this, he remembers.

We had a rule: we were nice to everybody and waited on customers, right? We kept work and play separate.

Finally, Diane had to ask Mr. Nice Guy out.

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Bob Isaacs aims to get a hole-in-one in this June 1979 photo to promote a Kiwanis golf tournament. Jeff Hoffmann shows off the tires to be given to the best golfer. Enterprise file photo

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An aerial photo shows the site of the Hoffmanns Union 76 station at Fifth and G streets in downtown Davis. Courtesy photo

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Rick Hoffmann, left, and his brother Jeff have owned Hoffmann Automotive since 1979. They moved their business from Fifth and G streets where they owned a Union 76 station for 26 years to 2613 Second St. in 2005. Sue Cockrell/Enterprise photo

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Centennial: The evolution of friendly, efficient Hoffmann Automotive - Davis Enterprise