You might walk into Arneson Valley Auto In Spring Valley for an oil change or a tune-up. Chances are you’ll leave with a deep appreciation for a man who just put his heart and soul into your vehicle.
That’s Larry Arneson. He is 73, has owned his shop for 25 years and has no plans to quit. Never mind that he suffered a stroke last fall. Arneson has grit and a passion for all things auto, and he loves to share about it.
That is, if you can catch him.
“Open when I’m here, closed when I’m not,” reads a sign on his door.
“We have a cabin up north. Most people know if they can’t get a hold of me on a Friday, they might not get me on a Monday either,” Arneson says. “I’m old enough, I think I deserve it.”
That might be an understatement. Before Arneson started his own business, he worked at the Ford dealership in town for 28 years. That brings his experience as a mechanic to more than half a century. He works on everything from Model As to 2023 Escapes – or other models under one condition. “I’ll do it if I don’t have to borrow a bunch of special tools,” he says.
Ford All the Way
Yes, Arneson is a tried and true Ford mechanic. He’s got every imaginable tool and book to help him fix any Ford rolling into his shop. Years ago, he started going to Ford garage auctions to buy specialty tools in anticipation of opening his own business.
He even has an old photo of Henry Ford on one of his shelves, which is causing frequent confusion.
“Is that your dad?” customers often ask him.
Equally impressive is Arneson’s collection of automotive memorabilia stacked high everywhere you look. From old oil cans to first aid kits and trophies, he’s got it all.
“Some of this stuff isn’t worth anything, except to me. It’s sentimental,” he says.
If you look closely, you’ll also spot a growing and seemingly out-of-place collection of 7Up memorabilia. Arneson has the perfect explanation.
“Everybody else collects Coke,” he says with a chuckle and shows off an old 7Up metal carrier with bottles from the late 1940s.
“The bottles still had the lady on the side,” he points out.
Arneson says his collection has been a highlight for customers, and he has come to accept that they just aren’t interested in the magazines he has available for them as they wait.
“They say, ‘If you don’t mind, I’d love to walk around and look at all your stuff,’” he says. “I’ve made the place homey.”
The Road to Ford
Arneson never planned on becoming a mechanic. He always thought he’d help his dad on the farm in Lime Springs and maybe get a job at a gas station. But life rolled down a different road after Arneson graduated from high school in 1968.
“I had a couple of buddies who wanted to go to vocational school and share the rent,” he says.
Arneson joined, which also earned him a deferment from going to Vietnam. In his second year of vocational school, he anxiously awaited the results of the Vietnam Lottery and again did not have to join the war. Arneson again set his sights on the family farm until one day, when he stopped at Bud Atwood Motor Company in Spring Valley to pick up some touch-up paint.
“It was a Friday night and Bud was the typical salesman, you know, and wanted to talk,” Arneson remembers. Before he knew it, Atwood offered him a job as a mechanic.
Arneson finished school on June 5, 1970, and started his job three days later. His marathon career as a Ford mechanic was underway.
A Big Move
In 1998, with almost three decades of mechanic experience under his belt, Arneson opened his own business, Arneson Valley Auto Inc. He’s been the star of his own show ever since.
“I’m a one-man shop, and I put my best man on the job every time,” he says with a twinkle in his eyes. “My wife is the bookkeeper and the vice president.”
Even though computers now run most systems in a car, they don’t faze Arneson one bit. He will always stick to his roots as a mechanic to solve the problem.
“You’d be surprised how many times you think it must be the computer, but you get back to the basics, and you try to think, well, if it didn’t have all this extra electronic stuff on it, what would I look for,” he says.
That tried and true philosophy has been at the center of Arneson’s success. The proof is a broad customer base that keeps bringing him vehicles to fix or just to get some advice.
“Many want to know if they should let their vehicle die in peace or revive,” he says.
Not the End
Arneson faced a similar question on September 19 of last year. He was half-way through his first oil change of the day when something felt wrong. He took an aspirin and finished the job. But then his left leg and arm went numb. He was lucky to have several customers in the shop.
“They guy asked if I was okay, and I said I think I’m having a stoke,” he recalls.
Arneson’s wife took him to the clinic in Spring Valley, which quickly turned into an ambulance ride to the hospital. But Arneson was lucky. His stroke turned out to be a sensory one – he never lost his strength, eye sight or ability to swallow and talk – and he was sent home after an afternoon of observation.
“Maybe it was a batch of bad gas or a blood fuel filter or something,” he chuckles.
Today, Arneson still deals with some numbness in his left hand, but if you thought that was a reason for him to hang up the shop towel, you would be wrong.
But he admits he came close.
“I don’t really need to work, but it’s just so boring sitting at home watching Gun Smoke all day, I have to get out here,” he says.
Arneson says that he has slowed down a bit but he is still fueled by the same passion that has carried him for the last 55 years.
“It’s been a good life, I wouldn’t want to trade it for anything,” he says.
Henry Ford would be proud.
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