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11/4/2012
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If your last trip to the automotive repair shop left you feeling baffled and fleeced, then Car Care for the Clueless is your go to radio destination. With more than 18 years in the business, ACE Certified Technician, Pam Oakes will help you learn to communicate with the folks who are actually working on your car. Light hearted and fun, the is not Car Talk delving into specific automotive car care issues rather providing you with the tools to interface with the professionals you rely on. Finally there are answers to your questions, find them all here on Car Care for the Clueless!
ABOUT PAM OAKES
Pam was born and spent the first portion of her childhood on the east side of Detroit/Metro area. (Her teen years were spent on Florida’s southwest coast.) Pam is a fourth generation automotive technician: Her great-grandfather Leonard Smith (deceased), grandfather, Ralph Smith (deceased) and father Jerry Oakes (retired in 2004 with more than 45 years as a tech; worked with Pam from 1996 to 2004). One of Pam’s first automotive lessons was from her great-grandfather. He taught her how to set a choke on a 1969 Plymouth – the same car she takes to antique shows today. (This car is featured in the intro to CAR-ER, automotive show.) Her first steering gear/suspension rebuild was on the same vehicle, with her dad, Jerry.
Pam has been an ASE-certified automotive technician since 1995. She has repaired tens of thousands of vehicles since.
She started Pam’s Motor City Automotive in 1995. Pam was the sole employee — technician, service writer, bookkeeper and “bottle washer” for approximately three months before hiring an oil lube tech. Today, she has a 12-bay shop with 10 employee. And, yes, she still turns wrenches.
Pam’s Motor City Automotive has won numerous awards throughout the years – local, regional, and national.
*2008 Tire Review magazine “Top-Shop” runner-up award, nationwide
*2008 Motorage magazine “Semi-Finalist” top-shop award, nationwide
*1999 Women’s Board Car Care Council national award for “Car Care for the Clueless: Glove box Guide”, revised
*1999 Women’s Board Car Care Council national award for “PAM: Pam’s Automotive Minute” (a video, minute-long car care news segment)
*2001 Women’s Board Car Care Council national award for “2001 Hurricane Car Care Guide”
*2006 Women’s Board Car Care Council national award for “Empowered Women’s Car Care Guide”
*”Best Auto Repair” in (local) News-Press reader’s poll (approx. 125,000 response, each year) for 14 years (including 2011)
* “Best Auto Repair” in Child and Parent magazine (regional) for 2010, 2011
*”Best Auto Repair” in Senior Magazine (regional) for 2009
*1999 Rotary International Four-Way Test Award recipient
* 11 year member of Rotary International and Paul Harris Fellow
*Estero Island Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), second regent 2009-2011
*Author of “Car Care for the Clueless: Or How You Can ‘Make Money’ While Maintaining Your Vehicle”, 2011
*Radio host of “Car Care for the Clueless” on webtalkradio.net
*Co-producer of CAR-ER show, 2011
*Pam hosts a semi-monthly car care clinic for women, since 1996
Pam lives with her fiancé, Peter, of 12 years and their two dogs and two cats, in Florida
