Return of a Serviceable Idea : Oil companies are taking a new look at old-fashioned full-serve stations that do more than just pump gas.

In the 1940s, teen-ager James Harris wore a sharp uniform and had a job in public service. He was a gas station attendant.

“We cleaned the windows, checked the oil, checked the tires, put in the gas,” Harris recalled of his time at a Kentucky Gulf station. “You might be getting only $3 in gas, but you still got the same service.”

Now, Harris is 65 and lives in Brentwood. “It’s not like it used to be,” he says of gas stations. “Most of them just want to sell you the gas, get you in and get you out. . . . It’s getting to be a problem finding a place to fix a flat.”

Which is why Harris is devoted to the landmark Chevron station in Brentwood Village, where he has taken his weathered Ford to be serviced for years. Against the general trend, the company-owned station still has operational service bays and a mechanic who knows his customers by name.

“The service stations back in those days are like this one here,” he said. “They’re always willing to help.”

Stations such as the Brentwood Chevron have become an endangered species in an era favoring cut-rate, self-serve operations with all the charm of a refinery.

Recently, however, there are signs that the move away from the traditional full-service gas station has slowed, and several major oil companies have begun training programs for mechanics and promoting their service.

Franchising Service

“The interest of the major oil companies in parts and repair services has increased in recent years,” said Thomas F. Hogarty, research manager for the American Petroleum Institute in Washington.

Oil companies had already begun dabbling in auto service, usually in the form of franchised quick lube or tuneup services that offered only a handful of services or smog checks.

In the early 1980s, Atlantic Richfield entered the quick tuneup business with its MP&G; Tune-Up Center franchises. Shell Oil, the nation’s largest gasoline retailer for the past two years, similarly franchised about 900 Right Away quick lube shops in Shell stations.

But Unocal, which carved a market niche by retaining traditional stations and repair bays, went beyond the quick lube shops and began moving upscale, offering warrantied service and special training for mechanics under its branded Protech program. Although service under the program is limited to five basic areas, it covers most typical auto repairs short of engine or transmission overhauls.

Shell now gives its dealers the option of buying the company’s own full-service auto-care franchise package, which includes mechanic training and service warranties, said Shell spokeswoman Dee Dee Taylor in Houston.

Similarly, Chicago-based Amoco has begun test-marketing a branded professional car-care service called Certicare, which includes special training and a hot line for mechanics, in Wichita and Baltimore stations. As under Unocal’s program, service is limited, but still goes beyond lubes, oil changes and tuneups.

Meanwhile, the remaining old-fashioned stations seem to be doing better than ever. There are fewer, and the ones that remain tend to be healthy, Hogarty said. “The traditional service station had the disadvantage for many years that it was not specialized. . . . But as there are fewer of these, the best ones can offset the disadvantage with personalized service and the assurance to customers that they are getting honest service,” he said.

Converting to Self-Serve

Carroll Hansen’s Shell station on Sepulveda Boulevard in Bel-Air is the last of six stations that he owned in the past 25 years. With three full-time mechanics and one part-timer, it is a model of the old-fashioned full-service gas station. The only nod to modern times: The station has a couple of self-serve pump islands that generate most of the monthly gasoline volume of about 140,000 gallons.

Hansen, 56, argues that many oil companies could and did compel dealers to convert their full-service stations into self-serve stations under terms of their leases. The reason: The traditional stations required more labor and time to operate, and service bay revenue generated profits for the dealer. Self-serves, on the other hand, required less skilled and less expensive help, and generated cash primarily through gasoline sales, which benefited the oil company.

To compensate for the lost income from service bays--or “back rooms” as they are called in the trade--oil companies offered dealers the chance to franchise convenience stores and other non-auto businesses as new profit centers.

But Hansen said he prefers the old way, although it requires experienced management, time and constant attention. “The economics are pretty simple,” he said. “A single self-serve service station, unless it has huge volumes, simply can’t generate enough income for a person to live on well. So you either have to have multiple operations or operate something like I do.”

The trend away from full-service stations began in the 1970s and accelerated as land values increased, tough underground tank laws raised the cost of doing business and margins on gasoline became razor thin. Oil companies shut down scores of weaker stations, and service bays disappeared even more rapidly.

In the Los Angeles area, the number of gas stations declined 41.4% to 5,252 in 1988 from 8,961 in 1974, according to the Lundberg Survey. But the total number of service bays declined even more, by 58.5% to 8,545 from 20,610 in the same period, the survey reported.

At the same time, the number of motor vehicles here increased from 6.87 million to 9.55 million. In 1974, there was one gas station for every 767 cars; in 1988, there was one for every 1,818, the survey found.

Pioneering Changes

Meanwhile, the service station market, which was once relatively uniform, became fragmented.

Stations now run the gamut from the traditional station to the high-volume “pumpers” that sell nothing but self-serve gasoline, and from the increasingly familiar gas station-convenience store combinations to newer arrangements that pair gas with fast-food restaurants, self-serve carwashes and even dry cleaning shops.

Many consumers readily accepted the lower prices and convenience compared to traditional full-service stations. Arco, which pioneered the change with all self-serve, no-credit stations, undersold much of the competition with its combination gas stations and am/pm minimarkets and was the Los Angeles area’s leading gasoline retailer with 20.1% of the market, according to a July, 1988, Lundberg Survey.

“It’s clearly what the consumer wants,” said Edward G. Reilly, Arco’s senior vice president for marketing. If a customer needs a garage? “Just pick up the Yellow Pages and look under auto repair,” he said.

Now, said Stephen Shelton, executive director of the Southern California Service Station Assn., “It’s gone about as far as it can go.”

As other oil companies were following Arco’s lead, Unocal anticipated that there would still be some consumers who would crave service. “It has allowed us to differentiate ourselves from the majority of our competition,” said Clay Warnock, vice president of western marketing for Unocal.

The remaining traditional stations have more business than ever because there are fewer repair bays overall. The repairs tend to be more specialized, more expensive and of better quality than before, observers said.

“The service bay volume is so high, a lot of work is only done by appointment, and flat rates have gone from $15 to $40 per hour” in some locations, said Stephen Shelton, executive director of the Southern California Service Station Assn.

Friendly Attitude

Farough Badie, 46, said his Studio City Unocal station’s six service bays are filled all day. “We are well-known in the area, and these days with stations preferring to go to other sorts of profit like minimarkets and self-service, those stations remaining . . . get the business.”

Connie Brill, a free-lance artist, said she takes her Pontiac Firebird to Badie’s station because the people are friendly and it’s the only one she trusts. Besides, she said, “when I first started having trouble with my water pump, I stopped at three gas stations, and nobody had a mechanic. And this place has one on Saturdays.”

Carroll Hansen has his own measure that full-service stations will remain in demand. Across the street, an oil company tore down a full-serve station and put up a self-serve with no amenities. “My restroom traffic has doubled,” he said.