At Volvo Shop, the Dr. Is Still In
A head-on collision between Volvo Cars of North America and a local garage that repairs the Swedish-built luxury cars has been averted after hundreds of the repair shop’s customers launched a letter-writing campaign.
Dr. Volvo Independent Service, the Fountain Valley garage that has battled Volvo for nearly five years to keep its identity, has agreed to modify its name and relegate the auto brand to small print.
The new name will be The Dr.: Volvo Specialist.
It doesn’t seem like much of a change, but Dr. Volvo owner Jerry Fair spent more than $125,000 defending his use of Volvo’s brand name for his business, which is not affiliated with the car company. Volvo sued him for trademark infringement in 1994, claiming that his business name misled customers into believing his shop was somehow endorsed by the car company.
Fair also agreed to change the shade of blue he uses on his sign and in ads so that it no longer resembles the shade that Volvo uses in its trademark-protected advertising. Other terms of the out-of-court settlement, signed last week after a month of meetings, were not disclosed under a mutual confidentiality agreement.
Officials at Volvo’s North American headquarters in New Jersey could not be reached for comment. Fair said he was “very happy” with the agreement, however.
Suits such as Volvo’s are relatively rare, although auto makers pump out hundreds of “cease-and-desist” letters every year in an effort to get independent garages to drop automotive brands from their business names.
Fair--and hundreds of letter-writing customers--argued that Volvo was using the trademark issue as a smoke screen to mask a bid to derail a fast-growing business that competes with the repair shops at the three authorized Volvo dealerships in Orange County.
Dr. Volvo began as a two-hoist garage with a single mechanic in a 1,900-square-foot building. It now occupies a 12,000-square-foot building with eight hoists.
Fair, a former Laguna Beach High School basketball coach and continuation school principal, says his customer list has 3,500 names and produces enough business to keep 11 employees, including six mechanics, working six days a week.
Fair, who has been fighting with Volvo since 1991, said the company had refused to negotiate before the letter-writing campaign last year.
“I had asked them repeatedly, but they had never responded,” he said. “I think it really surprised them that that many customers of a single repair shop would take the time to write and protest.”
