Best of Services 2024

November 7, 2024

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AUTOSHOP The crew and family of Fincher Automotive takes a break from keeping Healdsburg's curs and trucks running. From left, Taylor Short, Jerome Grange, Ty Rouzaud, Zach Zeiger, DeAnna Fincher and Jacob Fincher, the current boss. (Tim Fincher was working on a vehicle in the garage.)

Best Way to Ensure Yours Is the Little Engine That Could

They are the people who make the town hum—the bookkeepers and pet groomers, personal trainers and hair stylists. Their businesses are also where Healdsburg’s secrets get told and sometimes kept.

Healdsburg has the services and businesses of a much larger city, a variety made possible by an engaged population of friends and neighbors, professionals and craftspersons, who find that this riverside town of 12,000 both meets and stimulates their business needs.

No better example of this synergy can be found than Fincher Automotive, once again voted Best Auto Service Center in our Best of Healdsburg survey. Tim Fincher started the business in 1982, jumping into providing hands-on, quality service for any customer who found their way to the 82 Healdsburg Ave. shop. “He’s worked for himself all these years,” said DeAnna Fincher, his wife, who still runs the office.

Though Tim Fincher officially retired a couple of years ago, “he still pokes in every day,” said DeAnna Fincher, keeping an eye on the shop and its current manager, Jacob Fincher—a second-generation mechanic with all of his father’s aptitude and skills. “He learned at his father’s knee, went to the JC right out of high school and came in full-time immediately after,” said his mother.

And it’s perhaps Healdsburg’s worst-kept secret that Fincher Automotive is the place to go for service, as it has been for 40 years and more. The reason? “Honesty,” said DeAnna Fincher without hesitation. “That, and the family environment, that’s huge.”

Notably, Fincher Automotive hasn’t yet joined the Electric Vehicle revolution and reluctantly refers customers with Priuses, Volts, Bolts or Rivians to the dealer. They stick with what they know best, and it’s been more than good enough for 42 years.

—Christian Kallen