Business Profile: Presto Lube & Oil Change, Mount Kisco
There are many places where you can get an oil change for your car. One of the keys to operating a successful oil change business is focusing on customer service.
Jeff Kodes opened Presto Lube & Oil Change at 379 N. Bedford Rd. in Mount Kisco on July 21, 1992. To celebrate the recent 20-year milestone, Kodes distributed T-shirts to his customers, most of whom come from all over northern Westchester.
“It took a lot of hard work to come to this point,” Kodes said of his full-service repair shop. “The people who come trust me and relax.”
Last week his customers were relaxing watching a men’s Olympic soccer match. Kodes said he has developed friendships with many of his patrons.
“I enjoy my customers,” Kodes said. “They are sitting, relaxing, enjoying themselves” while their vehicle is being serviced.
Working on cars has long been a passion for Kodes, 62, who has been in the business for more than 30 years. Though he has worked on cars in the past, with a staff of four employees, his role today is mainly administrative.
There is a simple explanation for the name of his business and one that Kodes takes seriously. “Presto means quick in Italian,” he said. Oil changes typically take between 15 and 20 minutes at Presto Lube.
Kodes also helps out in the community by providing local schools, churches and synagogues gift certificates that are raffled off during fundraising events.
In his two decades in business in Mount Kisco, one thing that has changed is the bustling business district.
“There was not much around 20 years ago,” he said. “It’s grown up tremendously.”
Though he lives in Queens, about 10 minutes from Citi Field, Kodes is a Yankee and New York Giants fan, as the newspaper clippings of the two franchises’ successes that adorn his business’s lobby can attest. Kodes has a wife, Celia, and a son, Shawn, an attorney who as a youngster worked at Presto Lube during the summers.
Kodes said he hopes to continue running Presto Lube for the foreseeable future.
“As long as I will be physically okay I’ll be here,” he said. “We’re trying to provide the best possible quality work for our customers. I think I’m doing a pretty good job.”
Presto Lube & Oil Change is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Saturdays from 8 .a.m. to 4 p.m. The phone number is 914-242-0022.
