Announcing the 2024 Shop of the Year

CARS magazine is proud to announce that Maidens Family Auto Care in Barrie, Ontario, is the winner of this year’s prestigious Shop of the Year Award, sponsored by Milwaukee Tool.

Craig and Heather Maidens have made a name for themselves not just in the auto care community but in their Barrie and area community.

The Maidens are significant supporters of their community — being able to volunteer and give back was a driving reason why Craig decided to start his own shop after 20 years of working for other shop owners.

“Helping people out is the big thing for us,” Craig said.

They’ve also proved themselves to their customers as a reliable choice to have their automotive needs taken care of. They took over from Almer Automotive in 2020, forcing the Maidens to fill some big shoes. They’ve succeeded, as emphasized by the shop’s 4.9-star rating on Google based on more than 360 reviews.

“There’s a lot of trust in place that their customers put into us,” Craig said. “My customers knew who I was, so they knew exactly how I dealt, but there were a lot of [new] customers that didn’t know how we dealt. They had to learn to trust us. And they trust us now.”

Maidens also placed a priority on training, from keeping staff up to date on the latest vehicle issues to keeping an eye on electric vehicles.

“We were saying no to a lot of EV and hybrid repairs because we just couldn’t do them,” Craig said. “And then if you look out on the parking lot here, I’m sure out of 100 cars, you probably see 10 that are electric or hybrid. So it’s going to be a huge part of our business. There’s no running away from it.”

As part of the recognition, Milwaukee Tool provided Maidens with a prize pack valued at $3,000.

This is just the announcement of the win — stay tuned for the full print feature in the December issue of CARS magazine. If Canada Post has not resolved its strike, you will still be able to read the digital version of the magazine.

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