2 Women Carve Their Niche in a World of Grease and Gears

Beads of sweat trickle down the nape of Rebekah Fleischaker’s neck as she slides on her back and elbows, scrambling from beneath a Volkswagen Rabbit.

Her hands, sheathed in rubber gloves, bear evidence of the oil she has just drained from the car. She wipes the back of her neck and submerges her head under the hood, removing faulty spark plugs as she talks about her customers, 95% of whom are female.

“They have a lot of fear,” says Fleischaker, owner of Coast to Coast Mobile Mechanics, a Van Nuys-based auto repair business that services and repairs cars at homes and offices from Santa Barbara to Newport Beach.

“A lot of women have told me that every single time they went to get their cars fixed, the prices were too high or the work was not done and they were charged for it anyway.”

In a profession dominated by men, Fleischaker and partner Julie Yanez have carved a niche for themselves because of their sex and the fears that it eases among other women.

Not that they are the first women ever to fix an internal combustion engine. Women did a considerable amount of mechanical work in many armies in World War II. Queen Elizabeth II, who ran a British army truck unit as a princess, reportedly had far less trouble assembling a transmission than she now has coping with the daughters-in-law from hell.

But in L.A.--and most other places--many women still believe they get a runaround from male mechanics.

“The No. 1 thing is that our clients trust us because we are women,” Fleischaker says.

The female mechanics say they breed trust by bringing women into the repair process.

“We talk to them . . . we explain the problems to them,” says Fleischaker.

“A little bit of knowledge goes a long way in this business,” Yanez adds.

Their approach has set them apart from most male mechanics in the eyes of their customers.

“The nice thing about Rebekah and Julie is that they explain what they’re doing as they go along, whereas men tend to be nonverbal and they don’t speak up,” says customer Joan Hand, owner of a 3-year-old Acura Integra.

“With a dealership or any other mechanic, I never really knew what was wrong with my car,” recalls Hand, standing outside the garage of her Santa Monica apartment complex, where Fleischaker and Yanez gave her car a tuneup.

Initially, Hand was attracted to the idea of supporting a woman-operated business. But two tuneups later, Hand says she has found other appealing benefits including their prices. The tuneup that Fleischaker and Yanez gave her Acura for $42 would have cost her $85 to $375 at a dealership.

Their clientele is not limited to women. Sam Bayer, a music video director, relies on them to maintain his 1960 Cadillac limousine at his home in Venice.

“I liked the fact that they were women,” Bayer says. “I know it sounds sexist, but guys are supposed to be able to do this stuff and here are two women who can do the job and be fair.”

Yanez and Fleischaker aren’t exactly like the male mechanics. Not that many men wear surgical gloves to keep grease from getting under their fingernails.

“When you tell most people you’re a mechanic, the first thing they do is look under your fingernails,” says Yanez. “So when I see a customer look down at my hands I immediately tell them I wear gloves.”

Fleischaker says she honed her skills as a mechanic in Tampa, Fla., where she worked for five years for another mechanic. She moved to Los Angeles in 1989 and worked as a buyer at a clothing store, but her job became increasingly stressful as the economy hit hard times.

In August of 1991, a friend needed new master cylinders for her brakes and clutch but didn’t want to foot the $600 bill another mechanic had quoted.

Fleischaker replaced the cylinders for $50. That brought referrals rolling in. She started out by working on cars after she finished her retail job and on weekends, sometimes doing four or five cars in two days.

Fleischaker eventually moved from the rag trade to wrenches full time. Yanez left her bartender’s job in April to join Fleischaker’s growing business.

Their switch to grease-covered jeans and sweat shirts changed the way people react to them. Yanez recalled being snubbed by a waiter, who assumed they couldn’t afford the meal because of their appearance. His attitude changed when they paid with a $100 bill, she says.

“If you look at a man and he’s greasy, people automatically assume he’s a mechanic, but if you look at a woman and she’s greasy, people automatically assume that she’s a bag lady and that she’s living off the streets,” Yanez says.

Business continues to boom, enough to hire two more female mechanics part time.

Like Fleischaker and Yanez, they will have to get used to the downside to being female in a male-dominated profession.

“Nobody has actually been blunt enough to voice their hesitations,” Yanez says. “But you can sense it by the questions they ask.”

“A lot of times when we go to people’s homes, neighbors look at us really weird,” says Fleischaker. “They look at us like we’re stealing the car because I guess they’re just not used to seeing female mechanics yet.”