The Extraordinary Car Guy

“Your car is out of inspection, we are going to do that today at my work before you get pulled over.” Matthew Roan (Matt), remarked with an irritated tone after I pull into the driveway of my humble Centre Hall home. The black Chevrolet Equinox I have the privilege of driving was out of inspection in January 2026. It’s mid-February, so we are a bit late to catching it. This afternoon, we took the 15 minute drive to Stocker Chevrolet in State College, PA. Possessing the title of Fixed Operations

Manager, Matt, is the next step down from the owner. Due to his title he is able to escort me into the service center and I am allowed to observe the inspection of my car, which is not something people typically have the freedom of doing. Stocker is the only place Matt has ever been officially employed by. He has been there for years and his employees will be the first to tell anyone he is the hardest working person they know. “He deserves every single part of the success he has earned,” Jaime, a front desk worker shares. 

Stocker Chevrolet is a rapidly growing family owned business originating in 1961. Gene Stocker Sr opened a small body shop which he ran entirely himself out of Bellefonte, PA. In 1965, he relocated Stocker to the Benner Pike in State College, PA, where it is still operating at today. Gene Stocker Sr’s grandson, Corey Stocker, now owns the family business, however, Corey leaves most of the responsibility to Matthew. 

 Matt carefully drives my car to the inside of the messy body shop as I quietly sit in the passenger seat. The first impression going into Stocker could best be described as looking like a bomb went off. Twelve blue and yellow lifts are organized around the outskirts of the room. A silver Chevy Blazer and a black Chevy Silverado are hoisted in the air in the process of being fixed by employees. Rather large toolboxes line the walls of the football field sized room behind each lift. The employees have their own stations with tools as well as bits and pieces of decorations they relate to. Some of them chose to go with stickers cracking jokes while others have beautiful family photos hanging on the wall. Each of these areas is far from clean. Rags and towels are scattered everywhere covered in black residue. There are black hoses all over the floor laid with no rhyme or reason. It is an environment which is clearly somewhere people are working tirelessly. 

My car is parked next to the Chevy Blazer when Matt begins by opening the hood to check the oil. After closing the hood he silently walks around the vehicle and slides yellow beams beneath the car.

These beams are the support structure for the car lift. The machine creaks and buzzes until the vehicle is about six feet from the ground as Matt simply presses a button. He walks beneath the car with his phone flashlight as he checks the frame and explains, “Your entire undercarriage is beginning to rust. You need to make sure you are taking it through the car wash often when they are salting the roads.”

The employee next to us, James, finally acknowledges us as he pauses his work on the Chevy Blazer. He speaks nervously to Matt, asking how many miles are on the car. Matt turns his head to me with a thoughtful look on his face and says questioningly, “About 100,000?” I nod my head. Matt quickly grabs the orange tire sensor which is resting on the messy toolbox in front of my car. He begins at the front right tire and walks clockwise around the vehicle to each tire and holds the sensor up. The sensor beeps at each tire which makes him sigh irritably. He describes to me, “Each of your tire sensors need replaced.” The drill-like tool which removes the lug nuts is on the toolbox. He strides over and sits the tire sensor down whilst picking up the drill. He begins removing the right front tire as he holds the drill to the lug nuts. It spins furiously and makes a high pitched mechanical noise.

Matt removes the tire and drops it to the ground as it lightly bounces until it falls to its side. He makes his way once again clockwise around the vehicle and lets each tire fall with a sound that can only accurately be compared to if someone was bouncing a basketball on concrete. Once he is finished he rolls each tire across the room to the corner where there is a tall, red, dresser-sized machine which is intended to take the rims out of the tire. After all four tires were rolled over and laid to their sides he removed each valve cap. As the tires release air they make an ear-piercing screeching sound until enough pressure is released, which takes about 30 seconds. He picks up the first tire and sits it on the machine and fastens it down. A small frisbee like piece of metal shoves between the rim and tire rubber with a popping sound as the two pieces separate. Matt rips the valve caps and sensor from the tire.

Plastic crinkles as he opens the replacement pieces which comes from a small bin next to the machine. He forcefully pushes the new piece into place as it has to be seated perfectly in its intended space. The frisbee-like piece rises back into its resting place as Matt grabs a tube which quickly forces air underneath the rubber in order to pop it back onto the rim. The sound happens so quickly and unexpectedly it makes me jump as a loud “POP” echoes in the shop. Matt then refills the tire with air until it reaches 37 psi then removes the tire from the machine and places it back to the ground out of his way. He repeats the same process with the other three tires. He then rolls each tire back across the room to my vehicle and reverses his process earlier by placing each tire back to its place and tightening each of the five lug nuts back on. He wanders back over to the buttons on the lift which he presses and the car lowers to the ground as the machine hums. Sounding relieved to be finished he voices that my car is "all good to drive." My car inspection is complete and we can soon head home.

Privileged to have someone who can perform these services for me for free, it is only fair that I let him explain the hard work it took him to get to his management position at Stocker. We leave my car where it is parked, finally out of air-jail and back on the ground. We walk out of the shop and into his office where the smell of a vanilla air freshener fills the air. We each take a seat in the two chairs in the room, his behind his desk and mine across him. I proceed to ask him when he began working at Stocker. 

Matt thoughtfully looks to the ceiling and pauses for a moment, then looks back to me and describes, “Since I was 17, so about 25 years now. I started after growing up around cars with my dad, who owns his own body shop.”

“How have you worked your way up over the years? What kind of positions or job titles have you held?” I question.

He leans onto his desk and clasps his hands together and begins calmly explaining, “I started as a body shop worker doing the kinds of things James was in there doing. I started fresh out of high school. I had a lot of knowledge about cars, especially Chevys because I grew up knowing them like the back of my hand because I had to help out my dad. I’ve always been someone who values my work ethic so I was in here whenever I could be which gave me a good name and quickly promoted to shop manager. I stayed there for a few years until the old owner, Gene, thought I could do very well managing the entire store front of house and back of house, so he gave me my own office and had me start overseeing everyone here. Over the past 10 years or so my position has really grown into running everything because the current owner, Corey, felt like I could handle more so he started passing some of his owner duties to me since he had young kids he wanted to spend more time with. Now I really do everything and Corey has taken a huge step back in the business. He really only comes into the picture now with major things like legal issues.” 

I raise my final question, “Is there any advice you’d want to tell someone trying to progress in your field, or for the younger people working here at Stocker?” 

He leans back again and rests his hands in his lap, “Yeah. Well, I was saying earlier that my work ethic was the biggest factor in me being where I am right now. I would tell them to always show up and try your best. People notice how hard you work, so if you sit and talk all day with the other guys in the shop, then it looks like you don’t care.”

“That’s good advice. Thank you for your time.” I say in a customer service voice and gently stand from my chair, Matt follows. 

Moral of the story, keep your car inspected, check out Stocker in State College for car services, and if you have a parent like mine who can assist in making your life easier, never take it for granted.