Cars and integrity run in the Boykin family.

Ronnie Boykin, the owner of Robertsdale Automotive on Media Street in Robertsdale, grew up sweeping the floors of his father’s business, Carl Boykin Automotive.

“He taught me how to do it, and I went ahead and went into it, too,” Ronnie said. “I’ve done this all my life.”

Ronnie worked in his father’s shop until 1998, when he opened his own business, which he and his son Jason now run together. Many of the customers who brought their cars to Ronnie then are still loyal 14 years later.

“We have a lot of return customers,” Ronnie said. “Everybody knows us, we stand behind what we do and we do a wide variety of work.”

Ronnie said he knows customers often distrust mechanics, but he cares too much about the community and his faith to treat people unfairly, he said.

“Number one, I’m a Christian man, and I’m not going to do anything if God’s not going to be happy with me,” Ronnie said. “As a Christian, I’ve got to live the life, and that includes during the week, not only on Sunday. It’s also my personality to be fair with people. I want everyone to be as fair with me as I am with them.”

Ronnie and his wife Mary have been involved at First Baptist Church of Robertsdale since their three children were born. The couple met in elementary school and started dating during their high school years at Robertsdale High School. They never considered leaving Baldwin County.

“We’ve got a lot of friends here,” Ronnie said. “It’s just got that small, hometown feeling. And being close to the Gulf Coast — I don’t think I could ever move away from my Gulf.”

And Jason and his family feel the same way. He enjoys the laid-back, rural lifestyle of the Robertsdale area and enjoyed growing up working with his dad.

“We get along,” he said. “It goes smooth around here. I know a lot of people, father and son, that can’t work together, but we’ve always gotten along.”

When Ronnie turns 62 in December, he said Jason will take over more of the administrative side of the business, but he’ll never disappear from the shop completely

“Maybe I’ll slow down a little bit, but I can’t ever see myself just completely stopping,” Ronnie said. “I like to be doing something. Maybe I’ll spend a little more time fishing and things like that, but I’ll always be here.”

Ronnie and Jason have already begun the transition, and for several years, Jason has taken the lead in learning about the automotive industry’s increasing technological advances.

“I’m doing the old-school stuff, and he does the new technology stuff,” Ronnie said.

Jason said the technology, especially diagnostics, gives him an interesting challenge every day.

“Even though sometimes it can be a headache, I like the diagnostic part — the check engine light is on or some kind of weird, strange problem,” Jason said. “When you fix it, it’s a good feeling. It’s a challenge.”

Ronnie said that no matter what the job is, he, Jason and the other mechanic on staff strive to find out what’s wrong with the vehicle before charging customers for parts.

“We will go in and actually diagnose the problem and figure out what’s wrong with it instead of just sticking a bunch of parts on the car and saying ‘That’s it,’” Ronnie said. “But if we’ve got the equipment to work on it, we’ll take a challenge.”