Dream Cruise: Vinsetta Dreams

More from the 2001 Woodward Dream Cruise

Right at the epicenter of the Woodward Dream Cruise sits one of Motor City's most historic automotive buildings, the Vinsetta Garage. It's a peculiar blend of old and new in more ways than one.

The parallelogram-shaped one-story brick building boasts huge twin tent-shaped skylights — like those of early auto factories — over the service bays with their modern floor lifts, chain hoists, exhaust vents, pull-down air, electrical and fluid lines and the traditional wall coverings of different-sized fan belts.

Located on the west side of Woodward in the city of Berkley, just short of midway between Eleven Mile Road and Twelve Mile Road, Vinsetta Garage has been in business maintaining and repairing cars at that spot since 1919 — 82 years.

You're probably wondering, what's so special about that — such places abound in America, especially in small towns. One big difference is that right now, Vinsetta looks more like a holding tank for the Cruise than a vintage repair emporium.

Past perfect

Bridging then and now, Yoostabees' experience as a customer of Vinsetta Garage dates back to 1959, a mere 42 years. But that's nothing. When I stopped by the VG office early in Dream Cruise Week, a prototypical "little old lady" — no tennis shoes but she was sweet and white-haired — came in to have the oil changed in her 60K '85 Olds. I asked her how long she'd been a customer — "Why, all my life," she responded, "My Dad brought his car here in the Twenties." Office manager Vicki arranged for one of the four mechanics to give her a ride home, only a few blocks away in Royal Oak.

Shortly another customer was on the phone, with a head gasket problem in his '93 Taurus. Vicki and a mechanic debated about when they could handle it, seeing as how they were virtually buried under repair orders. "Tell him next Wednesday" — nine days away — "if he gets it in before eight. Otherwise Thursday."

Getting right to the present, heck, you don't have to wait for the Dream Cruise to view the golden oldies, as long as you don't want to watch them move. Just visit Vinsetta Garage, a veritable car museum with occasional changing exhibits.

The pile of repair tickets mostly represents the literally dozens of "classics" jammed into VG's two adjoining outdoor lots, in the service bay or parked out front near the no-longer-functioning, now-antique Shell Oil gas pumps with their locked-in-time 42-cent-a-gallon gasoline prices showing.

Here's a sampling of the car park inventory:

In the bays, a good-looking black-on-black '69 Cadillac convertible, an early 90s Caprice and a fairly recent Ford pickup (must have been out of warranty).

In front, a red two-place Thunderbird, a little rough — like a cracked driver's window — but mostly yummy; a 50s International three-ton dump truck, and a mixture of 90s cars, trucks, vans and SUVS, no doubt waiting for regular customers to retrieve them at the end of the day, service completed.

In the fenced side lot, perhaps two dozen vehicles, mostly collectibles, some of them obviously sitting there for many months, including an early 70s Mustang convertible; a '67 'Tang hardtop; a white '59 Caddy convertible (the year of the most preposterous fins); another '59 Caddy, this one a Model 75 limo, black of course; a first series early 60s Corvair convertible, white top over turquoise; a '69 Mark III; a third-series early 60s Thunderbird; a late 60s midsize Buick rag top with a very raggedy top indeed, and a beautifully restored and rare (because most got butchered for rods) red-and-black '32 Ford V-8 five-window coupe.

In the rear lot, among a couple of VG owner Jack Marvil's own company-labeled Blazers, were both reasonably contemporary and vintage models, the latter including a rough late 70s Caprice, a beautiful rose-hued second series Corvair Corsa coupe, a late 70s Buick Riviera faux convertible, a nice blue '72 Eldo convertible, a worn '86 Chrysler LeBaron convertible, a mostly original black '50 Buick Riviera hardtop and a rough 50s Chevy pickup.

Killing time

Why were the storage lots so packed, especially right at Cruise time when you'd expect the owners would have had them out for, well, cruisin'? "Waiting for parts, money, time or maybe both parts and money," Vicki answered. "Folks get into these cars without realizing how much work they need or how expensive it can be to fix them." Vinsetta charges a $74 hourly labor rate; my Lincoln-Mercury dealer, $68.

If you're wondering why I'm not quoting Jack Marwil, owner of Vinsetta Garage since the early 80s, when he bought it from Mike Kurta, who'd owned and operated it since the 50s, it's because — like a lot of other Woodward merchants this week — he's away on vacation to escape the Dream Cruise turmoil. Smart man!

I can tell you that both Mike and Jack were — and are — partial to GM cars, having gone through GM training schools and at least in Jack's case, having worked as a mechanic, excuse me, service technician, in a GM dealership. Vinsetta Garage to this day is plastered with bowtie, AC, Delco and even vintage United Motors Service signage. Outside, there are the more conventional ASE and Automotive Service Assn. signs. The saving grace for a Ford or Mopar man is the collection of EVERY Michigan license plate since 1910 decorating the tiny office.

Nevertheless, Mike always cheerfully took care of my '54 Ford, '55 Plymouth, '58 Rambler American and '59 Mercury my previous time in the neighborhood. On the other hand, except for VERY special cases, VG wouldn't touch a foreign car. But once, when we were out of town a few years ago and my step-daughter blew out the muffler on her mother's '88Camry, Jack took pity and obligingly handled it for her.

Why is it called Vinsetta Garage? I thought you'd never ask. Vinsetta is the name of the vintage 1916 subdivision — where I live — on the other side of Woodward in Royal Oak. Vinsetta was a combination of the two developer's names. And back in those days, Woodward wasn't the divided eight-lane high-speed parkway it is today. Vinsetta Garage fronted then on a two-way unpaved road, a double interurban electric light-rail line and a double track for the Grand Trunk freight and passenger railroad.

So times do change, but not necessarily Vinsetta Garage.