The Kar Shop Kingston Auto Repair in Rogers, AR

Meet our Team

Jack

Keith

Jack and Keith are more buddies than brothers. Because they are nine years apart, they didn't really grow up together although they did follow the same path. They married, raised their children, and developed their careers separately, all the while keeping in touch and comparing war stories about auto repair. Keith became an avid hunter and fisherman while growing up in South Florida, and still enjoys those activities today. Just mention hunting or fishing stories, and you'll have him going for a while. His favorites are escapades of shark fishing in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Jack is also interested in shooting sports and hunting, and they have enjoyed many hours afield together. A few years ago Jack took an introductory flying lesson and got hooked on flying. He especially enjoys flying across the state to Jonesboro to visit his daughter and grandchildren. Jack and Keith complement each other in their talents and knowledge, and look forward to the opportunity to serve you.

Kevin Braker

General Manager

Kevin was born not too far up the road in Carthage Missouri. He did move around a little bit and lived in Lamar, MO, Remington, IN, Roanoke, IL, Indianapolis, IN and finally right here in Rogers. He is a graduate of Roanoke-Benson High School in Roanoke, IL.
He has two sisters Karel and Michelle. Kevin is married to his lovely wife Janice and has three grown children. They have two sons Jonathon and Jake and a daughter Kelly.


His Dad is the kind of guy who can fix almost anything so for as long as he can remember, he has been taking things apart and putting them back together just to see how they worked. He advanced to tinkering with cars and found his vocation. He loves cars and working on engines. He is a graduate of Quincey Technical School for Automotive and Diesel Technologies. He's worked in the industry for the last 32 years so he has quite a lot of experience under his belt. He has owned and operated his own shop for a while, he was Service Manager at a General Motors Dealership where he graduated General Motors Manager Training, he managed a successful high performance engine building business and most recently managed a Firestone Store.


Kevin and Janice found, after their youngest graduated, that Indianapolis was not the place that they wanted to continue to live and retire, so the search was on. The criteria were that they wanted to be on or near a lake, closer to relatives, able to find good jobs (Janice is a Nurse), and beautiful topography. In general, just a great place to work and retire. They did a thorough investigation and decided to look at N.W. Arkansas settling on the Rogers area. Janice will be working at one of our local Hospitals and Kevin will take over the Management of The Kar Shop allowing one of the partners, Jack, to slow down a bit.


Kevin has varied interests. He loves music, live or recorded. He's huge into boating and fishing. In fact, that's one of the reasons he picked Rogers, for its proximity to Beaver Lake. He's also a big fan of Motor Sports and Demolition Derbies. We'll introduce him to the one at the Springdale Rodeo Grounds. He also loves playing the board games Acquire and Rail Barron and anything that involves spending time with his family. He is also into grilling and smoking meats.


He has tremendous respect and honor for all veterans. His father-in law, several uncles and son have all served and we thank them for their service. Kevin really enjoys the interaction with customers and, like the rest of us, he doesn't like liars or mean people. We're looking forward to Kevin helping us grow and serve you better for years to come.

Will Weber

ASE Master Technician

Will was born and raised in the wide open country of Douglas Wyoming and has a younger sister named Catie. His dad was kind of a "jack of all trades" likely out of necessity to be self-sufficient. Will liked working with his dad whether he was doing landscaping, building cabinets, fixing cars or whatever. He learned a lot of skills but decided that he liked working on cars the most. He attended Douglas High School and Casper College in Wyoming majoring in Automotive Technologies.


Will likes John Wayne movies, hunting, shooting sports, video games and horses. Not the "on-the-hoof" kind but the kind you find under your hood. I think he has added horses to everything he has ever owned. Will also enjoys riding his motorcycle and playing bass guitar. A few things he doesn't like are; bad drivers, crowds and ladders.


Will was ready for a change when his best friend was making plans to move to Northwest Arkansas several years ago. He decided that he was up for the adventure and came with his friend and his friend's wife, Gram and April, and another friend named Mike. All lifelong friends. He has since met a pretty young thing named Ashley and they are becoming very close.


Will is our resident "hippie". If you see him come through the waiting area you'll recognize him by his pony tail but, don't judge a book by its cover, he is a very experienced and qualified technician.


Will has completed the Automotive Technologies Training at Casper College and has recently earned his ASE Master Technician Certification. He comes to us with seven years of repair experience and continues to hone his skills as all of us in this field do.

Truen Taylor

ASE Advanced-Level Master Technician

Truen is a true native Arkansan, unlike most of the people we meet who came here from all over the country for some corporate reason. He was born in Springdale and has lived in Springdale, Huntsville, Kansas City and now in Rogers. He lives with his wife, Summer, and their two year old son Beckett.


He graduated from Huntsville High School where he took several automotive classes. He did very well and was chosen to represent Huntsville High at the State Ford/AAA automotive competition.


After graduation he joined the Marine Corps and served our country for the next ten years. We thank him for his service. Honorably discharged, he used the GI Bill to attend Northwest Technical Institute and continue his studies in automotive technologies. He was also chosen to represent NTI at the State Skills USA Competition between technical schools.


Truen is an easy going kind of guy and loves spending quality time with his family and also enjoys many outdoor activities (including but not limited to) hiking, canoeing, camping, riding his dirt bike and all sort of team sports. He loves a challenge. That's a very good thing because this automotive field is constantly changing and it will continue to be a challenge to keep up with all the new technologies coming down the pike.


We look forward to our relationship with Truen and will do everything we can to tutor him into being the quality technician that is within him.

Joel Groomer

ASE & DOT Certified Technician

Joel is a local boy and a true Arkansan. Born and raised right here in Rogers and Bentonville. He has a younger brother in college in South Carolina named Derek and a lovely wife named Amanda.

He attended and graduated from Rogers Heritage High School and Northwest Technical Institute from the Automotive Technologies program.

He has had a few other jobs before coming to The KAR Shop. He is DOT Certified in Diesel Engines, Kingpin Repair and Air Brakes as well as an ASE Master Technician. Joel is a graduate of Northwest Technical Institute and has worked on heavy trucks. He did not enjoy the heavy work so he migrated to the automotive and light truck repair industry.

Like most technicians, he has always wanted to know how things worked so, at around 15 years old he started to take things apart and put them back together to try to figure all that out. Most of the time, if they worked before, they worked afterwards, but not always. It was a learning experience. The Auto industry has been a fascination to him from a very young age and he knew that someday he would be up to his elbows in dirt and grease fixing cars and trucks.

He likes the older Muscle cars and he is in the process of restoring a 1965 Buick Skylark, a labor of love that he enjoys immensely. When he's not here he and his wife enjoy traveling and playing with their two dogs, a Bernese Hound dog and a Yellow Labrador Retriever.

He also enjoys cooking although he dislikes cottage cheese and ranch dressing.

Joel is a real asset to our shop and we look forward to working with him for many more years.

Chris Mero

Chris is the newest addition to our in shop personnel. Born in West Plaines Missouri, he’s moved around some living for a time in Dallas Texas, Atlanta Georgia and closer to home in Jonesboro, Rogers and now Bentonville Arkansas.


He has two sisters, one older and one younger. I guess that makes him the typical “middle” child. He attended grade schools and High School everywhere he has lived but spent his last two years of High School in Black Rock, Arkansas where he graduated from Black Rock High School. Afterwards, he attended Black River Technical College in Pocahontas, Arkansas where he studied nursing and mechanical engineering. Obviously, the mechanical side won. Chris is a little “out there” with his tattoos, piercings and hair style but inside he’s pretty down to earth with a great work ethic and attitude toward life.


Chris has been performing maintenance services on vehicles for the past eight years both locally and in Texas and Georgia before joining our team. He, like most guys, likes to tinker and find out what makes things tick. He considers himself a pretty talented handyman with skills in various fields so he does whatever needs doing. He owns two motorcycles and enjoys riding solo or with friends on good weather days. Like most motorcycle owners he spends a lot of time polishing and maintaining them and they always look and perform great. He also enjoys woodworking and is planning on building a tiny house for himself. Another hobby of his is gardening. He is growing what he calls a “Salsa” garden with a variety of peppers and tomatoes and one lonely watermelon. That’s a good hobby to have when you enjoy eating everything under the sun except onions and mushrooms.


Chris is working on getting his ASE Certification in Vehicle Maintenance while he continues to learn more about the mechanics of today’s cars and light trucks from the rest of our crew of Certified Technicians.


We are looking forward seeing Chris continue to learn and advance in his trade and hopefully attain Master Certifications like the rest of our shop crew.

Amy Etris

Customer Advocate

Amy Etris was born in Denver, Colorado. She moved to NWA in 1976 and has been in the area most of that time. She is a graduate of Bentonville High School (1988) and NWACC (1998). Amy currently lives in Rogers. 

Amy is the proud mother of 2 children: Katherine and Daniel. She also has 4 grandchildren: Payton, Jordan, Melody, and Emmett. Spending time with grandchildren is one of the most rewarding parts of Amy's life.

 Amy also has 3 dogs: Floyd, Patches, and Molly. She has 2 cats: Haze, and Feliciana and various amounts of fish to keep her and her family entertained. She is eager to volunteer at the humane society events to help with homeless animals. She will be the first one to pick up a stray animal and try to help them. 

 Most of her automotive experience comes from her dad, who had her handing him tools since she was 5 years old. She always enjoyed hanging out with the guys and riding go carts and motorcycles and learning about cars. When Amy was in high school, she hung around all the auto shop guys and helped them with parts and tools.  She was married to a mechanic who also taught her a great deal about automotive repair. Amy worked at a local collision repair shop for 15 years as the office manager and estimator before joining the team at The Kar Shop. During her previous employment Amy became I-CAR gold certified in collision repair and plans to get her ASE certification for Service Writing. 

Amy has several hobbies that include pool playing, gardening, collecting stained glass and recycling/ repurposing various things, and cooking. She also loves to go to garage sales and flea markets to find discarded treasures.  Her pool playing has taken her to Las Vegas twice. Amy is a team captain of two pool teams in the local APA pool league. She joined the league in 2009 and has been active ever since then. Amy will usually spend her Saturday mornings going to garage sales and Saturday afternoons playing pool. During spring and summer, you will find Amy's yard full of beautiful flowers and plants that produce fruit and vegetables. Her son Daniel is a big help with keeping the garden and yard nice for the season. Her Yard also has some of the recycling items creatively scattered throughout her garden for decoration. Amy's pride and joy is her home. She loves to decorate with her eclectic collection of various things. Everyone loves to visit her welcoming home for the eye candy of all the beautiful things. Her family and friends come for the food and fellowship. 

Amy has an associate’s degree from NWACC in business management. That has helped her with managing the office of Prairie Creek Auto Body for 15 years. She is hopeful that the knowledge acquired will help her with her Service Writing career at The Kar Shop. Amy has a customer service attitude and mindset for giving our customers the best possible repair experience. 

Amy is hopeful to make the Kar shop her lasting workplace for years to come.

Michael Stirling

Customer Advocate

Years ago, in the heart of the American Midwest, a man named Michael Stirling was born under the vast skies of Rapid City, South Dakota. From the very beginning, Michael's life was destined for adventure and change, as he would come to live in numerous states across the country, each adding a new chapter to his story.

Growing up, Michael was surrounded by the love of his family, which included his four brothers, George, Patrick, Daniel, and Matthew, as well as his sister, Jane. Theirs was a bond that would withstand the test of time and distance, a bond that would shape Michael's values and priorities in life.

As a young man, Michael attended Parkston High School in South Dakota before moving on to Bear Lake High School in Montpelier, Idaho. It was during these formative years that Michael discovered his love for nature and the great outdoors, a passion that would stay with him throughout his life.

After graduating from high school, Michael made a decision that would change the course of his life forever. He joined the U.S. Navy and enrolled in the Propulsion Engineering program, a challenging but rewarding experience that would prepare him for the adventures that lay ahead.

After completing his service in the Navy, Michael settled down in Louisiana, where he would spend the next 33 years of his life. It was here that he met and fell in love with Angela, a hospice nurse from Lake Charles. Together, they raised a son named Ethan, who would follow in his father's footsteps and serve as a sergeant in the Louisiana National Guard.

Despite the joys of family life, Michael longed for a career that would allow him to spend more time with his son. After 16 years in the industrial construction business, he made the bold decision to switch careers and join the automotive industry. It was a decision he never regretted, as it allowed him to be present for his son's milestones and watch him grow into a fine young man.

Today, Michael and Angela are living their dream, traveling the backroads of America in search of adventure and new experiences. Along the way, they stop at small towns and VFW posts, paying their respects to the country they love and the people who have served it.

As the sun sets on another day, Michael reflects on his life's journey with gratitude and contentment. For him, the true measure of a life well-lived is not in the places you've been or the things you've done, but in the love you've shared and the memories you've made along the way. And in that regard, Michael Stirling's life is truly a tale worth telling.

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