Mohamed Mouaddine, owner of Amina Auto Repair and fellow Stapleton resident, had a shop in another area of town but struggled to get steady business. Then, Stapleton resident Megan Younoszai found Amina with Google search after feeling like she was paying too much for service at a shop in Park Hill.
“Mohamed’s prices were half the price of another shop in Park Hill and that’s how I ended up there,” Megan says. “He had such a great personality and I just liked him from the start. I told him he should seriously consider moving his business here.”
Megan recommended Amina to a neighbor and word began to spread like wildfire. Soon, Mohamed began to think about relocating to Stapleton.
“I drove around the neighborhood, did some research like getting to know the demographics and what types of vehicles people owned,” he says.
In 2011, Mohamed bought an old building and Amina Auto officially opened up a block away from what is now the new Stanley Marketplace.
“It was kind of like waiting for the Berlin Wall to come down before Stanley opened and the roads connecting to Stapleton were built,” Mohamed jokes.
To help make the shop be a more appealing place for families, Mohamed and his office manager, Laura Willius (a Stapleton resident who first met Mohamed as one of his customers), created a living room style waiting area with a couches and pillows area and an adjacent kids area filled with toys.
“I wanted to make Amina a place that my wife would want to go to,” he says. “It needed to be clean and warm, like home.”
Mohamed named his business after his oldest daughter, Amina, which means trustworthy.
“The reputation of this trade is not good,” Mohamed says. “I preach to my guys to do the right thing, to treat every job like it is their own vehicle and to put themselves in the customer’s shoes.”Mohamed’s story begins many years before he became known in Stapleton as the go-to mechanic. Originally from Morocco, he has been living in the United States since 2001.
He graduated college with a degree in physics and went to work for the King of Morocco. He began to learn more about mechanics and began working on automobiles for the King. The diversity of the work was exciting to him.
“It’s challenging,” he says of his career. “It’s something new every day. I want my business to be about serving our community. We live in Stapleton and we serve this community. I have found everyone to be the most educated, smart and well-centered people I’ve ever met.”
Amina is located at 9650 E. 25th Ave. Visit aminaautorepair.com for more information or call 303-321-8880 to make an appointment.