About Us
Welcome to Pro Drive in Corpus Christi, TX, the trusted choice for all things automotive in the area since 1985 and counting. We are a shop dedicated to excellent customer service, quality car repairs, and honesty and integrity at every turn. We employ ASE-certified technicians who are passionate about what they do and our state-of-the-art facilities are equipped to handle all of your vehicle’s needs.
Pro Drive’s founder, Juan De La Garza, started his automotive career years before opening his first shop. He began learning how to work on cars in the early 1960s from his father, John. It was during this time he developed a passion for cars and how they worked. Throughout the 1960s, you could find him on nights and weekends in the family garage on Moravian Street, doing anything from rebuilding an engine in a ‘45 Buick to a tune-up on a '63 Impala. The core of the curriculum his father gave him was 3 things: an attention to detail (meaning do it right the first time), be curious, meaning if Juan didn’t know how something worked, he took it apart or went to the local parts store to hopefully find a rare owner’s manual, and lastly - to work professionally.
Putting all three of the lessons together meant you could find a teenager, Juan, typically on the garage floor scrubbing with gasoline in order to maintain a clean, professional work area. His routine after school was performing car repairs, then hand scrubbing the garage floor, after which his father would take a piece of white chalk and draw engine or electrical schematics on the garage floor. This provided a quick lesson so Juan understood the repair he just performed completely; however, he then had to clean the floor again - Juan became an expert floor cleaner in his teens.
After graduating high school, Juan went into law enforcement through the 1970s, and it was during this time that he learned the art of investigation techniques. From that experience, he learned that a diagnostic on a vehicle is a form of investigation. After nearly a decade in law enforcement, he made a switch back to the mechanical field when he was hired by the Reynolds Aluminum Company as a technician.
While there, he worked on many different types of machinery, from a forklift to World War 2 Battleship engines. He still tells technicians sometimes about those days when he would stand on top of one of those Battleship engines with an impact the size of a jackhammer, or how the technicians would have to use a 20-foot long breaker bar and 5 or 6 guys would hang on it to break bolts loose. After a couple of years, Reynolds shut the plant down, it was at that time he decided to open his own shop in 1985, which became known as Pro Drive.
During his career, Juan had the privilege of working with many talented people in different fields and found the common denominator was that they enjoyed their work and were constantly trying to improve and get better. That resonated with him and became his business model - hire people that enjoyed the work, wanted to be the best, were willing to do the work, and were willing to improve themselves to get there.
The goal is, and has always been, for Pro Drive to be the best in our industry, to meet and exceed our customer's expectations, to be a great place to work and to provide the environment that our team members need to become great at their profession. While this is an easy thing to say, it requires constant study and improvement to accomplish that goal. This goal is put into action through constant training for all of our staff and always looking for better ways to communicate with our customers.
Now that you understand why we are one of the best mechanic shops in Corpus Christi, TX, we invite you into our nearest Pro Drive location to experience the difference. Schedule your visit with us online or give us a call today!