Mikey’s Total Car Care selects winner for free car giveaway
(COLORADO SPRINGS) — A car donated by a person who wished to remain anonymous is now being driven by a new owner after local auto repair and maintenance shop, Mikey’s Total Car Care, announced the winner of its free car giveaway.
Back in March we first brought to you this story after the shop’s Owner Michael Chavez told FOX21 that submissions were open on its website, giving people in need the chance to win a free car. “We had some responses but then FOX21 News got ahold of it and it kind of blew up from there, so we got over 300 responses.”
Chavez said it took two weeks to review all the submissions to ensure they met the criteria.
“Reading stories was heartbreaking, it was really emotional,” said Chavez, who added that submissions were separated into two piles; one for people with no car, and another for people who needed their cars fixed.
Once they had a pile of 200 submissions for people with no car, a random drawing was made, and the winner was picked. “We wanted it to be 100% random because there were so many people… and we wanted to try and make it as fair as possible,” Chavez said.
Kim, who didn’t want her last name released, said she was shocked when she got the call. “It was almost surreal, I almost didn’t believe it and I started crying because I was excited but I didn’t realize that my sister… she nominated us for this and honestly, it was just surreal.”
Courtesy: FOX21 Chief Photojournalist Mike Duran, photo is of Kim, who won the free car giveaway with her daughter, Leaunna. Courtesy: FOX21 Chief Photojournalist Mike Duran, Kim stands next to Michael Chavez, owner of Mikey’s Total Car Care.
The vehicle that was donated is a 2004 Honda Civic EX, which Chavez said the shop worked on, to ensure it was safe to drive including: fixing the power windows, door locks, and rear breaks, along with adding new spark plugs and replacing the driver’s front wheel bearing, among other repairs.
“We feel blessed,” Kim said, thanking Mikey’s Total Car Care for fixing up the car and her sister for nominating her family. “I have three kids, single parent, so it’s definitely been a blessing for us because now we can get around, get to jobs, appointments, all the things that we need.”
Chavez said the need in Southern Colorado is evident, based on all of the other submissions that couldn’t be included for this giveaway, for people who need car repairs.
“One car out of 300 people is pretty overwhelming and we wanted to do more,” Chavez said.
Now, he just hopes to continue paying it forward. “Especially if customers want to donate some cars, it’s 100% out of pocket for me so I would be putting some money into the vehicle, we are not profiting anything on this.”
Chavez said he hopes to do something similar to the car giveaway at least four times a year. As for people who donate their cars, Chavez said, the repairs need to be in his budget and gave an example of repair costs to the Honda.
“I don’t want to put $10,000 into a car, but this car, again, I won’t put a monetary value on it, but it was well into the thousands that we put into the car and I can do that once a quarter,” Chavez explained. “And if we feel that it’s a vehicle, enough to where we can get it running and it’s safe, I don’t have the problem putting the money into it.”
As for the repairs made to the Honda, Chavez had this to say: “There is a warranty even two years on the work we did perform, so anything that happens, whatever we did, we are going to cover.”
If you’d like to learn more about Mikey’s Total Car Care, click on the link above. The shop has been around since 2017 and is located at 6180 Lake Shore Court, just south of the North Powers Boulevard and Constitution Avenue intersection.
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