RI Automotive: Building Trust and Diversity in Tampa’s Auto Repair Industry

As a child, Collin Ettienne loved asking questions and taking things apart. So, when he spotted a neighbor across the street from his family’s home in Tampa, Florida, working on his lawnmower, he naturally went over to watch.

Soon, Ettienne was helping the man with projects whenever he noticed the garage door was open, including tinkering on his car. That turned into a fascination with performance vehicles in high school, which would become the focus of Ettienne’s first auto shop.

Now 26 years into his career as an owner, Ettienne has transitioned to general repair at RI Automotive, his six-bay shop in Tampa. The business serves all makes and models with specialization in domestic, Asian, and some European and diesel vehicles.  

Connecting With Customers

Located just off Interstate 275 near Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, the AAA-certified business serves both locals and travelers with everything from routine maintenance to complex emergency repairs.

With seven employees, an annual revenue of $1.6 million, and an ARO of $670, RI Automotive takes appointments and serves walk-in customers whenever possible.

“We’re a very customer-centric business,” Ettienne says. “It’s important to us to feel connected with our customer base and do our best to make sure they trust us. I also think that our careful attention to detail has carried over from my roots in performance work.”

Ettienne emphasizes ongoing training for his ASE-certified technicians and clear communication with customers, talking them through what is wrong with their vehicle, explaining the available fixes, and keeping them updated throughout the repair process.

“We’re transparent because we have nothing to hide,” he says. “We try to provide same-day service if we can and do our best to shorten the disruption in people’s lives, and we don’t want customers ever sitting around in limbo wondering what’s happening with their car.”

RI Automotive has a fleet of free loaner cars and will arrange Uber rides if all the loaners are taken. For travelers who may come in with anything from a bad tire to transmission failure, the staff is ready with hotel recommendations.

To help attract new clients, RI Automotive offers 15% off labor costs on a first visit, up to a $100 value, as well as a 10% discount for students, faculty, and staff members at the nearby University of South Florida.  

And for customers with limited resources, technicians will prioritize jobs based on what is most urgent and what could wait; the shop also has financing options. “Maybe we need to do brakes today to keep you safe on the road, but that oil leak isn’t so bad and could wait until the next oil change,” Ettienne says. “We understand that people may need to spread things out.”

A Natural Progression

Ettienne, a 46-year-old father of six, is originally from the Bronx, New York. He spent his first 10 years in what he describes as a rough neighborhood before moving to Florida.  

“I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth,” he shares. “I saw a lot of bad things happen, but I didn’t let that define who I was as a person.” 

Around age 7, Ettienne remembers getting an electric railroad set for Christmas, playing with it for a couple of days and then disassembling it completely. Although he couldn’t figure out how to put it back together, he learned a lot about what made it run. “In the long term, I guess it worked out to destroy a $150 gift,” he says with a laugh.

As a teenager in Florida, Ettienne discovered the fun of taking a compact sport vehicle like a Honda CRX, modifying it to potentially outperform a muscle car such as a Ford Mustang GT, and attending drag races. After graduating from Tampa Bay Technical High School, he went straight into working as a technician at auto shops.

While Ettienne enjoyed the work, he felt shop owners too often took advantage of customers with unethical business practices. In 2000, he founded his own business, Racing Integration, as a one-man shop in an industrial park and, for a time, his own backyard.

A Passion for Performance

Ettienne still has a vivid memory of the very first car that came through his doors: a white 1996 Acura Integra that needed a complete engine overhaul (side note: the car’s owner remains a customer to this day; he now drives a Porsche GT3).  

Performance work—from turbocharging suspensions to modifying and tuning engines for maximum output—comprised about 80% of Racing Integration’s jobs in its early years, with the rest falling into the general repair category. By 2014, the business had shifted to concentrate heavily on Mustang models.

But Ettienne had begun to burn out, as long consultations with customers ate up much of his days and price increases for parts cut into his profits. He also was juggling his job as a firefighter for Hillsborough County, a position he held until 2023.

In 2019, Ettienne attended the Ratchet+Wrench Management Conference, discovered a network of support for business owners across the country, and ultimately signed on as a member of Shop Fix Academy. As of 2020, he had fully moved into general repairs; he now uses the abbreviated initials “RI” in his company’s name.  

“One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned during my journey is the importance of trusting others and delegating,” he notes. “You can’t do it all.”

No longer turning wrenches, Ettienne’s goals are to add new locations in the near future and hire more technicians to give them opportunities to grow within the company. On a larger scale, he aims to improve the image of the auto repair industry in his community.   
“There’s a real stigma still attached to shops because people have so many stories of feeling taken advantage of,” he says. “That’s bad for all of us.”

Pursuing New Paths

As a Black shop owner, Ettienne also is driven to increase diversity in technician, service advisor, and managerial positions. Recently, he started visiting his former high school to talk to students about automotive career paths, noting that many minorities get little to no exposure to the possibility. He has invited students to spend time at his shop as well.  

“This can be a very lucrative career if you put your mind to it, beyond being rewarding,” he says. “In our shop, we never use the word ‘mechanic’. It’s ‘technician’. There is a great amount of skill involved and, of course, we have a real need for more qualified people.”  

Another important project for Ettienne and his wife, Idania, is their new nonprofit “Pass It Forward,” which will recondition donated cars for people in need. The couple is partnering with local organizations to gift those vehicles to single mothers, teenagers aging out of the foster care system, and others lacking reliable transportation.  

Idania Ettienne, a nurse practitioner by trade, has become an active participant in the family business, pitching in on human resources work and community event planning. So far, Ettienne hasn’t seen great interest in cars in his kids, although he has a hunch that his 9-year-old daughter could be the exception.

Meanwhile, more than a quarter century after that white Acura rolled into his shop, Ettienne is still passionate about the automotive industry: “We treat each car like it was our first, our last, and our favorite. That’s what our customers deserve.”