ALTON - Steve Honaker, owner and founder of Steve’s Service, is getting ready to retire and close his auto repair shop on April 28 after 27 years in business. He says multiple generations of loyal customers have kept him in business for so long in the Alton community.

“[I tried] to take care of the customers as best as I could, treat everybody fair and honest, and that’s how I stayed in business,” Honaker said.

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Honaker bought the business from Jack Keller in 1996 after working for Keller since 1983. He said it was officially time for him to retire now that he has multiple fourth-generation customers.

“I told my wife that when I got fourth-generation customers, I was going to retire - and right now, I’ve got two fourth-generation customers,” he said. “The younger ones are 16-17 years old and I actually worked on their great-grandparents’ cars when I was at Jack Keller’s.”

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He said the response from the community has been “great” over the past 27 years, including now as he gets ready to retire.

“Right now as I’m retiring, I’ve got people coming in - some coming in just to say, ‘Hi, I appreciate you, I hate to see you go, but I’m glad you’re getting to retire and enjoy life.’”

Steve concluded by saying: “I would like to say ‘thank you’ to all my loyal customers that have gotten me through all these years, and I’m going to miss them.”

Steve’s Service is located at 4101 Alby St. in Alton and can be contacted at (618) 462-8301 before the shop closes on April 28.

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