Ever since he was little, Doug Jones has had an innate knack for taking broken things apart and fixing them. It’s a skill that has served him well over the past 25 years as owner of B&D Auto Repair in Vista. And it’s a skill he employs in his spare time to give back to his community.

Over the past 18 years, Jones has rehabilitated nearly two dozen used cars and given them away to people down on their luck.

The most recent recipient was Eric Valdez of Vista. In June, the 18-year-old was in a head-on crash that totaled the car he used to drive his younger siblings to school each day. His parents couldn’t afford to replace it. When Jones heard about the accident — he had coached Valdez in youth soccer and Valdez’s parents were customers of the shop — he gifted the teen with a newly rehabbed 2000 Ford Focus in mid-July.

“The car has worked really well,” Valdez said. “It’s nice, easy to handle and quite reliable. I’m very thankful for what he did for my family, not just this time, but over the years.”


B&D Auto Repair owner Doug Jones with Eric Valdez, 18, who received a free car from Jones in July after losing his own in a head-on crash. (Jovan Meza)

Jones, 47, said he does the car giveaways because he loves doing things for other people.

“I’m a firm believer in karma,” he said. “If you give something, sooner or later it’s going to come back around to you. This community has done a lot for me, so I like doing a lot back.”

Richard Tilch, a retired engineer for the Vista Fire Department and longtime customer of B&D, said Jones doesn’t give away cars for publicity. It’s just his nature to do good.


“He’s a really nice guy,” Tilch said. “His heart’s in the right place in regards to helping the community and providing a service for the public and he was that way 20 years ago when I met him.”

Jones grew up in Stockton, where he loved racing Motocross and tinkering on cars and bikes in the family’s home garage.

“Whenever something broke, I fixed it, whether it was a motorcycle, a toaster or an amplifier,” he said. “I never went to any kind of technical school to learn how to do it. It just came naturally.”

At 19, he moved to Vista to live with his older brother, a Marine from Camp Pendleton who had an off-base apartment with a spare bedroom. When his brother’s service was up a year later, he moved back to Stockton, but by then Jones had met his future wife, Janna, so he decided to stay.


The Vista couple has now been together 27 years and have three children, sons Devon, 17, and Alex, 15, and daughter Brooke, 12.

When Jones first moved to Vista, he found work at a lube-and-tune shop. After a few years, he decided to open his own garage. He took a class on running a small business at MiraCosta College and got an SBA loan. With an older mechanic named “Billly,” he opened B&D (short for Billy and Doug) auto repair in 1994.

Three months later, Billy left, leaving the 22-year-old Jones the sole owner. He decided to keep the name B&D rather than go to the expense of a legal name change.

Back in the 1990s, auto mechanics ranked low on the list of trustworthy businessmen so Jones wanted to become known for running an honest shop. His reputation grew fast. In 1998, the Better Business Bureau honored B&D with its Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics. It was the first auto shop in the county to earn the award. Since then, it’s been a Torch finalist three more times.


“He’s got some good, old-fashioned values,” said Tilch, a 20-year customer. “He’s really honest and he will do the best he can for his customers.”

As the company’s reputation and success grew, the Joneses bought a larger shop on Melrose Drive and the staff gradually grew to 10. Doug moved into management and Janna become property manager and marketing director.

Around 2000, Jones started giving cars away.

Sometimes customers would come in with high-mileage cars needing major repairs that would cost more to fix than the vehicle was worth. Jones would offer to buy the car himself, then work on it in his spare time and give it to someone in need. As word of his philanthropy spread, some customers began donating their old cars for the cause.


Recipients have included the Jones kids’ schoolteachers, teens like Valdez, adults struggling to pay their bills, grandmothers and needy family members of customers and B&D mechanics.

Jones also donates his time as a mentor for the auto shop program at Vista High School, where his son, Devon, is a senior.

Jones has donated two cars to Vista High’s auto shop. Among the students he met while mentoring there was Fausto Alvarado, who showed the same innate mechanical skills that Jones had as a teen. When Alvarado graduated in 2016, Jones bought him his first set of tools and hired him. He’s now in his second year at the shop.

Not long ago, Devon Jones also started working at B&D. The Joneses hope he can take over the business someday and carry on the car giveaways.


“We want to keep it going,” Jones said. “It just feels good to help people.”

B&D Auto Repair owner Doug Jones, right, with mechanic Fausto Alvarado, who he hired two years ago after mentoring him at Vista High School’s auto shop. (Charlie Neuman / San Diego Union-Tribune)


pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com