Ryan started taking apart small household items at a young age. He was intrigued with the mechanics of anything that had moving parts. Regardless of whether something ran or not, he disassembled and re-assembled his projects many times. He soon graduated to larger things like televisions, appliances, and then cars. When Ryan was growing up, his grandfather had acres full of a little boy’s dream… broken pieces of scrap metal in the form of cars, trucks, lawnmowers and even an old school bus. Ryan was quickly drawn to things with motors—if it was for the lawn or the road it didn’t really matter; it, too, was begging to be taken apart. In that yard full of metal, he found a Volkswagen dune buggy. The VW belonged to his uncle and needed repair. Watching, and occasionally getting to help his uncle, spawned his enthusiasm for automobiles. As time went on Ryan had many opportunities to work on friends’ cars; sometimes family members would allow him to work on their vehicles as well. Naturally curious and with a mind for motors and machines, a mechanic was born.
In 1997, Ryan met his soon-to-be wife, Jennifer. At the time, Jennifer was driving a 1985 convertible Mustang; Ryan found something he could take apart and put back together. Not having any money, they always tried to fix everything themselves. Ryan learned about automotive computers, electrical and a whole lot about how patient his newfound love Jennifer really was (and continues to be)!
Wanting a change of pace from southern California, they headed to Arizona where Ryan was given his first chance at mechanics as a profession. Quickly, he found this was a natural career path for him. A few moves and two children later, both Ryan and Jennifer started thinking: “What if we owned an auto repair shop of our own?” This brought up a whole new set of concerns, like, “What is the right town for raising a family and starting a new chapter in their lives as entrepreneurs?”
They started the search and were drawn to Oregon. They moved to Lincoln City and found the Oregon coast to be a bit unforgiving when it comes to the need for sunlight. The perfect location presented itself by accident after a road trip to southern Oregon; Jennifer was searching on the Internet for jobs and homes to rent and stumbled across a listing for a building for sale in a nice, close-knit community called Talent; that is where our small dream became a reality. Miles Automotive opened October 8, 2012!
Miles Automotive grew fast, becoming one of the most well-respected, honest, and customer-friendly shops in the area. We prided ourselves on providing accurate diagnoses, getting customers’ vehicles on maintenance routines to prevent major breakdowns, and conducting digital, visual inspections directly from top ASE-certified Master Technicians. With a clean shop and waiting area and years of knowledge and technology not found in many of the surrounding repair facilities, we quickly outgrew our small shop.
We Lost It All to the Alameda Wildfire
Tragedy struck when the Alameda Wildfire on September 8, 2020, claimed Miles Automotive. Everything was lost. Nothing was salvageable. We were devastated. Years of building the best automotive repair shop in the area went up in flames. With months of cleanup ahead we had plenty of time to decide what to do. Do we rebuild, or do we find another shop that is operational? We outgrew our building in about six years and were likely to outgrow it again if we rebuilt.
Welcome to the new Wade Bryant’s in Bend
We decided to find another shop in a different location where we could have room to grow. In that process, we found a shop for sale in a town we loved to visit, that had a similar reputation to what we had; Wade Bryant’s is an honest shop, well-respected in the area, and has plenty of room to grow. The shop was behind in technology, equipment, and tooling, and needed some updated training to work on newer vehicles, but that wasn’t anything we couldn’t fix. Miles Automotive, LLC, doing business as Wade Bryant’s Auto Repair, was purchased on September 1, 2021!
Quality Auto Repair at Wade Bryant’s in Bend
Ryan and Jennifer are currently in the process of updating the shop and training our staff so that we can offer our customers the best automotive repair experience possible. As each month passes and we train our new automotive family in honesty, quality, customer service, and learning to be the best we can be, we will soon be the go-to shop for our community in Bend, OR and the surrounding area! Give us a call to speak with one of our talented automotive technicians or to schedule automotive maintenance or repair today.
