A place to fuel up: Gold Flat Express Lube & Car Wash can give your vehicle

Staff Writer

Chances are if you have been traveling on Highway 20/49 through Nevada City it’s likely you’ve stopped into Gold Flat Express Lube & Car Wash on Hollow Way in Nevada City.

Fronting the highway, Gold Flat offers not just fuel for your vehicle but maintenance for the engine that drives your car but drives your body, incorporating a Port Of Subs sandwich shop to help fill your proverbial tank.

Eric Phillips is the main man in the car wash/lube side of the business, which came under new ownership last October.

“I know that the car wash has been around for 20 or 25 years; I have been here since 2017,” Phillips said. After a year-long hiatus, Phillips returned and supervises the more automotive aspects of the business. COVID, he said, was a challenge but the pandemic wasn’t lessening people’s need for fuel and vehicle maintenance.

“It took a chunk out but it’s one of those things where everybody needs fuel, and everybody still needs to get their oil changed but obviously we only had so many people who wanted to travel,” said Phillips. “We had to change how we’re doing things and customers were staying inside the vehicles and masked at all times.

“We do oil change, we have the car wash and the lube shop here. We do differential services, transmission services, air filters, and basic maintenance. We’ll vacuum the inside front of the vehicle. My biggest thing is that the vehicle leaves cleaner than it came in. There’s a lot of shops that won’t do that; they’re just going to get your oil changed and get you out of there.”

On a busy day, the car wash welcomes between 70 and 100 cars, all looking to leave sparkling clean. At one point, Gold Flat washed 150 cars in one day, with Phillips at the helm.

The lube service remains popular, and Phillips explained that the fuel and the oil used in vehicle maintenance are fairly closely related.

“Our oil comes from the same company we get our fuel from,” Phillips said, “the same company that took over and owns all of us now. We do carry most things, from a 0-20 all the way through to Euro 540s, heavy-duty 540 diesel, things like that. But they are getting to the point now where it’s kind of like I’m starting to run out of space to keep this stuff. But we do try and keep as much as we can on hand.

“Other things we have a pit pack, like a six-gallon box of it. But other things we do carry in bulk like 55 and 100-gallon orders. We have like 200-gallon tanks.”

And there is no real pattern for the busy season, as the needs of travelers change. Phillips said the holidays can be busy, but they have to be ready for anything.

“Typically spring all the way until October, beginning of November, and then we start heading into the holidays and now people are focusing on buying presents and things like that. Right there before each holiday, we do have a busy week. Everybody is getting ready to travel so they are making sure their cars are good to go.”

Phillips has helped the deli/convenience store aspect, which hosts Port Of Subs, but Starla Pello is one of the main friendly faces who will greet you at Gold Flat Express Lue & Car Wash. She’s the assistant manager of the market area and said that the customers make her excited to roll into work each day.

“We get a lot of customers with the gas and the deli,” Pello said. “I order for the store. I do the stocking, and it’s just (dealing with) people who can’t get the gas to go, or they need a receipt or whatever. I kind of cover a little bit of everything.

“The best part is the customers. We get a lot of regulars and it’s like, ‘Hey how are you? How’s the grandbaby?’ Or ‘Oh are you going to have your usual sandwich today?’ And that’s what makes it worthwhile for me to be here.”

Dealing with the public, Pello has learned a lot about what constitutes a pleasant customer experience.

“I think you have to like what you do, and you definitely have to like working with people and the public,” Pello said. “If you are not a people person, this isn’t the place for you. You’ve got to have a lot of energy. We can be really quiet one minute and then we’ll have 12 people in line for a sandwich and all pumps going at the same time. It’s very roller coaster; you’ve got to have a high gear. You have to be able to be like, okay here we go! And then keeping it in your mind it won’t last too long. You push and then you get a break and you reconfigure.”

It’s not hard to imagine that fuel and diesel are at the top of Gold Flat’s money makers.

“Gas is the number one, but the deli is coming along,” she said. “We changed ownership in October and (for) a lot of the regulars, a change of hands can be hard. We lost our ATM machine, we lost our credit card machine but we’re bringing all that back and now our regulars are going, ‘Oh you finally have everything I want again!’ We didn’t have tobacco for a long time. So people would come in and they’d get gas and they want to get a can of chew, but now they’re all coming back.

“So the deli is really picking up. And we are really excited about that.”

Gold Flat, in conjunction with Port of Subs, also likes to give back to the community and has been known to donate meals for local charities.

“We try to do a lot of community involvement,” said Pello. “We’ll donate sandwich platters and stuff like that. Besides the customers, the people I work with are great. We’re like a little family; we can lean on each other and pump each other up when we need it. It’s a great place to work.”

Gold Flat Express Lube & Car Wash is at 421 Hollow Way in Nevada City. For more information please visit goldflatexpresslube.com or call 530-478-1955.

Staff Writer Jennifer Nobles can be reached at [email protected].

Live scanner feed here:Your browser does not support iFrames.