From Dream to Drive: How Ashley Jo Bloom Built PNW Automotive on Grit, Transparency, and Vision
About this episode
Ashley Jo Bloom’s path to building PNW Automotive starts with a teenage certainty: “Ashley Jo Bloom knew at 16 that she wanted to own an auto repair shop.” Her early garage education—tagging along while her dad worked on cars and learning “carburetors and stuff”—turned into a troubleshooting mindset. The shop’s north star is transparency: “What was your goal when you first opened? Transparency.” That shows up in training, SOP-driven operations, and letting customers choose repairs, with success defined as “having the happiest customers.”
Ashley Jo Bloom, co-owner of PNW Automotive, talks about growing up in the garage, redefining shop culture, empowering future technicians, and building a family business designed to last for generations.
Pinto station wagon
"He just let me tag along with him in the garage when he'd build computers, when he was pulling the engine out of the Pinto station wagon"
A Pinto is an older Ford car. A “station wagon” is a family-style version with extra cargo space, and the point here is that the dad was working on an older Ford in the garage.
The Ford Pinto is a compact car from Ford that became well known in the U.S. for its early-1970s era. In this story, “Pinto station wagon” places the garage work in a specific kind of older Ford family vehicle, which helps set the timeline for how the host’s dad worked on cars.
Volkswagen Dasher
"called a Volkswagen Dasher. [318.4s] Yes, the Dasher was, it was an adventure."
The Volkswagen Dasher is an older Volkswagen sedan. It’s the kind of car that can be a good project because it’s not overly complicated, so you can learn how to figure out problems and fix things yourself.
The Volkswagen Dasher is a compact, front-wheel-drive sedan from Volkswagen’s lineup in the late 1970s/early 1980s. It’s a useful “learning car” because it’s mechanically straightforward compared with many modern vehicles, so owners often learn fundamentals like diagnostics and basic repairs.
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