FORT MYERS, Fla. (March 31, 2015) — Pam Oakes, nationally syndicated radio personality and former owner of Pam's Motor City Automotive and Tires in Fort Myers, has launched GasCapGrip.com L.L.C., a new business featuring an automotive product designed to help motorists properly seal their gas caps.
Set to launch June 1, the product is geared toward senior citizens and others who have issues with dexterity to allow them an easier means of opening and closing vehicle gas caps, Ms. Oakes told Tire Business.
“I was forever tightening gas caps on customers' cars,” she said, adding that drivers often would come into her shop with illuminated check engine lights. “Then, seeing that it was only a gross EVAP code, I would reset the (powertrain control module). I never charged for this; had I, I would have retired years ago.”
Eventually she developed a crude device to help customer friends with the gas cap, and the product “just developed from there.”
Made in Florida, GasCapGrip is “simple, saves drivers from paying out money to reset that P400 code and promotes optimum fuel economy and less emissions,” she said.
Ms. Oakes noted that she will be selling the product directly via the company's website, as well as through automotive retail businesses. In addition, she is working toward a distribution agreement with a petroleum company, though she did not disclose details.
Along with being a contributor to Tire Business' automotive service e-newsletter, Service Zone, Ms. Oakes is an ASE-certified technician, author, automotive patent holder, public speaker and a radio personality offering consumer education on automotive maintenance on “Car Care for the Clueless.”
She sold her tire and automotive service business in January to John Kish, who previously owned Boss Automotive of West Chester, Pa., and disclosed at the time she was pursing a business opportunity that would not give her time to continue running the dealership.
Ms. Oakes founded Pam's Motor City Automotive in 1995 and for awhile was its sole employee. Today, the 12-bay shop employs nine.