Exploring Life & Business with DEBBIE SIDERA of Debbie Motors

Today we’d like to introduce you to DEBBIE SIDERA.

Hi DEBBIE, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in a small town in Catalonia and I was strongly influenced from a very young age by my family, which comes mostly from a blacksmith and mechanics heritage. I spent a lot of time after school with my father (industrial mechanic) and uncles, so I can definitely say that I inherited most of my fundamental knowledge from them. On top of their everyday work and of running the land around the family’s ranch, at that time neighbors, local businesses, and other farmers liked to rely on us to fix everything from small appliances to heavy equipment. Things were done with a lot of frugal ingenuity, mostly because the resources we needed just weren’t there. I give lots of credit to them because they were self-taught in almost all the fields, including electronics.
For a period, I lost interest in the things I was learning at school. I tried to make a difference and set myself apart from what I experienced at home. I changed my hobbies to informatics, worked in the layout department of one of the major grocery chains, did carpentry, and even gypsum art decoration… but soon my heritage called me back. I returned to the hobbies I had when I was younger, spending my free time fixing and modifying my cars and motorcycles, and because of this, also the cars from my friends and neighbors. So it didn’t take long for my passion to become my full-time job. In reality, you can say that I had the customers that nobody else wanted: old cars, racing modified cars, and odd British and Italian rarities that had no spares and always needed some kind of fabrication… usually without a real budget to afford any of it. So again, I relied on the frugal experience I got from my family.
In 2010, after visiting the US the previous year, I got a job offer in a restoration shop in Connecticut. This opened the doors for me to work on the projects I was most interested in and allowed me to attend car shows, which later inclined me to move to California, where I gained wide experience in the car restoration business.
In 2016, after the perseverance of some customers, I decided to create the Debbie Motors brand to specialize in working with the highest-end Italian makers and to be able to offer the services that others don’t. This includes holistic solutions and often devoting myself and the team to a single project to meet all customer expectations, having a fully equipped vehicle setup to perform repairs at customers’ facilities such as museums and collections, and providing support to official dealer shops with their prototypes, one-offs, and classic vehicles.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I would define it as a roller coaster of obstacles, each giving you a lesson and shaping the person you become.
The first step to move to the US was to set all the work documents. Because I didn’t have any university degree, I had to present all my credentials through facts and recommendation letters from the projects and collaborations I had done in the past. This wasn’t an easy task per se, because when you are young you don’t realize that people get older, and some may even pass away, leaving you with nobody to explain your story.
The first months in the US were the hardest ones. My English level was very close to zero, so I had to point at things with my finger to communicate. I had to learn to deal with the imperial system, which is still predominant in the US, plus all the cultural impact, which is huge in every single aspect compared to the town and people I grew up with.
When I decided to run my own shop, I found a significant number of people who told me that cars are men’s business and that I would never survive as a woman. So at that time, I had to learn how to stand up for myself and believe that ideas were stronger than them.
Learning the business side of running a shop was another challenge. I still consider myself more of an artist or a creator than a businessperson. This is both a positive thing and a curse because in order to create beautiful things you need a great deal of love for what you do, but you also need to learn to keep a balance so bills get paid and you comply with all the business regulations.
Currently, we are struggling with the automotive trend in which we sadly see iconic shops and vendors closing their doors. Some trades are getting lost, and mechanics in their retirement stage aren’t getting replaced at the same rate. This means that the few that are left must work under pressure and usually at a lower standard.

As you know, we’re big fans of Debbie Motors. For our readers who might not be as familiar can you tell them how you started your business?
Out of concern for starting a business in a new country that was relatively new to me, I started small. First alone in my own garage, going mobile servicing local customers, and collaborating with other shops.
Soon I realized I needed more space to keep the parts from the cars I was taking apart and to store the equipment I was procuring as I grew. So to separate the work from home, I rented an office, a car garage, and then another garage, another… until it became too difficult for anyone to keep running from one facility to another.
In 2022, after some years of stepping up, we decided to consolidate everything into one building. This allowed us to work more efficiently and to offer more services.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
As I mentioned before, over the last 10 years there has been a notable trend change in the automotive industry, influenced by many variables. The most important ones have been regulations, market values in both classic and super-sport cars, and a new generation of youth not as interested in the motor industry (at least professionally).
Because my place in the market is very niche per se, I believe we will be able to keep busy, but not without challenges. Every day I have to increase the amount of small tasks I do in-house that I used to delegate or send out to vendors before, and because of this, more fabrication is needed. Materials that were once easy to find off the shelf are getting discontinued and harder to replace. This includes solvent-based products, chrome, and platings, which are heavily regulated.
In a kind of “construction bubble” fashion, there has also been an increase in people buying and flipping cars. Their goal is to make the vehicle look clean with as little investment as possible, glorify it in an auction house, and turn it into a big profit. This practice has left many new owners, who wanted to buy their dream car, facing a nightmare instead. I believe we all need to do a better job of educating our customers.
Most modern repair shops are looking for young technicians, but the youth isn’t there to fill the demand. The main reason for this is how the industry has abused the sector. New cars have become “cookie-cutters,” mechanics are paid on flat-rate bases, and customers are left disappointed. It’s all part of a plan to make new cars like appliances, where you use them for a few years until they become obsolete and you feel forced to just buy a new one because the brand no longer supports it.
My work is different in the sense that I play more the role of a curator preserving cars than a mechanic, but I still need to find ways to source parts and materials and to rely on vendors such as upholstery, radiator, and machine shops. Without this industry, everything becomes more difficult.

Pricing:

• Our pricing reflects how much we are invested in our projects. It covers the amount of research we do during non-billable hours and allows us to obtain and maintain factory-level diagnostic equipment, which is a significant expense.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.debbiemotors.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debbiemotors
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/debbiemotors