Engineer turns love of cars, box of Peugeot books into a business


		Paul Joseph Brown / P-I
	Alex Voss owns Books4Cars.com in Columbia City. He sells owner's and auto repair manuals for just about every make of car, no matter how obscure.

But in an unpretentious building in Columbia City, packages are being wrapped, stamped and shipped to cities in the Philippines, Israel, Australia, Germany, Norway, Russia and other countries. Voss' customers also come from the Northwest and all over the U.S., including visitors from cruise ships and inquiries from concierges at local hotels.

Books4Cars.com is car heaven for anyone who has ever wanted to buy, sell, restore, fix, have fixed, understand or simply appreciate any motor vehicle ever made. While the business began as a hobby in Voss' house when he worked as a mechanical engineer for General Motors in Detroit, it is now expanding in both volume shipped and square footage.

A block off Rainier Avenue South in Columbia City's historic district, the 1,600-square-foot space soon will grow by 900 square feet, to the corner of South Edmunds Street.

Voss, 44, shows a visitor around, walking into a new annex for ever-expanding numbers of owner's and auto repair manuals "for every truck, motorcycle, classic car, sports car, new car, old car, collector car, muscle car, hot rod, race car and truck."

It does a brisk business, but the store looks and feels like a library, while offering auto enthusiasts a place to meet and share information. The rented space is organized like a library, too, with wall-to-wall shelves of manuals, binders, books and magazines in alphabetical order by manufacturer, "without the Dewey Decimal system," Voss says.

On Wednesday, the orders rolled in, invoiced by staff member Betty Williamson and processed by Manny Garcia in the tiny shipping room, also slated for expansion.

"We ship all over the world -- about 100 orders a day," Garcia said, wrapping a Maserati manual bound for Thailand and a BMW motorcycle repair manual for a customer in Israel. Customers want information on an impressive range of classic and utility, domestic and foreign cars: Jaguars, Studebakers, Grand Cherokees, Ferraris, Chevrolet Impalas, Mazdas, Bugattis, Rolls-Royces, Duesenbergs.

"Before I worked here, I didn't realize there were so many different kinds of cars," Garcia said.

Voss and his wife, Ruthie, never anticipated that their business would mushroom as it has. But there are several reasons for it, they say.

"Vehicles are getting more and more complicated, with more electronics and other features that were not in cars years ago," Voss said, pointing to a four-volume manual for a Mitsubishi Eclipse.

"The owner of a newer car may know how to start a car, but can't program the anti-theft device, the air conditioning or the radio."

People who restore vehicles -- a big part of his business -- are keen on the manuals, parts, assembly line and historic information the store offers, Voss said.

"The restoration business has spawned a whole new interest in books like authenticity manuals," Voss said.

"We've had people looking for information about the right etchings on windshields."

Customers also include students and teachers at technical schools, library systems and even lawyers researching autos for litigation. People who have bought or sold used cars often seek original owner's manuals that have been lost over the years. Parents come to Books4Cars in hopes of teaching teenagers how to drive and care for cars more responsibly.

While the Internet has boosted global business, phone orders are frequent and encouraged. Word-of-mouth advertising has been key at the local level. Voss also said his inventory is unique and cannot be found in most commercial bookstores.

The Vosses said they started the business by accident. Before returning six years ago to Seattle, where his own family as well as Ruthie's lived, Voss had collected and sold Peugeot parts as a home-based hobby. When a Detroit dealership decided to quit selling Peugeots, it gave Voss all its Peugeot manuals.

"I ended up selling more manuals than parts," Voss said. "Everyone wanted manuals. I realized, 'There's a market here.' I started adding manuals, and it started mushrooming; it was a niche that seemed to work."

The Vosses incorporated their business in 1997 in Detroit and opened their first store in Columbia City in 2000.

"It's strange to think all this started with a box of books," Ruthie Voss said.

In love with cars since childhood, Alex Voss knew after graduating from Franklin High School in Seattle in 1979 that he wanted to work in the auto industry. He studied auto mechanics at Green River Community College and engineering at the University of Washington before finding a program in Flint, Mich., that perfectly suited his interests.

In 1989, he graduated with a B.A. in mechanical engineering from a specialized automotive school, originally named General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) that offered both his desired degree and work experience. He then joined a GM design group, working on the Corvette.

"It was heaven for me," said Voss, whose own cars have included a 1987 Citro�n and a rare, Italian made 1966 Lancia with a Zagato body.

Al Herman, 73, is a loyal customer and a longtime auto mechanic from Magnolia. He visits the store when he needs to troubleshoot show cars for Seattle collector Ken McBride, such as the 1932 Packard with persnickety brakes.

"You can't know everything about every car, so you come here," Herman said.

"Common sense didn't work on that car, and this was the one place I could find a manual with the necessary information; it's a rare car," Herman said. "For $40, this place saved my life. Every car is totally different; a place like this is really valuable."