Honest-1 Auto Care, an eco-friendly repair shop, will open Friday on Richmond Highway.

Located at 8646A Richmond Hwy. in Engleside Plaza, the auto repair shop will offer full-service repair and maintenance. The shop uses various tactics, including proper disposal and recycling of fluids, to ensure it is environmentally friendly.

“It’s an under-served area, this part of Alexandria,” said General Manager Douglas Flint. “It’s well-located [in the shopping center], which means people can combine their auto care with their other shopping needs. It’s just a natural fit.”

Flint said the company's emphasis is on properly maintaining existing vehicles with the philosophy that it's more eco-friendly than buying a new car, even if the car is designed to be more eco-friendly.  

“The most ecologically friendly thing a person could do is maintain the automobile they already have because that automobile takes no resources to produce,” Flint said.

Honest-1 Auto Care will offer products such as Castrol GTX, which is synthetic oil. Other eco-friendly methods used by the company include drawing out fluids with a vacuum to ensure they are not spilled on the floor and using 100 percent recycled ethylene glycol, the main component in anti-freeze. 

Aside from its automotive services, Honest-1 Auto Care will offer amenities to its customers while they are waiting for their cars. The shop will offer an upscale waiting area, Internet café, a play area for children and coffee.

This is the first Honest-1 Auto Care, a franchise with 27 other locations, in Virginia. The Route 1 shop is owned by Sudhakar Tammireddi and his wife Veni, who reside in Loudoun County.

“Honest-1 Auto Care provides us with a fantastic way to connect with the local community,” Sudhakar Tammireddi said. “From job creation and business development to cleaning up the image of auto repair and maintenance providers.”

The shop will work in conjunction with Capital Area Food Bank, he said. Customers can bring donations of canned food to the shop and, in exchange, they will be given "Honest-1 Bucks" to be used toward services. “Honest-1 is trying to be a different store," said Tammireddi, "with more focus towards customer service, honesty and at the same time being eco-friendly.”