Unique Engineering – Don’t Let the Name Fool You

Tony Ladolcetta will be the first one to tell you there is nothing unique about his downtown auto shop, Unique Engineering & Repairs. 

They do standard auto repairs like brakes, air conditioning, tires and engine work. It’s a family operation that’s been around for over 30 years. And they offer quality work at competitive prices. 

In fact, the only thing unique about the shop is the name. 

“My brother-in-law Sal and I opened the shop back in 1979,” the New York native explains. “I wanted to name it something like Tony & Sal’s or T&S Automotive. But he wanted a different name, something unique.”

“A lot of people don’t know who we are with a name like Unique Engineering,” he admits. “But I’m the oldest repair shop in Safety Harbor, and there’s a lot of competition around.” 

Tony credits his station’s longevity with the fact that he’s been around since the downtown was in its infancy, and he knows the ins & outs of automobiles. 

According to Ladolcetta, when he moved down here and opened the shop, the roads were made of cobblestone, the bridges were scary to drive over, and goats and chickens roamed the area freely. 

"I thought I died and went to heaven when I came here," he says.

People were more into their automobiles back then, too, and by extension, more attached to the people who repaired them. 

“Back then, cars had personalities, and people named them and took care of them,” he recalls. “But ever since 9/11, and then with the recession, people’s opinions of their cars changed.” 

Ladolcetta, who previously just relied on word of mouth for advertising, is trying new methods of marketing his shop, including a Facebook page and utilizing the iSign Media Smart antenna in order to stay competitive in a crowded market.

But he doesn’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon, even if a many people are taking their cars to dealerships instead of local, family-owned repair shops like his. 

“We do brakes, A.C., oil changes, tires and diagnostics for everything up to a one-ton truck. We work on foreign cars, too,” he says. 

“We’re pretty much you’re general hometown repair shop. And with the economy the way it is, I’m going to be here for a while.”

Unique Engineering

Address: 809 Main St.

Phone: 727-726-7162

Hours: Mon - Fri, 8am - 5:30pm