Ed Johnson at Quality Auto in Easton Shares His Love For Cars

Ed Johnson started Quality Auto in Easton 25 years ago, but he said his love for cars developed far earlier.

“I’ve been around cars for 40 years,” he said. “I guess you could say it grew into me learning to love what I was doing.”

Johnson said he originally started working on vehicles when he got his first job at a gas station, changing oil and fixing tires.

He also used to race with his friends.

"I used to really like Chryslers back in the 70s,” he said. “There were three cars I used to run at the New England Dragway. We would race up there on the weekends. We were all into cars.”

At the time, he said, hotrods and drag racing vehicles were finicky.

“It seemed to me that building hotrods and owning those types of cars, you had to be handy to work on them,” he said. “That was basically my drive to get into the auto industry and learn more.”

He got more experience with engines working in the naval service in Vietnam.

“I was actually on board a ship in the engine room,” he said. “It was a tank and troop carrier for the marines out of Norfolk Virginia.”

Johnson said in 1977 he left the service and started working in dealerships, learning the trade and gathering knowledge about cars. After about ten years working in dealerships, he said he wanted to work for himself.

“I’ve been here ever since,” he said.

He said he really never stops working on cars, and it is a real passion for him.

He owns other muscle cars that he is restoring.

“I have Corvettes that I own and do restoration on a routine basis,” he said.

Johnson said he’s always learning in this business, as the vehicles get more and more complex over the years, but he’s been able to keep up.

“The auto technology has gone leap sand bounds beyond what the cars were in the '60s and '70s,” he said. “They are so much more complex and require much more training and knowledge. Once I started this trade of the auto mechanic I’ve stayed with it though and I still really enjoy it. It’s very challenging.”

Johnson said he donates to the Fire and Police departments in Easton as well as youth athletic organizations in town.

For more information on Quality Auto, click here.