Automotive in Milpitas

The Bay Limo’s freshly waxed and buffed town cars, limousines, and party buses lovingly embrace passengers with plush seats as their drivers safely escort travelers through the San Francisco metro area. The transport service reserves its vehicles in advance for special events—such as weddings, parties, and proms—and offers last-minute pickups when rides to the airport fall through because of new zoning restrictions for blimps. Their fleet also includes ritzier automobiles such as exotic cars and stretch limousines, which come outfitted with champagne, water, and an option to upgrade to a full backseat bar.

At Flash Mobile Car Wash And Detail, technicians thoroughly clean vehicles inside and out, using the power of steam rather than running water. The flexible team can travel to clients' homes, offices, or attached-garage treehouses, or perform wash and detail services at their Main Street shop. Staffers condition leather with natural oils, restore headlights, and apply synthetic paint sealant to protect finishes. They also sell and install car stereos and tint windows.

The detailers at Milpitas Auto Spa can return vehicles to like-new condition—a feat they accomplish with eco-friendly products and a high-tech spot-free rinse system. Before water touches the car's smooth skin, it travels through a PurClean reverse-osmosis filtration system that removes all trace of spot-causing minerals. That lets staff focus all the more diligently on vacuuming carpets and waxing vehicles until they shine brighter than the day they hatched from their iron cocoon. While their cars get pampered, human customers can stay entertained with Milpitas Auto Spa's free WiFi.

Since 1966, Jon Nichols has divided his time between cruising atop a motorcycle and lying beneath it with a wrench and a perfectionist's determination. Spurred by his discontent with a bike's stock performance, he used his industrial acumen, honed by years as the owner of an aerospace-machine shop, to begin manufacturing lightweight motorcycle parts to help his bikes to perform better, faster, and with less whining about how all the other neighborhood bikes have little sidecars to play with. Years later, Jon and his wife, Lettie, opened Nichols Sport Bikes and staffed it with a team of skilled technicians. Bikes can be heard bolting from their 2,500-square-foot facility bolstered by revitalizing oil changes, maintenance, and a full line of Jon's Ducati replacement parts.

Human fingers and orbital buffers. Q-tips and compressed air. Miniscule brushes and robust vacuums. These are just a few of the tools Diablo Auto Polishing's technicians use to coax filth from crevices, grilles, consoles, and vents, replacing grime with a fresh sparkle.

Whether they're working out of their facility or from their mobile truck, they exhibit this painstaking attention to detail during services such as layering wax on top of just-buffed paints for a like-new luster and infusing floorboards and seats with stain-lifting shampoos. Aside from their four-tiered detail packages, the technicians also restore headlights and fix dents with an organic process that forgoes the use of paint additives or junkyard donors.

Lines of dirty cars have been forming outside the automated car-wash tunnel at Homestead Car Wash ‘N Gas for more than 25 years. At the front of each line, you’ll find the car wash’s friendly staff prepping each vehicle. This gesture serves two purposes: to ensure top-notch customer service and to ready the cars for one of the three tiered washes, which feature soft cloths, Armor All products, and à la carte services such as tire dressing and body shield. The tunnel opens for business seven days a week, and the facility's gas pumps fill up gas tanks and Paul Bunyan’s coffee mug 24/7.