Have you ever entered a repair shop with onyx marbled floors, cherry trim, a plasma TV and internet access for clients in waiting? Then you haven’t yet entered Mark Christopher’s newly renovated service department.

Gone is the grease and the oil saturation of our bygone era. Forget the drive-up glass booths and the parking garage squeals. You’re auto repair will be logged in by a service representative seated behind a desk similar to modern banking centers yet reminiscent of a regal natural-wooded turn-of-the-century office.

And - almost ironically it might seem - there is an affability and respect spoken here that makes you imagine you have stepped through a time warp.

Service manager, David Van Nispen, “tells us to treat every client as if he or she were our own mother and father walking through that door,” reveals Rebekah Krikac, Assistant Service Manager. She has known the owning Leggio family for 12 years and has worked for Mark Christopher for three-and-half.

One might underscore the word “family” when speaking of this refreshingly amenable dealership. Begun by Charles and Shirley Leggio in 1975, Mark Christopher, named after their two sons who now manage the dealership, soon grew out of its humble downtown Ontario inception, relocating to more spacious quarters adjacent to the 10 Freeway and Ontario International Airport, directly opposite Ontario’s pristine Convention Center.

Originally a Chevrolet and Oldsmobile dealership, Cadillac and Hummer were added to Mark Christopher’s line, initiating the Leggio family into the world of luxury automobiles. One might imagine pretense and ostentation corrupting such successful growth, but visitors to this dealership will immediately recognize the exact opposite. It feels like family. Seemingly, every representative from the parts clerk to the high-item salesperson exudes charm and sincerity.

Brian Elliot, for example, after working with IBM for 28 years, moved over to this Cadillac dealership to try something new, something “light and enjoyable.” This is not what we might imagine the task of a “car salesman” to be.

 In leasing the newest Platinum Escalade –the “Cadillac of SUV’s” (no pun intended) - our representative experienced no haggling, no passing the buck to the “Sales Manager,” no “what type of monthly payments do you want to make.” An honest and agreeable – and admittedly educated – price was agreed upon in less than ten minutes, from the convenience of our representative’s home. Mr. Elliot came out to the house to sign the papers, and came once again, the next day, to drop off the car. Talk about your home delivery!

In an era when “humanity” and “personal service” sometimes get lost in strings of “1-800” extensions and account numbered references, Mark Christopher models the way for a beautiful blend of a quality-endowed future married with the simplicity of an honest and seemingly extinct “neighborly” past.