The appeal of Lucille Treganowan might be her grandmotherly coiffure and her smart khaki uniform complete with her name stitched on the pocket. After all, despite the wrench in her hand, from the world-as-Mayberry perspective, she's a lot closer to Aunt Bee than Goober.
But to those who've seen Lucille (calling her Treganowan just doesn't sound right) on TV where Home & Garden Television runs her "Lucille's Car Care Clinic" show, or those who've read her book, "Lucille's Car Care" (Hyperion, $19.95), know that she's not a character.No, Lucille is a real person. That's her appeal. She's a 66-year-old woman who owns a couple of transmission shops in Pittsburgh. The rest of this foolishness - the TV show, the book and this summer's appearances with David Letterman, Maury Povich and Oprah - has taken her by surprise.
"It's really crazy the interest that it has drawn," she said in a recent telephone interview. She struggles to come up with an answer as to why her time seems to be now. After all, she's been working in the car business since 1960.
"I think it's unusual enough to be a woman in this business," she said. "This age thing seems to throw them for a bit."
Lucille wanted to be an English teacher. Instead, she met and married a Pittsburgher and had three children. Then she started doing clerical work at an auto-repair shop. The business was expanding, and Lucille didn't know much about cars so she started studying shop manuals "so I could at least sound like I knew something." Instead, the studying and the opportunity for hands-on learning opened up a whole new world.
Female customers with questions gravitated to her. They asked her to listen to noises that cars were making or to look at puddles underneath. By 1962, she was teaching car-care classes for woman.
Over the next three decades she became something of a source for reporters and a local celebrity, but it was the chance to do a show on H&G TV that made her somewhat nationally known. Today, her show reaches 13 million viewers.
"It's aimed at the know-nothing car owner. I try to keep it light," she said.
That simple recipe also makes her book a winner. It's light on biography but heavy on practical advice. For instance:
- Your emergency kit ought to have all the basics, plus some things you might not have thought of such as two bread wrappers and four rubber bands to slip over your hands in case you need to change a tire, an old shower curtain for covering the ground if you have to crawl under the ground and old scarf for emergency hose repairs.
- On the evils of car phones, drink holders, reclining seats and fancy stereos. "Your living room is a stationary object," she writes. "Your car is a high-powered machine hurtling down the road at 60 mph."
- On how to tell if your tire wear is caused by over-inflation, under-inflation or bad shock absorbers. "Tires never lie," she writes. "Where tires are worn will tell you exactly how tires got that way so you can prevent a recurrence."
Lucille laments that cars have become so high-tech that many owners can't do anything with them.
However, this has meant a more level playing field between men and women.
"When I grew up, it was unladylike to be involved with the mechanics of a car," she said. That was something for fathers and sons. Today, however, fathers aren't teaching sons about cars nearly as much. At the same time, women have become more independent with the result being that many more of them want to know how their cars run.
"One thing that helps women is that they don't have any hesitation about asking a dumb question," she said. "A lot of times, men won't ask."
So, her book is for both men and women. "We aimed it at anyone who owns a car and wants a little more knowledge about it. They might not want to do heavy work on it but want to protect their investment."
The book, co-written with Gina Catanzarite who produces her television show, was completed in three months. It includes chapters on a car's major systems (power- train, electrical, exhaust, brakes, etc.). Handy lists and helpful illustrations are plentiful. There's even a photo of Lucille running a clinic back in the '60s.
Once the publicity ends for her book, she'll return to her shops where she often spends 10 to 12 hours a day and still remains active in diagnosis of problems. A better-informed customer is a better customer, she said.
"The repair business suffers from a bad image from a few bad shops," she said. "In many cases, people who scream they've been ripped off don't understand what has happened. Mechanics are really bad communicators in general."
She'll also return to the studio to shoot the next round of episodes of her show.
Speaking of television, her fun, spirited exchange with David Letterman might be the highlight of her book tour.
"I was apprehensive about that one. A number of people said to me, `He'll make fun of you.' I said, `I'm an adult. I'm certainly in control of what I say or do.' It turns out he was really warm and funny and friendly."
To most who watched, it was apparent that Lucille reminded Letterman of someone - his own mother.