About Us49 Years Serving the CSRA

C&C Automotive started in 1977 as two bays at the corner of 11th and Reynolds streets in downtown Augusta. John Clements had been a mechanic since 1960, and he left Osbon Tire Co. to run a shop of his own at a time when, as he later told the Augusta Chronicle, "things was real tough around Augusta." Within a few years the business had outgrown the building.

In 1981 his son Aaron came home from the Air Force, where he had been a crew chief on fighter jets, and joined him. Cars were just starting to get computers, and Aaron's years on aircraft systems gave a small downtown shop a head start while other independents struggled to keep up with the technology.

When new malls pulled business out of downtown, C&C stayed, living on repeat customers and the medical community around it. The shop moved into the 900 block of Telfair Street in 1995, where it still is, and by 2007 the original two bays had become 35. It was the first shop in Augusta to earn AAA Approved Auto Repair status, and AAA has renewed that approval every year since 2001.

Aaron's oldest daughter, Amanda Drake, was already part of the business by then. She spent four years working part-time in the office and two years as a service writer at Downtown. In 2011 she opened C&C's second shop, in West Augusta, and ran it for four years.

After that she spent six years as District Manager, and during that time she became President and co-owner. She has helped lead our growth from one shop to six.

Today there are six shops across the CSRA, opened one at a time: downtown Augusta, West Augusta in 2011, Martinez in 2018, Warrenville in 2019, Aiken in 2022 and Thomson in 2024. After 49 years it is still family run, three generations deep. Aaron's son Brad, who spent a summer at seven taking a junk car apart in the downtown shop, is now one of our best technicians. C&C has grown into a big team: the Clements family still leads it, and many of the people who work here have brought their own families into it too.