Tucked along Renwick Drive in the heart of Gulfton, One Stop Shop Automotive is exactly what its name promises — a single destination where Houstonians can buy a car, finance it, fix it, wrap it, tint it, and drive away in style. But the story of how it got here is anything but straightforward. It’s a story about taking chances, picking yourself up, finding the right teammates, and building something that didn’t exist before.
We sat down with co-owner Steve Jackson to hear how it all came together.
From Furniture Floors to the Car Lot
Steve’s journey didn’t start in the auto industry. It started, of all places, on the showroom floor at Rooms To Go.
“I was top 50 in the region. I was crushing it,” Steve recalls. “But I felt like there was a ceiling. They kind of cut you off at a certain amount.”
The pivot came from a chance encounter — a customer walked in to buy furniture and casually told Steve he had the personality to sell cars. Steve thought about it for three weeks, called a friend in the car business, and made the leap.
His first attempt didn’t go well. “I was out on the lot, it was hot, and I was like, what am I doing?” He quit, tried selling supplemental health insurance for the air-conditioned office life, hated the pay, and went back to cars — this time at a Dodge dealership, where everything clicked.
“I was crushing it. Top sales within the first three months,” he says. By the end of his first year, he was working in finance under a General Sales Manager named Will Coleman, who became a true mentor.
“Will showed me the game. He told me, ‘If you stick with it, I can make you into the greatest.’ And I feel like he did.” When Will later stepped away from the business to battle cancer, Steve was shaken — but the foundation Will had laid stuck. The two still check in on each other, and Steve carries those lessons every day.
The Dream Team Comes Together
While Steve was learning the finance side of the business, a dream was forming in the back of his mind: own his own dealership. The path to making that dream real ran through friendships built along the way.
The first call was to his buddy Tedrick, who runs a credit repair company. “We had a meeting and I was like, hey, I think we can start something. He agreed. We brought our ideas together — I do the auto finance, he handles the credit, and we just came together as a team.” A third partner soon joined, and One Stop Shop Automotive was born.
But Steve wasn’t done assembling the lineup. He had a vision he describes in distinctly Houston terms: “I told them, I want to make the Avengers. I want the dream team. I’ll be Kobe — y’all can be the rest.”
That vision brought in Luis, a longtime friend whose body shop expertise was exactly what the team needed. Luis had been working at a smaller shop and dreaming of expansion, and One Stop offered him the space and partnership to finally do it. “He does great work, and I saw the vision. He has the guys, we have the space — we just came together as a team.”
Then came Alan, who runs the wraps and tints operation. Alan already had his own shop near Hobby Airport, but he saw the higher traffic and clientele at the Renwick location and decided to expand. Now, the towering tent visible from the street is part of Alan’s wraps division — a literal landmark of the partnership.
Everything Under One Roof
The One Stop Shop name isn’t just branding. The business genuinely lives up to it, offering an unusually broad menu of services for a single location:
- Pre-owned vehicle sales, with in-house financing for customers across the credit spectrum — good credit, bad credit, no credit, first-time buyers
- Collision repair through Luis’s body shop
- Custom car wraps and window tinting through Alan’s operation
- Paint Protection Film (PPF) to keep new finishes flawless
- Cosmetic upgrades including starlight headliners and custom interior dyeing
- Luxury vehicle rentals for clients who want to drive something special
That last service is one of the most distinctive offerings on the lot. Steve and his partner Tedrick noticed that platforms like Turo were taking a major cut from luxury car owners renting out their vehicles. So they cut out the middleman.
“We were selling ourselves short. Turo was getting a lot of the money. So we just found clients who want to have nice cars but also want to make money. If you have a good enough credit profile to get a Maybach and you’re only going to drive it a few days a week, the other days, let’s make money off of it.”
It’s a model that turns luxury cars into income streams — and gives Gulfton residents access to vehicles they might never otherwise see up close.
A Gulfton Business with a Gulfton Heart
What makes One Stop Shop Automotive a true Gulfton story isn’t just the location — it’s the philosophy. Steve and his team built this business on the same values that define the neighborhood itself: hustle, partnership, second chances, and the belief that good people working together can do something bigger than any of them could alone.
“Good credit, bad credit, no credit — everybody gets approved” isn’t just a slogan on the wall. It’s a reflection of who the business is built to serve: working families, first-time buyers, and neighbors who deserve to be treated like more than a credit score.
One Stop Shop Automotive is open Monday through Friday from 9 AM to 7 PM, and Saturdays from 11 AM to 4 PM. Drop by the lot at 5425 Renwick Drive or give them a call at (832) 880-0851. Whether you’re looking for your next car, your next custom wrap, or just want to see what a Gulfton dream team looks like in action — they’ll be there to greet you.
The Gulfton Management District is proud to highlight the businesses that make our neighborhood a destination for Houstonians from every walk of life. Know a Gulfton business that deserves the spotlight? Let us know.