About Us

Randy Aaronian (CEO/Founder)

Randy founded AR Transmission in 1979. He originally started it as a hobby. The local speed shops needed someone to build their custom race transmissions. Randy approached some of them and Aaronian Racing Transmission was born. He built a few custom transmissions here and there out of his parent's garage. He soon realized that his hobby was growing into a potentially good business. He began building transmissions for the everyday car and in May 1982 he opened AR Transmission at 1910 W. McKinley in Fresno, CA and has been there ever since.

Steve Knutsen (General Manager)

Steve started with the company in 1982. His first job with the company was to tear down the core transmissions. He then became ART’s first delivery driver. As ART grew, it became obvious that Randy (the owner) could not handling the growing customer base. Steve started dealing with the customers and has been ever since. He has numerous years in the parts field and troubleshooting areas.

Gabe Grijalva (Service/Parts Advisor)

Gabe has been with the company since February 2003. Before coming to ART, Gabe worked for a large parts company. He has vast knowledge in the parts field. He is also very good at conveying the customer’s (your) transmission problems to our troubleshooting technicians. This makes it easier for us to diagnosis your transmissions problem quickly and efficiently.

Rod Meseke (Outside Sales)

Rod as been a tremendous boost to our sales team here at ART. He has 50+ years in the automotive field and owned Fresno Automatic Transmission Service for 40 of those years. His knowledge and ability to work with you the customer is unsurpassed. He is enjoying doing outside sales for us and taking care of his customers of many years.

Daniel Mercado (Service/Parts Advisor) Se Habla Espanol

Daniel Has been with us since February 2007. He originally was hired for trouble shooting vehicle but we soon realized he was made for dealing with people. In just a short amount of time he has been able to learn how to take care of you the customer. He also speaks fluent Spanish.