In November 2021, Joey Gamboa walked into Bob Stall Chevrolet looking for a lot porter position. He left the building as a sales consultant.

It turned out, in his own words, to be the best decision of his life. Four years in, he's still describing the place the same way: it doesn't feel like a workplace, it feels like home aways from home. Coworkers he likes spending time with. A culture that lets him show up as himself — including, by his own admission, as the funny one on the floor.

By the time Joey took the leap into sales, he'd already spent nine years as a professional auto detailer. That's a career most salespeople don't have. It's also why customers walking out the door with a new car from Joey notice things — like a clean delivery, a vehicle that looks the way it should, and a salesperson who actually points it out before they drive off.

Joey grew up in a Chevrolet household. The badge has always been in the family. Today he drives a 2025 Trax — a vehicle his "little family" (his words) loves — and helps customers across the rest of the lineup find their version of the same.

Joey has lived in Tijuana for the past nine years and crosses the border into La Mesa for work. The cross-border commute is a real San Diego County thing, and it gives him a perspective on customers from both sides of the line that not every salesperson on the floor has.

San Diego itself, he says, is a city that keeps surprising you. The best spots are the ones most people don't know about — the kind of places that aren't on the obvious lists.

Joey's one customer recommendation? Penelope's Mexican Food. He calls it one of the best places he's ever eaten — and from someone who lives in TJ, that carries some weight.

Working out of La Mesa keeps him centrally located in the county, with easy access to customers from the South Bay all the way through East County and back down to the border.