Unmet needs for car owners

[Dave T]

Do car owners have unmet needs for their cars? I have several ideas. Here's one.

Do you ever want to rent time in a mechanic's garage? Here's the only one in the Pacific Northwest, south of Seattle. Website: Self Serve Garage in Kent, Washington | Do It Yourself Auto Garage | Auto Repair Shop Rental in Kent, Washington

News story: Self-Serve Garage in Kent offers space, tools, info for doing your own repairs - Kent Reporter
Excerpt:

He opened Self-Serve Garage in Kent this month, offering customers the space and equipment to do their own car-repair work.

Just like a professional garage, Patterson’s business has a hydraulic lift for under-body repairs, a wheel lift, diagnostic equipment, and a full compliment of tools. He’s also operating “green,” meaning that nearly everything that counts as waste will be recycled, from cardboard to metal. He’s also set up to take waste transmission fluid and oil from his customers’ repairs.

The bays, of which there are six, can be rented by the hour, the half day, the week or the month. There’s also a special oil-change bay, where customers can do their own oil change for just $10, if within the allotted time frame of 30 minutes.

Patterson is hoping to cater both to the folks who like to do their own repair work, but don’t have a place to do it, and mobile mechanics, who can rent the bays to work on their customers’ cars.

Although he’s now in the auto business, it’s a far cry from where the Federal Way resident got his start. He served in the Army as a medic, and thanks to the G.I. Bill, went on to become a licensed practical nurse. From there, he opted to become a registered nurse.
...
So he went back to school and got a Master’s degree in business administration, and was subsequently hired as a manager for an oncology practice. But thanks to the hard times of the recession, the business downsized, leaving Patterson without a job.

So he went back to square one, literally: He revisited a business plan he had written while in business school, which outlined his brainchild of a self-serve garage. And while it took considerable finesse to line up the necessary liability insurance (all his customers sign a waiver releasing his shop from liability for their self-made repairs) Patterson made it happen, thanks to his persistence.

“I’m the only one in the Pacific Northwest,” he said.

The problem I see is the potential liability if someone hurts themselves and also that the garage space has a finite rental rate while a repair garage can potentially use a similar space but generate high value repair work. Still, I like this idea.

I plan on using this place later this year and might report on this interesting place.

[Dave T]

Around here, there is no auto center of the type that I envision. Maybe this is an idea? It's a place that you could go for car related needs and relaxation. I envision several components.

One component is a clean auto parts store. The Autozones that I've been to seem clean and neat. There's another auto parts chain that isn't so clean and neat. Perhaps, an Autozone franchise is an idea? If one wants more personal input but potentially less help from headquarters, perhaps a different brand will do? How about Autobacs? It's a large Japanese chain with stores in France and Singapore. There used to be one in Long Beach, California but it's either not there or changed names. Autobacs World _ Stores One problem with a small brand is they may have poor buying power, just as little stores can't buy supplies as cheaply as Walmart gets them. Like Autobacs in other countries, there could be repair bays to do work.

Another component could be a gas station with a famous brand of fuel, such as Chevron or Shell. Some Shell stations participate with Kroger where one can get 10 cents off gas after buying $100 at Kroger within a month. Perhaps, if one is the only Autobacs store in the U.S., one could offer discounts at the Autobacs Chevron on the same lot? I've seen gas stations combined with something else in other countries. At one Esso station, it's also an Aston Martin showroom.

Food is an attractive component and also attracts those who don't have an interest in cars. How about a small strip mall in the Autobacs concept, leasing out space to small restaurants, such as a teriyaki place, a pizza place, a coffee house, maybe a fish and chips place and some ethnic places, like Chinese dim sum restaurant, south Indian food, Jamaican jerk chicken, etc. Maybe a sports lounge with a racing emphasis is another idea?

Add to that, perhaps, there could be some retail space. Perhaps, mini-showrooms could be leased to car dealers. These wouldn't be dealerships to compete with other dealerships but rather very small boutiques where car dealer could keep 2 or 3 cars for display. There would not be service departments or test drives, just cars for browsing and one sales representative.

Of course, all that real estate wouldn't come cheap.

[nordwulf]

According to their website, $35 an hour for a bay with a lift seems very reasonable. The average garage or dealer easily charges $135 an hour. $300 per day with no tool or other rental fees seems even much better. Having a lift makes any brake, suspension, oil sump check or any under car work so much easier. I wish there was a place like that where I live.

Even $10 for 30 minutes for an oil change would be much better than laying on your back messing with draining the oil, especially in winter.

[Dave T]

Looks like the Seattle area will be getting a second place where you can rent a lift and space to work on your car. This one is in Kirkland, which is in the northeast part of the metropolitan area. The other place is in the far south part of the area.

The new place hasn't opened yet but it seems like it will be soon. They don't mention the address except to say it's in the Totem Lake area of Kirkland, Washington.



Stew's Self Service Garage
https://www.facebook.com/StewsSelfServiceGarage

If they open within the next 2-3 months, I might use them twice.

[Dave T]

Looks like this place (Stew's) will finally open on October 25, 2014.

From their Facebook page, it looks like the owner has been through a lot to open. First, he was remodeling a location in the eastern suburbs but may have lost his lease or some other problem. Then he had to do remodeling of his new place in the northeastern part of the Seattle metropolitan area (Kirkland).