Car repair and maintenance can be a mysterious and confusing world for the average car owner, and finding a mechanic or repair shop you like and can trust isn't always as straightforward as heading to the nearest chain. Stephan Walters faced that issue himself not long ago, and the D.C.-based app developer decided to figure out a way to build an alternative. The result is GreaseMonkey Mobile, an app and Web tool that lets users find and interact with a growing number of local auto shops to get vehicles serviced and otherwise make owning a car less stressful.
"In some ways it's similar to Angie's List," Walters said. "I see it as a way to help drivers find the small shops they can trust."
Like Angie's List, the app lets users find recommended places to get their cars fixed or maintained. But GreaseMonkey, founded last year, aims to offer more features than just recommendations and lists of services. That makes sense considering the team behind it are already experience app developers. GreaseMonkey's platform lets users make and track appointments with the shops and see where there might be deals or specials. Users can also message with the shops to figure out estimates and even keep information about the car easily accessible in the cloud.
"People worry about being ripped off by mechanics and we want to change that," Walter said. "And getting quotes and estimates ahead of time makes people feel that they are less likely to get cheated by coming off as ignorant about cars."
In some ways though, GreaseMonkey is as much about helping out the shops as it is the consumer. Most small shops don't have their own app or much of a presence online. GreaseMonkey lets them reach customers that might never have heard of them otherwise. Other shops might have plenty of customers, but the process of dealing with each one as they come in can consume so much time that they simply don't have time to accommodate new ones. Setting some or all of the process up before the car ever rolls into the garage can speed things up quite a bit, Walters said.
"It solves a big pain point for the shops," Walters said. "I've heard them say their productivity isn't where it should be. The app lets them and the customers have an idea of where things are and when they'll be done ahead of time."
There are about 80 shops on the app so far, mostly in the greater D.C. area, but with several in Atlanta as well. Walters and his team are continuing to talk to and add more shops in those areas, with an eye toward expanding into new cities soon. While the shops they talk to usually have some interest in signing up, not every shop has enough staff to assign someone to handle running their side of the app, an issue Walters said he is considering ways to address. Companies subscribe to GreaseMonkey to be on the app, right now mainly on a free trial basis, but it's free for car owners to use.
"There's no reason finding somewhere to get your car fixed should be more stressful than any other errand."
Walters and the other developers still have their full-time jobs, so they don't have quite the pressing need to raise capital as of yet. A successful crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe brought in $3,000 last year and that was enough to get the app off the ground. Now the GreaseMonkey team has to see if they are right about their app being the solution to the aggravation of dealing with fixing and maintaining a car.
"There's no reason finding somewhere to get your car fixed should be more stressful than any other errand," Walters said. "It should be easy."
