Self service garages, would you use one?

[curly89]

pretty much as the title says to be honest, a few people i know have mentioned them recently. So i did some investigating and i you know where to look there are quite a few around.
The basic principal seems to be its a normal garage with ramps and some tools supplied for an hourly charge, so you can work on your car on a ramp rather than the floor in your garage or driveway. some even seem to offer tyre fitting and fabrication services.
This has got me thinking, clearly there is a market for these garages, many of them seem to be filled with saxos, 106's and civc's, which truth be told, isnt my scene. But would you as a retro owner use one? or would you feel out of place in a workshop surrounded by glassfibre bodykits?

[stretch]

think i would if i could use my mates but depends on the cost

[damageandy]

no because one snapped bolt, wrong part etc can turn many a simple hour jobs into 8 hours of sweat, tears and blood and then u'd get stung in ya wallet too.

[Mystery Machine]

Feb 26, 2013 16:15:57 GMT damageandy said:

no because one snapped bolt, wrong part etc can turn many a simple hour jobs into 8 hours of sweat, tears and blood and then u'd get stung in ya wallet too.

I'd have to agree with this. The amount of cars that we've had to do simple jobs on at Area 52...which then turned into a mammoth exercise due to unforseen circumstances would make you think twice about paying an hourly rate to rent a ramp.

We were fitting some coilovers to Pip's BMW which in itself is probably about two hours maybe three hours work. I would reckon it took about six to eight hours in total....and that was with numerous people working on the car! Just one example of what we had to deal with: a snapped/sheared bolt that needed to be drilled out and re-tapped (rendering the car immobile in the meantime) but it was right through the hub, so that alone took about an hour and half to sort...before the next one snapped and delayed things even more. That wasn't even the whole story but you get the idea.

The car was 'left' in the early hours and we got up and carried on the next morning in order to get everything sorted and have the car back on the road. The replacement gearshift supplied turned out to be the wrong one so there was time lost there too for zero gain.

I'd be wary of paying an hourly rate where the costs can soon spiral for exactly the reasons mentioned above.

[keithyboy]

Maybe if I didn't have a drive I'd think about it.

[K5]

Maybe I wouldn't use one but if i could I would certainly open one! An excellent idea that I have long thought about and here it is. What are the hourly charges like?

[robinmasters]

Feb 26, 2013 16:15:57 GMT damageandy said:

no because one snapped bolt, wrong part etc can turn many a simple hour jobs into 8 hours of sweat, tears and blood and then u'd get stung in ya wallet too.

This.

I can't think of a job which falls between jobs where something go wrong leading to massive expense, and stuff I'd happily do in the road.

[willowandmikey]

I think some stuff it could make sense, If you wanted to underseal for example it's going to be easier than axle stands and not much risk of it going bent

[curly89]

I see what you are all saying, I posted because its a concept that I have often thought about but I never knew actually existed, the hourly rates seem to vary massively from place to place. With the reservations some of you have mentioned it makes me wonder if these issues have been considered, presumably they must have some method of storing a vehicle if parts are wrong etc?

[ben711200]

Someone tried to set one up near me a few years ago. It didn't last long despite local press praising it.

I've been on the A52 ramp for a 'quick job' and taken it up for most of a weekend before.. I'd be petrified of trying to do much more than an oil change on an 'hourly rate' ramp. And you can guarantee that someone will only have the money for a couple hours but have a car in pieces needing the rest of the day to get it put back together. What would you do then? You could get them to sign an agreement saying they're liable for an additional fee for going over upto a set daily rate maximum or whatever, but you'll end up with a load of bad debt and your fee earning ramp tied up with slow/non-payers.

Consider as well the above situation is likely to occur more as often people who are working on their own cars are doing so as they can't afford garage bills.

[gazzab1978]

its a great i idea in principle but sadly would probably not in practice as i think you would end up not making any money on it as you will probably find it will only get used on weekends as thats when most of us have the time to fix our cars.

[K5]

If it was on parking type meter and you fed it with money it could work and as you came to the end of your money, there is a warning 10 minutes before the end. An alarm could sound warning you to either top up or clear up and move out then another sounder 5 minutes before the ramp came down. You would have to rig up a safety system obviously to avoid accidents.

[tubbs]

Its a dead good idea in principle. I have enough trouble out of my ramp with finding mates on it when i turn up to work at the weekends as it is. But if they where paying me ! Result...
But yes it has its complications, as stated. I wonder how much an hour ? Be worth getting another ramp in. Ive got plenty of room, and i only gave £880 for my 4 poster. £100 a day, it will have paid for itself in 9 days ! And i could just sit in the office with my ipad and a diary.....

[Copey]

i think for some jobs i would consider it, say you had a chassis rail to replace, floor sections to weld in etc etc then yeah, as the only thing that can really go wrong with that is you end up with a bigger hole than you expected (anyone who welds will always buy more metal than they need, just on the off chance, but anythin suspension/runnin gear wise...no, i borrowed a mates ramp to fit gas shocks and stiffer springs to my sierra, was goin well until a bolt snapped on the front end, which then meant the car had to stay there overnight as i couldnt get a replacement bolt on a sunday...wonder what one of those garages would have wanted to charge...

[willowandmikey]

There's a place in London charging £10 a hour if the insurance/business rates were not too bad it sounds worth doing.

Stick with the 1 ramp when the profits pay for that then expand if you've already got the ramp then you haven't lost out sounds like a win win situation to me

[Ryannn]

Feb 26, 2013 19:54:11 GMT ben711200 said:

Consider as well the above situation is likely to occur more as often people who are working on their own cars are doing so as they can't afford garage bills.

Not always the case, I work on my own because I enjoy doing it myself and the way it all works!

Feb 26, 2013 20:14:16 GMT gazzab1978 said:

its a great I idea in principle but sadly would probably not in practice as I think you would end up not making any money on it as you will probably find it will only get used on weekends as thats when most of us have the time to fix our cars.

Not always the case. Those of us who work in Retail or Service areas usually end up working the weekend when everyone else wants to do stuff! Meaning we get the run of the places during the week!

EDIT: In reply to OP, yeah i'd use one, but I'd bring all my stuff with me, especially my tub of random nuts and bolts! Saying this with a potential gearbox removal looming tomorrow

[mrabody]

To make it succeed you'd probably want to have a good range of tools and possibly someone on site at all times who knows how to use them. You might also want to stock a large range of nuts, bolts, screws, clips, generic lengths of brake pipe etc. Then when a customer breaks a bolt or whatever you can sell him the bits he needs and charge him to fix the problem if it is something he's not comfortable doing on his own. In fact offering these services/consumables would be essential as I think you would find that a lot of your custom would be on Sundays and evenings.

I'd certainly consider using such a service if it was convenient to me. If it's a choice of rolling around on my cold garage floor on a winter evening or having access to a lift I know which I would prefer.

[curly89]

I have found one 25 mile from me, and with fine rather unhealthy tca's on the Sierra I'm tempted by it as I know it's a curse word job to do when laying on the garage floor. But the reservations you guys have listed is making me consider the possible effects on my wallet, I shall be in touch with said garage and ask the relevant questions. It does specify that they don't allow "hot work" and paint spraying so I guess welding is out of the question :/

[Copey]

best bet, pre-loosen every nut and bolt before you go then nip em back up, least that way you know they arent gonna snap on you on the day

[waveman1500]

I prefer to keep my cars at home so that I can leave them for an extended period, and also go down and work on them whenever I feel like. For example, my Holden ute daily driver has been in the shed on axle stands for three months! I snapped an axle in the same week that the registration was due, and decided to just ride my motorbike for a while. I had a mate over to help me today, and we reassembled the new diff and got the gearbox all ready to go back in. Hopefully should be driving it this week.