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Your Mechanic (YC W12) Wins TC Disrupt

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Re: Your Mechanic (YC W12) Wins TC Disrupt

#61

Post by adrianbye »

brianbreslin wrote: post #57

I was talking about this idea with my friend who is a master mechanic for GM, and he didn't like the idea. His reasons were: - Working on someone's pavement outside is awful - Car falls off the lift hurts mechanic, its homeowner's fault - Oil and chemical disposal isn't accounted for - People usually don't properly diagnose their problem, so you wouldn't have most parts ready. - Most luxury dealerships will pickup an…

i think its people like your GM friend that this startup is working to disrupt. a lot of backyard mechanics can do a great job very cheaply.

Re: Your Mechanic (YC W12) Wins TC Disrupt

#62

Post by colinshark »

goggles99 wrote: post #49

Lit Motors - YES, very interesting. This is something that I could see take off if the cost is not too high. There are so many commuters these days and so little carpoolers.

They are estimating a $24k launch price, which I think is optimistic. That assumes they have secured a supply chain, and know all their costs well.

I'm pretty tapped in to all things motorized. They needed to aim a bit lower, here. An up-market product is not going to provide much of a revolution.

Re: Your Mechanic (YC W12) Wins TC Disrupt

#63

Post by wglb »

brianbreslin wrote: post #57

I was talking about this idea with my friend who is a master mechanic for GM, and he didn't like the idea. His reasons were: - Working on someone's pavement outside is awful - Car falls off the lift hurts mechanic, its homeowner's fault - Oil and chemical disposal isn't accounted for - People usually don't properly diagnose their problem, so you wouldn't have most parts ready. - Most luxury dealerships will pickup an…

But isn't the master mechanic from GM the competition to this idea? Consider the "disrupt" part of the event.

Re: Your Mechanic (YC W12) Wins TC Disrupt

#64

Post by dbot »

The problems I see with services like auto mechanics, home services providers, etc. are three-fold:

1. The time it takes out of your day to fix the problem; 2. The knowledge disparity between the vendor and customer, exacerbated by the need to have the issue fixed quickly (no time to check veracity); 3. The fact that many of these services have business models that focus on upcharging after customer lock-in. For example, I've read that some quick lube shops are expected to get an additional 50% above the oil change cost out of each customer..

This service seems to help with the first issue, not so much the others. For example, if the mechanic comes over and diagnoses several, expensive problems and is now saying it will cost $X to fix, you either have to accept it and pay or send the person home, which wastes everyone's time. That recently happened to me with an electrician I found on a daily deals site. All I wanted was a pair of outlets installed, and he put together a work order for more than $1000 in "needed" repairs. I just asked him to leave. My house is still standing and my regular electrician disagreed about the necessity of those repairs.

It shouldn't be surprising that the best shops are always really busy and, frankly, I doubt they will have the time or interest in participating in something like this. (Not to be a downer, I love the idea...these are just the issues I see.)

Re: Your Mechanic (YC W12) Wins TC Disrupt

#65

Post by ramanujan »

brianbreslin wrote: post #57

I was talking about this idea with my friend who is a master mechanic for GM, and he didn't like the idea. His reasons were: - Working on someone's pavement outside is awful - Car falls off the lift hurts mechanic, its homeowner's fault - Oil and chemical disposal isn't accounted for - People usually don't properly diagnose their problem, so you wouldn't have most parts ready. - Most luxury dealerships will pickup an…

Yeah, it may be that your friend isn't properly thinking through why this will be such a big hit: it's fast and convenient for a large fraction of problems.

Because the huge thing about car trouble is the logistical inconvenience of getting it fixed. I don't want to have to buy a luxury car just to get a long ride back and forth from the dealership; I want someone to come and fix my cheap car in the driveway on my schedule or tell me why it cannot be fixed. I also want the power to bring in three mechanics back to back such that I can comparison shop without thinking about the pain in the neck of changing garages after a quote.

Even if this only hits 50% of problems, that's amazing. I literally have had a Check Engine light on for weeks; just went and tried out the UI and it was well thought through, with this particular problem front paged and my make/model in their interface. (They don't yet have guys who fix old Hondas in my area, so it stopped at the last step, but I'll tell everyone at work about it for sure to save people the inconvenience of a trip.)

And long term, with enough market pressure good mobile carlift technologies will develop (we have pickups, flatbed trucks, mobile firehoses, mobile food trucks, not so hard to build a mobile mechanical lift).

Re: Your Mechanic (YC W12) Wins TC Disrupt

#67

Post by ramanujan »

goggles99 wrote: post #48

Just checked Your Mechanic. $40 for an oil change? no thanks. Not worth the convenience. It will fail at these prices.

How much are a few hours of your time worth? Even a one hour savings easily saves $40. Absolutely worth it for the convenience, would shell that out in a second if someone would come by and fix it while I coded.

Re: Your Mechanic (YC W12) Wins TC Disrupt

#68

Post by samstave »

ramanujan wrote: post #65
brianbreslin wrote: post #57

I was talking about this idea with my friend who is a master mechanic for GM, and he didn't like the idea. His reasons were: - Working on someone's pavement outside is awful - Car falls off the lift hurts mechanic, its homeowner's fault - Oil and chemical disposal isn't accounted for - People usually don't properly diagnose their problem, so you wouldn't have most parts ready. - Most luxury dealerships will pickup an…

Yeah, it may be that your friend isn't properly thinking through why this will be such a big hit: it's fast and convenient for a large fraction of problems. Because the huge thing about car trouble is the logistical inconvenience of getting it fixed. I don't want to have to buy a luxury car just to get a long ride back and forth from the dealership; I want someone to come and fix my cheap car in the driveway on my sc…

Yep, in the same way that the window repair at your house business is fantastic.

My car recently broke down and won't start, in my driveway. I plan to use this service to fix it.

Re: Your Mechanic (YC W12) Wins TC Disrupt

#69

Post by theatrus2 »

soup10 wrote: post #59
exue wrote: post #20

The pitch may be a bit awkward and I can't attest to the quality of other contestants, but I have a good impression overall from Your Mechanic. Car repair is heavily stuck in the 20th-century model of businesses. Individual shops open from 8am to 5pm, you want to find someone good? Without Yelp you're basically relying on word of mouth to not get ripped off, or Yellow Pages. The main form of contact is calling mechan…

Wow, is there anything google doesn't offer as a benefit? Something strikes me as odd about a Corp that has it's tentacles involved in so many aspects of daily life. Why not just offer higher salaries? Seems like all the perks are designed to make you feel dependent on google, make it inconvenient to leave, and live a lifestyle that benefits google. That's probably just my tinfoil hat speaking though. Just seems a bi…

I'm sure all of the perks (and good salary, work satisfaction) are part of their efficiency optimization and retention play. If you don't have to leave for mundane daily things, perhaps you'll get more work done.

Re: Your Mechanic (YC W12) Wins TC Disrupt

#70

Post by branchan »

wglb wrote: post #63
brianbreslin wrote: post #57

I was talking about this idea with my friend who is a master mechanic for GM, and he didn't like the idea. His reasons were: - Working on someone's pavement outside is awful - Car falls off the lift hurts mechanic, its homeowner's fault - Oil and chemical disposal isn't accounted for - People usually don't properly diagnose their problem, so you wouldn't have most parts ready. - Most luxury dealerships will pickup an…

But isn't the master mechanic from GM the competition to this idea? Consider the "disrupt" part of the event.

No, I would like to think that a master mechanic's job might not be as simply as changing fluids, brake pads or diagnosing engine fault codes. Imagine doing engine repair or changing the clutch on your driveway without a lift? It would take many times as long for the mechanic to finish and he would rather just take 3 separate jobs in that same span of time.

Yes, the idea of the startup has its merit, but like the windshield repair service that was mentioned earlier, the services offered by the mechanics will probably only include the most basic of repairs.

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