What a great idea!

I hope it catches on.

its great until someone sues them for getting hurt there. just a matter of time in this day and age.

They tried something similar by me...didnt last

"YouLube" self serve oil change around here.

Didn't last six months.

I guess insurance would be insane on them. Really did not think of that. I used to use the military auto shops all the time they were great.

A great concept. But i could see it being a nightmare if someone gets hurt.
Plus,hours of operation would need to be near 24/7 to suit the after work guys. And alcohol would need to be forbidden.

Tooljunkie said:

And alcohol would need to be forbidden.

Click to expand...

That's a big 10-4.

We had a couple back in the 70's. Insurance put them out of business. Great in theory though.

I have been thinking about something like this for 20 years. I still dont think it will fly, especially in a small community where i live.

It has been discussed on this forum before. Members brought up all the reasons NOT to do it. Honestly, there are so many more reasons not to do it than I ever imagined. The whole thing goes to hell in a handbasket the night someone screws up and burns the place down. Hate to be a "negative nanny" but you know it will happen.

This sort of idea has cropped up here a couple times. The liability is tremendous. In my Navy days, at NAS Miramar, I had a part time job at the auto hobby shop. Those sailors could break ANYTHING. Looking back, I'm surprised a car never fell off the hoists. (Back then we had single post hoists.)

I'd be curious how the paint booth rental works. I figured those were eliminated in this neck of the woods when the VOC regs came out. Would the owner of the paint booth supervise to ensure compliant coatings are used?

I doubt anyone has given it that much thought.

A do it yourself auto repair shop (complete with lifts, tools, and paint booth) opened near me in Sterling, Virginia several years ago. It lasted almost six months before it closed down. They charged by the hour for access to the lift and it wasn't cheap. A lift had to be reserved in advance, so it was a big issue if a customer didn't vacate the lift when expected.

At one time I looked into the possibility of having a business where cars could be stored and owners could work on their own cars with access to a lift. I went to a suburb of Baltimore to meet with a gentleman who had a similar business to what my plans were, of storing classic cars and providing a place for owners to work on them. He pretty much talked me out of the idea, and a big part of it was the insurance expense. The cost of liability insurance is the main reason many repair shops will not allow customers in their service areas and those customers aren't doing any work on the cars. For the kind of business I had in mind, it wasn't just the high cost of liability if someone were to get injured or someone were to cause property damage, but also the cost of liability insurance for collector cars stored there. The value of the cars inside would change constantly as owners would pick up and drop off their cars. One car alone(a 55 Mercedes Gull Wing I think), at the place in Maryland , was valued more than all the other cars combined. Insurance coverage would have to be updated when ever a car came in or left, so that part of the insurance expense was always changing. He allowed the owners to work on cars there, and ran the business as a club. But in practice, those who could afford to store there cars there, didn't do their own auto repairs anyway, and never hung around the place to take advantage of the club lounge. Still, members would pay for a club membership, and that would allow them to store their car, and to work on their car at the facility.

Didn't they try this in Christine, and the cars became evil?