Competition in the palm of your customer's hands

Dealership service departments have long competed against the independent mechanic or shop down the street.

Now they have to compete against the mobile mechanic driving up the street.

In the style of Uber, a Silicon Valley company called YourMechanic.com enables consumers to use their phones to bring car repairs to their doorstep.

YourMechanic's mission is simple: establish transparency and build trust in automotive service, CEO Art Agrawal said.

"If you don't know anything about cars, the [repair] experience is very black box," he said. "We wanted to solve this problem of little to no transparency when getting your car repaired."

The mobile mechanics concept is common. Independent providers all over the U.S. offer their services through companies such as Craigslist and Angie's List. Agrawal's innovation is providing consumers with a one-stop-shop experience.

Consumers requesting service give YourMechanic information about the vehicle, including the year, make and model, and what appears to be wrong. Based on that information, YourMechanic gives the customer a list of the parts, services and costs needed to repair the vehicle. YourMechanic operates in 32 markets and 22 states.

"We only move to a city when the demand presents itself," Agrawal said. "We're working on getting our name out there nationwide, and people are seeing us and asking for us."

Convenience is the most important feature that mobile mechanic operations such as YourMechanic offer, said Mark Seng, an IHS Automotive analyst.

"As we've seen from companies like Uber, customers will pay a premium for convenience," he said. "I don't see how the idea of mobile mechanics could fail to catch on."

The mobile mechanic business faces growing pains, but "they'll figure that stuff out," Seng predicted.

"The demand is already there, and will probably only continue to grow," he said. "The rising age of cars on the road means people will need to do more routine maintenance, and they'll want to save both time and money in the process."

Thilo Koslowski, automotive practice leader at research firm Gartner Inc., said dealers should view the emergence of YourMechanic as an opportunity, not a threat.

"Dealers need to look at this new idea and think about how they can provide those services better," he said. "Something as simple as a shuttle service just isn't enough to meet the demand for convenience anymore."

Koslowski cited obstacles such as fuel costs and the varying levels of requested services among potential problems YourMechanic might face as it grows.

"In this era of one-click decisions and instant gratification, we have the platforms we need to create these services" such as YourMechanic, he said, "but the way they are provided has to be called into question."

Mark Rogers, a dealership management consultant for the National Automobile Dealers Association, classifies threats from mobile mechanic operations as a "back-burner issue."

"Dealers just have so many other concerns right now. Really, dealer service departments are more worried about having too many customers," he said.

Rogers said he sees the potential draw for consumers, but contends that businesses such as YourMechanic are unlikely to pose a threat for several years.

"The complexity of running an operation like [YourMechanic] is enormous," he said. "From cost to available services, there are a lot of moving parts to take into consideration."

Chris Sutton, vice president of automotive retail at J.D. Power and Associates, sees potential in the mobile mechanic business, but dealership repair services still have the upper hand.

"I'm not sure it will make much of a dent in the dealer business. These days, the technology in vehicles is so complex, that you really need to have the dealers' diagnostic tools to properly assess the vehicle," he said.

Agrawal made it clear that YourMechanic is no stranger to obstacles.

"When we were building this whole platform I can't tell you how many times we said, "This just isn't going to work,'" he said. "There are thousands of repairs that can be made" by mobile mechanics.

Today, YourMechanic handles repairs for which its mechanics have tools. Agrawal's team tracks the tools each mechanic owns and uses a matching algorithm to assign the right mechanic to the right repair.

YourMechanic lists the repairs it may be able to offer on its website: yourmechanic.com/services. They range from simple oil changes to automatic transmission replacements.

While the list is impressive, some available repairs might be specific to the mechanics in that area. Occasionally, customers' requests have had to be turned down.

"This model works when you reach that stage that McDonald's hit, which is that the burger is consistent wherever you go," Agrawal said. "We're working toward that kind of consistency."