Happy New Year everyone, welcome to 2017, and welcome to Surfwrench. I am co-founder and lead technician here at Surfwrench, my name is James Miller. You can refer to me as your Uncle Jimmy, you know the uncle that can fix your car. Now maybe you don’t have an uncle or someone who can fix your car, well now you do. Since I can’t fix every car in America, I have enlisted the help of some other enthusiastic technicians and mechanics to fill in for me. We are going to join forces to free you from the death grip of repair shops and dealers. You know, the $100 – $150 dollar an hour labor people. Read on and I’ll show you some simple math that may make you mad, then glad, glad for Surfwrench. So if the election didn’t go your way, your favorite celebrity died, or your car broke down in 2016, relax. We here at Surfwrench are going to make it all better. Happy New Year Indeed!

Why Do Car Repairs Cost So Much?

In order for us to tell you our story, we need to give you a brief history lesson. In the past people with car problems took their cars to a shop. Then that shop assigned a mechanic to look at your car, the mechanic performs diagnosis, then comes up with an estimate. These estimates are the total of the cost of parts, and labor. Now in order for the shop or dealer to make money, they mark up the parts to list price. Then they determine the labor time to perform the repair and hit you with their infamous labor rate. Let’s take a look at some numbers, let’s say you need a water pump, the part is $100. The labor is 3 hours at $100 dollars and hour. That makes this repair at the shop or the dealer cost you $400 plus tax, Maybe that sounds reasonable to you and for hundred plus years many people would have agreed. But here is the updated story, with better math.

Surfwrench & The Future of Auto Repair

Technicians (as we prefer to be called in this new century) do not get anything close to $100 an hour for their labor from their employers. We typically earn anywhere from $10 to $35 dollars an hour. So the shop earns a lot, the technician not so much. Now imagine you could bypass the shop labor rate and pay the technician directly! Now imagine a Surfwrench technician can actually do the job in 1 hour (not uncommon) and instead of $100 an hour, he only charges $50 an hour and only needs 1 hour to perform the repair. Forget about common core math, this is Surfwrench math. You just saved $250, and you can probably enjoy significant savings on the parts also. Surfwrench is here to help you bypass the shops and dealers and put you in direct contact with the technician. Technicians who are willing and able to perform your repairs and save you money.

So prepare yourself for a happier New Year. We intend to save you a lot of money on your car repairs.

Uncle Jimmy

Surfwrench is an auto repair application and website based in Rochester, NY. Our network of independent technicians serves customers across Western New York. Since our launch in August 2016, we have saved customers over $50,000 on car repair costs. Want to save money and get back on the road? Register for Surfwrench