DIY Garage for DIY Car Repairs
I think this is an awesome idea and I’m surprised we haven’t seen more of these over here in North America. The place is called O’garage and it’s located in Roubaix, France, which is in the northern part of the country near the Belgium border.
The principle behind O’garage is that it’s a DIY garage for car repairs. Folks can pay by the hour or half hour to use the facility’s fully loaded space and professional-grade equipment, including car lifts, to perform their own car maintenance and repairs.
It doesn’t stop there. They also offer instructional guides for you; plus clinics and classes for newbies; and to top it off, they carry a full range of fluids and tools for your purchase. Brilliant!
Rates start at €6 (about $7.25) per half hour.
Perhaps I’m just clueless because I live out in the boonies, but I haven’t heard about these kinds of places here in North America. Does anyone have a place like this near them?
Chez O’garage à Roubaix website (en francais).
[via Make:blog]
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POSTED IN: Doing it Yourself, General
3 opinions for DIY Garage for DIY Car Repairs
Kayll
Mar 3, 2006 at 8:57 am
Kevin, that is SO cool. I wish they had this in the US. Not sure if there is anything like that.. other than going to El Daddy Garage as I call it- aka my father’s house with his millions of tools.
Dale Hanks
Mar 3, 2006 at 2:27 pm
I had this idea a couple of years ago, but after looking into it I decided that most of the cars people drive in America are beyond what most people can do anymore. And Americans really do not want to fix their own cars, they want someone else to do it. Add in warranties that can be voided by not having a registered shop do the work and you see what I mean. People won’t mow their own lawns, I cannot imagine that they would fix their own cars.
Jenn
Mar 3, 2006 at 3:44 pm
Most military posts have an auto hobby shop where you can do that sort of thing-I’m going to guess that it is only for folks with an ID card though (although it couldn’t hurt to ask). DH used to always change our oil etc when we lived near a post. There were also usually some military mechanics who would do work for you there after hours. I had one guy who was a welder who made a good chunk of extra change doing body work for people at the auto hobby shop.
I wonder if a person wanted to do something like this if they could work out some sort of deal with the local highschool/community college shop teacher. . . .
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