Michanic brings car repair to your home or office

Michanic is an innovative vehicle tune-up and repair service started by SA entrepreneur Lesetja Dikgale.

“My-chanic”, as it is pronounced, works much like a taxi e-hailing service. If a customer requires a vehicle to be fixed, they head to the www.michanic.co.za website to receive a quote using easily understandable language to describe the problem, after which a mechanic is dispatched to the customer’s home, work or wherever they are located.

The online service ensures a customer knows and approves the payment quote before the mechanic arrives.

Speaking to Motor News, the Soweto-born entrepreneur said all partner mechanics have been verified for their certified skills set with various vehicle brands and their system trumps traditional facilities by bringing a mechanic to customers’ doors.

“Furthermore, the pricing algorithm we have created internally is able to calculate, using market-related pricing structures, the mechanic’s cut and our operational costs to find that ‘sweet spot’ that allows [us] to be competitive and cheaper than traditional service centres,” said Kganyago.

He says it is a different service from that offered by the likes of the AA, which focuses more on emergency jump-starts and towing.

“Our focus is mainly on the light repairs that people normally face on regular days — for instance, customers whose cars have been parked for long periods during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown only to discover a mechanical issue when they have to drive out to the shops or back to work.

“It could be a loose or damaged switch, which our mechanics can easily deal with but if the repairs are greater than our usual scope then we recommend the best action for customers.”

The service, which is approved by the Retail Motor Industry Association (RMI), was founded in 2016. It has been selected among the top 20 start-ups from more than 170 competitors in Google’s Developer Launchpad Programme.

“The pool of 30 mechanics is a mix of independent and retired professionals, of which a section are women. The plan is to allow customers to be able to choose who they are comfortable with. Most of our current technical wizards are based in Gauteng and we have three in the Western Cape,” said the computer sciences graduate.

The business has grown to cover more than 90% of Gauteng and has a growing customer base in the Western Cape. It has more than 12,000 monthly visitors to its site.

It plans to launch in KwaZulu-Natal in the fourth quarter of 2020 and aims to grow the business and the army of mechanics and support staff to more than 2,000 members countrywide.