DIY Garage opening in Tallaght

Owen

There was someone from this company spamming in another forum, but it's probably news worth spreading. There's a DIY garage opening in Tallaght soon called Pitlane, ramps, oil disposal, all that sort of stuff.

dr.fuzzenstein

:eek:I am officially amazed!:eek:
The optimist in me thinks "FINALLY, ABOUT FCUKING TIME!!!"
The pessimist thinks "this will last for about five minutes, till the first scuzzer turns up, drops a hammer on his foot, sues the place for half a million, goodbye DIY".
I really hope this will work.
And that one will open in Limerick.

For Forks Sake

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

:eek:I am officially amazed!:eek:
The optimist in me thinks "FINALLY, ABOUT FCUKING TIME!!!"
The pessimist thinks "this will last for about five minutes, till the first scuzzer turns up, drops a hammer on his foot, sues the place for half a million, goodbye DIY".
I really hope this will work.
And that one will open in Limerick.

First thing popped into my head too was "how much must insurance be costing for that"?

Eric Cartman

Great Idea , lets just hope the boxy starlet provisional licence massive spoiler crowd dont come and wreck it for everyone

dr.fuzzenstein

Eric Cartman wrote: »

Great Idea , lets just hope the boxy starlet provisional licence massive spoiler crowd dont come and wreck it for everyone

They might be the bread and butter o such a place.
Sure, don't highly tuned engines like that require F1 style attention?;)
Otherwise it's just an excuse to get it on the lift and "check out those Spax's man, check 'em out!"
As long as they pay I'm sure the owner will only be too hapy.

hawkelady

where abouts in Tallaght will this be located???

Eric Cartman

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

They might be the bread and butter o such a place.
Sure, don't highly tuned engines like that require F1 style attention?;)
Otherwise it's just an excuse to get it on the lift and "check out those Spax's man, check 'em out!"
As long as they pay I'm sure the owner will only be too hapy.

the problem is not them showing up to do work , the problem is when they f*ck it up and youve got a bunch of sheds of cars falling apart that need to be towed away from the garage and owners not willing to pay for it.

Bodhan

I was, a few years ago now going to start the same thing. I even flew over to england and met the oweners of http://www.pitstartgarage.com/

The start up cost was wayyyy too much and insurance was a nightmare so I dropped it.
Best of luck with it Pitlane, it would be nice to see something get off the ground.

Unless their rates are really cheap they won't get much enough custom I reckon. Add their charge onto the cost for parts etc and in many cases it would be as reasonable to pay a garage to do the work. For most folk who do their maintenance DIY the savings offer much of the satisfaction, their is little actual enjoyment in servicing etc, not many jobs require an actual garage environment either. In the last 5 years all I've needed a garage to do are CV joints and boots and a wishbone, for the labour saving I couldn't be arsed doing them. If I was they are well DIYable on the drive. I suppose folks without a drive will be very interested in this though.

They'll be jammed every Saturday and quite enough during the week when folks are working, out of work mechanics doing work cash in hand will be happy with it too as their nosey neighbours can't shop them for working while on the scratch either if they can't see it.

Anyone have an idea what the charges are like in these places?

stevenmu

Very nice, I've an oil change coming up and it'd be tricky to do in an apartment's underground car park.

Never used a lift like that before, I presume that either they'll be pretty foolproof or they'll have someone there to work it?

Atlantic Dawn

Good idea, hopefully it's a success.

Wonder what charges will be, I'd think a per hour payment system would be best. Probably have the option to rent tools or buy parts also.

mullingar

Pitlane wrote: »

Broomhill Ind Est Opening Saturday the 4th of June

Well done and the best of luck with it. (I assume its yours by your user name)

What sort of prices will you be charging?

Delancey

I can see the lawyers licking their lips already....

Muckie

Good idea, hope it works out. Just hope the scobie crowd don't ruin it
for everyone else.

bijapos

Delighted to see this happening. I came back to Ireland 5 years ago and seriously looked into starting something like this up, based on one I used in Germany a lot, but I was put off by tye amount of rates, insurance and rent. Rent has come down a lot so that might help but I wish them best of luck and will definitely be using them.

Eric Cartman wrote: »

Great Idea , lets just hope the boxy starlet provisional licence massive spoiler crowd dont come and wreck it for everyone

As Dr Fuzzstein says they will be an important part of the clientelle. Some of them are tossers (as we all know), and will have the radios blaring and be a general pain in the hole, but most of them are fine and are into their cars for better or worse. No matter who it is there will always be arguments and its part of the job to keep everyone happy and a bit of diplomacy flowing. A bit of cop on on everyones part will help a lot too.

Delancey wrote: »

I can see the lawyers licking their lips already....

Hopefully its licking the blood off their lips after someone has given them a slap in the gob.

robtri

curious about this....
where is it ??

cant't find anything on the web about it....location telephone, website... ect..

Heathen

Great idea, as said before, something i have been looking into myself, but i cant imagine the public liability was easy enough to sort out as most insurance companies i have spoke with say that such a category for such a venture does not exist...?

id be interested to find out what the details of the insurance policy are....

BuzzFish

I'd love to use a service like this. So sick of bashing my knuckles off the driveway trying to work under the car :-)

Voodoomelon

RoverJames wrote: »

Unless their rates are really cheap they won't get much enough custom I reckon. Add their charge onto the cost for parts etc and in many cases it would be as reasonable to pay a garage to do the work. For most folk who do their maintenance DIY the savings offer much of the satisfaction, their is little actual enjoyment in servicing etc, not many jobs require an actual garage environment either. In the last 5 years all I've needed a garage to do are CV joints and boots and a wishbone, for the labour saving I couldn't be arsed doing them. If I was they are well DIYable on the drive. I suppose folks without a drive will be very interested in this though.

They'll be jammed every Saturday and quite enough during the week when folks are working, out of work mechanics doing work cash in hand will be happy with it too as their nosey neighbours can't shop them for working while on the scratch either if they can't see it.

Anyone have an idea what the charges are like in these places?

I'd be inclined to agree.
There's many jobs that are a pain in the ass and i'd gladly pay someone else to do them. My general rule is if the job needs a lift, i'll take it to a garage.

Having said that, if I can slide under the car for 15-30mins to get it done, i'll do it. But if it means hours of agony lying on the driveway, i'd be happy to pass the job onto someone with the right equipment.

daRobot

20 euro an hour? Ouch.

Considering you can get an indy at cash in hand rate for about 40 an hour, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, especially when you'd consider the increased time it'd take a diy'er to complete a job.

smokie2008

Source????

Big Nasty

smokie2008 wrote: »

Source????

http://thepitlane.ie/prices.html

-Corkie-

smokie2008 wrote: »

Source????

I think Pitlane quoted those prices but they are site banned now..;)

Edit Mcmlxxv posted the link..

tinyjiney

So if you fcuk up...they keep yer licence.......:eek:

Seriously though..sounds like a good idea..my problem is getting the car to Tallaght in the first place......and then i'd need a 6 monthly rate....:o

dr.fuzzenstein

Voodoomelon wrote: »

I'd be inclined to agree.
There's many jobs that are a pain in the ass and i'd gladly pay someone else to do them. My general rule is if the job needs a lift, i'll take it to a garage.

Having said that, if I can slide under the car for 15-30mins to get it done, i'll do it. But if it means hours of agony lying on the driveway, i'd be happy to pass the job onto someone with the right equipment.

For some things they will ofer an invaluable service, exhaust work springs to mind.
Two years ago I had to replace the cat in her car, had to jack car up on one side and hold it up with axle stands, slide underneath, remove exhaust, all with near zero clearance.
Had to cut cat out, take exhaust to friend, weld cat in, take exhaust back to stricken car, crawl underneath, but the exhaust was ever so slightly twisted, took half an hours wangling to get it in.
To top it all off it was just above freezing and the rubber mounts had gone rockhard.
What would have taken me an hour max in a garage with a lift, some tools and a welder took me from 10 am to 10pm, froze half to death, grazed knuckles, swearing, screaming, etc... physically and emotionally drained for two days.
And going to an exhaust place and saying "would you please replace the cat" will cost you near a bag of sand (grand).
For that E20 is the best investment in the world.

Voodoomelon

I don't doubt that for a second and if you're willing to do the work then great. But it also means you have to do it yourself, know how to do it, bring all the parts with you, leave and come back if you're missing something etc.

Just like RoverJames said, if its a big job that requires a lift, you'd have to question whether its worth it paying to use a lift and then doing it yourself, or just leaving the car at a garage to have it done for you.

dr.fuzzenstein

Voodoomelon wrote: »

I don't doubt that for a second and if you're willing to do the work then great. But it also means you have to do it yourself, know how to do it, bring all the parts with you, leave and come back if you're missing something etc.

Just like RoverJames said, if its a big job that requires a lift, you'd have to question whether its worth it paying to use a lift and then doing it yourself, or just leaving the car at a garage to have it done for you.

Absolutely, I would not tackle any major suspension/brake work without knowing what to do and maybe even bringing a friend, because it would be bad getting stuck on something and not knowing what to do.
I knew exactly what to do with the exhaust (well, had a fair idea:D) and did have all the parts ready to go.
Getting an exhaust changed with cat and using genuine parts I would have looked at the wrong end of E700.
The way I did it, I paid £100 plus a bit for the actual cat and the rest was blood sweat and tears, but well worth it in the end.
But I'm sure there will be plenty of people arriving at the garage, start work, fcuk something up, get stuck, not knowing what to do, stranding the car and won't be able to get it going again.
Then what?
Will they have help at hand?
Or will you have to get the car towed to a "proper" garage where the owner will look forward to gutting you like a kipper "because you've played with it and made it worse"
I'm sure there are pitfalls, so I'd say prepare well, bring all the parts you could possibly need and remember: A Little Knowledge Is A Dangerous Thing!;)

Voodoomelon

Nothing better than the feeling of doing a job yourself and saving cash at the same time, I can attest to this.

But you're not really comparing the two choices fairly. Sounds to me like you bought spurious parts and stuck them in yourself. Even if you had bought genuine parts from the dealer and then paid an indy to stick them in, would you still have been looking at €700?

In which case there wouldn't be too much of a difference in doing it yourself and having a garage do it for you, bearing in mind you also don't have to get your hands dirty.

Owen

The only problem I can forsee with this is the guy who books the ramp for a 2 hour job, and it ends up taking 6. He's obviously not going to be happy paying for the extra 4 hours, and the guy booked after him isn't going to be pleased either.

reiger

reading down the thread and i see alot of negatives many people on here seem to think they are legal and insurance experts.
give it a break will ye this is a good idea and if it works fair play.

Voodoomelon

I think its a good idea and hope it works out for the owners. I just feel its limited to people in the immediate area and to those who have no facilities of their own, ie, people in apartments etc.

Hope they post on here, maybe create a thread if its allowed.

reiger

reiger wrote: »

reading down the thread and i see alot of negatives many people on here seem to think they are legal and insurance experts.
give it a break will ye this is a good idea and if it works fair play.

Well at least one person has experience from investigating a similar venture. Also it's a message boards, discussion forum. Folks are entitled to air their views, there doesn't seem to be any factually incorrect posts in the thread

Would be fairly boring if we all said yippee, wonderful, savage, brilliant......

bijapos

Well my experience of using them in Germany, and I used them a lot, was a bit like this:

Friday: A says to B "I'm heading to Pit Lane tomorrow to change the rad on the Kadett". B: Sound, I need the exhaust changed on my Beetle, we can do it together.

Saturday: A has taken C along for the spin, B had D and E with him as D need to get out of the house for a few hours and E claims to know his way around Kadetts.
They set to work, then F shows up tagging along with G to see what the craic is. Much hilarity ensues talking about last night and trying to remember what happened. Turns out F did end out with that whale from London who was over on a Hen Party.
D decides to get a few beers in and gets a crate from the offy. Much sitting around and looking at other people also sitting around.
E sets to work on the Kadett, turns out he doesnt know the difference between his arse and his elbow. Gives up half way through. Everyone piles out for a fag.
H shows up, mocks everyone for not buying Japanese and E and F head off with him.
Not to worry J shows up and promptly breaks something in the Beetle. J heads off to get Duct Tape, doesnt come back.
B's other half rings for the 14th time as he is away 3 hours longer than expected. B ensures other half that he will be home in 15 mins. B opens another beer and orders a kebab as A is heading to the Doner shop.
D gets another crate in.
A comes back, major argument starts as to where the best kebabs can be got. No consensus reached.
Panic as someone realises the footy is starting in an hour.
Kadett is roughly fixed up to get it home, it can be done next weekend.
7 men have a go together at the exhaust on the Beetle, after some time the consensus is that its grand and will do till next Saturday.
Pay for 4.5 hours/several people. Leave.
Kadett overheats on the way home, Beetles rear sub frame collapses on a roundabout.
Everyone agrees to meet up next Saturday at the same place.

I've some great memories from those places.:)

maidhc

Interesting concept. I hope it works.

I agree with the poster above about the amount of work that will be done there!

Having an engine crane is a a bit silly. A engine out job is something most mechanics will look at in terms of days rather than hours, for a person like myself it would be a winter project!

galwaytt

bijapos wrote: »

Well my experience of using them in Germany, and I used them a lot, was a bit like this:

Friday: A says to B "I'm heading to Pit Lane tomorrow to change the rad on the Kadett". B: Sound, I need the exhaust changed on my Beetle, we can do it together.

Saturday: A has taken C along for the spin, B had D and E with him as D need to get out of the house for a few hours and E claims to know his way around Kadetts.
They set to work, then F shows up tagging along with G to see what the craic is. Much hilarity ensues talking about last night and trying to remember what happened. Turns out F did end out with that whale from London who was over on a Hen Party.
D decides to get a few beers in and gets a crate from the offy. Much sitting around and looking at other people also sitting around.
E sets to work on the Kadett, turns out he doesnt know the difference between his arse and his elbow. Gives up half way through. Everyone piles out for a fag.
H shows up, mocks everyone for not buying Japanese and E and F head off with him.
Not to worry J shows up and promptly breaks something in the Beetle. J heads off to get Duct Tape, doesnt come back.
B's other half rings for the 14th time as he is away 3 hours longer than expected. B ensures other half that he will be home in 15 mins. B opens another beer and orders a kebab as A is heading to the Doner shop.
D gets another crate in.
A comes back, major argument starts as to where the best kebabs can be got. No consensus reached.
Panic as someone realises the footy is starting in an hour.
Kadett is roughly fixed up to get it home, it can be done next weekend.
7 men have a go together at the exhaust on the Beetle, after some time the consensus is that its grand and will do till next Saturday.
Pay for 4.5 hours/several people. Leave.
Kadett overheats on the way home, Beetles rear sub frame collapses on a roundabout.
Everyone agrees to meet up next Saturday at the same place.

I've some great memories from those places.:)

That's just brilliant !!

Feck, I'd go just for that - can I be G ??

Sound like more fun a night in the pub tbh..........

edit: Oh, as they drink beer on the production lines to make the cars: why not have it on the workshop to fix them?.........seems logical to me !

kona

I think the key for this being a success for big jobs is to Know exactley what the **** you are doing.
Engine changes dont take long if you know exactley what you are doing and have all the bits ready to go and get stuck in.
Unfortunatley, alot of people dont have a clue as it may be their first time.


Unfortunatley if your whipping an engine out, there is usually alot more wrong than you suspect, and getting a piston or crank for a odd car model at 8pm on a friday evening aint gunna happen, so your left with your pants well and truley around your ankles.

As been mentioned, its great for short jobs, even servicing, a they get rid of the oil and other ****e thats a PITA to dispose of properly.

Id happily pay e120 not to work on the car out in the pissing rain in january

Youd be suprised what you get done in a day if you cut out the farting about.

Big Nasty

I think it's a good idea - we had a thread here not so long ago about how great it would be but would never work due to insurance, yada, yada.

Fair play to someone with the balls to give it a go however I think the rates defeat the purpose. If the placed was only used to 50% capacity they would be raking in €7.5k+ per week excluding rental of tools, etc. Ok, they have to pay rent on the site, advertising, couple of staff, insurance, equipment they invested in etc. but I still think €20 an hour is too much. As stated earlier you can pay an indy €40-€50 for an hours work and the same job could take you 2-3 hours. Defeats the purpose really. Now if it was €10 / hour on the other hand.......

Best of luck to them anyhow!

listermint

RoverJames wrote: »

Well at least one person has experience from investigating a similar venture. Also it's a message boards, discussion forum. Folks are entitled to air their views, there doesn't seem to be any factually incorrect posts in the thread

Would be fairly boring if we all said yippee, wonderful, savage, brilliant......

Its equally as boring when people slate something out of hand......

listermint

listermint wrote: »

Its equally as boring when people slate something out of hand......

Good thing no one slated it so.

robtri

i agree with Rover James, no harm in questioning the system.

While I think most people here are supportive of the idea, concerns about Insureance have been raised. While it is all well and good that the owner has you sign a waiver I would still like to know that there is adequate insurance in place in the event of an accident...

listermint

RoverJames wrote: »

Good thing no one slated it so.

Maybe 'slating' was over the top, Perhaps 'overly negative' .


But this is a trait displayed right across boards, not just motors.

Mar4ix

I think that good idea... diy garage. Insurance wise - i think could be .. on your own risk.
Anyway you are not insured, when doing work on your drive way . Id imagine - agreement would state, that all works carried out on own risk, and costumer pay only equipment rental fee....
Imagine if you rent carpet cleaner, never used before, and over own stupidity cut somehow wire cord, and kill yourself or burn house , i dont think so, that rental company will pay anything over inappropriate equipment use ...

Good luck to that company. If rates will not be high, i certainly will use it.

robtri

Mar4ix wrote: »

I think that good idea... diy garage. Insurance wise - i think could be .. on your own risk.
Anyway you are not insured, when doing work on your drive way . Id imagine - agreement would state, that all works carried out on own risk, and costumer pay only equipment rental fee....
Imagine if you rent carpet cleaner, never used before, and over own stupidity cut somehow wire cord, and kill yourself or burn house , i dont think so, that rental company will pay anything over inappropriate equipment use ...

Good luck to that company. If rates will not be high, i certainly will use it.

insurance is never at own risk

think about the guy who bought a motorhome, driving down the motorway, slaps on cruise control and gets up out of drivers seat and goes into back to make a cup of tea... motorhome has an accident obviously..... court in america( iknow its america but w are very similiar here) finds that the motorhome manufacturer is at fault..

or here, burglar breaks into your house trips, falls and breaks a bone and sues home owner....

or in the case of the garage, i working on my car, car next to me falls of ramp and injures me... who do i sue??

Heathen

I don't think people are being negative towards this at all, i think people are asking completely relevant questions about the arrangement, because a few people here have explored the possibility of such an endeavor and have been knocked back by the difficulty surrounding insurance.

Therefore they are simply interested to hear how pitlane handled this area of the business setup?

nobody is disputing that its a great idea, they just want to know the particulars behind successful launch of such a business.

JimmyCrackCorn

PaintDoctor wrote: »

There was someone from this company spamming in another forum, but it's probably news worth spreading. There's a DIY garage opening in Tallaght soon called Pitlane, ramps, oil disposal, all that sort of stuff.

Happy days. If its true and anyway reasonable ill be using it for those miserable wet day services.

Capt'n Midnight

Voodoomelon wrote: »

Just like RoverJames said, if its a big job that requires a lift, you'd have to question whether its worth it paying to use a lift and then doing it yourself, or just leaving the car at a garage to have it done for you.

For stuff like vehicle inspection / rust treatment / patch on exhaust - 5 minute jobs that end up taking bloody ages if you have to use stands it's probably worth it

maybe several people do a pre NCT together , lift , look , video or photograph

but yeah would be more fun with a group - maybe boards book a lane for charity, donations accepted for visual inspections / 5 minute (seriously 5 minute) jobs

reiger

listermint wrote: »

Maybe 'slating' was over the top, Perhaps 'overly negative' .


But this is a trait displayed right across boards, not just motors.

thats what i was getting at,free and constructive debate is what we all like to see,but this trait pops up on many threads on this forum and often i feel people are been a bit too PC.

maybe my attitude is born out of living in a comminunity where claim cluture is not in our mentality,we may not do things by the book but we get it done,and we move on

robtri

was up in dublin at weekend and as i was near by decided to drive by and take a look at the set up of this place...

now, I didnt go in, firstly the map on his website is wrong.... its not where the pointer is.. FFS

this was at around 1pm on Sunday, place was open but looked deserted, couldnt see one car at all in it...


anyone been in seen what it is like???

corglass

robtri wrote: »

was up in dublin at weekend and as i was near by decided to drive by and take a look at the set up of this place...

now, I didnt go in, firstly the map on his website is wrong.... its not where the pointer is.. FFS

this was at around 1pm on Sunday, place was open but looked deserted, couldnt see one car at all in it...


anyone been in seen what it is like???

Has anyone visited this place yet? does it exist?

Seperate

This is a good idea in theory, but I don't think it'd be busy enough to be sustainable.

I love the thought of changing my own suspension, but would I actually attempt it? Hell no. If it takes guys who do it all the time 3 hrs to do it, it's going to take me at least a day and will cause me a alot of heartache.

Handy for mechanics doing nixers outside of work hours though

cgarrad

corglass wrote: »

Has anyone visited this place yet? does it exist?

Hey just up there today, dead handy, threw it up on the ramp to check the underneath of a car I just bought.

Found a couple of broken bits, a slight buckle in one of the wheels and a couple of broken bits of plastic under the car.

I was the only one there so I think its a case of use it or loose it, its great to have, hope it goes well for them.