If there is one thing that would get most car owners up in arms it would be the hassle of finding a reputable auto repair shop. Many people may take their car to the closest one because it’s the most convenient but unfortunately it may not be the best choice as far as price and competence goes. The problem is most people don’t have the time to shop around and so take the easy way out.

Enter the Internet. I had a look on line and I found a very interesting site, completely useless to me being an Australian, but one that I’m sure most Americans would love if they were to give it a trial. The site is called RepairPal and their page How RepairPal Works explains exactly how the site works. What I really liked about the site is that you can have your own custom ‘my car’ page storing all your service and repair information. No more searching through your shoebox, or whatever other filing system to use, trying to find your service records.

Just for the fun of it I decided to give it a whirl. Seeing as how I own a 2006 Honda Civic I chose Honda as my car and clicked on ‘get an estimate. On the next page I entered the year and model and that I wanted a scheduled maintenance. The next step threw me because I didn’t know any American zip codes. I ended up with 2001 which turned out to be in the Washington area. Clicking on ‘Get Estimate’ took me to the Honda Civic maintenance service A page and I was shocked to see that a service in the State would only cost me between $27 – $60! That is amazing.

All in all I was pretty impressed with the site. I really wished that we had something similar in Australia. Hopefully that won’t be too far away.