Shop Talk

One of two things, your pick, for the car you drive for the business.

Because nobody who runs a small business has a free hour to hear about AI.

My day job is enterprise software, and I can tell you the meeting nobody wants is the one where a stranger explains their own business to them. A small business owner has even less patience for that meeting, and they're right to.

But almost everybody will stand next to their car for half an hour while someone works on it. Hands busy, nowhere to be, phone in the pocket. That's when people actually talk. I'd rather spend that half hour asking about your business than whistling.

And the car is the one thing nearly every small business in town runs on. The landscaper's truck. The caterer's van. The sedan the tailor drives to fittings. If it doesn't start, the shop doesn't open.

Cars turned into computers on wheels, and the most important tool in a modern shop stopped being a wrench. It's the one that talks to the car. For years the full version of that tool lived at the dealership. The independent shop down the street has paid more every year just to keep up: scan tools, factory software brand by brand, training, and calibration rigs for the cameras and radar hiding in a bumper.

People are keeping their cars longer than ever, which should be great news for the independents. Except there aren't enough technicians to fix them, and the margins were thin to begin with.

Independent shops have spent years fighting for the same access the dealers get, mostly one state at a time. Massachusetts voters said yes by 75 percent in 2020.⁴ Maine said yes by 84 percent in 2023.⁵

In Washington, the REPAIR Act cleared a House subcommittee this February.⁶ In May the full committee passed a narrower version, 48 to 1, that writes the industry's 2014 repair-data agreement into law, makes the FTC the enforcer, and drops access to the data cars send home over the air.⁷ It's meant to ride on the next highway bill, which Congress hasn't finished. In September it extended the old one instead.⁸ In June the White House signed a memo on the freedom to fix, aimed mostly at emissions repairs.⁹ As of this fall, nothing is settled.

Because it's a tool. Same reason I own a torque wrench.

An Autel is a scan tool, the kind independent shops and stubborn hobbyists buy so a check engine light doesn't automatically mean a trip to the dealer. Mine is a tablet that talks to a Bluetooth OBD-II dongle plugged into the port under the dash. It runs dealer-level software, and that comes with an annual subscription that lands in the five-digit range. It reads the codes, shows what the sensors are seeing live, runs tests on individual parts, and on a lot of cars it can teach the car a new key.

It doesn't make me a mechanic. It makes me a guy who can read what the car is saying, look it up, and know when to stop and call someone who does this for a living. That part didn't come in the box. It came from evenings with the manual open and the car up on stands.

That's the pattern I keep seeing. Software that used to live only at the dealership now runs on a tablet in one drawer of my 72 inch toolbox. It isn't cheap, and it shouldn't be. AI is the same story, a few years behind. The big companies have whole teams for it. The bakery, the landscaper and the guy fixing mowers out of his pole barn have whoever stops by and asks about their business.

Right now, that's me.

Whoever adds a key to your car, me, a locksmith or the dealer, starts by figuring out which kind it takes. Tap yours.

Your business, mostly. These are the questions I end up asking while the tool works. They're worth asking yourself even if I never stop by.

No catch, just limits. Businesses in Rochester Hills, the car you drive for the business, as time permits. One per business: a key or a fluid check. After that you'll know which key you have, and where the good independent shops are.

I'm not a mechanic and I'm not a locksmith. I'm a guy with a good scan tool, a garage full of drawers and a day job in software. If my tool doesn't cover your car, or something looks wrong, I'll say so before I start, and we'll just talk.

Before I add a key, I'll ask to see the registration and your license. A key is a key. I don't make one for a car until I've seen that it's yours.

Some keys need the blade cut before they can be programmed. If yours does, I'll tell you up front.

I top off with what your owner's manual calls for, or I don't top off. The wrong coolant does more damage than low coolant.

If I find something that needs real work, I'll tell you and point you to an independent shop. Not mine. I don't have one, and the people who do have had a hard enough decade.