lgtm!

will you open source this on GitHub?

 

Thanks!

Still trying to validate the idea, but the thinking would be that I'd just launch it as it's own website for other owners to use as well.

I've worked on other side projects in the past that ended up not getting much use because I jumped the gun and built it before gauging interest. I'm trying to avoid that this time around before I invest a fair bit of time into it.

 

Why can't this site be used for that purpose?

 

Good question.

If every time someone wanted to get their bolt tightening service done they could come to the forum and ask: "Hey, I need to get my bolt tightening service done in the Boston area, what are shops nearby that offer this and how much do they generally charge?", then I think the forum could serve as a good substitute.

A good question to ask might then be: Why aren't people asking that question each time they need a service done then?

I can only speak for myself, but I'd think because if every owner did that it would be like 90% of the threads on this website and would rely on others to actively engage enough to respond. I have low confidence that I'd get good data points in doing so.

 

Or we know who we trust in our city to do what we need and either refer to the owners’ handbook, 4C elearn manual or the servicing chart on the Alfaworkshop servicing site.

 

Thanks for the feedback, I think the value propositions provided by this idea would be:

1. Service price transparency - You'd be able to benchmark against what others are paying to understand if you've been getting a good deal, even for the particular shop you take your car too. In the case where you know and trust your shop, this might not be as valuable, but would provide some level of reassurance.
2. Ability to get quotes from, and book service with, multiple shops online - Low effort way to cross-shop. If you have a shop you go to, then agreed this might not be super valuable, but if it's easy enough to get a quote elsewhere, perhaps owners would be open to considering other options.
3. Anecdotal ownership information - The 4C Forum is particularly good at this, and the owners manual also contains much of this information as well. In the instance of the owners manual, service is indexed by years and miles (whichever comes first), going by the book would suggest that bolt tightening is a yearly service irrespective to miles, which seems counter to what owners in this forum follow.

That being said, I was unaware of Alfa Workshop, and their website is awesome in that it has this information, allows owners to book service, and puts the prices upfront. Thanks for sharing that. This idea is very similar to their website, with the exception that it would be open to multiple shops. If shops operated like that by me, I wouldn't be as interested in the service aspects of the idea.

 

Estimated value being so large and easy to see on the homepage, sometimes hurt my feeling lol.

 

Give it a few years (decades, maybe) and maybe we'll start feeling good about ourselves!

 

I like the concept and it could possibly create some competition between the service centers if their prices were transparently shared. I also like the metrics that can be pulled from something like this (cost, quality, timeliness, CX, change over time). Having a one-stop-shop to determine where the best service centers are is much easier then posting messages on threads and manually collecting/analyzing the feedback.