An auto repair shop website that gets cars booked in
A driver looking up a garage usually wants one of four things: whether you do the job, roughly what it costs, when they can bring the car in, and where you are. An auto repair shop website should answer all four on the first screen and make the next free slot easy to take.
Who's visiting and what they need
Garage visitors split into planned and unplanned work. Planned work is a service, an MOT in the UK or a state inspection elsewhere, tyres or a cambelt the manufacturer says is due. These people compare price and convenience and are ready to book. Unplanned work is a warning light, a noise or a breakdown, and those visitors want a phone number, today's hours and some reassurance that you'll look at it quickly. The homepage needs a route for each: a booking button for planned work and a call button for everything else.
Services and price guides
Mechanics often avoid prices because every car is different. Drivers read silence as expensive. A price guide with honest ranges and clear conditions earns more bookings than no prices at all.
| Service | What to state | What changes the price |
|---|---|---|
| Interim and full service | What's checked and replaced at each level | Engine size, oil type, extra parts found |
| MOT or inspection | Your fixed fee, and whether retests are free within a period | Repairs needed to pass |
| Brakes, clutch, cambelt | A from-price and whether parts are included | Make, model and parts quality |
| Diagnostics | The fee to diagnose and whether it comes off the repair | Time needed to trace a fault |
| Tyres and alignment | Brands stocked and fitting fee | Size and brand |
Say that you'll call before doing anything beyond the agreed work. It's the reassurance customers want most, and many garages forget to write it down.
Making the next slot obvious
The plan for a garage site is simple: put the booking calendar on its own Book page and link to it from every service. Anticode's booking calendar always shows the coming days, so a driver can see the nearest free date straight away. It refuses dates in the past or more than 120 days ahead, and two people can't take the same slot. The booking form takes the service, day and time (one of six fixed times from 09:00 to 17:30, with Mondays skipped) with a name, phone number and email. When you call or email to confirm, take the registration, make, model and mileage, so parts can be ordered before the car arrives.
Anticode doesn't look up a vehicle from its registration, because published pages don't fetch live data. The driver types the details in.
Hours, location and the wait
- Opening hours on every page footer, with drop-off and collection times if they differ.
- A map link and directions, including where to park and where to leave keys out of hours.
- Waiting or leaving the car: whether there's a waiting area, Wi-Fi, a courtesy car (and the licence and insurance rules for it), or a lift to the station.
- Payment on collection: which cards you take, and whether the car is released before payment.
Quotes for bigger jobs
Clutch replacements, bodywork and engine work are rarely booked from a calendar. A quote request that gives you the registration, the symptoms in the driver's words, when the problem started and how to reach them is enough to call back with a figure. Print those four prompts above the contact form's message box so drivers answer them in one go. Send quote requests to your phone by email, or to a shared Slack, Telegram or Google Sheet through a connector so whoever is on the desk sees them.
Common mistakes on garage sites
- Stock photos of a spotless showroom when the workshop is the selling point. Photograph your own bays and team.
- Manufacturer logos used without permission, or a claim to be "approved" that you can't back up.
- A phone number shown only as an image, which can't be tapped on a mobile.
- Opening hours that are wrong over bank holidays. Change them with a one-sentence request before the holiday.
Building a garage site with Anticode
Start with a sentence like "an independent garage in Swindon doing servicing, MOTs, tyres and diagnostics, with online booking". The Architect plans a site with a Services page, a Book page and a Contact page, and asks up to three questions where the answer changes the build. Technical (IBM Plex Sans) or Swiss (Inter Tight) suit a straightforward workshop; choose an action colour such as orange or blue for the booking button. Publish to a free anticode.dev address, then connect your own domain on a paid plan so the address on your van matches the site.
Limits
- One diary, no ramps or technicians. The calendar doesn't know how many bays you have or how long each job takes; each slot takes one booking.
- No reminders. Anticode doesn't send MOT or service reminders. Use your garage management software or an email tool.
- No calendar sync, so bookings need copying into your workshop diary.
Questions people ask
Can customers book an MOT online?
Yes. List the MOT as one of the services in the booking calendar. Each time slot takes one booking for that service, and you confirm every booking yourself, so a clash with walk-in work can be sorted by phone.
Should a garage put prices on its website?
A price guide with ranges and conditions usually works better than none. Fixed-price jobs such as MOTs and standard services should show the fee.
Can I show a different message when the workshop is closed?
Edit the hours or add a notice with a change request in a sentence, publish, and roll back from version history afterwards if you want the old page.