How long does it take to build a website?

Most small business websites are live within 7-14 days. No waiting months like with a traditional agency.

How much does a small business website cost?

Pricing is transparent and fixed. No surprise fees, no monthly retainers unless you want ongoing support. Get a free quote by getting in touch.

What is AI automation for small businesses?

AI automation means using software to handle repetitive tasks automatically — things like following up with leads, sending emails, booking appointments, and onboarding new customers — so you can focus on running your business.

What is an AI voice agent?

An AI voice agent is a smart phone system that answers your calls automatically, day or night. It can take messages, book appointments, answer common questions, and capture customer details — so you never miss a lead even when you're busy.

What is an AI personal assistant?

An AI personal assistant is a custom AI tool built around how you work. It can manage your schedule, remind you of tasks, help with research, draft messages, and give you daily briefings — like having a virtual assistant available 24/7.

Blog · 2026-08-01

2025-10-18-mechanics-mate-ai-car-assistant

--- title: "My mechanic: an AI-powered car repair assistant" slug: mechanics-mate-ai-car-assistant category: "Project" date: 2025-10-18 standfirst: "An AI automotive assistant that searches real mechanic forums in real time, cross-references your exact vehicle spec, and delivers verified, cited answers. Built with Claude AI, deployed as a full PWA with offline support." tags: - AI - Case Study - PWA - Automotive published: false featured: false ---

This one was a passion project. I wanted to build something genuinely useful for car owners — a tool that gives you real, verified automotive advice without you having to wade through forums yourself.

My Mechanic is a mobile-first progressive web app that combines Claude AI with real-time automotive forum search. You tell it your vehicle — year, make, model, engine type and size — and ask your question. Before responding, it searches Reddit's r/MechanicAdvice, r/Cartalk, BobIsTheOilGuy, and RepairPal, then cross-references those real-world discussions against Claude's knowledge to give you a verified, cited answer.

The answer verification flow was the most interesting engineering challenge. Making the AI actually wait for forum results before responding — rather than just answering from training data alone — produces noticeably better, more grounded advice. The multi-step process: extract vehicle context, search forums, retrieve top discussions, pass results to Claude, cross-reference with recalls and TSBs, then respond with citations.

Version 2.0 added full PWA support with offline capability via service worker, vehicle preset saving and automatic restoration, auto-save conversations with 24-hour browser storage, export as .txt or .json, rate limiting at 10 requests per minute, and an extended UK and European vehicle database covering 31 manufacturers.

The UI went through several iterations before landing on a racing-themed dark design that feels appropriate for the subject matter without being tacky. Custom SVG icons throughout, animated typing indicators while the AI processes, and a random car animation in the loading state — the details matter.

Live at mechanics-mate-app.vercel.app. Tech stack: HTML, CSS, JavaScript frontend; Node.js and Express backend; Anthropic Claude Sonnet; Google Custom Search API; deployed on Vercel and Netlify.

By Lee Day · leeday.uk · UK-wide support

Get in touch