Social Media

I was told at a seminar the other week that social media is NOT Facebook and Twitter. Okay, now that my head is on straight, let me offer a thought of one area that seems to be ripe for the development of a social media application.

Vehicle maintenance is something that few people really get right. How often do you need to change your coolant again? And what about transmission fluid? Have I really not changed my air filter in three oil changes, or is this maintenance man trying to sell me something I don't need? Tonight I found an online application, www.yourgarageonline.com, that seems to be a nice utility. I can enter every time I have my vehicle serviced, write what I did, and then I can search instantly to see what I've done. Practical, useful - seems good to me.

But what if the social media revolution really hit vehicle maintenance? Every vehicle has a unique identifier - its VIN number. And every maintenance shop has internet access. Why isn't there a database in the "cloud" somewhere that keeps track of your maintenance history? It could be accessible by repair shops, owners, and people interested in buying your used car. It would keep maintenance men from telling me that I need my 120,000 mile maintenance package...they don't know that I already changed the spark plugs! I could pull up my vehicle's maintenance history from the app on my Android and it would give me a notification when it is time to check the brake fluid.

Google seems interested in developing their new application to compete with Facebook. But I wonder if there's not a great potential development in vehicle maintenance history. Just an idea!