

My first attempt of making web startup - grigy
http://inspection2.com

======
kalendae
I don't think I would take the time to input things about my car. (not to say
that is a general case, as I'm sure there are people who care about their cars
more) But even in my case if the oil change or tune up place i went to gave me
a url for my car's history and an email alert for next oil change/maintenance,
it would make me more loyal to that place. even better if they shared history
like on your site. I dunno, that may be an angle that would work with me in
particular.

~~~
mdink
I think this especially helps with older cars. For example my truck has 110K
miles on it and I just had some major work done (timing belt and new
radiator). As life goes on, I need an easy place to remember what I did so
some scammy mechanic doesn't try to lay one on me.

~~~
grigy
Old car owners and car enthusiasts - this is our primary target.

------
CoachRufus87
It'd be cool if I could just text in the things that I get done on my car.
Example: #OilChange at Jiffy Lube on 3/1/1 at 75,000 Miles; and then I could
get a reminder text 3 months down the road about how it's time for me to get
another oil change...you could also have a local car company sponsor that
reminder. Good luck!

------
playhard
You should have a field for adding "where i repaired my car?? which shop and
location?"(maybe with map or link).This would be very useful for search.
people who wants to do a repair or buy a part at certain budget and at certain
location can search for it and find a link to the shop so they can do it for
their car. it would be nice if you collect all the list of car service shops
so it would be easy for people to add it to their notes.You can build a
comprehensive car maintenance service. Good luck!!

~~~
grigy
There are special types of tags with additional information - address, name,
rating. We call them "Places". You can attach a "place" to the note. Users can
create their own places and share.

------
robeastham
You just gave me a eureka moment. I really like how simple and clear your
homepage is. It instantly made me realise what I am doing wrong with the
homepage of <http://www.mightycv.com> which is my first startup. So I just
wanted to say thanks.

I had better get to work and start rethinking, redesigning and restructuring
things. Great idea by the way, good luck I hope it takes off!

~~~
ollysb
I'd recommend not using centered alignment for the text. You might appreciate
this article on alignment: [http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/design-
basics-alignme...](http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/design-basics-
alignment/)

~~~
robeastham
Thanks! I've made a few changes now, hoping that they have improved things.

------
46Bit
Pretty good job at first glance. It's got definite utility, though I do have
doubts about it's potential users. Either way though, best of luck. You might
want to check it at 1024x768 - the design is thin enough to fit on that
resolution, but due to some padding on either side you end up with a
horizontal scrollbar before you can actually see the page.

------
mdink
Just an idea - can you integrate what the recommended changes for vehicles are
at various mileages? That would be killer and a heck of a way to plan in
advance. I know the info is out there, every time I go to get my oil changed
they pull up a program for every car and review the recommended updates...

~~~
grigy
Yes, we will be adding that info gradually and hopefully community will help
us. But there is a fun part. Once we get enough amount of actual info, we can
show some interesting statistics. For example how much does it cost to own
particular model or how often particular problem happens, etc.

------
mdink
Just some critical advice - you might want to redo your screencast. Not b/c it
wasn't informative, but b/c it had no energy. I felt sort of like I watching a
coding screencast and wasn't excited to take any action. Just a thought...

~~~
grigy
Agree, we are planing to change it soon.

------
ffumarola
\- What are the benefits over a service like driver side?

\- I get that everyone wants to add a social element to their site, but why
share my notes on my car with my friends?

~~~
grigy
\- Benefits over DriverSide: web2 (i.e. social elements), better UI and mobile
apps (soon)

\- Well, maybe "friend" does not sound correct, let's say with interested
people. Actually that's the opposite of following the other cars.

~~~
ffumarola
I don't know, I like driver sides ui. And they have a lot of great features. I
wouldn't switch.

RepairPal is another competitor. They have mobile apps.

Just pointing out two competitors that have a lot of features that you need to
differentiate from.

------
vandalizeit
If your target market is in the USA, I think you should change your tag line.

"Put your car expenses under control."

Should read,

"Get your car expenses under control."

~~~
grigy
Yes, thank you!

------
seto28
Logo is confusing especially considering you have a number 2 in your domain
name, yet use II in your logo.

Overall page looks very nice!

------
farlington
You've got a minor css issue on your frontpage with the 'shdtxt' class
positioning for your text shadow effect, where the shadows appear
misaligned/flow differently than the callout text. Maybe try using text-shadow
instead?

~~~
grigy
What browser is it? I know about a problem on IE6, but didn't get to fixing it
yet.

~~~
farlington
I saw it on Chromium/Mac and I just confirmed it (9.0.597.107). Also seeing it
on Safari/Mac.

Screenshot: <http://cl.ly/092a1U1Z1i3G2D2x1Z19>

------
alinajaf
Awesome idea dude. I'm going to buy my first car and was going to record all
my repairs, inspections, MOTs etc in an excel spreadsheet. Might use your app
instead. Good luck!

------
dotcoma
you could have as well said: "please sign up for the beta".

~~~
grigy
Agree, but do you think that would make the signup conversion rate higher?

~~~
seto28
A/B testing is your friend. Try both and see which way works better for you.

~~~
dotcoma
disagree. It's also a matter of respecting people, if you ask them to "check
out your website" and they can't until you invite them...

