The Brief

Family-owned, female-led, service excellence, industry-changing, and integrity, each of these buzzwords is used individually to capture new clients for a business, but what if you have all of them at once? You have Gainesville’s best-kept secret of an auto repair shop.

For nearly four decades, City Auto Repair has been an industry-breaking auto repair shop here in Gainesville, Florida. There is a local competitive landscape for auto repair, but rich with its standout factors, it became clear PHOS needed to carve out recognition for how much more enjoyable it is to work with City Auto Repair than other shops. 

What We Did

Friendliness

There is often an intimidating and uncomfortable feeling going to most auto repair shops. You know the feeling of this place; the lingering smell of oil, the uncomfortable chairs, the small TV playing the same movie on repeat, and the free coffee brewed five hours ago. All of this just to be given an exorbitant repair price and without feeling like you can ask to understand.

City Auto Repair breaks all of that. From the moment you walk in the door, you feel the difference. Clean bathrooms, a waiting area as nice as most living rooms, and a friendly face to speak to make you feel right at home. City Auto Repair offers a feeling of warmth and treats every customer like a loved one.

Experience

City Auto Repair has a staff that adds up to nearly one hundred years of experience. Their staff knows vehicles inside and out, never backing down from trying to fix a vehicle. Dealerships and other repair shops come to them with challenges they can’t solve with their state of the art diagnostics equipment and knowledge to fix the problem.

City Auto Repair takes an integrated approach to solving vehicle problems. They pride themselves on not being “part swappers” like many in their industry. The team is quick to identify a problem, come up with a solution, and present this solution to their clients.

Passionate

At PHOS, we are driven in our day-to-day activities by our mission and our core values. With love and integrity as two of our values, we were and continue to be inspired by seeing those same values embodied in City Auto Repair.  When someone comes with a broken car, they often come with more problems than just that. City Auto Repair sees that in everyone who comes through that door and strives to empower and repair cars and people alike. As the owner, Rachael Wacha, offers her time to help victims of domestic violence in the community with Peaceful Paths. She also teaches other women how they can maintain their vehicles, without caving to the typical gender stereotype of males working on cars. The love that she gives to her community and integrity with which she does all of her work needed to shine through both in the shop and in the digital presence.

Rebrand & Collateral

In tandem with capturing the spirit of City Auto Repair through photography, another task was capturing it visually in a rebrand including a new logo, color scheme, and typefaces. We crafted a custom color palette and logo that embodied City Auto Repair and moved the brand forward. Once built, we blended each piece into a cohesive branding such as new business cards, social media profiles, and the website design. The new logo was such a hit that it won a Gold American Advertising Award in the Gainesville region!

Web Design

In looking at the industry, many of the local auto repair businesses had lackluster website designs that did not evoke a sense of excellence. As websites increasingly become your storefront online, we knew we wanted to give City Auto Repair a custom-built website design that was on-brand. We wanted to provide educational content for City Auto Repair’s audience while still offering a sleek website design that promotes the ease of scheduling an appointment.