Michanic Is Betting on a Growing Market of Motorists Who Want Car Care on the Go

Booking a car service can mean reorganising an entire day around a job the owner will never see. There is the early drop-off, the lift to work, the call about additional repairs and the uncertainty over whether the vehicle will be ready before closing. Established workshops have built loyal businesses by managing that experience well, but the process still asks customers to surrender time, mobility and considerable control. South African technology platform Michanic is building its proposition around changing that arrangement: bringing the mechanic to the motorist and making car care fit more comfortably into everyday life.

The commercial opportunity begins with a substantial installed vehicle base. South Africa had approximately 13.36 million registered vehicles at the end of 2024, including 7.95 million passenger cars, according to the Automotive Trade Manual 2025. These figures do not measure demand for mobile servicing, but they establish the scale of the underlying maintenance market. For a technology business, the question is how much of that recurring demand can be served through a more convenient and dependable customer experience.

The workshop experience leaves room for a different proposition

Vehicle maintenance involves an information imbalance. The technician understands the diagnosis, the components and the labour required; the owner must decide whether to authorise expenditure they may have limited ability to assess. That relationship works when explanations are clear and workmanship is dependable. When communication deteriorates, an ordinary repair can become a dispute over necessity, cost or responsibility. MIOSA’s published case studies document incorrect diagnoses, extended repair periods and vehicles returned with unresolved faults. Its findings also include decisions favouring service providers, demonstrating why individual complaints require evidence rather than assumptions about misconduct.

Concerns about what happens while a vehicle is out of sight add another dimension. Reporting on missing components after workshop repairs shows that parts-related disputes are a legitimate subject of concern, although the available evidence does not establish how widespread unauthorised parts swapping is. The opportunity for a new service model is therefore broader than saving the journey to a workshop. It includes giving customers a clearer understanding of what is being done, why it is necessary and how the outcome will be supported. Having work performed at home may improve visibility, but technical assurance still depends on competent diagnosis, documented authorisation and reliable follow-through.

Michanic’s founding story reflects that combination of inconvenience and uncertainty. Lesetja Dikgale told Business Report that repeated workshop delays led him to arrange for his vehicle to be repaired at home, where he could observe the work and the parts being changed. He subsequently partnered with software engineer Thabelo Mulelu to develop the platform. By May 2026, the publication reported that Michanic operated across five provinces, with 21 full-time employees and 60 contractors. The business had progressed from a founder’s frustration into an operation coordinating people, technology and service delivery across multiple locations.

Technology must improve the experience beyond booking

Michanic advertises online quotations, vetted mechanics, more than 200 repair services and a six-month/6,000 km workmanship warranty, subject to its terms. Its app listing acknowledges that some repairs require facilities beyond the customer’s home or workplace. That distinction matters. Mobile car care does not need to reproduce every workshop function in a driveway to offer value. It needs to identify which work can be completed effectively on site and provide a dependable process for jobs requiring another setting.

The technology opportunity lies in coordinating those decisions with less effort from the customer. A useful platform should make it easier to describe a problem, obtain an appropriate assessment, understand the proposed expenditure and know what happens next. As the business develops, documented approvals, accessible service histories and evidence of parts used could strengthen that relationship further. Those capabilities would need confirmation before being described as existing Michanic features, but they illustrate where technology can create lasting value. An app earns repeat use when it reduces uncertainty throughout the service, rather than merely digitising the appointment.

There is evidence that investors see potential in the proposition. In its October 2025 investment announcement, Edge Growth said Michanic had grown by more than 40% year on year over the preceding few years, although it did not identify the metric. Funding through the ASISA ESD Fund was intended to support geographic expansion and a broader offering covering areas such as towing, tyres, body repairs, auto glass and warranties. These were stated expansion ambitions, rather than confirmation that every service had been launched.

The bigger opportunity is repeat business

Our assessment is that Michanic’s strongest growth opportunity lies in becoming a recurring point of contact for vehicle ownership. A customer who receives a dependable service has a reason to return for the next maintenance requirement. Over time, that relationship could support more efficient scheduling, a better understanding of the vehicle and a lower burden on the owner to explain its history repeatedly. The commercial test is whether the platform can sustain that experience across different mechanics, locations and types of work.

Commercial fleets and workplace servicing provide further avenues worth examining. For an employer or fleet operator, the relevant calculation includes vehicle downtime, staff time and the effort required to coordinate maintenance. A mobile service could be attractive where suitable work can be scheduled at a common location without disrupting operations. Whether that produces measurable savings would need to be demonstrated through actual service data. Completion rates, repeat faults, attendance reliability and complaint resolution would tell a prospective partner more about the model’s value than geographic coverage alone.

Public feedback also suggests that consistency deserves attention. The Hellopeter page reviewed displayed a 3.4/5 rating from 78 reviews over the preceding 12 months, with approximately 56% rated five stars and 36% one star. This is a self-selected review sample, not a representative survey of Michanic’s customers, but it shows materially different experiences within that sample. For a growing platform, the useful task is to understand what produces both outcomes and whether the differences relate to job complexity, service area, communication or follow-up. Positive experiences offer evidence to build on; unresolved dissatisfaction identifies where expansion could amplify weaknesses.

A technology brand is judged through the service it coordinates

Michanic’s terms describe a platform connecting customers with independent mechanics, with the automotive service purchased from the mechanic accepting the booking. Customers may nevertheless attach the experience to Michanic because its brand and assurances informed their choice. That makes clarity over responsibilities, quality standards and escalation essential to the customer relationship. The mechanic’s conduct becomes part of the platform’s reputation, and the platform’s response when something goes wrong becomes part of its commercial credibility.

For MillionsWorth Public Relations, this is where a compelling technology story requires more than launch visibility. Market research can identify which customer groups place the greatest value on convenience and where demand is commercially viable. Narrative intelligence and reputation assessments can establish whether the experience supports the intended positioning. Communications can then make the evidence understandable to motorists, partners and investors, giving the growth story substance beyond the promise of disruption.

Michanic has identified a familiar inconvenience within a large, recurring market and attracted investment to pursue a different approach. Its next stage will depend on how consistently it can deliver the experience that makes customers choose it again. Bringing car care to the motorist opens the relationship. Giving that motorist reliable information, competent work and dependable support is what could make the platform part of how they manage their vehicle for years.