4 bays. 3 techs. $2,880/day labor ceiling. Your AI crew closes the gap.
Sterling Auto Repair gives independent shops a full AI operations team — 24/7 intake with VIN decode and pre-diagnosis, digital vehicle inspections that auto-generate estimates, parts intelligence that eliminates wrong-part orders, and a bay board that shows every RO in real time.
Annual revenue gap between 75% and 90% tech efficiency
Recovered labor from parts-arrived notifications alone
Faster estimate prep from DVI-to-estimate automation
Time to get agents live from sign-up
You’re a master mechanic. You shouldn’t also have to be a receptionist, parts chaser, and collections agent.
Missed calls = missed cars
You were under a hood when the phone rang. That $1,200 brake job went to the shop down the street that answered.
Techs standing around waiting on parts
Parts arrived 20 minutes ago but nobody told the tech. That’s $60 in lost labor revenue — three times a day.
Estimates built from scratch every time
Your tech found 6 items on the inspection. You’re manually building the estimate line by line instead of reviewing a pre-built draft.
Declined services forgotten forever
The customer declined the timing belt 4 months ago. Nobody followed up. Now they’re at another shop getting it done.
Agent Spotlight
See your agents in action.
AI answers every call. VIN decoded before the car arrives.
A customer calls about a check engine light on their 2018 Silverado. The AI captures the VIN, decodes the vehicle, checks for open recalls, runs a pre-diagnosis (known AFM lifter issue at 87K miles), and creates an RO draft — all before any human is involved.
Inspection findings become estimate lines automatically.
Your tech marks front brakes RED and cabin filter YELLOW on the digital inspection. Sterling auto-generates estimate line items with labor op codes, book hours, and VIN-specific parts — cutting estimate prep from 20 minutes to 3.
VIN-exact parts. Multi-vendor pricing. Zero wrong orders.
Engine disambiguation happens before any part is looked up. One click orders from the best-priced vendor. When the last part arrives, the assigned tech gets an instant push notification.
Your AI Team
7 agents. Built for auto mechanics.
Front Desk & Vehicle Intake Agent
Answers every call and message 24/7. Captures VIN or license plate, decodes the vehicle, checks NHTSA recalls, records symptoms with AI category tagging and pre-diagnosis notes, and creates RO drafts. Schedules appointments against real bay and tech capacity.
DVI & Estimate Engine
Structured digital vehicle inspection with GREEN/YELLOW/RED ratings and photo capture. Customer-facing mobile report with plain-language explanations. Per-line-item approve/decline with digital authorization. RED and YELLOW findings auto-generate estimate line items with labor codes, book hours, and VIN-specific parts.
Parts Intelligence Agent
Multi-vendor parts lookup by VIN with engine and side disambiguation. Compares availability and pricing across configured vendors. VIN-locked ordering prevents wrong-part orders. Tracks delivery per part line and fires push notifications to the assigned tech when parts arrive.
Customer Communication Agent
Full automated communication sequence from booking confirmation through post-visit review request. Two-way SMS with AI handling common replies. Maintenance reminders using mileage estimation. Declined service follow-up at 30 and 60 days. Lost customer reactivation at 9 months.
Technician Workflow & Bay Management Agent
Mobile tech interface with current job, parts status, and time clock. Tracks flat rate (book hours) vs. actual hours independently. Live bay board showing real-time status of all bays. Parts arrival gate prevents job start until parts confirmed. Auto-detects comeback ROs within 30 days.
Fleet Account Management Agent
Fleet account records with vehicle rosters, authorized repair limits, and fleet labor rates. Priority service queue for fleet vehicles. PM scheduling with automated reminders to fleet managers. Net-30 deferred billing with consolidated monthly invoicing and AR aging with automated follow-up.
Business Intelligence & Owner Dashboard Agent
Live bay board, today’s KPIs (RO count, avg value, flag hours), financial metrics (labor %, parts %, effective labor rate), tech productivity with efficiency ratios, maintenance reminder pipeline with conversion tracking, and review monitoring.
Price Book
Pre-loaded. Ready to quote.
Industry-standard pricing for auto repair & mechanic shop services. Customize every line item.
18+ items pre-loaded. Fully customizable.
See what Sterling saves auto mechanics
Enter your numbers below to see projected annual savings.
Your business today
Adjust the sliders to match your situation
Number of technicians in the field
Calls that go to voicemail or are missed
Typical revenue per completed job
Percentage of quotes you currently follow up on
Time spent on scheduling, invoicing, follow-ups
$4,567/mo in new revenue
$20,300/yr value
$5,832/yr recovered
$1,800/mo revenue
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is Sterling Auto Repair built specifically for independent auto repair shops?
Yes. Every feature is designed around the Repair Order workflow — from AI phone intake with VIN decode to digital inspections, parts ordering, tech workflow, fleet management, and owner dashboard. This is not a generic field service tool adapted for auto repair.
How does the AI pre-diagnosis work?
When a customer calls and describes a symptom, the AI cross-references the vehicle’s year, make, model, and mileage against known failure patterns and TSBs. A 2017 Honda CR-V with oil dilution? The system flags the known 1.5T issue and puts the briefing in the RO draft before the car arrives.
How does the DVI-to-estimate automation work?
When a tech marks an item RED or YELLOW during the digital inspection, Sterling auto-generates an estimate line item with the labor operation code, book hours, and VIN-specific parts. The service advisor reviews and prices it — but the framework is built automatically. Cuts estimate prep by 60%.
What about wrong parts?
VIN decode happens at intake, not at estimate time. Engine disambiguation happens before any part is looked up. Parts are VIN-locked so the wrong-part problem is solved at the earliest possible moment.
How does the parts-arrived notification work?
When the last outstanding part for an RO is marked as received, an instant push notification goes to the assigned technician. At 3 techs saving 30 minutes/day each, this single feature recovers $14,000/year in labor revenue.
Does it track flat rate vs. actual hours?
Yes. Customer billing uses book hours. But tech efficiency analysis requires both. Sterling tracks clock-in/clock-out for actual hours and book hours from the labor guide. The efficiency ratio per tech per job type is the most important performance metric in the shop.
How does comeback detection work?
When a new RO is opened for a vehicle within 30 days of a prior RO closing with a matching complaint scope, Sterling flags it as a potential comeback, links the two ROs, and notes the originating tech. Warranty comebacks are absorbed internally with quality metrics tracked per tech.
Can it handle fleet accounts?
Yes. Fleet ROs are flagged at creation. No payment is collected from the driver — the RO is invoiced to the fleet account on net-30 terms. Monthly consolidated invoices are auto-generated and sent to the fleet AP contact. Fleet AR past 45 days triggers automated follow-up.
How do maintenance reminders work?
Sterling estimates current mileage between visits using the vehicle’s average monthly mileage history. Reminders fire based on estimated mileage, not just time since last visit. This produces significantly higher conversion rates because the timing matches actual usage.
How is this different from Tekmetric or Shop-Ware?
Tekmetric and Shop-Ware are shop management systems — they organize your data. Sterling is an AI operations team that does the work. The AI answers calls and opens RO drafts. DVI findings auto-generate estimates. Parts arrival triggers tech notifications. Declined services get automated follow-up. The difference is automation, not organization.
Is there a free trial?
Yes. 14-day free trial with full access to all 7 AI agents.
Resources
Auto Repair & Mechanic Shop AI insights
Deep dives, case studies, and playbooks for running a smarter auto repair & mechanic shop business with AI.
Ready to close the gap between your labor ceiling and your actual revenue?
Sterling Auto Repair gives your shop 7 AI agents that handle intake, inspections, estimates, parts, communication, fleet management, and business intelligence. 14-day free trial. 30 minutes to go live.