Car PC business

**wrx614** · 09-07-2005, 09:52 PM

Hello all-

I haven't been a part of this forum for very long, but I've thought of doing a local business specializing in car pc's for quite some time now. I've been doing car audio sales and installation for seven years now. With a lot of the new technology that's come around recently I think this may be a pretty good niche market. Anyone have any thoughts or opinions on this? Do you think there may be a big enough demand for this? I'm at a point where I make pretty good money for what I do, but its getting boring dealing with the type of customers that come into our store just wanting basic crap. It's just not a challenge anymore.

**peecee** · 09-07-2005, 10:04 PM

I've been thinking about this too. I've been working the business for about 15 years, doing mostly corporate network engineering. I've been into computers since I was about 12, and since about 15 for car stereos. I'd love to ditch the corporate world, but figured the stereo places would start getting in to this area. It's been about 3 year since I starting developing a business plan, and I have yet to see a company start offering progessional geeky installations. Then again, do people WANT a geeky setup?

**stuseed** · 09-07-2005, 10:07 PM

Whats your thoughts on the subject?
Not being cheeky but to me it seems straightforward, just building small pcs really.
I'd love to get involved in a project like this, but have no money to invest which seems to me to be the major block to any new business.

**Zip-Lock** · 09-08-2005, 09:49 AM

Originally Posted by wrx614

've been doing car audio sales and installation for seven years now.

Where is your shop?

**-zip-** · 09-08-2005, 10:33 AM

You are going to have a lot of challanges.

Support unlike the typical installs where there is little support needed later on, your customers will be continually returning for tweaks and fixes.

Reliability - this is a hobby read the LCD forums for kicks and see how reliable some of this stuff is. Cost of returns and customer disatisfaction. Peope are used to having stuff just work.

There are others but these are my favorite

**amthar** · 09-08-2005, 10:36 AM

To me, the biggest problem is integration. I've seen pictures of a lot of installs done by people on these forums in their personal cars, and a lot of them look like someone just put a rather large PC in their trunk and took a cable crap- at least in my opinion. Professionals and people willing to pay the high expense of a carPC system want it to look integrated, professional, and do not want to give up too much space to have it. That's the problem I've been fighting as I design and install my system- making it look stock and keeping it out of the way. So much equipment to hide, and you can only hide it so much before you then have to start working about heat problems.

If you are already into car audio then you (hopefully) are familiar with fiberglassing and custom dash installs, etc, so making an integrated "front end" to the system should be no problem. I think if you can come up with some common "back-end" install scenarios for various car types and can master the "little touches" such as using wire looms/cable management, you could really make some good money.

If you're interested in talking more I might have some other suggestions for you, just PM me.

**PURDooM** · 09-08-2005, 12:20 PM

Then there is legal issues too. What happens if someone gets in an accident and blames you (the carputer manufacturer) for the accident because they were looking at the screen? Theres nothing to stop them from suing you. You have to be able to fight it.

Also, what happens if you pernamently dammage their car? Cars are expensive.

**sdashiki** · 09-08-2005, 01:16 PM

Been said before, this is a bad idea. Unless you simply sell prefabs like DriveSoft or whatever they use on TV shows.

Customer service is nill in this hobby market. Sell the computers, dont sell the install unless somehow people know they dont get tech support, its a computer, problems mean contact the puter maker and not the installer. BUT today people will bring it back to where they got it and go FIX ME. In carputer terms, this doenst seem feasible.

**JPuma** · 09-08-2005, 01:35 PM

Are you even allow to by law as a business to provide the ability to view movies on a screen in the dash. I know TV is not allowed on OEM nav systems in the US. I am sure local authoritires would come down on you for this. You would probably not be allow to offer any video in motion. I wouldnt be too worried about lawsuits, you have disclaimers signed for that. besides how many aftermarket companies and automakers are getting sued for users crashing beacuse they were looking at there nav screen. The only problem I see here is video in motion and weather or not you'd be allow to sell this option and supporting the system after sale. If you have a good plug in play solution that reliable with very few parts then it should be a big deal. As far as software the customer is on there own. If theres a problem the they can just reimage from DVD. just like what computer oem's do now. If they want extended all care support, well then thell just have to pay for that service at a preimum.

Anyway there are guys doing this already, winmobil.com, which is actually NAV-TV.com and a few others.

**wrx614** · 09-08-2005, 11:10 PM

peecee-As far as Columbus, Ohio is concerned, there aren't any shops doing car pc installs. Most car stereo installers around here aren't too computer-literate. At least with building pc's anyway. I think from a stand point of primarily doing music and navigation from a touch screen its a really cool idea, which isn't that geeky I don't think.

stuseed- I'm currently in development for a couple prototypes to be able to show to potential investors. So I think that will help from a financial aspect.

Zip-Lock- I work at a big box retailer in Columbus, Ohio. I would consider using the MP3.com store as a supplier if the pricing was good enough for me to make a decent profit.

amthar- One of the reasons I want to do this is so that I can offer a factory like install for my customers. Computers like the mac-mini and the nano-ati motherboards make the install go a little smoother with small equipment. I plan to only use high quality lcd's for customers anyway. No generic stuff at all. By the way, I am king when it comes to zip ties.

PURDooM- As far as the legal issues, I'll need to check with a lawyer, but I'm assuming that a disclaimer that the car owner must sign may be good enough. I plan on marketing it for primarily a music and navigation toy more than for watching movies. I would like to market this more for the businessman or computer geek. (We have a lot of both in Columbus.) I'm not too worried about damaging cars, I've worked on a lot of expensive cars in the past. One of the more pricey was a Bentley Azure convertible. Hell I've even put badass stereo system on a harley. (same owner)

sdashiki- The tech support is the only part I'm worried about. I just need to make it clear when I sell the systems that this is what to expect. One of many things to figure out during the prototype stage.

JPuma- From a legal standpoint I don't believe Ohio has any official laws against it yet. One thing I thought about was having a disclaimer built into the programing that you had to click on just like the oem navigations do. With as many of indash screens that are sold here, I haven't heard of legality issues yet. (I've got a lot of friends in the car audio industry here in Columbus.)