A customer’s car sits on a lift at a do-it-yourself auto repair shop in Goyang, Gyeonggi, on Aug. 15 as the owner replaces the drive belt.SUK GYEONG-MIN
High repair bills are driving some Koreans to find a workshop and cue the music — or at least a YouTube tutorial. Armed with videos and rented garages, drivers are getting under the hood to save money.
“You can’t drive the car if this isn’t connected,” a driver surnamed Lee said at Garage 247, an unmanned do-it-yourself (DIY) auto repair shop in Goyang, Gyeonggi, on Saturday.
Lee’s Hyundai sat on a lift with one front wheel removed. The hood was wide open. Lee was replacing the serpentine belt, which is driven by the engine to operate components such as the air conditioner.
The job, however, refused to go according to plan.
Lee struggled to fit the new belt around the pulley and had to remove and reinstall it several times. A job expected to take four hours stretched to five after repeated trial and error. By the end, Lee’s gloves and shirt were stained with grease.
But all that elbow grease paid off in savings.
A repair shop would have charged around 500,000 won ($350) for the same job, but the amateur mechanic spent about 350,000 won, including 250,000 won for parts and the lift rental fee. That left about 150,000 won in savings.
Lee is a DIY veteran who has used such garages more than 10 times.
Customers use lifts to perform repairs at a do-it-yourself auto repair shop in Goyang, Gyeonggi, on Aug. 15.SUK GYEONG-MIN
“Most people come here to change their engine oil,” Lee said. “A repair shop charges between 100,000 won and 180,000 won, but here, you can do it for 50,000 won — 20,000 won for the lift and 30,000 won for the oil.”
But this latest go was no smooth ride.
“This was my first time replacing the serpentine belt, so I studied how to do it on YouTube before coming here,” Lee said. “But it didn’t go the way I expected. It was really tough.”
Two other groups brought their cars onto neighboring lifts during a two-hour stint observing the garage.
Traditional repair shops provide both parts and labor. Businesses such as Gongimnara take a different approach: Customers buy and bring their own parts, while the company’s mechanics install them for a labor fee.
DIY garages go a step further. Car owners buy the parts and do the repairs themselves. The garages rent out vehicle lifts, workspace and tools for around 20,000 won per hour.
The trend appears to be picking up speed.
Professional auto mechanics conduct free vehicle inspections for local residents at Hongje Falls Plaza in Seodaemun District, western Seoul, on Sept. 14, 2025.NEWS1
Online shopping transactions in the automobile and automotive products category jumped 56.8 percent, or 432.6 billion won, on year in June, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics. The figure includes vehicles, so it does not directly represent the size of the DIY auto repair market. It does, however, offer a glimpse into the broader trend.
The DIY craze has gained enough traction to become a business opportunity of its own. A company launched a franchise of DIY auto repair shops in 2025.
“We will have 11 locations nationwide once the store scheduled to open in August opens,” Garage 247 CEO Park Jun-u said. “If you include other companies, we estimate there are around 40 DIY garages nationwide.”
The CEO said the demand is speeding up.
“Demand has grown, and each location now receives an average of around 300 customers per month,” Park said.
High service garage prices and easy access to know-how are combining to put more drivers in the mechanic’s seat.
“High prices have persisted, and YouTube has made information that was once difficult to access readily available,” Lee Eun-hee, a professor of consumer studies at Inha University, said. “The culture of trying to save money has now spread to car maintenance.”
Tools available for customers at a do-it-yourself auto repair shop in Goyang, Gyeonggi.SUK GYEONG-MIN
But there is more than just money riding on a DIY repair. Unlike assembling furniture at home, a mistake in car maintenance can lead to a safety accident.
The current Enforcement Decree of the Motor Vehicle Management Act allows ordinary car owners without professional repair facilities to perform certain types of maintenance themselves. The permitted work covers engine lubrication and cooling systems as well as certain parts of the braking system.
Car owners can even perform work directly related to braking, such as adding or replacing brake fluid and replacing brake linings — that is where the DIY drive can put safety at risk.
“If ordinary consumers work on critical components such as brakes themselves, the risk of an accident could increase,” an insurance industry source said. “If an accident occurs after a DIY repair, a dispute could also arise with the manufacturer over whether the cause was a defect in the vehicle itself or a problem with the repair process.”
BY SUK GYEONG-MIN [lee.jiwon10@joongang.co.kr]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
