Say which makes your technicians work on routinely, which engines and systems they know best, which vehicles or jobs you refer out, and what that experience consists of. A strip of manufacturer logos tells a driver very little; a sentence about what your bays see every week tells them whether to call. Keep every claim at a level the shop can back up, and stop short of anything that suggests a dealer or factory relationship you do not have.
The FTC tells drivers to "Ask if the technician or shop has experience working on the same make or model vehicle as yours." That question sounds simple and is hard to answer well. Experience with a make can mean routine maintenance, electrical diagnosis, engine and transmission work, or none of these beyond an oil change. A driver with a European sedan or a diesel pickup needs to know which.
This is a content-planning question for shop owners and service managers, not legal advice; use of manufacturer names and logos can raise trademark questions that belong with your attorney. For how this page fits with the rest of a shop site, see our auto repair content overview.
Servicing a make is not representing it
Drivers read a manufacturer's logo on a shop site as a signal of some relationship. Working on a make is not the same as being approved by it, and phrases such as factory-trained, dealer-level, or authorized carry meanings the shop has to be able to document. If a technician completed manufacturer training, name the training and the year. If the shop belongs to a manufacturer program, name the program and keep proof on file. If neither is true, describe the work itself.
Plain text matters here as much as accuracy. A row of logos tells a text reader almost nothing, while a sentence such as we diagnose and repair Toyota and Lexus hybrids, including inverter and battery cooling faults gives a driver and an assistant the same specific fact. Write the sentence only if the bays actually do that work.
Describe experience in terms a driver can use
Organize the page by the way drivers describe their vehicles: make, rough age, and the system that is giving trouble. Under each make or group, say what the shop does routinely and what it does occasionally. Name the jobs the shop sends elsewhere, such as transmission rebuilds or programming that needs a dealer's equipment, and say where it sends them if the shop is comfortable doing so. Age matters as much as make: a shop at home with older pickups may not have the equipment for the cameras and sensors on a newer model, and saying so is part of an honest answer.
The referral list is often the most useful part of the page, and the hardest to get. Ask your lead technician, "Which vehicles or jobs would we rather not take, and why?" The answer tells a driver as much about the shop as the list of makes, and it keeps the wrong car out of a bay that cannot finish the job. Electrified vehicles need their own treatment, covered in how a shop should write about EV and hybrid service.
Recalls and factory warranties belong on the same page
A driver reading a makes page is often holding a newer vehicle and two questions: will an independent shop affect my factory warranty, and could this be a recall? The FTC's consumer page on auto warranties answers the first directly: "You don't have to use the dealer for repairs or maintenance to keep your warranty in effect." The same page notes that the dealer or manufacturer "can make you use select repair facilities" for work done free under the warranty. Quote both points accurately and let your attorney review any sentence that goes further. Keep the answer short and link to the source; a makes page is not the place for a long warranty explainer.
For recalls, NHTSA tells drivers to search by VIN to learn "if a specific vehicle needs to be repaired as part of a recall," and to "contact your local dealership to fix the recalled part for free." A makes page that says so, and links to NHTSA's lookup, shows the driver that the shop knows where its work ends. Credentials that back up a make claim, such as a technician's current certifications, are covered in how certifications should be presented so they can be checked.
A fictional example: an import specialist in Virginia
Here is a hypothetical page for a fictional independent shop in Virginia that started with German imports and now sees a wider mix.
| Make or group | What the shop does routinely | What it refers out |
|---|---|---|
| German sedans and wagons | Maintenance, brakes, suspension, electrical diagnosis, timing work | Transmission rebuilds |
| Japanese cars and small SUVs | Maintenance, brakes, cooling systems, check engine diagnosis | Hybrid battery replacement |
| Domestic light trucks | Maintenance, brakes, and suspension only | Diesel engine work and towing setups |
The lead technician filled the third column in a few minutes. No outside writer could have produced it, and none should try, because the jobs a shop turns away are knowledge only the shop holds, and a guessed list risks promising work the bays cannot do. The page opens with two sentences naming the shop's core makes, then uses the table, then answers the recall and factory warranty questions. Each row carries a review date, and the lead technician checks the table whenever someone joins or leaves the shop.
Decide how many pages you need
One makes page is enough for most shops. A separate page for a single make earns its place when the shop has real depth there and something to say that the overview cannot hold, such as the systems it diagnoses most often or the questions owners of that make tend to ask. Our article on deciding whether to update a page or publish a new one works through that choice. If you do build separate make pages, give each one something the overview lacks, and keep the recall and factory warranty sentences identical across them so they cannot drift apart.
Hudson South builds these pages in four steps. The Authority Asset gathers the shop's documented training, program memberships, and the technicians' own account of their work. Hudson Twenty-One records how the shop talks about its limits across 21 dimensions. Market Intelligence studies which vehicles drivers in your area ask about and which nearby shops claim them. AEO Creation writes the page answer first.
See which makes nearby shops claim
On a free 30-minute call, Hudson South walks through how competing shops in your market describe the vehicles they service, and what your site could say more clearly.
Get your free competitor analysisSources
- Auto Repair Basics. Federal Trade Commission. Read 2026-10-16.
- Auto Warranties and Service Contracts. Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Advice. Read 2026-10-16.
- Check for Recalls: Vehicle, Car Seat, Tire, Equipment. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Read 2026-10-16.