Social media for garages, auto repair shops and car dealers

People choosing a garage worry about being overcharged. People buying a car worry about being misled. Your feed should take both worries away by showing your work, your people and your prices plainly.

Google Business Profile matters most for a garage, because people search when a warning light comes on. Facebook reaches local drivers and community groups. Instagram and TikTok suit short walkarounds and repair clips. YouTube suits longer explainers and full vehicle tours that buyers watch before they visit.

Three posts a week is a good target. Garages and dealers need slightly different rhythms, so use the one that fits, or mix both if you do sales and servicing.

• Garage, Monday: a repair from last week, explained in plain words: the symptom, the cause, the fix.
• Garage, Wednesday: a seasonal check, such as tyres, batteries, wipers or air conditioning.
• Garage, Friday: a mechanic introduction or a look inside the workshop.
• Dealer, Monday: new arrivals with a short walkaround and the full price.
• Dealer, Wednesday: a buying explainer, such as what to check on a used car or how part exchange works.
• Dealer, Friday: a handover photo with the buyer's permission, or the weekend's opening hours.

Explaining a repair builds more trust than any promise of honesty. Show the worn part next to the new one, say what the driver would have noticed, and what would have happened if it was left. Keep customers' number plates, faces and anything personal left in the car out of shot unless they agree.

For dealers, the walkaround is your most useful post. It should answer the questions buyers ask before they make the trip.

1. Film in daylight on a clean, uncluttered forecourt or in a bright showroom.
2. Start at the front corner and walk slowly around the car, so buyers see every panel.
3. Show any marks or wear honestly. Hiding them only moves the disappointment to the forecourt.
4. Open the doors and boot, show the seats, dashboard and mileage, and start the engine.
5. State the price, mileage, year and key features in the caption, plus how to book a viewing.
6. Keep a vertical version for Reels and TikTok and a landscape one for YouTube and your website.

Car ads on social media are still ads. In the US, the FTC's pricing FAQs for the auto industry say social media posts are covered and that an advertised price must be the price any consumer can pay, excluding only charges the government requires. Its example: a car advertised at $40,000 with an $85 document fee should be advertised at $40,085. Discounts and MSRP can appear if the actual price is the most prominent amount and the terms are clear, and a car in transit or stored off site must be labelled as such.

In the UK, the CMA's guidance says traders must give the total price up front and that hiding mandatory charges until later (drip pricing) is illegal. If your posts promote car finance, the FCA's finalised guidance FG24/1 sets out how its existing financial promotion rules apply on social media; check with your finance provider or compliance adviser before posting monthly payment offers.

This is general information, not legal advice.

• Post a price a customer can actually pay, including any mandatory fees.
• Say clearly when a car is in transit, sold or at another site.
• Put discount conditions in the caption, not only in small print on an image.
• Remove or mark posts for sold cars promptly.

Sources: FTC: Automobile Industry Pricing Transparency FAQs, checked 15 October 2026; GOV.UK (CMA): Providing clear and accurate information about prices, summary, checked 15 October 2026; FCA: FG24/1 Finalised guidance on financial promotions on social media, checked 15 October 2026

Ask every customer for a review the same way, at collection or handover, with your Google review link. Do not offer money off a service or free valeting for a review, and do not ask only the happy ones. Google's policy bans incentives and selective asking, the FTC's rule bans incentives conditioned on a review's sentiment and threats to remove negative reviews, and the CMA lists fake and concealed incentivised reviews as banned practices in the UK.

Motoring complaints can get heated. Reply quickly and politely, acknowledge the problem, and offer a direct contact to look at the car or the invoice. Never post the customer's registration, invoice or personal details. Hide only spam and abuse; Instagram's Hidden Words lets you hide comments containing words you choose, and the person is not told.

Sources: Google Maps user-generated content policy: fake engagement, checked 15 October 2026; FTC final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials (August 2024), checked 15 October 2026; GOV.UK (CMA): Unfair commercial practices guidance (CMA207), checked 15 October 2026; Instagram Help Center: Hide comments or message requests you don't want to see, checked 15 October 2026

Plan around the motoring year: winter checks before the cold, air conditioning before summer, and the busy periods when new registration plates or model years arrive in your market.

Disclosure: Zolyp, which publishes this guide, makes an AI social media manager. It plans a balanced week across your content pillars, writes the captions and designs the visuals in your brand voice, and schedules them to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Business, X, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and Threads. You can add your own photos to any post, and you start by approving every post. Everything in this guide works just as well done by hand.

• Week 1: check Google hours and services, and list this month's seasonal checks or stock arrivals.
• Week 2: film two repair explainers or walkarounds in one session.
• Week 3: post a team introduction and a buying or maintenance tip.
• Week 4: ask recent customers for reviews, remove sold stock, and note which posts brought calls.