Union Square - Somerville Community Blog

In case you haven't heard - tonight is Groundwork Somerville's  Greening the City Gala. If you follow us, then you know we're not just about Somerville car repair, and you've read about Groundwork and how much we support them. Well, tonight is your chance to support them too!

The Gala will be held at the Arts at the Armory on Highland Avenue. You can still buy tickets at the door (until they run out - which shouldn't take long). In fact, they're only $40.00!

And what do you get for your hearty investment? Firstly - a rockin' time! We're talking live music from the Go-Flo Casuals, the Soulful Souls, and the Tony the Bookie Orchestra! Combine that with delicious organic wine and some of Boston's best beer, courtesy of Pretty Things and Cambridge Brewing Company. Do you still have to think about it?

For those that another reason besides a party, you can feel good that your hard-earned money is supporting a local organization that is truly making a difference in our community. It's not too often that you get to have a rockin' time and feel like you're giving back. Now that's a good night's sleep!

So, what are you waiting for? Call your friends and make it a plan! Then come find us tonight at the Armory - we can all toast to Groundwork!

See you there!

Winter can be boring. What's a city dweller to do? Our friends at the Somerville Journal wrote a blog post yesterday about urban skiing coming to Somerville. What is urban skiing? It's basically where skiing meets skateboarding. No, I'm not kidding. You strap-on some skis, find a hill, and the city landscape becomes your terrain park.

The crew from Stept Productions made the trek from Colorado to the 'Villle to hit the some rails over by the high school.

We Somerville car repair guys find Stept to be thoroughly entertaining - but a bit on the crazy side. In fact, one of the Stept mad men - Tom Warnick - broke his tibia while tearing it up somewhere around the Hub.

We'll let you know when Stept releases the footage that was taken around Somerville. Until then, check-out their video from last year's Boston-area excursion. And oh yeah - don't try this at home!

Did you see the Stept crew around town? Drop us a comment and give us the scoop!

We are so happy to kick-off the new year by sharing some fantastic news. And yes - it's that good! Our shop has been named an Angie's List Super Service award winner for 2010!

We are honored to receive such a prestigous award (picture Mike dancing - no, wait - don't!). In fact, this marks six years in a row that we've been named a Super Service award winner. We began in 2005 as the only car repair shop in the entire state of Massachusetts to receive the award - and we haven't stopped since!

It feels great to know that providing honest and transparent Boston auto repair continues to pay-off. Althought, we wouldn't have it any other way!

For those of you who aren't familiar with Angie's List, it is a subscripton-based online community, which specializes in providing quality reviews of local service providers.

We place a lot of stock in how we are reviewd on Angie's List. The community is comprised of serious people who provide honest reviews which are relied upon heavily by their fellow members.

At Mike's, we have pretty good reviews on most sites. But other sites can be tricky in that sometimes people who aren't serious reviewers decide to go on a rant for no good reason. With Angie's List, we always know we are getting a fair shake, no matter how the review turns out.

We hope you sign-up for Angie's List. You'll unlock some of the best-kept secrets in Boston - and you can give us a shout-out too!

Don't forget to check us out on Facebook!

If you've been following us then you know that 2010 was a great year for Mike's - we celebrated our 30th anniversary! We found a couple ways to celebrate our big day and had a lot of fun in the process.

We decided that we were going to offer an amazing value to everyone in the Greater Boston area. What better way to do that than our very first Groupon! People from all sides of Boston purchased oil changes for as low as $10! Now, that's what I call a value! The Groupon was tremendously successful and we've had the privilege to meet hundreds (and counting) of new people and welcome them into the Mike's family.

Next, we made a commitment to sustainability. It's not what you would expect from an auto shop, but we took an environmental pledge. And we laid our Boston sustainable auto repair initiatives online, for all to see.

We didn't stop at our in-house sustainability initiatives - we took our cause straight to the community, and introduced our Boston green oil change. We're the only shop around to offer a more eco-friendly oil change - and we do it for only $4 more than our conventional oil change. We didn't just celebrate our anniversary - we started a local green revolution!

So, 2010 was one for the record books. It was amazing how great it felt to give back to our community. But don't worry - 2011 is going to be a blast too! Community and sustatinability will continue to be at the center of all we do here at Mike's.

Looks like this party isn't stopping any time soon...stay tuned! 

At Mike's, we think your service experience here should be a fun one. And if you follow us then you know that along with Boston car repair, we love social media. Besides blogging, we're always tweeting and sharing what we can on Facebook.

Recently, we decided it was time to venture even further into the land of social media. Our next step? Bring on the check-ins! Come one - come all! Whether it be Foursquare, SCVNGR, Facebook, Yelp or Gowalla - your check-in is welcomed at Mike's!

We're hoping to make this a fun experience by giving a little something to everyone. While in for service, check-in at Mike's and you'll receive a free Taza chocolate bar! Just show us your check-in and get Taza-fied!

Taza chocolate is a locally made, stone-ground, organic chocolate. Delicous, local, and sustainable - how can you go wrong?

And if you become the Mayor of Mike's - you receive a free oil change of your choice - including our Boston green oil change!

So, the next time you're looking for quality Boston car repair, head to Mike's and check-in. Then sip on a cup our organic coffee or tea and enjoy your Taza!

Got any other great check-in ideas? Drop us a comment and let us know!

Follow us on Twitter!

Here at Mike’s Automotive, we’re committed to supporting local groups and businesses. We also love promoting green projects and services that benefit the environment. That's why last month we decided to help support one of our favorite local non-profits, Groundwork Somerville, with our Boston green oil change. 

Groundwork Somerville is on a mission to “empower people to live healthier, happier, and more prosperous lives.” Like Mike’s Automotive, Groundwork Somerville focuses strongly on the local community.  They organize events like the recent “Green-A-Thon,” where Groundwork Somerville volunteers worked to beautify the city of Somerville and clean-up the environment. Their programs include: healthy education; green jobs and job training; and sustainable community.

At Mike’s we love that Groundwork Somerville supports local initiatives, promotes strengthening our community, and helps the environment, all in one non-profit organization! We also support local businesses, the community, and of course, efforts to make our city greener - because Mike’s Automotive is locally owned and sustainable as well!

Are you a Boston-area organization working to better the community or the environment? Give us a heads-up in the comments - we’d love to know about it and feature you on the Mike's Automotive community blog!

We've shared a lot of news with you here at Mike's recently - by now, you've probably heard about the Boston green oil change. But I must say, I am equally as happy to share with you great news coming from one of our long-time customers.

Residing in nearby Arlington, for nearly 20 years Michael Prager has been coming to our shop for his Arlington auto repair. We've gotten to know Mike pretty well. When he told us he was writing a book, we were elated! Mike's book, Fat Boy Thin Man, was recently unveiled. The story chronicles his decades-long battle with food addiction - and how he made it out alive!

I can honestly say to you, that Mike's book is not only fabulous - it's authentic. You see, what makes this book so great is that it's a true story. Mike opens up like few people ever would and exposes the deepest and darkest sides of being obese.

Hearing the tales of Mike creating faux lunch order lists to bring into sub shops, in an effort to disguise that the entire order was for him, is truly moving. At the same time, this tale isn't some depressing sob story - as a former Boston Globe editor, Mike manages to integrate surprisingly witty humor, in order to keep the book entertaining and fresh.

Mike takes a bold stance when it comes to tackling obesity. He advocates that food is an addiction like any other. Further, he promotes the use of substance abuse therapy as the only cure for the eating disorder. After all, that's what saved his life!

This book really will change the way you think about food. Hopefully it will have a greater impact on our culture, as we struggle with a ballooning nation that has developed a perverse view of food.

So, if you care about food, health - I dare say your country, then buy Michael Prager's book. Then tell a friend. Maybe together, we can change our country and save lives!

As a Somerville auto shop dedicated to community blogging, we have to give it up to great folks in the community who are doing their part to spread the word about what's going on around town. And, with Halloween in the books and the 2010 holiday season here, we need as many good sources as possible to keep up on what's going to be a busy event season.

The Somerville News is a great resource to keep up on community happenings - they cover arts & events, and are one of the most comprehensive sources online for Somerville high school sports news. There's an active community of commenters, too, which can make for good reading.

A recent story on the Aledermen's efforts to ban a particularly potent and popular alcoholic beverage, 4Loko, drew a lot of empassioned ire from the reader base. We love a good comment thread, and that the citizens of Somerville are so empassioned about how the Aldermen are spending their time. As an auto shop, your non-intoxicated driving is our concern, but we take no particular positon on 4Loko.

We look forward to following this fabulous site, and sharing more insights with our community members - and most importantly, helping you get the best auto service from a locally owned, Boston sustainable auto repair shop.

This is a great day for Mike's Automotive, Somerville, and the region. Today, we introduce Boston's only green oil change.

Everybody knows that we're committed to Boston sustainable auto repair. But this goes beyond green initiatives. Like Mike says - this is bigger than us, this is about our community.

We're making a commitment to sustainability that is unmatched! Our goal is to make the green oil change the new standard in Boston.

We're kicking off our green oil change with a week-long push for sustainability. This week (October 18-22), for every green oil change we provide, we will donate $5.00 to our friends at Groundwork Somerville.

So, let's come together for sustainability and Groundwork Somerville. Tell everyone you know and tweet it up! The people at GWS do great work and need all the support they can get.

The race starts now and ends on Friday. If you are as green as you say you are - let's see you run!

It's been 30 years since we started our Somerville auto repair shop, Mike's Automotive Services. Along the way we've had only one focus: Providing quality, transparent auto repair. Times have changed...our community deserves more.

The next 30 years will include a continuation of that legendary Mike's services. But it's about time we add another focus: sustainable auto repair.

That's right - sustainability. We've always been an environmentally conscious shop. Now it's time to take it to the next level. We're taking an environmental pledge. How serious are we? Check out our sustainable auto repair page - we think you'll like what you see. At Mike's we go beyond compliance. We are the greenest auto repair shop in Greater Boston.

Why are we doing this? It's about leadership. There's only one way to build a more sustainable community - it takes local business leaders to stand up and take charge. That's what we're doing. And we're asking all local business to follow.

What's more, the automotive industry by its very nature is one that pollutes. We've always been baffled by shops that don't want to even follow basic practices in order to protect the environment. And unfortunately, they're still out there.

So we're taking a stand. We're laying it on the line - and online - for all to see. It's a pledge not just to be a green auto repair shop, but to help build a more sustainable community.

When Mike makes a promise, he keeps it. Rest assured, the next 30 years aren't just looking bright - they're looking green!

We've got one more big green announcement coming - one that will change Boston sustainable auto repair forever! Stay tuned!

Got any other green ideas for us? Drop us a comment - we want to hear them!

Spread the GREEN word - follow Mike's on twitter!