SHIFT Garage Offers Hope

For Joe Smith, it’s never just about the alternator.

A safe, reliable vehicle does more than get someone from here to there. It opens possibilities – to accept a better job that's a little farther away that you have to drive to. To pick your child up from school or take your mom to the doctor’s office or attend a family member’s funeral a few states away.

Smith, founder of SHIFT Garage, tells the story of a woman who came to his garage in a 2005 Nissan Altima. It needed a new alternator, which, in the realm of car repairs, isn’t a big deal. The part would cost about $140.

But after they spoke, Smith realized this wasn’t just about fixing her car. Instead, the repair meant she could prove to a judge she had reliable transportation. 
She could make sure she could get to and from work, and that meant a stable job. A stable job meant she could provide a home for her kids. And when you put it all together, it meant that her children could stay with her, rather than going into foster care.

“This alternator she needed, this $140 item, was what was standing in the way of this mom getting her life back,” Smith said. “From the outside, this looks like just a car repair. But that’s not what we’re doing here. It’s way more important than that.”

SHIFT Garage began in Rapid City 14 years ago and opened a shop in Sioux Falls in 2020.

“We just wanted to help people with cars who couldn’t afford it,” Smith said. “We looked around and said, there’s something for housing, clothing, furniture, food, everything. But there’s nothing for cars. It felt like there was something that could be done.”

The main program they offer is car repair. There’s a certified mechanic, an apprentice and a host of volunteers who help fix cars. People can come and they’ll work to make the car safe, legal and reliable, all for just the cost of the parts.

“We call it a free labor garage,” Smith said. “We charge the cost of parts, and we don’t mark them up, and we don’t charge anything for labor. So, we’re turning a $1,500 bill into a $300 bill for people.”

They also ask clients to attend a budgeting class, through Lutheran Social Services, which SHIFT pays for, and a free car maintenance class in partnership with Sioux Falls Housing.

“The goal is to help people get ahead of problems,” Smith said. “If we just fixed the car, that would feel like a band-aid to me because the bigger issue to me is what is going on in your finances that you can’t go to a traditional repair shop.”

Making cars last

Smith acknowledges people can face a lot of challenges, including rising labor costs, which have gone from $100 an hour to $150. That can put repairs out of reach for people.

On average, their clients have cars that are about 12 years old with more than 200,000 miles on them.  “At that level, we just kind of assume this isn’t your dream car,” Smith said.

To qualify, clients answer a few questions, including some about income and life circumstances. Sometimes they’ll bring an estimate from another garage, and Smith said they’re realistic about what needs to be done to keep a car safe and street-legal, but they don’t do cosmetic fixes. What that means is they’ll fix your alternator but probably not your air-conditioner.

Sometimes a car is just beyond repair, and people need a reasonable replacement. So Smith started UpSHIFT, which buys cars, fixes them and then sells them at 85% of market value, and includes financing through local partners such as the Service First Credit Union. “People were coming to me after they’ve signed with these ‘buy here, pay here places’, and by then it’s too late,” Smith said. “The only way to really address it is to give them a better option.”

Buyers can get a better interest rate and improve their credit scores. Smith hopes it prevents people from making bad business deals. And he’s not selling luxury cars. “Someone can get into a 2015 Ford Edge and be in a much better spot and own something they’re actually building equity in,” Smith said.

They repair about 150 cars a year at each location, and they’ve sold about 350 cars in Sioux Falls since the UpSHIFT program began in 2024.

‘We want to help’

Funding innovative community solutions is a role the Community Foundation is happy to play, said Patrick Gale, vice president of community investment. “Losing access to reliable transportation can create a cascade of problems for someone,” Gale said. “We have provided grants from our Community Fund several times to support SHIFT Garage, because we know this work can improve someone’s quality of life.”

He noted that the Community Fund supports new community ideas and helps them get up and running.

Smith said donors through the Community Foundation also have helped the garage carry out its mission. “Those gifts and grants have helped us hire employees and serve more people,” he said.

He tells another story.

A client was working in a gas station making $12 an hour. She got offered a job across town, making $18 an hour.

“Her car wasn’t reliable enough to drive across town every day, but the job didn’t pay enough to justify moving,” Smith said. “So, it’s a weird spot to be in. But we were able to repair her car and give her access to a raise. That made a big difference for her.”

He smiles.

“Cars should be something good in your life, not this drag that’s pulling everything else down,” Smith said. “Things happen, and we want to help when it does.”