Who is Girls Auto Clinic?

Girls Auto Clinic is the lead company changing the conversation around women and their vehicles.

Girls Auto Clinic (GAC) was founded in 2013 by Patrice Banks. We are a Black woman-owned and operated business in the automotive industry. We build tools to drive knowledge and engagement to women or SHECANICS to own their automotive experiences. GAC empowers women to be fully engaged and confident in purchasing and managing their vehicles. We increase the presence of women successfully and happily employed within the industry.

Patrice started by teaching car care workshops in the Philadelphia area, delivering a TEDx talk, and writing a car care book for women. In January 2017, Patrice opened The Girls Auto Clinic Repair Center, a full-service auto repair shop with women mechanics and a nail salon for customers while they wait. Since then, Girls Auto Clinic has been catapulted in to the international automotive business and women’s empowerment space.

Why Women?

It’s no secret most women fear their automotive buying and repair experiences because they feel misunderstood, taken advantage of, and or mistreated. To make things worse, there isn’t much out there to ease concerns, anxiety, and anger despite the fact that more than half the automotive industry customers are women and spend $200 BILLION a year on buying and repairing their cars.

Patrice was once one of these women. A self-proclaimed “auto airhead®,” she recognized women's influence and power today. Women are the largest and most influential vehicle customer segment! Patrice created a business model that supports a need in the lives of millions of women drivers.

Patrice Banks is a highly engaging, intelligent, funny, candid, and trusted leader. She is shaking up the male-dominated automotive industry with her inspiring story of going from auto airhead to creating a business whose mission is to educate and empower women through their cars.

Women are the #1 customer in the auto industry, and Patrice inspires them to become #SHECANICS, confident, educated drivers and smart consumers!

Banks once dreaded both car buying and repairs. Unhappy with her experiences and unable to find any solutions to her car problems, she left her career as an engineer, enrolled in an automotive technology school, and created a unique business model - auto repair catering to women.

Patrice Banks and Girls Auto Clinic have been recognized by numerous media outlets such as NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Washington Post, TIME, Good Morning America, Glamour, Car & Driver, to name a few. She graces the cover of People Magazine and Ratchet and Wrench. Patrice has partnered with Ford, Dell, Honda, and Girls Scouts, is a TEDx speaker, and was featured in a national commercial with Lean Cuisine. She is a founding member of Women of Color Automotive Network.

Banks graduated from Lehigh University with a BS in Materials Engineering, where she was a Varsity Rower. She was recently awarded Outstanding Entrepreneur of the Year by the Lehigh University Alumni Association in 2019. She is the author of Girls Auto Clinic Glove Box Guide. Patrice is working as a producer with Warner Bros and Elizabeth Banks’ Brownstone Production to create a scripted comedy series about Girls Auto Clinic.

Watch Patrice’s TedX Talk from 2015 sharing her vision of Girls Auto Clinic.