Who shows up

Alex Flores

Alex Flores has been turning wrenches since 2009. Greasy Porcupines is the mobile side of that: a mechanic who comes to you, prices that start at a floor and get settled fairly, and a small parts fund that keeps neighbors moving.

• Lakeside, Arizona
• Mechanic since 2009
• Single father
• Monday–Saturday, around the clock

Greasy Porcupines started as a network of mechanics for people who could not afford shop rates or roadside plans. The idea came out of mutual aid and agorism: neighbors keeping neighbors on the road, no middleman, no dispatcher taking a cut. That is still the idea. Today it is Alex Flores, a service truck, a parts fund, and a short list of mechanics in the White Mountains who take calls when they are free.

Alex lives in Lakeside and has been a mechanic since 2009. Single father, which is part of why the hours are what they are and part of why the prices are what they are. If you have ever had a dead battery at 5 a.m. on a school morning you understand both.

Why the porcupine

A porcupine does not chase anybody. It minds its business, it is hard to push around, and it is out at night. That was the idea for a network of mechanics who did not want a shop, a boss, or a dispatcher taking a third of every call. The grease blot came later, from a shop rag.

What the name still means

Mutual aid is the part people remember: the parts fund that puts a battery in a neighbor’s car when the neighbor cannot cover it until Friday. Agorism is the quieter part: a trade done directly, person to person, at a price both of them agreed to. Both are still how it works. Neither is a sermon you have to sit through to get your car started.

The network

Alex takes most of the calls. A short list of mechanics around the White Mountains take the ones he cannot, and anyone in Arizona who wants calls on their own terms can join. Everyone on the list has been in a driveway with Alex at least once.