Cars. Ever since the first Ford Model A rolled off the assembly line in 1903, Americans have been obsessed with motor vehicles. We name them. We write songs and make movies about them. We race them. We collect them. And we love to customize them.
“About one-third of the U.S. population is a classified enthusiast, meaning they have an irrational, emotional, and financial relationship with their cars or trucks,” says Scottsdale resident Isaac Bunick. “In fact, it’s the biggest lifestyle choice in America, but there’s never really been a category-defining place on the web for this audience.”
Until now.
Two years ago, Bunick founded MOTORMIA, an AI-powered app—or digital destination, as he calls it—that allows users to virtually modify their actual vehicle using real parts found on the market.
A former auto trader who later worked at some of the top web development and technology start-ups, Bunick was inspired by his young daughter, Mia, who would shadow him in the garage and want to know every detail about each custom build.
“She kept bugging me, ‘Daddy, how do we make the car faster!?' and 'Daddy, how do I make the car pink!?'" he recalls. “So I said, ‘Why don’t we make an app.' It started as a joke, but it’s become way more than that.”
You don’t have to be a die-hard gearhead to use MOTORMIA. In fact, Bunick designed it with the amateur enthusiast in mind—and the process is easier than it sounds. To start, select your vehicle from a continually updated list.
“A major challenge here was aggregating all the makes and models across the entire world, and all the trends and specs of each and every one of those models,” Bunick explains.
Next, choose your build goals. What do you want to achieve? Will this be a DIY build or a professional job? What is your budget?
Once you have entered your details and ideas, the namesake tuning expert (and AI agent), Mia, kicks in. Using data curated from not just websites and catalogs but also from forums, videos, and real-life examples, Mia provides targeted recommendations for parts and modifications that are proven to have worked in real life.
“You have all these options available, and you're able to buy the parts and pieces that you're after, or stuff that you don't even know that you might want, based on what you want to achieve within your budget,” Bunick notes.
The concept has been an overwhelming success. Today, MOTORMIA is used by millions of enthusiasts who design, tune, and perfect their dream machines, and it’s considered an authority in the aftermarket industry. Free to download, it does not require a subscription nor are there any required in-app purchases.
You can learn more about MOTORMIA—and get started building your dream vehicle—at MOTORMIA.co.