I'm looking for a very good Mechanic in the Los Angeles area who is fair, upfront, and gets the job done correctly the first time. I may have asked this question about eight to ten months ago, but I don't think I got any responses.

Thank you all ahead of time for your suggestions.

 

Yep, I thought this post would turn into a ghost town. At least I tried to reach out to this community.

 

There might be some who are being polite, by keeping quiet.

 

That is weird, no good mechanics that anyone can recommend? I know a mechanic who is stellar and not afraid of any job, with experience going back to the mid 1980s but he is in San Bruno, south of San Francisco. And I know of a shop near Seattle that is out of this world, a super lucky find, the guys are amazing. Sorry, I don't know any in Los Angeles.

 

Question. How does being polite by keeping quiet work?

 

If you kept quiet more, you might be considered impolite less.

 

That makes weird sense in these days of the Twilight Zone we are living in. Oh, you know a very good mechanic in Los Angeles who is a king with R230s, but don't tell anyone on the forum so that you don't offend anyone. What a stupid whirled we are living in. I must be old, I've always shared the good with anyone who asked me to. That's gone out of style now? The drugs certainly have taken a toll on our society. That, and the brainwashing..... Life used to be so simple.
In Torrance, (South L.A.) there's Torrance Auto Repair, and also Charlie's Hillside Auto Repair. Check those out and look at their Google reviews. There's a place or two in Malibu as well, good luck. I think that the more expensive the neighborhood, the more they are going to charge, but there's exceptions to every rule. Know what your car needs before they look at it, so you know if they're telling you the truth .Catch any shop in a lie, it's goodbye shop, they're fired. Also, whatever shop you take your car to, you want to investigate as much as possible first, that means better business bureau complaints, etc, as well as online reviews. It's best if you can find other Benz owners who have a shop they've used with good results and are happy enough to want to share that with you. Depending on what your car needs, sometimes some shops might be looking for more customers than they have, so might post ads online, but beware and research them thoroughly first! Especially in these days when a Benz dealer service department is the LAST place you wanna take the car to. All the times that I've referred a fellow car owner to a shop, both the car guy and the shop owners have later thanked me.

 

I fully agree with tonylinc. I'm paying a great deal of money to these Mechanics and if some are snowflakes better to know now so that we can avoid them at all costs, no pun intended. I'm just sic and tired of getting fleeced north of 1k for four hours of work. And if something doesn't feel right or sound correct after they got done with the job they blow off your calls so your forced to drive to them in order to confront them in person.

 

No matter what car you own, it's very important to know a mechanic that you can trust. First there's honesty, I've been lied to by Benz dealer service department advisors who gave me a list of costly repairs the car supposedly needed which in fact the car absolutely needed. They just wanted my money and hoped I'd say, "Do it". Second, there's the issue of capability, you want a mechanic who isn't in the dark about how these cars systems work and how to maintain or repair them. Even a mechanic who is pretty good, can encounter something on an R230 that can be a mystery, or may do a repair the wrong way. If not experienced with an R230, they may not know what SBC is. These cars are different from a lot of cars although they've been on the road a while now, there are still some mechanics out there who aren't very familiar with some of the workings. In my case, I have a certified ASE "Master" whom I use now and then, and he always learns something new on these cars... followed by a family-owned foreign car shop that's been open since 1965, they certainly know the cars, and third is my best choice, a shop that's owned by twin brothers who are both engineers. Those guys are stellar and actually my first choice now. Best luck possible, the car needs nothing... then I try to do almost everything the car needs myself but there are things I don't want to do so I use these other choices in those cases. Choosing a car shop requires three things.
1. Honesty, if you don't trust them forget it
2. Capable, they must be capable to work on these cars without that it doesn't matter if they're dishonest
3. Price, You have to know they will charge less money for their work than a dealership
Once you find a shop or a mechanic with all three, Become their friend!!

 

Once you find the shop or mechanic, that answers my question.

 

MBZ Auto Service in Glendale has all good google reviews. Speedhaus Automotive in Newbury Park also has all good reviews. Jacks German Auto Service in Fountain Valley, another with a lot of all-good reviews. Carotech Automotive on West Pico Blvd in L.A. has the most reviews, 383 of them and looks all good as well. I think any of these shops, whichever is closer to you, will probably bring good results for you. Good luck!

 

Ask the guy selling the 2003 SL55 here in Marketplace. He's got $30k of receipts from some shop in LA and seems to like that shop.

 

Tony,
Yeah, MBZ is where I've been going since I purchased my car one year ago. His "Labor" fees are excessive, meaning I paid $1200.00 for 4.90 hours of work.