Ernestos Auto Service - El Centro (CA)

5 /5 Karrie Schipper: HIGHLY recommend! Five stars is not enough, even ten wouldn’t be enough, for the EXCEPTIONAL service that Ernesto provided. We had family stalled on a Sunday on way home to AZ. He met them on side of road to assist! Knowledgeable and kind! This type of service rarely exists! If you are in this area or passing through do not hesitate to call Ernesto!

5 /5 Lee Kaplan-Unsoeld: We were driving from San Diego to Phoenix when our van started misfiring badly. We were able to get in contact with Ernesto after business hours and got set up with an appointment early the next day. He was friendly, honest, and able to get us back on the road before noon! He also gave us a great deal. We highly recommend any traveller or local to give Ernesto a call!

1 /5 Daniel Alonso Bojorquez: Horrible service! As far as I know Ernesto is the dad and “Ernie” or the person that “helped” us is the son. My younger brother had got into an accident where his wheel popped and he skidded off the road on the 111 freeway on the early morning of May 3rd, 2025. As you can imagine there was damage on the front bumper, all through the frame in the drivers side and broken drivers side door mirror. I ended up calling this shop and based on the reviews I thought it was reliable, obviously, I was wrong. “Ernie” began by saying he could get it up and running that same day and it would be good enough to get to Yuma which is about 50 minutes from here. (Keep in mind this is something he denied stating). More precisely, he gave me a completion timeline of 6 in the evening that day, which he adhered to, but the product was absolute garbage. Some other things I would like to point out is we towed his other car (similar model to ours) to his shop for him to use parts from to fix ours, which ultimately was just the tires and mirror. He asked for BEER halfway through the service and for the most part had only put on tires and sanded down some damage, which only told me he was not dedicating the time time to finish the job and instead focused on what didn’t need work, all we needed was the car up and running safely to our destination. Add to this that he supposedly fixed the wheel well and tire, then come to find out as we’re driving it that the thing was sparking, causing a grinding noise and moving slower than the rest of the wheels. Ultimately, he requested $480 payment which he refused to give back and got defensive when we brought up the fact that the vehicle was in the same if not worse condition than when we dropped it off. We ended up towing the car to Yuma and took it to a real mechanic where within 2 hours they fixed everything he claimed to have fixed. This dude not only took money he didn’t earn from us, but wasted our time. PLEASE AVOID THIS SHOP! They will rip you off!

5 /5 John Bonacci: After having our radiator blow out on us during our roadtrip from San Diego to Phoenix, and having our vehicle towed to El Centro, the closest city, we woke up the morning after a holiday needing service badly for our vehicle. I woke up around 7am and started calling all the mechanics in the city. After getting a quote for over $1500 from the local QuickLane to replace our radiator, I got a message from Ernestos offering immediate help and a much better quote, the only mechanic to call us back that morning too. "Ernie" and his family welcomed us to their property 30 minutes later that morning and got to work. It wasnt some impressive, fancy, repair shop (it was a home based business) but you could tell they cared about making sure our car got fixed and sending us back safely on the road. They replaced our radiator that same morning, made sure we had water and A/C while we waited, and even took a ride in the car with us after servicing to ensure everything was working perfectly. They also took the time to text us a few hours later to make sure we got home safely. Would recommend. Kind, helpful family.