San Mateo Auto Works - San Mateo (CA)

5 /5 Ryan Tang: Needed an oil change for my Mazda CX-5 and found this place on yelp. I can tell you I was very pleased with the service. There’s a reason why this place has such high ratings. Not only did they complete my service earlier than expected (few hours), they rotated my tires and filled all the fluids (ie window wiper fluid) for free. Best of all, they made the maintenance dashboard light go away (typically something I had to go to Mazda to get done). They also did not try to over sell me on anything. Will (office manager) was very honest in explaining to me when a full check up would be necessary. Before going, I called multiple places and not only did this place have the best price, they proved why they have 4+ stars. 5 stars! Highly recommended!

5 /5 Jordan Mohan: I’ve been here twice now and had really positive experiences. The first time, Will (office manager) scheduled me in super last minute before I had to leave for a trip, and the second time, I brought in my husband’s car because the check engine light came on. Turns out I had only forgotten to screw on the gas cap after filling the tank. It was such a stupid mistake on my part, but he went ahead and filled my tires and didn’t charge for a thing. Will is that neighborly mechanic you can trust, and this is the only place I’ll bring our cars from now on.

1 /5 J J: In the past, I’ve been to shops where they are willing to do basic buffing or small paint jobs on small scrapes or nicks in the car. I was an idiot and scraped the size of my car against a retaining wall. There was a white scratch on the side of my car about 10” long, 3” wide, but super shallow and seemingly all cosmetic. So I thought I’d swing by this place to see if any of the mechanics would be willing to help a girl out and use a soft cloth to buff out the scratch. The owner of this shop immediately claimed that there was nothing he could do about the scratch, and he’d have to replace the entire side of the car plus the bumper (also slightly damaged) and that it would cost me nearly $3000!!! He also started pointing out old nicks and scratches and quoting me prices on those too. When I asked specifically if he could at least attempt an easy wipe down/buff the scratch (I didn’t care about actual repairs), he said they had a $100 minimum, and basically didn’t want to even try and help. So I went down to Belmont to SPITERIS, where the gentleman was so nice to me! He looked at the size of my car, inside and underneath, and said besides cosmetics, everything looked fine. He also wiped the scratch dust off completely with a wet towel so the car looked like nothing had happened! This gentleman also said that if I wanted to replace the (somewhat) damaged bumper, at most he’d charge me was $250! This place might have good service and do a good job on cars, but they definitely don’t help out out of the goodness of their hearts so beware! If you’re not paying, there’s no good customer service here!!!

5 /5 RCI Olsen: My family and I have been going to San Mateo auto works for many years now. They are reliable,honest and knowledgeable mechanics. Even after moving to San Jose from San Mateo I still bring my car here because I know they are reliable. Great mechanics are very hard to come by and adding honest to that is priceless. They are mechanics that work on engines not work on repairing scratches on your vehicle. You need to go to a body shop to repair dents and scratches.

5 /5 Aaron Krause: We’ve been servicing our cars here for years. Wife’s old car died during rush hour one night and got towed to the shop. Car worked fine next day when the shop checked it out and drove around - they suspect some fluid sloshed and killed the engine. They didn’t charge us even though spent time on it. We’ve been bringing our cars here since and have always been happy with the honest service.