La Mesa Auto Care

I had a wonderful experience with Mark and Bruce. They were very accommodating, honest, and affordable. Went out of their way to help me get my car to the shop and arranged for me to pick it up late. I will return. Thanks!

Grumpy grumpy grumpy. These people were not friendly, not helpful so I decided not to even have them work on my car. It just doesn’t seem to be a place that cares about their customer.

Bruce, fast, friendly and competent. Check Liquids, Battery, great car Service! Merry Christmas!

Great smog center! Quick service! Answered all my questions.
Used a $ 14.95 + certificate coupon and they didn’t treat me any different than if I had paid full price!
I will definitely recommend to friends and I plan to return for my next smog service! Find the coupon, best deal I’ve found!

went in with a $ 14.95 coupon + 8.25 for a smog test and certificate. Was in and out with a passing and certificate in 15 minutes. No other recommended repairs were mentioned, as I thought might be since the smog test cost is obviously a loss leader. Thanks, Bruce.

I wish I could give a negative star. These guys were rude and disrespectful. They talked down to me when I asked questions and seemed annoyed to even have a conversation with me. I let it go thinking maybe they had a bad day. But when I realized they didn’t do 2 of the 4 items I PAID them to repair, I got angry. I tried to talk to the manager who was just as rude as the worker. The issue is not resolved, my car still isn’t fixed and now I am stuck taking these guys to court for my money back.

The female staff member wasn’t very nice when I dropped my vehicle off for service but after lunch she was pleasant to deal with, she must have been hungrey but still no way to treat people who spend their money at your shop when there are plently of other places to spend my cash. The work was done correctly and at a decent price.

I was doing an online search for a smog check and I stumbled across some of the ratings for La Mesa Auto Care, which I noted were on the negative side. Since I use Unilocal often, I wanted to share my one and only experience with this business. However to be fair, this review was in reference to some work that I had done close to ten+ years ago, however if it is the same owner (s), I think it speaks to the way they seem to still do business. Some of the details might be off a bit, however the ‘meat’ of my complaint is pretty accurate, as it pissed me off enough to still remember it pretty well after all of this time.
Years ago I brought my vehicle in because the clutch peddle was sticking. When I would step on the clutch peddle it would press down, however I had to sometimes use my toe to get it back up all of the way.
In short, I brought my vehicle into this facility. Later that day and $ 195 later, the problem was fixed. I inquired what work was needed, and from what I could gather, they basically gave the peddle a quick spray with some good lubricant (something I obviously should have done). It fixed the problem, however for $ 195???
I recall complaining about the high fee for the nominal amount of work, and I even recall making a comment how this should have been one of those ‘on the house’ type of jobs, so I would be a customer for life as well as ‘pass the word’ how great & honest these guys were. Obviously I did not expect to have this done for free, but did it really take two hours @ what would be $ 97.50 and hr, to spray some lube?
Again I want to reiterate that this incident occurred around ten+ years ago, maybe just a bit longer, so if this a new owner please disregard this review. However if it is still the same people there, then from briefing these reviews, they have not changed.

Bruce has always taken care of my car above and beyond! He is always very friendly, tells me what I need to do now and what I can wait for later and offers great prices! His office manager Courtney is always very nice, and helpful I love going here for all my mechanic needs.
I have never had to wait very long to get my work done and prices are very fair. I have been going there for years. The mechanics and everyone there know my family well now!
I would recommend Bruce and La Mesa Auto care to anyone!!!

STAY FAR AWAY!!! This guy is a crook. They have a smog coupon in the penny saver for $ 14.95 plus $ 8.25 for certificate. He would not honor the coupon because my suburban was «too long» and he would have to «back it in». Instead he can smog it for $ 39.95 plus $ 8.25 for certificate and he would be doing me a «favor» from the regular price ($ 49.95). STAY AWAY!!! There are plenty other honest shops, this guy give mechanics bad reps.

DO NOT GO HERE!!! They give Auto Repair Shops a bad name.
I went in for a Smog Check and was taken advantage of from the very beginning. I take some fault that I hadn’t researched that if you’re Check Engine Light is on that you will automaticaly fail the Smog Check, but as an experience auto repair shop, he should have seen the light and immediately told me to get that fixed before I tried to Smog Check.
Instead, he put it on the machine, took 45 minutes to give me a piece of paper telling me I failed and charge me $ 47. He proceeded to tell me that if I brought it back to him for the 2^nd test that he would do me a favor and only charge me an additional $ 20 to test it again.
Luckily I have a friend that is a mechanic and we were able to fix the Check Enginer Light. He also tells me that the DMV mandates that after a fail, the test only shop should not charge for the re-​test. I mention that to this shop and he says, «I don’t do what the DMV says» and proceeds to get hostile when I continued to question his charging practicies.
I went to a smog down the street and they confirmed that he shouldn’t have even started the test when he saw the Check Engine Light on and that my re-​test should be at no charge. RIP OFF!
I will be reporting him to the DMV for overcharging for the Smog testing. I also encourage you to find somewhere else to have your car repaired or Smog Tested.
Bad Business!

WARNING!!! DO NOT GO TO LA MESA AUTO CARE!!!
Bruce of La Mesa Auto Care is exemplifies the reason why some people do not trust mechanics. He blatantly tried to take advantage of me and then become hostile then became hostile when I discovered that he was trying to rip me off and decided to take my business elsewhere.
Here is how it happened. A plastic guard below the front bumper of my car came loose while I was driving home from work and began dragging on the road. Concerned that my car would be further damaged if I drove all the way home, I googled the closest auto repair place, found La Mesa Auto Care, and drove straight there. This is where I met Bruce and when things went from bad to worse.
I explained my situation to Bruce and he said that I should get it fixed ASAP. He said that I had two options. He could reattach my hanging plastic guard to the underside of my vehicle for $ 85 dollars, but that he strongly recommended that he replace it with a new one for $ 100. I trusted his judgment and told him to replace it.
When my car was on the lift in the garage and Bruce was in his office, I asked his mechanic why Bruce said that the part should be replaced. The mechanic sighed and said, «I’m sorry ma’am. I see him do this to customers all the time. It gives us mechanics a bad rep. You really don’t need to replace it.» When I heard this I went back to the office and told Bruce that I changed my mind and did not want any work done on the car.
Bruce immediately stormed out of the office yelled at me (he actually yelled) that he was going to charge me $ 30 for getting my car on the lift. When I protested, he said, «Shut your mouth and stay away from me!» I was shocked at his behavior, but he did give me my car back without continuing to demand payment for putting it on the lift. Mind you, he did not do any work on the vehicle at all.
I then drove my car to another mechanic. But, by the time I arrived, the loose part had fallen off. That mechanic told me that I did not need the part at all, but that it could be replaced for $ 63. (That includes a brand new part and labor) So, I replaced it.
Basically, Bruce at La Mesa Auto Care attempted to convince me that I needed to replace a part that was not necessary, tried to overcharge me for the part, and then became rude and aggressive when I decided to take my business elsewhere.
I am a petite, mild mannered Asian woman who was speaking in a polite manner, and not only did this man try to take advantage of me, but he literally yelled at me. I encourage you to protect yourself from this type of dishonest business practice and to talk your vehicles elsewhere.

My car failed the smog check in late January for too high NO content. Using the BAR Consumer Assistance Program and funds, I took it to the gold shield shop La Mesa Auto Care. They did an evaluation and told me that the car needed a new catalytic converter and that the old one had worn out.
My car had been experiencing intermittent idling/​acceleration problems for the first few minutes after start up. I told the shop owner/​manager that I was concerned that the issue that was causing the other engine problems, which had been evident at the time of drop-​off (I demonstrated the problem) may have ruined the converter and that it would just do the same to the new converter unless the problem was fixed. He assured me that it was just a worn out converter problem and that from his engine analysis the problem could not/​would not damage the converter. He stated that the idling problems had nothing to do with failing the smog check and that his responsibility was to get the car through the smog check not to fix other problems. He also stated that the converter came with a 5 year warranty. When specifically asked if that 5 year warranty included labor he stated that it did and that I would just need to bring the car back to him for any warranty work. To be clear, I reiterated that the labor warranty would also be for 5 years, and he said unequivocally «yes, it is».
With that assurance, I agreed to the work (replacing the catalytic convertor) for a total of $ 736.26 even though I could have had the converter replaced at a muffler shop for under $ 250 — I quoted two other places including the one they bought the converter from. I did the work with La Mesa Auto Care because the owner assured me that if I let them do the work he would do «whatever was necessary» to get the car through the smog check.
Two and a half weeks later, after numerous calls from me checking on its status only to be told it still failed the smog check and that they were trying to find out why, the owner said they had found the problem and that it would go through the smog check that afternoon, which he assured me it would pass.
When I arrived that afternoon, the owner showed me the results that had the car was producing half the emission levels of before, FAR lower than the car had had for the previous 12 years even after the previous catalytic converter replacement. He gave me the warranty card (all three copies) half completed with his shop info/​signature only and told me I needed to fill it out and send it in, on my own.
When I went to drive the car away after paying, I discovered that the idling problem was still there and as bad as ever.
Again, the shop owner said that the problem was not smog related and would not effect the smog output.
Over the next several months I drove the car rarely, instead driving our spare car while I attempted to diagnose the problem. After 4 – 5 months the converter developed a rattle. I took the car to the same repair shop and had the mechanic look at it and he confirmed that it had a rattle and that there was some internal damage. He said that «as far as he knows» the warranty was only for 90 days and that since the owner was not there I would have to talk to the owner.
The car was running fine at that point, but still had the rattling converter. On the way to work one day (approximately 7 months after the converter replacement) the engine bogged down and I was barely able to limp the car home. I found it ran well when I disconnected the exhaust system and that the converter must be blocked, preventing the airflow the engine needs.
When I called the shop owner, he claimed that he only had to honor the shops 90 day warranty and denied having told me otherwise. He said that something may have caused an engine problem that ruined the converter instead of an internal malfunction anyway, even though he had insisted before I agreed to the work that that would not be the case. When I pointed that out, he said that it could have been some other problem that ruined it, which is obviously how he planned on getting out of his responsibility from the beginning.
After talking with an ASE certified technician from the California Bureau of Automotive Repair, he said that a rattling noise means an internal structural failure and that the state law requires the shop to warranty the labor for 5 years. He also stated that the shop should have fixed the underlying problem to ensure the converter would not get damaged an any case, and that I should report their failure to do so to the administrators of the CAP program.
Again, the shop owner denies that the problem is warrantied and insists that I would have to pay for a diagnosis and for the repairs.

I don’t know how this place has been in business for so long. Spent $ 360 to get my alternator replaced in January of 2010. Come March 2011, my car breaks down. Guess who needs a new alternator already? I called about my warranty and was basically told I’m S.O.L. Then he tells me to have it towed there anyway and he’ll see what he can do. Ummm… No thanks. I have never had a worse experience with a mechanic. Very condescending and rude.

I had a pretty rough time getting my car fixed through here. I have a weird car to get smogged and was going through the CAP program. I took it here and they kept it for about a week before I got it back to take to the smog referee because they couldn’t fix it. Once I got it to the smog ref they said they hadn’t spent the minimum amount of money for me to get my smog pass. I tried to go back to get it fixed again and they were closed for a week… Who closes for a week?! So I had to wait another week to get them to finish what they started, and then another week because the smog ref place was closed (they’re only open two days of the week and their machine was broken)… this cost me a lot of time and money considering I had to get moving passes from the dmv so I wouldn’t get a ticket for driving my car between these people. Ugh! It was awful.

Bruce is always honest and reasonable. We’ve taken our cars there for years. He has always solved all of our car needs.