Auto Engineering of Lexington

We brought our Mini Cooper to be repaired in the spring of 2015. There was something wrong with the brakes. They did not repair the problem after charging us a whole lot for it and we repeatedly went in and kept telling them it wasn’t fixed.
Then, we moved to NY State and continued to have problems. A repair shop here said that the brake (that Auto Engineering had supposedly «fixed») was completely rusted through. No wonder we kept having issues with it! (No chance of it rusting through from May — the fall of 2015.)
Buyer beware or rather, person with a car to be fixed, beware. I wouldn’t go here.
They are rather nice, though. But, you’ll find it is cheaper to meet a friend in a coffee shop than to go here just because they’ll be nice to you for 10 minutes.

Had high hopes for this auto shop. Was incredibly disappointed.
Brought my Boxster in for service.
My clamshell was not moving, and thought perhaps the black «hydraulic» pushrods are either damaged or have popped off the V-​Levers, or more likely, the outer sheaths of your drive cables have stretched. I also thought a fuse may have been blown.
After explaining this, I get call stating that indeed the pushrods were ‘broken’ and the cables were stretched in addition to needing timing on the top. The Quote… a bit too much for the amount of time and cost of parts. I decided I would take the car back. No problem at all. I appreciated the time.
The response when I said I would decline service and pick up the car: «It’s in pieces and needs to be put back together»
Me: «what is in pieces?»
Auto: «The panels and parts»
Me: «What? I’m coming by to pick it up»
Auto: «we don’t have anyone here right now and might have to get it back to you tomorrow» (it’s 12;00 pm). You also owe for the diagnostic
Me; «Tomorrow? We had an appointment for today and I don’t want work done and you won’t have it ready until tomorrow? I would like to pick it up today. How much’?
Auto: $ 300. 2.5 hours of diagnostic
me: $ 300? For what? To tell me exactly what I told you?
Auto: «That’s ‘as is’ — we have not put it back together yet, so that will be another hour.»
me: So, $ 400 for a diagnostic? what? For a common problem that I already told you about? I am coming down to the shop now.
I went to the Porsche dealership, explained the initial issue and their diagnostic (according to their diagnostic charts) would have been 1– 1.5 hours. A total of $ 150.00. I would have gotten better service and half the price from the Porsche dealership.
This is a common issue amongst Boxster’s. While I have NO problem paying for good service and fully understand that shops need to charge and make money, I do not believe in padding the hours and pricing. When I expressed this, he said nothing and handed me my bill.
Saddened by this experience.

Over the past few months I’ve had two occasions to visit Auto Engineering in Lexington to get a problem on my 2005 Boxster looked at and came away from both instances very pleased and impressed with the customer service. I’ve been going there off and on for a couple of years and I’ve noticed on my last two visits the interaction and follow up have been excellent (it was pretty good before but not something that made me want to write my first Unilocal review). I won’t bore you with the details but one issue was minor and the other was more significant and both times (with two different Auto Eng folks by the way) I felt like they were going out of there way to help me and not just looking for my money. I will definitely continue to use them for future service.

I have taken my german cars to auto engineering for years and have always found the staff to be professional and knowledgable. They explain what repairs are needed and those that can wait so I never feel like they are doing unnecessary repairs. The team will let me know if I would be better going t the dealership if the repairs is covered by warranty. I highly recommend this location and the full Auto Engineering team to anyone who needs work done on the german made autos.

The people here are rude and obnoxious. I have taken my cars there several times but the past three times when i call they tell me they are busy and short staffed. I would recommend going to the dealership. Most of the time i feel they can’t be bothered and have enough customers and dont need more.

A friend recommended them but, in retrospect, I should have realized that his misunderstanding of things mechanical left him vulnerable to people who upsell. Thus it turned out to be for me.
I dropped off my car for an alignment and an oil change. By the time they were done totting things up, they had an extraordinary bill waiting for me:
— $ 600 for a window regulator — well I knew that but am perfectly happy to do it myself for $ 109 in OEM parts
— $ 150 for a snub mount (which they tried to make ominous by calling it a motor mount). This is literally a 7 bolt job with a $ 23 ‘upgraded’ polyurethane part. They tried to tell me that it needed replacing because it was cracked — well yeah, eventually, but if it urgently needed replacing, you would definitely hear it. This seems a pretty regular scam for them — while I was waiting in the lounge (which IS nice) I heard them successfully fear another guy into buying one.
— $ 750 for ‘special order’ new tires. Not the worst price but far from the best and I sure didn’t need 4 of them. They’re not special order either.
— $ 1300 for a new timing belt. When they tried to tell me that this was a 75K replacement interval I called bullshit — the manufacturer calls for 110K. Then they tried the fear: «It’s really never too early to replace. Some people recommend 60K» I’m sure they do. I’m sure you did. BTW — the dealer? $ 1100
— A bunch of other crap including a transmission flush (nope, not on this model), replace the v-​belt (only if it needs it, mine did’t)
Oh, and the alignment? They claimed they couldn’t do that with without replacing the tires. Well that’s fine with me; I want someone who aligns the WHEELS and NOT THE TIRES. If they don’t know the difference, they can’t work on my car.
In the end, I took only the oil change which seemed like a fortunate escape even in spite of the wasted time. This is really a one star joint but the very nice woman who gave me a ride to the bus scraped out a second one for them.

I feel badly giving Auto Engineering a «Meh» score because I love Rick, the audi technician. The staff is friendly as well, but it is hard to give a better score after paying $ 268 per hour for Rick’s time. I’ve been taking cars to AE-​Lex for quite a long time, but I’m getting tired always being offered a ton of things that can be done. Today I brought my wife’s car in for an oil change (which i do every 5k with synthetic oil), but they told me I was due for my 75k service so I agreed to the extra $ 190. it turned out that the car only has 72k miles. I would normally let that get by without issue, but I also had them install a TPMS antenna which the labor charge was $ 230. I pulled in exactly at 8am and I was in my car leaving at exactly 9:39am, but paid $ 402.50 in labor only.

My family have been Auto Engineering loyalists for nearly 10 years. Every… and I mean every experience with Frank, Justin, Rick, Shaun (and formerly James)…has exceeded expectations. Auto Engineering epitomizes what an Independent BMW/​Audi/​MB shop should be… fair-​thorough-​clean-​effective-​thoughtful. I would write a longer review and cite specific examples… but what is «better than the best»? Auto Engineering rocks!

UPDATE — Have date for small claims court in March. Will post the outcome of that date. Hard to believe these guys want to go to court for a small amount of money but that is what they are choosing to do.

Went in to have some bushings changed, had three different prices quoted for labor (paid the middle one) over 24 hours. Brought my own part because I got it significantly cheaper online. How does a repair shop not have good prices on parts?!
Regardless they ended up suckering me into more work to the tune of $ 500 more (which wasn’t all the recommended additional charges). Me being a DIYer, it wasn’t worth close to that in cost but I had no time/​desire to do the specified work so I got it done. They gave me a loaner which is always a bonus. Good prices, solid work but know what you need done. If you aren’t a DIYer then great place to go, if you are, do what you can on your own and bring the rest to them. Like every place you go they are going to try and sell you more than you originally wanted (it is a business after all) but some you need and some you don’t.

How do you say «thank you» to a place that has given years of amazing service and kept our Audis on the road and running well, in spite of that diva Allroad that really put them to the test? We have had 4 Audis cared for by these folks, ver many, many years. They have solved problems the dealers gave up on, with creative and price-​sensitive solutions. Now we have new cars, on warranty, but still plan to return for oil changes and consultation.
Most recently, they gave the final service to a car that was being passed to our son. A minor glitch, over the weekend had us leaving a phone message. And, they returned the call, firs thing Mon. AM, even though we had said «good bye» as regular customers. They gave advice as to where to have the car serviced, when needed in DC, and said to call (from DC) with any questions!
Top notch friendly, prompt service at a fraction of the cost of dealer repair… what’s not to like?

Where do I begin… This has got to be the best shop in the Boston area for German autos and apparently an occasional Lexus. Seriously, if you are like me and you are in need of a dedicated and honest tech for your Audi… Then look no further. Rick Cagnina their Audi Specialist has got to be the most knowledgeable and honest Audi tech around. He will take the time to answer each question and give his honest opinions on answers, he treats my car and others as if it were his own!.. Finding a good tech can be like finding the perfect dr and when you do you refuse to go to anyone else as well as you refer all your friends too… And that is what you get at Auto Engineering and with Rick!.. Even if your not in the immediate area it’s well worth the drive!

This is the easiest five stars I’ve ever given on Unilocal based on two cars we have serviced by Auto Engineering. They’re very trustworthy and incredibly service oriented. Always highly communicative and will tell you if they can’t find it and will waive incidental charges for little things that pop up. The pricing seems reasonable.

My father has been bringing our family’s BMWs here for over a decade. This includes his cars, my mother’s cars, my cars and now my husband’s cars. We have always loved the service here and trusted the workers implicitly. Plus, since my father is an engineer by trade, he really knows cars and really thought that these guys did great work.
Until yesterday. He found out from the BMW dealership that some work was done on his vehicle at Auto Engineering that wasn’t necessary. He went to Auto Engineering to talk about it — he is a loyal customer and he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to cars. The guys at the front desk adamantly refused that they had done anything wrong — they wouldn’t listen and they just kept denying that any extraneous work had been done. My father raised his voice — he admits that maybe he shouldn’t have done this — BUT THEN someone appeared out of a side office and literally pushed my father out the door. And, since I haven’t mentioned it yet, my father is EIGHTY YEARS OLD.
What happened was not only completely unprofessional but immoral. Putting your hands on anyone, let alone a customer, let alone an eighty-​year old customer, is just disgusting and wrong.
They are lucky that my family is not calling the police, because we have every right to do so.
No one should give their money to Auto Engineering. Treating customers like this is just plain unacceptable and criminal.

Had my car inspected by Rick. Seemed a very honest guy and spent a lot of time examining the car and told me a few things I didn’t notice about it myself. Gave me a printed quote of what the car needed in the future and walked around it pointing the things out. I liked him as a person and the place seemed clean and well run. Also liked that I could just chill out in the lounge area, plenty of magazines and things to read. I would go back again. I don’t know any of the other guys so I can only recommend Rick, but I believe the other staff are well qualified for their own brands/​makes

I’m continually amazed how much money I don’t have to spend having my BMW’s serviced here. Don’t misunderstand — I have spent plenty on routine maintenance and always been very satisfied with the quality and value of their work. But with so much hype out there in the marketplace, I trust James Hart and everyone else at Auto Engineering to tell me what works and what doesn’t. You often hear about «Underdrive Power Pulleys» and the like at the track but no-​one separates the wheat from the chaff as well as Auto Engineering. They stand behind their work and won’t waste your time or money on things that are trouble prone.

I am very impressed with the quality of work at auto engineering in Lexington. They changed my oil and brake fluid for a fair price. The guys were able to reset all the condition based service codes on the car a big plus. They were fast to get me in and out. The waiting area seemed nice with leather couches and free coffee and snacks. Good to know that there is a place other than the dealer to take the car in for routine maintenance.

I went here on a recommendation from a friend the first time simply to buy some VW coolant for my Audi, and to check the place out. Very clean, very professional looking shop. They comp’d me the tiny bit of coolant I needed to top off the reservoir, and even pulled a check-​engine light I had, free of charge. I figured I’d found my new repair shop.
I brought my car in for A/​C repair, and they did a quick leak check, and recharged the system, including a fluorescent dye. This cost a tremendous amount of money: $ 150 for about 25 minutes of work. I asked if they charged in half-​hour units, and they indicated that they did, but my bill didn’t reflect it. They told me to come back if I had any more problems.
Well, a week later, the system had discharged again. I then had the pleasure of paying ANOTHER $ 100 for a tech to hold a UV light to my A/​C system for 15 minutes. Apparently, the half-​hour unit thing was incorrect. They told me I needed a new condensor, and it would cost $ 800, as it was a several-​hour job, requiring the front-​end to be removed. I told them I’d get back to them, deciding I’d do the job myself.
I brought the car to a garage of a mechanic friend of mine in RI (the reason I didn’t go to him first – quite a drive). He pulled the condensor out in 15 minutes, WITHOUT removing the front-​end (I watched, it was quite straightforward), and took the UV light to it.
There were NO leaks. Not a one. What there were, however, were yellow spraypaint spots, which the techs at Auto Engineering, I can only assume, thought were spots of the dye they’d injected.
Turns out that while the car was having front-​end work done years ago, the condensor was hung on a wall for safe-​keeping, and had caught some yellow spraypaint overspray. My buddy then checked the system more thoroughly, finding a leak in the line, as well as a faulty receiver/​dryer. He replaced those, recharged the system, and now it works fine, WITH the old condensor in.
Long story short: Had I listened to these guys, I’d have been out $ 800 for an hour job, and STILL had no A/​C. I have no doubt this would have required several more very costly diagnostics.
I didn’t give one star because these guys seem really nice and honest (as the rest of these reviews indicate). But the idea that they could have so carelessly misdiagnosed a problem and set me back $ 800 – AFTER charging me $ 250 total for a laughably small amount of work – indicates to me a lack of concern for my wallet. I feel like $ 100 an hour is enough to at least warrant a double-​check before diagnosing. I’m not sure about their other clientele, but I certainly can’t afford to waste that kind of cash, and I expect my mechanic to respect that.

I just had my first service performed at a highly recommended Auto Engineering as my warranty has expired on my Porsche 911.
My experience was nothing short of greatness.
I was greeted with professionalism each time I entered the building.
Justin communicated what was needed for my car and took time to clearly explain issues to me. He had the car ready as promised also.
Did I forget to mention the candy and the cool waiting area?
This place knows how to treat their customers and they have a new customer to add to their business now.

I’ve been taking my bmw’s here, since, like forever, thru several diff. owners & incarnations. The latest version, since they changed the name back to Auto Engineering, is the most professional indie bmw repair shop I’ve ever been to. The shop, & the customer area, is big, clean, & super-​well organized. (one of those shops where you could apparently «eat off the floor», it’s so clean). The prices have always been very fair for everything.
I’m dinging it one star, because when it was Autobahn East several years ago, it was also good, but one time I couldn’t pick up my car ’til the next morning, & they left it outside with the windows down, & it rained. The guy Chip called me the next morning, & started asking me if my car windows «leaked», trying to blame the wet carpet on the car. (If he had just said they left it outside with the windows down, oops, sorry, I would’ve been OK with it, but he was so insistent that my never leaking-​before-​or-​since car windows were the problem that it seemed very suspicious). Even so, everything else I ever had done there went smoothly.
Last visit, I asked them to check the car over (they don’t charge for that). The mechanic himself called me, said the 2 drive belts needed to be replaced. This is on a 10 year-​old car, so it made sense to me, & was exactly the kind of stuff I wanted them to find before it broke. $ 182 parts & labor, for 2 fat German-​made «Serpentine» belts, that are buried so far down in the engine compartment that I could barely see them.
Not sure if the-​now Auto Engineering has diff. owners than Autobahn East? did – but they are super-professional…you gotta’ have access to a place like this if you own an older audi or bmw…