Mathews-Carlsen Body Works

I was absolutely blown away at the service and quality I received at Mathews-​Carlsen. I was rear ended in my brand new car and immediately started looking for the top body shop in Palo Alto. Based on the Unilocal reviews, I stopped in at Mathews-​Carlsen. They replaced my rear bumper and the paint match looks fantastic. Moreover, I was without my car for LESS THAN 24 HOURS!!! These guys are very professional, friendly, and crazy fast.

I cannot say enough wonderful things about this shop and the people who work there. They are kind, courteous, and bend over backwards to take care of their customers. Today was the third time I went in with a (fingers crossed, hopefully minor) damage to my BMW. I wasn’t there more than 10 minutes before I was told that they were able to fix it on the spot! Plus, that there was no charge!!! I mean, a business just doesn’t get better than this, folks!

Extremely nice staff. I had some scratches on my bumper and they gave me some touch up paint and evened out the scratches for me. The work is great. The staff is great.

Volvo dealer recommended I use this shop.
Paul and his company get an A+ for honesty, integrity and timing (estimate, job work).
So yeah, this is a review for my experiences — hope you get the same super great treatment.

These guys are great. They charged me significantly less than the estimate because the work didn’t take as long as they thought it might. They did a super job, the price was more than fair, and they were courteous, fast, and helpful the whole time. If I have any more auto body needs I’ll definitely come back!

Mathews-​Carlsen does a high quality job and stand by their work. Last time I was there, Joe went above and beyond to make sure the job was done right and to the highest standards. They are a professional and trust-​worthy shop.

This body shop is the best ever, and I have been bringing them business for years. They just did an extraordinary job repairing our Honda Odyssey. It looks like a new car, as has been the case with every vehicle we have had to bring in over the years. Our service manager, Tom, is superb in every way. We couldn’t feel better taking care of, nor have seen better professional work.

No one likes to have to visit an auto body shop. It seems like a huge hassle that you have to be there at all, so any additional complications or delays can really make a person run screaming. Mathews-​Carlsen gets that and seems to pride itself on great hassle-​free customer service.
I arrived for a second estimate for some insurance claim work and forgot to bring my claim number. I think I was in and out of Mathews-​Carlsen, with an estimate and an appointment, in less than 10 minutes. (For the record, the two estimates were about the same, but Mathews-​Carlsen opted to replace parts rather than try to patch them and thereby rack up big labor costs.) When I picked up my car, the service person came outside with my keys and my receipt before I even walked into the office.
The car was freshly washed, and, barring a tiny area near a seam where I could see that a part had been repainted (color-​matched perfectly to the 9-​year-​old paint on the rest of the car, by the way), looked perfect!

Someone hit my car and said they would pay for repairs, so I brought it into Mathew Carlsen. They gave me a quote of over $ 3000 — and seemed to think that because I wasn’t the person paying for the repairs that it was okay to charge an outrageous price. I called the person liable for the accident, and they said that price sounded outrageous. So, I brought it into another body shop, which quoted me just $ 1000 and did a fantastic job.
Extremely disappointed with their shady operations.

I have to give these guys 5 stars for NOT fixing my car. I did a terrible job touching up scratches on my car, leading to two big gobs of paint on my hood. Rather than make my DIY job worse with a DIY fix, I figured I’d have the pros help me out on this small job.
I wish I got his name, but the guy behind the desk had a look at my handiwork and went back inside to grab some supplies. He spent a few minutes removing my extra paint and then polished the spot. He told me I was better off trying again on the touch-​up job rather than paying him or someone else for such a small repair, and he told me how to do it and how to fix it if I screwed up again. He wouldn’t take my money, literally. I offered, and he said no – «that’s what I do, think of us in the future.»
On a day that I had to drop $$$ on plumbing repairs, Mathews-Carlsen’s help and honesty was much appreciated! Should I ever need real body work in the future, they’ve won my business with this small, kind gesture.

I scratched/​gouged a bottom plastic panel badly on my new BMW. I took it in and got a quote within 10 minutes (for $ 590). Brought it in for the work, and next day came back, inspected the repair and it looked like new. Then they presented me with a bill for $ 390. It turns out they didn’t need to remove the panel, so it took less labor and they honestly passed the savings on to me.
thanks, guys.

I picked this body shop because of the glowing Unilocal reviews.
Oh boy was I disappointed.
I spend around $ 14k for body work on a Porsche Cayenne. This included body work and paint work.
The work that was done was sub-​par at best.
It was literally the worst paint job that I have ever seen. You could see the uneven paint mark on the car. Additionally there are specks of dust and dirt under the paint. This causes uneven surfaces in the paint like reverse paint dings.
Unbelievable… Will never come back.
Anyone who has a car that they care about please avoid at all costs!!!

Very friendly, helpful staff!

USAA sent me to these guys and with good reason. Factory-​spec repairs, quality and efficient customer service, and timely turnaround. I would recommend Matthew Carlsen to anyone.

I have brought in a ’69 Benz 230 that had the driver’s door hit in a parking lot. Strangely enough, the person who did it didn’t leave any note. Mathews-​Carlsen was recommend to me by my Benz mechanic. They did an incredible job on the door. You would have thought they had gotten a new door and replaced the old, dinged one.
Just in the past week I dinged my new Prius as I was parking it. (No, I am not a dottering old fool. I am just old) Took the Prius to Mathews-​Carlsen and, as they had done with the Benz, it looked like the pristine car I had bought 6 months ago.
I cannot say enough good things about this shop. They a courteous, very helpful, professional and produce fantastic workmanship.

These guys are great! I haven’t reviewed a business in a while but these guys definitely deserve a shout out.
I was rear ended a few weeks ago and these guys took care of the repairs. The bumper looks great, they delivered it back to me in a timely manner and even picked me up from the office when I couldn’t get a ride to the shop.
I highly recommend this place.

This place is truly amazing. I was shocked by the number of 5 star reviews, yet here I am giving one.
I called early this morning after being distraught for days when someone slowly backed into my car over the weekend. The front passenger side bumper panel became unclipped, and most dent-​repair places have never seen a problem like that before.
I called these guys, hoping for a least just a quick quote sometime this week. They told me to bring it in anytime today and they would make time for me. So I did. 5 minutes later, one of their amazing employees was looking at my car. He asked if he could have a tech look at it, which I thought meant there was some serious damage. I said yes and handed over my keys.
Less than 5 minutes later, one of the technicians comes back and hands me my keys and says «all done.» I find the employee I first talked to and asked what the quote was and he says «oh don’t worry about it. We fixed it, you’re good to go. Have a great day!»
They repaired the bumper. For free. Within 20 minutes of me calling. That’s amazing. They were SO nice, as well. The shop was also super clean.
I hope I don’t have any more car-​incidents, but if I do, I sure know where I’m bringing my car to…

Unilocal removed the pictures saying «Business photos and captions should be broadly representative of the business, however you are welcome to share your personal experiences in your written review.» I guess you can only post positive pictures of a business, that or pictures of a business’s quality of work is not considered «broadly representative of the business.
I guess I can only describe the pictures reiterating my review. Basically, the pictures show fine spiderwebbing lines at the center of the bumper where it angles from more horizontal to the vertical front. I also had a few angles showing that there has not been any serious damage from someone bumping into me other than a 2 millimeter screw indentation.

This place is amazing. initially I was a bit skeptical that they have so many 5 stars, but after experiencing it, I tell you it’s true this place is great. They are genuine and professional people.
I have a 1995 toyota celica. There were about 15 inches paint that came off on the rear bumper and some paint at the front of the car that came off too.
Joe (last name?) took a look at the car. We concluded the car wasn’t worth to replace the bumper with a new one. I asked him if touch-​up would help. He said:“we could give it a try”, then he had one technician come out and took the VIN. After about 10 –to 15 minutes, Joe brought a small bottle of paint and he carefully painted the two spots. AND he gave the rest of the paint to me. He didn’t charge me for a penny.

I took my Audi Q-​5 here last year to have the hood and driver’s side mirror repaired after a tree limb fell on my car.
My car looks perfect!
The office did a great job explaining everything to me and coordinating the paperwork with my insurance company. My car was ready exactly as promised, and the woman who picked me up and dropped me off at work was super-​sweet.