Villa Auto Body

John and his brother Paul were extremely helpful and did the best job we had ever seen on my son’s Toyota Corolla! Thanks guys for your professionalism and courtesy. This body shop rates a «10» in our book! Jacob Sotelo and Patricia Adams

I’ve been to many body shops around the country and I have to say this was the best experience yet. I recently move to SLO from Philadelphia. I drove 3,000 miles in my VW Jetta with a front bumper hanging off, held on with duct tape. I called around and got quotes for up to $ 500 for a new bumper.
I called this place and came in same day with no appointment. They fixed it perfectly and right away. It’s better/​stronger than the original factory bolts. They showed me what they were doing while the car was on the lift (much more exciting than sitting in a waiting room). All-​in-​all it took about 45 minutes for the fix and was only charged for 30 minutes at $ 37.50. Couldn’t be happier!

Terrible customer service.
I called them and asked if they could do a smog check and try said come on in. After I got there I waited for 30 minutes in the lobby and the guys behind the register just occasionally looked over at me while helping the same customers. No «we will be with you in a minute» or anything. One of then even waited on hold for 10 minutes in silence, and didn’t ask me if I needed help.
I had a bad experience here before where they misdiagnosed my car and led to an 800 $ repair I didn’t need.
Never again

BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE!!! If I could give it zero stars I would! I came in with an older VW Passat and since Villas is the only Star Smog Station in town I checked them out. The guy at the front desk told me my car was a «special» car that needs a «special» smog machine. I asked about this machine and got no straight answer. I asked about the pricing and he told me we’ll discuss all of that when your car is finished. These 1 star reviews are on point! This place WILL take advantage of YOU! **Students also beware of being RIPPED OFF!!!**

Love this place. Treat you like family. Straight forward and fair. I recommend them without reservation.
Bruce F

I had to use Villa automotive once since they were the only licensed DMV approved brake and light inspection place in SLO (at least at the time). All they had to do was to do the inspection and certify that the lights and brakes were functioning. Even though the car was in good working condition they wanted to do a break job and change the front headlights in order to certify it. Well, I took the car back, put new front pads and paid them to have the front headlight lenses «polished». They wanted to charge more than double for the break job than other places were quoting. Obviously they knew they were holding me hostage for the inspection certificate. I had to pay extra for them to «re-​inspect» my car.
Stay away from this place. The are so many reputable places in town.

To be honest, after reading these reviews online I was a little skeptical about going to Villa. However, as the online STAR Station around that did enhanced smog checks, I didn’t have much choice. As it turns out, I was pleasantly surprised.
I had learned from calling multiple shops in SLO that due to the county where my car is registered, I would have to pay for the enhanced smog ($ 85) instead of the regular (around $ 50) As it turns out, I didn’t, and they saved me $ 35 right off the bat. I did have to get a new gas cap, but they gave it to me for a good price.
Overall, I was happy with my experience. The guys at the front, Rich and Eric were pretty chill and I’ll definitely go back there in the future

I just got ripped off here. I think I was an easy target because I am a young woman who comes off very sweet, friendly, and soft-​spoken.
I simply needed the bulbs replaced in my Mazda6 brake lights, which were both out. One had gone out a couple weeks ago and the other a few days ago. A friend said it was a super simple fix that would just take minutes. I took the car in and was quoted an estimate of $ 100. I expressed surprise and the employee said it would only be that much if there was a short circuit or something. I asked, «How much will it cost if it’s just bulbs?» and he said «about $ 60. I’ll give you a call if it’s going to be more.» I had a bad hunch since my friend had told me to expect labor to be $ 10-​$ 20 for this quick job. I really wish I had pressed for more information right then and there. But I don’t like to be cynical about people, and so I trusted that there was good reason this guy was about to charge $ 60 to replace my bulbs.
When I came back to pick up my car, the total was $ 77. Only $ 13 of that is parts. So $ 64 for labor, and $ 77 total. I never received a call telling me it was over $ 60, but I let that go.
Then I got home and did more research, and found that this is truly a 5-​minute job. There’s even a video of a guy doing it in under a minute here:
. I called other autobody shops in the area and they said that they replace the bulbs as a courtesy for free! So I just paid $ 60 for nothing. I wouldn’t have minded if I had paid $ 20, but $ 60 for something I could have even done myself?!
I called John Villa, the owner, and explained my situation. I give him credit for at least taking my call, doing more research, and calling me back. But it was not fruitful for me. He stuck by his claim that it takes a half hour to replace the bulbs. He scrambled around for justifications. First he said, «We also checked out your spoiler brake lights and found that those needed replacing!». Sorry, but it doesn’t take a half hour to notice whether a brake light is working or not. And that wasn’t what I came in for. Then he said, «We had to troubleshoot it.» Ok. .. Why would you spend 30 minutes tinkering around when you can just stick a new bulb in in a minute and see if it works? He then went onto his final justification, saying that the book they use to estimate labor puts bulb replacement at 0.6 hours. Maybe that’s true, but did your guys really spend 30 minutes replacing a bulb? Or did they spend 5 and charge for 30 because that’s what the book says and because I looked like someone who would just accept it? It’s hard to believe it took them a half hour when everyone else is saying it takes 5 minutes and they’ll do it for free.
I hoped he would offer to issue me at least a partial refund, but he didn’t. Without further explanation from them, I am left to conclude that these guys just flat out ripped me off.
My car is 10 years old and has a lot of service needs. They could have earned thousands of dollars more of my business over the years, but I’ll be taking my business elsewhere.

Although, I end up pulling my car out from there, I still like them and could recommend to others around the town. Only bad thing is that, they are expensive to my Los Angeles Standard. My cousin’s 2001 Accord was there after engine gave out. Was towed by AAA service to them. Eric was the one who helped me from beg to end, and he is fantastic. Explain the situation, prompt return calls, and explaining the procedure and suggestions. If it has been around $ 2500 for the used engine, installation with new water pump and the Timing belt, I would had left it there, but they quoted me $ 4500 to do all that. I had to spend Entire day to get my vehicle and entire staff came out to load the vehicle on to the U-​Haul Vehicle transport Dolly.
By the way they do offer 10% AAA discount. Of course, I had to pay for the labor to check the engine’s functionality ($ 300). I can let you know that you can take your vehicle to them. Once again, they are not Cheap, but they know what they are doing.

villa is the only place to take your car. they are extremely friendly and accommodating, and more importantly, to me, they are honest and trustworthy. i feel completely comfortable and at ease when any work needs to be done on my car. i know they won’t rip me off, and they actually have my safety and the longevity of my car in mind. they treat you like family.

As far as an honest family-​feel/​run kind of place, they are rad.
Im a younger gal and had been screwed over in the past by other auto repair places in town, but here, they are just honest and easy to trust. Our family goes to them whenever we need oil changes/​any car repairs.

I love Villa Automotive. They do all my smog’s and other service that I cannot do. They provide good old fashioned personal customer service and is a family owned business. My Son and Daughter both took auto shop classes from Gary Villa. John Villa helped us out with an insurance claim getting my insurance company to be fair. Eric behind the counter pays attention to detail. Their rates are reasonable. They also provide Student discounts and I think Military discounts too.

Unreasonable smog prices! Quoted me at $ 130 for the test only service that I required! Yes, they might be the only ones in SLO who do this type of check, but I usually pay $ 60 in other cities for this same service.
Instead, I made an appointment at Ace Auto Care in Atascadero. They offered the same test only service for almost exactly half the price.

Im response to the review about the smog check prices.
The smog check that she got was whats called an «Enhanced Smog Check».
Unfortunately these are more expensive than basic checks.
While $ 81.44 isnt the very cheapest in SLO, it is also one of the only places that offer it.

Smog check rip off — $ 81.44 for a $ 45 – 50 test w/​certificate
My 18 year old daughter went into Villa to get a smog check on a 1996 Mazda pickup on April 29, 2010. All the truck needed was «pass» to get re-​registered with the California DMV. A smog check should cost no more than $ 45 or $ 50 from a reputable shop cost her $ 81.44. Villa took advantage of a young lady with very little knowledge of car maintenance prices. I guess the extra $ 36.44 is for Villa’s lesson to my daughter in how to recognize a disreputable shop. A student in school making $ 12 an hour in side jobs. What a class act.

Villa Auto Body Shop is listed in the Auto Club brochure for recommended repair shops for the Southern California region so because I needed my rear bumper refinished, I decided to check them out (2003).
I had heard a number of happy referrals regarding this shop, and being the daughter of a master mechanic, I decided to check the place out since, well, my car is *my car*…lol
I have a pretty good idea of what to look for and I was pleased with what I saw, namely a few government vehicles being worked on (police car, postal delivery van) and other personal cars of different makes and models.
Since then, I have taken my trusty Toyota Avalon to Villas 3 times for body work, the earliest was in 2003 (back bumper refinished and repainted), a scrape on one passenger door, back trunk lid refinish and repaint (2004), and my front bumper refinished and repainted (2010).
On each of these occasions I was able to talk directly with the body shop mechanics who were able to politely talk to me about the repairs and repainting they did.
I am happy to tell you that the job Villa did was excellent and the auto paint has not worn down nor has it developed a dusty look from oxidation, it still looks shiny and like new.
For a brief time we lived out of state and so I took my car to another auto body shop in New Mexico to have some repainting on the front bumper since ricocheting road rocks on the I-​10 Interstate had created pits in the front bumper’s paint and the NM/​AZ heat caused this damage to spread and blister.
I made the mistake of taking it in to another auto body shop and they neglected to put a rubberizer into the paint for the bumper and so their work did not last but several months.
This other shop also didn’t put a gloss over it either and so I ended up taking my car into Villa’s last month to have them do it and they do it right the first time.
Villa Auto Body is the recommended repair shop for a number of insurance companies including GEICO. We now have Liberty Mutual and I encouraged their Claims Dept to consider adding Villa’s to their list of recommended shops.
My husband is an engineer and he is very picky about this sort of thing and he is very pleased with the quality of work Villa does.