Soares Auto Repair

I have been coming to Soares Auto for about 10 years. The quality and service is great here. Joe is very personable and up front about your vehicle issues. He always informs me of the vehicle matters in order of priority and allows me to make informed decisions based on necessity.
You get a printout emailed to you and can check your account online as well.
The price is right for the service. I never feel overcharged. I will continue to come to this place because the quality of service is great! I recommend Soares Auto if you’re looking for a reliable local mechanic.

Joe is awesome! He helped me choose the proper winter tires for my car, and worked around my busy work schedule. Joes price beat out all the big name shops and I checked everywhere. I would happily recommend Soares Auto to friends and family.

Honest, forthright, knowledgeable. No enticements with too-​good-​to-​be-​true deals or bait-​and-​switch. Just clear, honest estimates and high-​quality work. Joe will tell you what you needs and don’t need. No work until you give the clearance. No insisting upon gold-​plated options when silver or bronze will do.
Forget the $ 20 Groupon oil changes. Spend a little more at the front end for quality work and an honest assessment that will save you much more in the long run.

This guy reminds me of my dad — and that’s the best compliment I can give!
Joe was great. I had my friend’s vehicle on loan and discovered he hadn’t fixed a headlight that was out. I called to book an appointment and Joe was able to squeeze me in the next day.
I missed the shop the first time around (despite the LARGE sign on the corner — oops!), but it is in a convenient location.
Joe changed the bulbs and then called me into the garage to go over what he did. He let me know that a license plate light was out and one of the running lights was out as well. He clearly explained that there was more involved in changing the running lights and let me decide if I wanted to change it or not. This is service I can appreciate.
I found the charges very reasonable and if I had my own vehicle, I would return in a heartbeat. Thanks Joe!

Definitely gets my vote. Not least because Joe seems to respect your money staying in your wallet.
Lemme explain. My car knowledge is sketchy: I can jumper my car or put in the spare tire when I have a flat, that’s about it.
Early March my car doesn’t start, but manages to be jumpered. After looking around a bit, I find Soares as one of the nearest garages with good Unilocal ratings so I go over there.
He listens to my story, takes note that the car is about 5 years old and still running on the original battery and guesses that, yup, old battery. Runs a quick voltage check to confirm it too.
15 minutes later I am off with a new battery, problem solved, cheaply.
Since my car hasn’t had much service besides regular oil changes, I ask him to schedule an inspection. There are two kind of inspection, the (roughly) 90 $ one and the 135 $ one.
Joe talks me out of the $ 135 version, because it’s mostly geared towards car buyers who need checks on all items, which I don’t. I just want to check if anything needs mechanical maintenance, not whether a door handle is stuck or not.
One reason I want this check is that, at my last Mr Lube oil change (Nanaimo location), they recommended a purge of the ignition area or whatever by blowing pressurized gas through. $ 100, a bargain, great when you go in for a $ 50 oil change. I declined at the time, feeling pressured, but resolved to look into it on my own.
After the inspection, I get the all-​clear from Joe. Basically, nothing wrong with the car. He explains that, yes, carbon does build up and that yes, they provide that service, but more thoroughly than by just using gas. No, my car is not in great need of it, despite Mr Lube’s dire warnings. I would get slightly better mileage, and it would run a bit smoother, that’s about it.
Hey, I may still get that carbon cleanup done. But I very much appreciate that I was not talked down to, and was not pressured into purchasing non-​essential services.
Wish more repair professionals were like that.

As one who is mechanically challenged I very much appreciate the skills of those that have the knowledge and experience to diagnose and perform auto repairs without a lot of fuss.
Even more important to me is true professionalism and integrity and I encountered this at Soares Auto Repair yesterday.
There are reasons why this business has been around since 1988 and surely among the top are first class services and reasonable prices. This was my first time there and I will certainly be back.

After looking into the reviews, I went to him to get DRL installation for my Nissan Maxima and left my car with him, after an hour I got a call from him saying the installation cannot be done as it is not the straight forward thing on this unlike other cars and clearly explained the reason for the failure. He himself called Nissan guys and checked with them to see if they have any soln, also he didn’t charge me for taking a look into it.
After the discussion I felt these are one of the few honest guys around Vancouver and cancelled all my repairs scheduled with the other guys and got it done in reasonable price.
I highly recommend them, Soares is my go to place for all my car repairs.

Definitely recommend this place, the owner Joe is a great guy, I use him along with my father for years and years. Very honest, reliable and trust worthy.

Joe is honest, hard working and keeps you informed. I have taken my slowly dying 1995 Blazer to him for the past two years with the hope of having him revive it each time (and he has). Once it was time for the fuel injection system to be replaced, he suggested it may not be worth the cost as the coolant system was leaking as well and would be the next thing to go in a few months. After I said my goodbyes to the ol’ Blazer, he actually called a guy to get it towed away, and gave me the cash the tow guy paid for it. Joe is an honest businessman who stands behind his work, and this Unilocaler does too.

I have been coming to Joe for years. I trust him to find the problem and give me honest evaluations. I am always happy with the work done.

I highly recommend Soares. They’ve got the tools and experience to work on both foreign and domestic cars… Even the new ones that require special computers and software to diagnose issues.

Soares Auto Repair has by far exceeded my expectations for a great mechanic in Vancouver. I mentioned in an earlier review that I had a great experience working with Soares Auto Repair. I found them very honest and helpful during my recent repairs that I needed to pass an out of province inspection. My truck needed a lot of work to pass and Joe at Soares kept me up to date with all the repairs, even called me long distance when I was out of town to keep me posted on the progress and the final estimate.
The work at Soares has been done on my truck for a few days now and I went to an Autoplan broker today to have it insured. The Autoplan agent and I quickly realized that we could not find the VIN anywhere on my truck. It was like it was never there and we had no idea how to find it. I called the former owner in the US and asked him where it was. I had never seen anything like this before. He explained that the dashboard had been replaced a few years back and the VIN plate is actually under the new dashboard. So in order to get to it I had to remove the plate around the instrument panel and pull the dash back. I called Joe and asked him if by chance he knew how I could do that.
Joe from Soares happened to be right down the street at the bank, he had no tools with him but offered to come to where I was and see what he could do. Joe arrived, went and borrowed a screwdriver from London Drugs and was able to quickly uncover the VIN number. If I couldn’t get to the VIN it would of meant ICBC fees, paperwork and applying for BC VIN number that would of taken who knows how long to have approved.
Joe came out of his way to help me and made the frustrating time trying to even insure my vehicle so much easier to handle. He had a garage and customers to get back to but he took the few minutes to assist me and I greatly appreciate that. I will always trust my vehicles to Soars.