Chariot Auto Repair

Ricky is great! From a simple oil change to checking over my car before a long trip, he has always taken the time to listen to me and make me feel comfortable. He won’t just recommend a bunch of expensive maintenance if your car doesn’t need it. Overall, a very personal and professional experience.

Top-​tier, HONEST, helpful. Would highly recommend Chariot.
Last Memorial Day my car started making strange noises and I took it in to the shop. Ricky diagnosed the problem as a broken water pump and said that the fix was going to be steep — $ 1400. While it was expensive, it had to be fixed, so I had Ricky do the repair and picked up my car a few days later. Ricky also said that he would stand behind all his work and that if there were any problems I could take it back to him.
Fast forward 8 months — my car starts overheating and I take it into a different shop since I moved out of Jersey City. The mechanic there indicated that it might be something with the water pump and that it was probably broken again.
When I called Ricky to explain the problem and that the original repair may not have worked, I was expecting it to be a difficult call. Instead, Ricky gladly offered to look at the car again, and when he did, he agreed that the pump needed to be replaced. He did the second repair at no charge and had my car back in a few days.
I was a first time customer and got exceptional treatment. Ricky was extremely honest and helpful, and I would highly recommend him to anyone looking for a trustworthy mechanic in JC.

I called in asking how much they charged for an oil change, I told him the make, model, and year of my car and the owner; Ricky, quoted me $ 39.99. They never called me to let me know my car was ready. When I finally went to pick it up they jacked up the price to $ 72 because he «didn’t realize» how complex my car was. I wanted to support a local business but it’s hard when they don’t run an honest business.

Great service. Flexible with availability. Quick turnaround time. Did a nice job and also very pleasant to work with.

I found this place on Unilocal,and based on the reviews and proximity to my house decided to give it a try. I gotta say I was a bit hesitant because the shop is so small, but my experience has been great. Ricky has been extremely helpful and friendly, and his prices are very reasonable. He’s been able to fit me in for an oil change and brake pads within 1 – 2 days and both times the work was completed as promised on the same day I took it in. For the brake pads, he actually stayed open late to get it finished for me. Definitely will be going back.

Really pretty disappointed with my experience here. Brought my car for my brakes who were screeching as well as an oil change. I was told that the brakes are fine, just dirt on the inside causing the noise and that the only way to fix this extremely loud screech was to change the brakes or deal with the noise. I decided to deal with the noise.
Came back months later for my next oil change and just asked that they check the brakes to make sure they were still fine despite the screeching noise. I come back to pick up my car and was told that they were able to remove the screeching noise by taking the brakes apart and cleaning them.
This was kind of shocking to me since the first time I was told there was nothing that could be done other than replacing them.
I was a bit annoyed they did this and charged $ 45 for cleaning the brakes without calling me to ask first if I wanted them to go ahead and do that.
Worst part: my brakes screech exactly as loud and as often as before. Total ripoff

Came here for an oil change. Reasonably priced and incredible service. Very glad to be able to support local business! Highly recommend!!!

Ended up getting a flat — hi. We live in construction work neverending land. Ralph’s my usual go-​to place was closed wahhh. So ended up going to Ricky’s for a patch. $ 10 at Ralph’s; $ 20 at Chariot’s. The end.

I went here after reading the mostly rave reviews and was looking forward to having a great mechanic so close to my home. But I was disappointed: he charged me for way more labor time than it actually took to fix my simple routine problem. I don’t know if the great reviews are driven by what one reviewer mentioned as ppl wanting to put in a good word for a neighborhood mom& pop shop but this place just ok, not great.

I had a mostly good experience with Ricky. The steering on my 03 C-​class had been giving me issues for a while and I had failed to get it seen to properly (amongst other things) until I was forced to take the car to the garage with a check engine light on. I took it to Chariot and Ricky diagnosed the problem, kept it overnight and got it back to me the next day with a new steering pump, a fixed handbrake and a brand new set of spark plugs (including a new coil in one of the cylinders). He did this all for a reasonable price (labour rate of $ 85/​hr so not cheap but not overly expensive by any means either) and I was happy. Unfortunately, the power steering failed the next day and I had to get the car towed all of 5 blocks back to Chariot, where Ricky discovered he had missed a leaky seal which had drained all of the power steering fluid, so he replaced the seal free of charge and refilled the fluid and sent me on my way. Again, happy until the power steering failed for the second time in 2 days, so I had to take it back… The lack of fluid had caused damage to the new pump and unfortunately the supplier wasn’t willing to honour the warranty, so I agreed to split the cost of the new pump with Ricky and he didn’t charge me labour for the replacement, and now (fingers crossed), I’m all set and won’t have to return for a while!
Overall, I think he knows what he’s doing, does a good job getting work done in a timely fashion considering it’s just him and one other bloke running the show there, and charges reasonable rates for work. He was also very fair when it came to making further repairs and I will definitely go back in future should I require his services again

Wow. Best and most honest mechanic is JC. Hands down.
I went with about 6 things I needed done to my car, and was really worried about what the cost would be. Ricky went out of his way to help me cut costs at every turn. And he helped me prioritize what needed to be done immediately versus what I could hold off on (so that at least I didn’t have to spend all of this money at once).
He even stayed open late for me because I couldn’t get there sooner from work to pick up my car.
I’m so glad my cousin recommended him. I owe her a drink.

I live right around the corner and bring my car to Ricky for any of my needs. When my tire had a hole in it, he could have sold me a new one, but instead charged me a very fair rate just to repair it. He saved me close to $ 100 right there. He does my oil changes too and his prices are better than anything else in the city. He’s a great guy and his shop is the best!

This place was awesome! We had a small problem with our car and we called up and even though Ricky was about to close he kept the shop open for us to take a look at our car to guide us through the problem!

Must go here! Ricky is the best! He legitimately cared about getting me the best service/​price/​options for my car. I only went in for an oil change but he found a crack in my tire. He could’ve told me buying a new tire was my only option but he pushed me to get a warranty replacement, which I got (elsewhere because I needed to go to a Bridgestone certified tire center.)

I live right around the corner so I decided to try Chariot when my check engine light was on. Ricky was very friendly and took the time to show me some things under the hood and explain what was going on. I didn’t need my car back asap so I let him know that I had flexibility there. I did have to stop in to get an update once but he’s a busy guy working on his own. Will definitely go back.

Ricky is the best! I moved to downtown Jersey a few months ago and found Chariot on Unilocal when I was looking for a place to do my brakes. I decided to give them a try based on the good reviews. I couldn’t agree more! Ricky is honest, and does quality work at good prices; you can’t ask for more. He worked until 8:30pm so he could get my car back to me the same day after they delivered the wrong parts to his shop earlier in the day. He showed me the old parts and explained what he did. He’s a very friendly, personable guy who works hard and does a great job. Highly recommended.

Ricky — thanks for being quick, honest, and good quality work. He was the second quote to do some minor body work and he beat the price hands down. He also said if he’d charge only if he could get it to come out right… he also took at a check engine light and ended up just being a quick reset. Also did the diagnostic for half the price other places charge. Good prices, nice guy — I’ll be back for all future work on the Acura mdx.

Simply put, Chariot Auto Repair is the best option for auto care in Downtown Jersey City.
Quick turnaround time, impeccable quality, and very, VERY fair prices are half the reason Chariot’s been my go-​to with any issues my now decade-​old Elantra’s come across in the past 3 years: Ricky (the mechanic and owner) is friendly and, above all, honest.
Very highly recommended.

Ricky got a job done for around $ 130 that Sears Auto had quoted us over $ 800 for.
It was some grinding noises while driving and a gravelly feeling in the brakes. Sears wanted to replace the brakes and do some other extreme things. Ricky replaced a couple of belt gears (or something… ok, I should have written this review closer to the date of the service, which was a few months ago in Spring ’14, because I don’t remember the details of what he did), and since then the car has been quiet and handled wonderfully.
Ricky was communicative and patient, he wasn’t making things up or looking to fleece us, and he did a great job. He also came in to his shop early to give me the car keys before my morning commute.
Goodbye, highway robbers at Sears auto! We’re really happy with Ricky and will be using him from now on.

Excellent Qualities:
— Ricky, the owner and mechanic, is a very nice, friendly guy. He treats you like a buddy. A little too much like a buddy, though… almost to the point of abuse — while I was waiting for him to finish up, I thought I’d grab a bite to eat from a few blocks away, and he asked me to pick up some lunch for him! WTF!??
— Took my car here for a detailing and full inspection before selling it. He did a great job overall with the interior… it looked pretty clean on the inside and smelled really fresh. I didn’t have any problems selling the car.
— He inspected everything very thoroughly, and told me exactly what I need to watch out for (the brake pad was wearing out and needed to be replaced soon).
Areas for improvement:
— Took one day longer to finish my car than we agreed on. This is kinda understandable though, because he’s the only one working there and he was busy finishing up another car. He should have kept me in the loop though, especially since I was on a tight schedule.
— He wasn’t able to provide a printed report of the inspection right away. I had to walk all the way to this place during my lunch break, and still he wasn’t ready with the report. As I watched him stumble around like a fool, I saw that he had to go online and find a lame template, and then finally printed it out and filled everything out by hand. FAIL. Again, he’s a small shop, and he’s just starting, so I’ll cut him some slack there. Of course, there’s no excuse for this kind of nonsense in the 21^st century. But to his credit, he did feel bad about making me walk all the way there and not having the report ready (as he should), so to make up for it, he drove by my work and dropped off the report. That was mighty decent of him.
— After the detailing was finished, I did notice a few streaks on the windshield (some kind of wax or oil). This was very minor though, because I was able to get rid of it easily with a paper towel.
Overall, I would say this — I think a lot of reviewers have given him unreasonably high marks because they want to support their local mom and pop shop. And I understand that. But I don’t take any of that into consideration. I think the stars need to be earned. I would say, if at all possible, go somewhere else.