Benner Auto Repair

Reliable, competent, flexible, honest and straightforward. They have cared for my cars for years. If my wife takes the car in, the listen carefully and treat her with respect. If my daughter takes it in, same, and advise her as if she were their own daughter. These guys care. They’re great.

Great group. Straight forward, easy to work with and efficient.

I was referred to these guys so I called to make an appointment. Talking to them was like pulling teeth. All I needed was a transmission fluid change and they made it seem like this was so difficult! They ridiculed me when I asked if I could leave the car early, since I had a friend who could give me a ride, and they were booked for the next few days. I’m assuming they don’t have a place to store cars because they said «well, you probably don’t want to leave your car on the street around here» when they could have just said «we don’t have a place to put the car». When I hung up my friend said «that was rude, you aren’t bringing your car there, are you?» and I guess I won’t!

Happy to have our Jeep back after a big repair. Got an estimate in Michigan and only did part of the recommended work. Took it into Benner’s after a long cross country trek. They told us what needed to be done — no big sales pitch. They stayed within the quoted price and timeline the represented. Happy to have found them and will definitely go back.

These guys have brought my car back to life many times. For a fair price and quality work you have go here! I only trust them to work on my car!

Honest, competent and affordable. What else do you need? This is an old school shop in the best possible way. Great place for vintage and/​or classic cars too.

THANK YOU Don and Mike at Benner Auto Repair. I recently had a problem getting my 1990 Honda Civic smogged. The car needed a new muffler and some timing thing adjusted. I went to Ron and Abby’s Muffler in Berkeley — they’re great — and they suggested I go to Benner’s for the timing issue. I did and I’ve now found the mechanics that I will take our Honda to in the future. These guys are great and many of them (I was told four of the guys that work there) drive Hondas so they know the car.
I think all told, I ended up going to Benner’s three times in this whole I’m-just-trying-to-get-my-car-smogged issue. Every time I’d go into the smog place, they’d find something else wrong — or at least something that they felt could potentially cause my car to fail. I’d go back to Benner’s and Don dealt with the problem at no cost. I’d just tell him what the smog guy asked to be done and Don did it for free!
I so appreciate their help and their honesty. I’m so happy I found Benner and I’ll definitely go back as I know my old car needs all kinds of stuff done.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU Benner! I’m a new and very happy customer!!!
Kelly in Oakland

Benner’s is great. Mike and Don are old school, honest guys and they work on old cars!

I had a protective plate under my car come loose and called a few places around my house to see if someone could take a quick look at it. First 2 places I called were too busy to take a look. The 2^nd place I called suggested I try Benner Auto Repair and I am glad they did. I called and they told me they could take a look at it right away. I brought it in 30 minutes later, they took a look, bolted the plate back on and did not even charge me. I will definitely come back.

I’ve been going to Benner Auto Repair for over 7 years now. If you have an older car, bring it here for your mechanical work! I have a 1973 Dodge Dart and they know how to work on it. They don’t seem to take me The chains? I don’t trust those for much more than very basic work, if even that.
I learned about this shop after needing to have some work done. I had previously taken my car to a body shop just a few blocks away which had had an excellent mechanic. But the mechanic retired and wasn’t replaced. I found Benner in the phone book and called my body shop to check and they recommended them. I’ve been going back ever since. (By the way, I also recommend this body shop. They may not be cheap, but they do excellent work. And, like Benner, they have been in business for many years, passing from father to son.)
And, yes, they sometimes taken me to and picked me up from BART.

I heard about these guys thru my good friend. Their service was thorough, prompt, and respectful. Each time I call someone picks up, and they usually are not overcrowded. I regret having taken my cars to the Toyota dealerships the past few years, where they over-​charged me by hundreds of dollars and most of the time didn’t even solve the problem. I have never had such a quality car tune up and a mechanic who is upfront about exactly what they found, whether it be good or bad. Their location is not in the greatest neighborhood, but I definitely intend to return for my next 3,000 mile check.

Just wanted to comment about Martin’s review. Martin no one to blame but yourself. When you an unlicensed self described auto tech tried to fix your ex’s car (now we know why you’re an ex) more than likely contributed to the cars first intial problem. You should stick to riding the bus instead of cars. As a woman I clearly trust this shop with its professional staff and knowledge with the right tools and know how for the job.

I’ve been going here for years, as have my dad and grandpa. They are very honest and fair, won’t try to screw you over.
Highly reccommend these guys!

Sounds to me like Martin W. has a vendetta against his EX and is taking it out on Benner’s Auto for some warped/​spurned reason. I think his shout out to the «eligible ladies should bookmark me RIGHT NOW, this incredible opportunity CANNOT LAST!!» tells you all you need to know about him and his credibility.
I, on the other hand, give Benner Auto 5 stars, like everyone else not a nut-​job that wrote a review. They were reasonably priced, professional, friendly, gave me a ride to/​from BART and took good care of my Saturn (as you Saturn owners know, not everyone will service a Saturn). 5-​stars for this family-​owned neighborhood auto-​shop, I’ll be back.

I was driving my 2001 Honda Civic – the one with the big, rusty gouge down the passenger side, the splotchy spilled primer from a house-​painting incident on the bumper, sun-​faded paint, banged up bumpers, and an incessant rattling coming from the brakes – and thinking «huh, I know Honda’s run forever, but that statement’s usually qualified with ‘when you take good care of them’,» and then started wondering where I would take it in for repairs (this car’s an «it;» when you treat a car as badly as I do, it doesn’t get any human personification, it needs to stay an inanimate object lest I be prosecuted for crimes against humanity).
When my ex and I were living together (note: that’s *EX*-GIRLFRIEND, I am currently DEEPLY SINGLE – you eligible ladies should bookmark me RIGHT NOW, this incredible opportunity CANNOT LAST!!), her Hyundai wouldn’t pass smog. I checked the OBD and the Hyundai claimed it was the Oxygen sensor; I replaced it, to no avail.
Several visits to eHow’s «getting your car smogged» pages and a few hundred dollars in failed tests later, we finally took it to a shop – not having any real preferences, we went to Benner’s because… I dunno, it was there or whatever.
Now, look, this was a few years ago, so some of the details are fuzzy. I’ve been reluctant to take on this review because the ex thinks Benner’s was swell. It really wasn’t until tonight, thinking about how things turned out, that I realized «no, they fucked us – maybe not with intent, but seriously, they did us wrong.»
I believe they spent about a day and a half working on it.
Now, this was a 2001 Hyundai Elantra, not nearly «mint» condition with 100K miles. I think the Blue Book on it was around $ 2,000 (this would be if you found a real sucker).
Benner reported that the cost for parts & labor would be – wait for it – $ 1,000.
I half expected the guy to raise his pinky and make a Dr. Evil cackle as he said it.
And they didn’t even fix the problem – the car would still not pass smog.
Now, they explained how they did all kinds of labor and replaced the spark plugs and re-​did the timing and blah blah blah, and I actually believe them, I think they did their level-​best to resolve the issue. They, in fact, apologized and indicated that their crew felt really frustrated about not being able to fix the problem and they had actually not charged for several hours of labor.
At the time, I was personally a little stunned, while the ex was saddened but ultimately felt like they were an honest and hard-​working bunch.
Tonight, driving around in my decrepit but annoyingly long-​lived steed, I realized that they had rung up a bill for us that was equal to 50% of the value of the car. Without informing us that they were going to be charging $ 1,000 for their service. And the fact that they did *not* charge for some of the labor just means that they *actually* performed a service of *more* than 50% of the value of the car. AND THE PROBLEM WASN’T FIXED.
In California, if your car simply cannot pass the smog test, then you can get a provisional registration, and if you then invest at least $ 450 in attempting get the car to pass, you can trade the car in to the state for destruction. I personally believe that they should have stopped well before performing labor equaling $ 450, but once they *did* hit $ 450, they should have stopped working on it. At that moment, the car became, technically, unsmoggable. We could have continued to drive that car for another year under a provisional registration, and at the end of the year, traded it in to the state for retirement – and $ 1,000.
Whether or not these guys are competent is hard for me to say – I mean, we paid them $ 1,000 and they didn’t figure out the problem, so maybe that tells the story – but they certainly didn’t have our pocketbooks or welfare in mind when they worked on our car.
Final analysis:
1. Went WAY over an appropriate budget trying to fix the problem (without consultation)
2. Didn’t fix the problem
They were nice, so I’ll throw them an extra star, and they weren’t deceptive, but they basically fucked us. That was a pretty tough time for us, and losing $ 1,000 was not something our budget bore comfortably.
Fail. Martin W, out.
EDIT: on second thought, no extra star. Who cares if someone smiles or not when they’re twisting a knife in your guts?

A good mechanic is hard to find. So when I needed a new shop after a move, I chose Benner because it’s only blocks from my house.
It was a fantastic choice. They take excellent care of my car here, and at extremely reasonable and competitive prices. They did my brakes for less than a third what the dealer wanted to charge me.
Really nice folk, who know what they’re doing, and don’t want to have you sign over a kidney or your first born child.
I’ll never take my car anywhere else. At least, not unless I have to move again.
You never know when the mysterious black choppers will find you …

This was my first time using Benner Auto Repair to work on my beloved car and they did more than impress me.
This repair shop is full of highly trained professionals and the nicest, trustworthy mechanics a girl could find.
Please take my recommendation and use Benner Auto Repair you can trust that your car will be taken care of above and beyond.

I’ve been using Benner Auto for about 13 years now and I wouldn’t consider going anywhere else. I have to do my fact checking, but I think they have been in business for over 50 years (Mike Benner’s father started the place). They are absolutely top-​notch professionals and the best at what they do. They are friendly, honest, reasonable, professional and all around outstanding. They are among the top-​rated mechanics in the Bay Area Consumer Checkbook. I believe they concentrate on domestic cars, but they do imports too.
There is a reason they develop long term relationships with most all of their customers. There is a reason they don’t have to advertise anywhere, all of their business comes from word of mouth. There is a reason why people like me wouldn’t consider going anywhere else: They are just that good.
So. What do you look for in a mechanic?
Honesty? Check. They’ve always been upfront with me about what was wrong with my car, how long it would take and what the cost would be. They’ve even been able to give me options that to choose from that would save me money. They have always shown me the part that was broken or needed repairs. They’ve even recommended that I DIDN’T get certain work done. Honestly, they are so busy with real work that they don’t need to make stuff up or inflate an invoice or price.
Reasonable prices? Check. Note: you get what you pay for. They are a locally owned union shop and the employees get paid decent wages. Yup, they are not as cheap as some chain place — but come on, do you really trust the work done at chains? I repeat: You get what you pay for. They are worth the small amount more they might charge over a chain place.
Professional work? Check. I’ve never had a problem with the repairs to my various cars. They all have many years of experience, knowledge and training to do the work properly the first time. The work has always been top-​notch. Okay, well. exactly one time in 13 years I had an issue. They did an alignment for me and as I drove away, it didn’t feel exactly right to me so I drove it right back to the garage. They didn’t try to explain away the problem or make it seem like I was fussy customers, they simply said, «Hey, no problem» — then they put it right back up on the rack and made it right. Just like that, no questions asked. See, now that’s what I’m talking about.
Believe supporting other local businesses? Check. If you need something that they don’t do, e.g. replacing a window or something, they use locally owned businesses with whom they have long-​standing relationships with. They will help you get what you need and often at a discount.
Friendly & Personable? Check. They are three of the nicest guys you’d ever want to meet. They treat everyone with the same respect and consideration, whatever your gender, race, or other affiliation. They offer nice little services such as if you get your tires through them, you can bring it back to them anytime for the life of the tire for a free repair if you get a flat. They know your name when you call and Mike, bless him, always has dog biscuits around if you happen to have your dog with you.
P. S. I think Martin is full of B. S! There is No Freaking Way that Benner would do $ 1000 worth of service without getting it authorized. If you didn’t have the money, they’d be screwed. No, you authorized it then had buyers remorse. No single lady I know wants to date a disgruntled liar, Martin. It’s just not attractive.