The British Garage

These guys are a great alternative to the dealership. My Mini has been there a couple times recently, and Jamie was very pleasant and knowledgeable. I believe the charges were quite fair as well.

I had the opportunity to Deal Andy at The British Garage today and I’m an out of Towner. What a great experience I had and I would highly recommend his garage. They are the most honest people, great integrity, they do what they say when they say it. They go over and beyond the call to help you with what ever needs to be fixed with a speedy outcome. I cant thank you enough Andy.
Kim M

Great place to take your Mini Cooper. Very professional and knowledgeable. Highly recommend them.

What a great experience. I was referred by a neighbor who also has a Range Rover. Diagnosed the issue quickly and also had the car done when they said they would. Easy to schedule a convenient appointment and I feel they did the work at a good price. Beats going to the dealer any day and I love supporting local small business!

For several years I drove a Mini Cooper S that had gone out of warranty. I wanted an independent shop I could trust and found that in the British Garage. Jamie was great to work with over the years and I always felt I was in good hands. Some times I brought my car in and nothing really needed to be repaired and wouldn’t charge me anything for their time. He took the time to explain everything and were really friendly and charged a fair price. Highly recommend!

Took my jaguar s type in a few times and Jaime always gave me the best price, I did quite a bit of outside research and called around town and jaguar service is pretty limited in San Diego. So this place seemed like the best you could get for a jaguar. They were quick to work on it and my cars issues were fixed no problem.

We will be customers for life… The British Garage is a well oiled machine. No pun and no kidding.
Jamie is professional and courteous and went out of his way to get parts overnighted/​painted for a next day install. He helped source lower cost parts and has been an absolute pleasure to deal with.
The mechanical team come from Land Rover backgrounds and have years of senior proficiency-​so you benefit from all of that training and expertise. No need to deal with the big dealerships and their ridiculous prices. (I got a quote from the dealership a few miles from this shop and the dealership literally wanted 3 times the cost and It might not have been repaired by a senior mechanic at the dealership.)
The communication throughout the entire process was excellent. Jaime gets back to you quickly with phone calls and problem solving.
We are a land Rover/​Mini Copper family and feel like we found friends in the auto repair business. My families safety and convenience regarding transportation is paramount and I wouldn’t recommend these guys if they didn’t measure up. It is refreshing to find a small business that is run this way and treats you with fairness and provides high quality service.
A completely satisfactory experience at The British Garage!!!

Awesome Experience! Very Happy.

Hello, my name is Jamal Ali and I am perhaps one of the happiest men upon the face of this earth, due to the unmatched and incredible work done on my 2003 Discovery SE7 Land Rover a little over two months ago. I’ve been to several shops including the Land Rover dealership, and their sky rocket prices and partial fixes left me high and dry. Thank God for Jamie, and the amazing guys at the British Garage. I’ll never go anywhere else, God forbid. I recommend this one stop honest shop for anyone with a Land Rover :)

Can’t say enough great things about The British Garage.
Dropped my LR3 off recently for the 75k service. The day I dropped my car off, Jaime’s SO went into labor.
Even on the day his child was born, Jaime made sure that I was taken care of by his crew.
Overall the service was fast, responsive and well done. Will definitely be back for the 90k!

This is the best garage in San Diego! Andy and Jaime are awesome and run a great operation. No matter what your issue is they’ll get it handled quickly and cost effectively.
If you’ve had bad experiences in the past with other garages, definitely go to these guys for a whole new experience. They are honest and technically proficient, and do quality work. You’ll actually enjoy taking your vehicle to their shop, and you’ll learn a few things in the process too.
Your trip to the mechanic doesn’t have to be a bad experience. If you need work done, do yourself and your vehicle a favor, and take it into The British Garage!

These guys go far and beyond for their customers, I have been there 3 times and was only charged for one visit since my Land Rover needed sensors reset. We travel a lot since we’re in the military so this is the only place we go to when visiting Cali when we want to do check-​ups or get maintenance done on our cars. They’re not the type of business that comes up with different issues and just charges you up the rear. They’ll inform you of any other issues and let you know the criticality of driving with it. The only time that they’ll bring up cost is if you ask how much they would charge. My wife didn’t even want the LR but feels so much more at ease when she knows that British Garage is there to take care of our LR and not charge an arm and a leg for maintenance. I can’t thank you enough British Garage!
–Quincy

Jaime and his crew are the best mechanics I have ever encountered! Jaime was caring, honest, and trustworthy. I brought my 2005 mini cooper here when the check engine light came on and he took me in the morning that I called. He even told me that I could possibly take my car into the dealer instead because there had been a mini recall. What mechanic let’s go of money like that?!
After 2 days of diagnosing my car (he kept in constant contact with me) he unfortunately found out that it was indeed my nightmare: the transmission needed work… expensive work. He didn’t want to do that work when he wasn’t 100% sure that it would fix my car. I decided to sell my car instead but he only charged me $ 45 for the part needed to fix my intake boot. He charged me nothing for the 2 days of labor and diagnosis! Not only that, he fixed my passenger seat that had been stuck in the recline position for 3 years for free! I had been told that was a $ 500 repair. To top everything off, he gave me a free car wash coupon as I left. The guys at the British garage are great! I would bring my car here even if I don’t have a Mini or a Range Rover.

We had a bad experience here after referred by another place.
Here’s what happened:
Our 2005 Landrover LR3 needed a specific fix with the wheel making noise, needed a specialist since it’s a complex issue.
Jaime took it in, nice guy, very quiet, and not very sympathetic to our needs as customers.
After taking it in a few times, and $ 1700 later, he STILL couldn’t fix our car.
1^st n 2^nd visit) they said it needed control arms, so we paid to fix– also did a wheel alignment, a few weeks later, SAME EXACT ISSUE– zero fix.
$ 1700 and ZERO improvement?
Took it in and they looked again…
3^rd visit) Jaime says «oh the issue is actually the wheel and you need a new steering rack, that will cost $ 900.»
Also, had a coolant leak and thats another $ 600 for that, OH… And it needs service, another $ 400 for service.
I brought up the fact that we already paid for the main issue and it never got fixed. His response was «well that needed to be fixed anyway, so we replaced them.» As if it’s his choice?! I tried everything to explain that they needed to help with fixing the original issue and all I could get was half hour of labor as a discount.
In a nutshell:
We got super scammed and ripped off. Typical mechanic that tells u that your car needs a million things and charges a LOT!
Very very bad experience and our car still has that issue with the steering rack.

I’ve been brining my ’06 Range Rover here for 2+ years. They are great-​go out of their way to offer up a loaner or take me somewhere while the car gets worked on. Decided to do a review b/​c my battery was dying and it was 30min before their closing time on a Fri-​I called Jaime and he said bring it in and if its something they could fix right away they would and if not he would lend me their jump box for the weekend to prevent me from getting stranded! This is why I go to this place-​they are honest and go above the standard levels of customer service. Plus if they don’t have time to wash my car they give me the coupon for the touch less place down the street!

I took my 2005 LR3 to a different auto repair shop and had a camshaft censor replaced. After resetting the system, the engine light never shut off. A friend of mine recommended I take it to the British Garage to get a second opinion. Andy took it back to diagnose it and after 45 minutes came out with a tiny piece of metal that had been caught on the censor causing the engine light to stay on. What a relief since every other place I’ve taken it (especially the dealership) wanted to charge me an arm and a leg to «repair» it when really it was a simple fix. Andy charged me nothing, even having worked on it for almost an hour. Very knowledgeable and very kind.
Sometimes owning a Rover can cause major anxiety– things are pricey and people are dishonest. From the moment I stepped in there till the moment I left– I felt well taken care of and more educated about my vehicle. They explained things thoroughly and also suggested things I may want to replace soon, with no added pressure. I feel confident that I now have a place I can take my car, without hassle, fear and stress.
Thanks Jamie, Andy, and to the rest of The British Garage Team. You relieved more stress than you know!
Kindest Regards,
Jade

I don’t leave negative reviews unless there’s a reallyyyy good reason. British Garage is probably ok as a Land Rover service place, but DO NOT take your Mini here. They misdiagnosed several things on my R53 and generally do not seem knowledgeable about Minis. Tried to get the mechanic on the phone several times to get a better explanation of things… that never happened. But they did refund an hour of labor for a mistake that they made. So 2 stars for that. You will pay more at Mini of SD, but you will get straight answers and they will do a thorough job.

I’m not one to write a positive review after just one experience which is why I waited a year or so to write this. After one awesome experience I had today however I’ve decided that a review was overdue.
Today I took my Range Rover to British Garage to get the brakes checked out and while it was getting fixed they notified me of a potentially expensive problem that was looming. A few months ago I took my vehicle to get 2 new rear tires and the genius salesman sold us 2 rear tires of a different size than the front. I was informed that on a 2-​wheel drive this is ok but on a FWD vehicle this is a big mistake and will eventually cause major damage to the transmission.
While at the shop I called a few nearby tire stores and nobody had the correct tire sizes in stock and it was nearing closing time at British Garage. Andy (the owner) came out and informed me that he didn’t want me to continue to drive with the mismatched tires so he put on some correct size tires as a loaner until I can get new ones installed. That to me was one of the best customer service experiences I have encountered in the auto industry hands down. The British Garage was not profiting off of my tire problems since they don’t sell tires. They simply cared for the well-​being of their customer and their customer’s vehicle. Period.
But wait theres more… Andy also took the time to speak to the Tire Shop that sold me the mismatched tires to inform them of the potential damage that could have ensued. Because of this, the owner of the Tire Shop agreed to take back the used tires in exchange for brand new tires of the correct size.
Here’s my final thought. I guarantee that if I drove to the Land Rover dealer with mismatched tires they would NOT be offering some loaner tires as a courtesy. They wouldn’t even offer a loaner vehicle in this scenario. If you care about your vehicle (and if you drive a LR, Jaguar, or Mini Cooper I’m assuming you do), then do yourself a favor and pay a visit to the British Garage.

Once upon a time, a princess purchased a land rover from carmax.
The princess was delighted and drove it around her kingdom until her Father the King
demanded that she obtain a purchase inspection.
The knights in shining armor at the British Garage were called, they inspected
the land rover, discovered details that a carfax report failed to disclose!
Damaged rear parts which had been painted over, oil leak, uneven wear of
front tires. All of this at no cost to the royal family which brought great pleasure to
the King.
Saddened by the news, the princess took the Land Rover back to carmax.
The honorable knights at the British Garage (Andy and Jamie) have been found
worthy of a FIVE star rating.
~Rover justice and righteousness prevails thank to the British Garage. ~
Andy even forgives the princess for driving back into the British Garage in a panic after simply forgetting to push down her manual parking break… The red PARK light even warned her of this. (Royalty takes a toll on her).
The princess plans to only take her Rover to the British Garage and live happily ever after.
The end.

Having maintained a Rover now going on seven years, I can definitively report lots of experience with San Diego area mechanics. Hands down, these guys are the best.
Andy treats customer service as his top responsibility… not just creating the perception of it, but carefully setting expectations, delivering what they promise, and re-​setting expectations honestly, and timely, if unforeseen issues come up.
To even speak casually to Jamie, is to know the man is a master of his trade. His zen-​like approach to repairing these vehicles are more like chess than a puzzle. He just gets stuff other people do not, and he cares enough to find out stuff, where other folks leave off.
Jamie fixed issues in my vehicle other guys said were beyond repair, or not worth the hassle. My ride now gets 20% better gas mileage as a result of their work, and it now runs as good as it did when I first bought it. This is no small achievement with gas pushing $ 5/​gallon. He fixed things I didn’t even know to ask him to fix. Highly recommended.