Bob’s Auto Service

Avoid. I took my car in for some routine maintenance. My car tells me how many miles I have until I’m out of gas. When I dropped it off it said 120 miles and had a half a tank of gas. When I picked it up it said 69 miles and had a quarter tank of gas left. Now, maybe it’s me but I’m pretty sure my car doesn’t need to be driven 50 miles to check the alignment. Also the radio was set to an asian station. Hope you had a nice little joyride! Never again. Two stars because the work was good.

these guys have been servicing my car for almost 10 years and ever time i go in, they are friendly, quick and honest. What more can you ask.

Fair prices and good work. Much cheaper than anywhere else I’ve been in the city. I’ve been going for oil changes and maintenance for over a year and I am very pleased.

Called this am, they could take me anytime, was done with Smog check in 2 hours, cost $ 70. Easy and quick!

I’ve brought my car here several times for various issues (brake pads, rotors, starter problem, oil changes, etc.) They are cheap, fast and have fixed all my problems. It’s true, they don’t speak great English, but I understand enough of what they’re saying and I have been satisfied with all the work they’ve done for me.

Whatever you do, don’t go in there for an oil change unless you know your way around a car and have a really strong backbone. The entire experience is just a constant barrage of trying to sell me other stuff and arguing with me when I say no.
Add to that they managed to drip oil all over the engine so that once the motor heated up by the time I got home I could smell all the oil burning off the hot manifold.
Which makes me think, I’d better go down to my garage and check to see if they got the oil level right, at least.
For a solid experience with your regular oil change, without all the pushy overselling of services, go to Jiffy Lube on Van Ness. I’ll be going back there from now on.
Pros: It was cheap.
Cons: See above.

Every other year, just like clockwork, I go to Bob’s to get my car smogged, because I live just around the corner. And every other year, lickety-​split, my 1999 city car gets a clean bill of health. Easy-​peasy, and I wouldn’t go anywhere else.

the price is pretty cheap, but you get what you pay for. If you want a full tune up… tell them specifically what you want done or they will skip steps.

This place is «okay» for small car problems such as a blown-​out tire or an oil change. However, when dealing with serious car problems, don’t trust them one bit. We had a broken transmission and went there to get it fixed. We negotiated a price and got the car the next day. Unfortunately, when we picked up the car, the transmission was worse than when we brought it in. Apparently, without consulting us, they got the part used and had to reconstruct it. In addition, our right wheel was barely hanging on, wobbling and grinding. We come to find out that they forgot to tighten a crucial screw, which put us in danger and messed up our alignment! They fixed that problem, but not the transmission. We took it back to be inspected by the ONE main dude who works on the cars and he said there were no problems. Told us the «new» transmission needed time to «sink» in. Well, it’s been over a year and that piece of shit transmission never sunk in. To this day, the reverse-​gear jolts, the machinery is insanely loud and clanky, and now we can’t run the car faster than 45 mph. Oh, did I mention that they don’t speak English? Yeah, so if you wanna know what the hell happened to your car, you have to wait for this ONE woman to come in on the days that she’s there and talk to her, then wait while she slowly translates with the mechanic. All in all, move on and go to someone else!

Still working with them so I may update the stars– but so far they have been friendly and readily accessible. Their reputation from my tow guy is that they are inexpensive, and they seem to be very popular.