Fukuda Auto Service

Happy to find a great San Francisco mechanic for my Mitsubishi and my wife’s Toyota. Got some new brake pads and an oil change performed in a timely fashion for a very fair price. Tad seems to be quite skilled at his craft and I’m really happy with the work. Given how hard it is to find a good mechanic, I feel lucky to have discovered this repair shop.
Now that the family cars are out of warranty, no more servicing at the dealership. From now on, it’s Fukuda Auto Service for our cars!

The guy was friendly, and fixed my car in a good amount of time, for about what I expected to pay.

Hesitant to return after first time impressions.
I took ownership of my sisters Japanese car after she bought a new Golf and drove it 400+ mi from LA. The car had been trouble free all its life (I know since I watched my sis drive it off the lot) until a pre trip service which led me to limp the car home at 3am from South (aka ghetto) Palo Alto after an unrelated flat.
For some reason the car developed weird idle issues after the flat which would stumble and stall the engine unless I was constantly on the throttle. Needless to say, this was a problem, especially in an automatic. After limping the car home on El Camino, I went about doing some troubleshooting myself since it couldn’t even drive to a shop. Some more semi worrisome events and two coil packs later, the car was running again but still had that mild stumbling issue and would threaten to stall sometimes. It would also make some weird and hard to replicate dieseling/​knocking noise only between 2−3k under specific throttle input.
Thats when I went looking for a reputable shop and ended up here.
He seemed honest and upfront at first and offered to take a look then asked me to leave the car overnight. I get a call 1 – 2 days later and he says to come pick it up. I get there to hear he couldn’t find a problem and that he «fixed the weird noise» issue I had which included all of tightening the air hose/​MAF clamp, something I neglected to do when diagnosing the car myself. He then told me the bill was $ 100, to which I balked. He quickly changed his tone and said that since I’m a first time customer he’d accept $ 70. All for tightening one screw and solving none of my problems? I figured he kept my car for the two days and it took business away from him so I just paid it and left feeling cheated.
I did my own labor and paid about $ 140 total (coil packs+this trip) and my cars been running alright so I’m not too bummed overall. I just don’t know how much I can really trust the positive reviews after this encounter but may bring it around next time a major issue comes up since he’s got the best reviews for this but will be more cautious next time.

This place best in San Francisco because he knows everything’s. He honest guy and respectful I’ve mazda rx8 and he fixed my car. And my car condition awesome. If you have Japanese car mazda honda Mitsubishi you should go fukuda auto service.

So professional and considerate! I never got his name, but a man I assume is the owner stayed late on a Friday evening to help me diagnose a light on my dashboard. I’d never been in before. It turned out that he couldn’t fix the problem, and when I said I was happy to pay him, he insisted that I shouldnt. He stayed late and wasn’t getting paid for his time, yet was extremely friendly. Highly recommended!

I’ve been a loyal customer of Fukuda Auto Service for many years along with my family (entire immediate family). We’ve received nothing but the best service, friendship, honesty, and advice you expect and more from your mechanic. Actually I hate using that word, the Fukuda Auto Service is like family too us and we appreciate all the greatness that is offered.

Always polite and friendly, very knowledgeable about cars (I have a Mazda RX-​8) and incredibly hard working. I can’t imagine going to anyone else for my car servicing needs.
Unilocal brought me to Mr. Fukuda, but he has earned my business.

I just bought a used Mazda 3 from a guy on Craigslist and wanted to get it checked out and tuned up before I take it out of town. After reading the reviews here, I decided to take it to Mr. Fukuda, and I’m really glad I did.
I called on a Monday afternoon, and he was able to get me in on Wednesday morning. The shop is small and a bit dusty, with old cars parked all around the perimeter. As I drove in he came up to meet me right away. He’s super friendly man, and I felt like he had decades of experience working with Japanese cars. We chatted for a bit, and I feel like I can really trust the guy.
He inspected everything, changed the oil, rotated the tires, and called me around 3:00 that afternoon with the good news. My new Mazda was in perfect condition! He only charged me $ 235 for the check-​up, and gave me a ton of reassurance about my purchase.
Hopefully I don’t have to return too often, but I’m definitely looking forward to seeing him again every 7,500 miles or so.

I love Mr. Fukuda. My car is a lemon (don’t ever buy a Mazda, trust me) and I always have to dump tons of money into fixing it, but Fukuda always does me right. He’s HONEST, remarkably so. He will tell you if he doesn’t have experience with something, and doesn’t BS or try to upsell you. He won’t charge you a diagnosis fee (which are ripoffs) or trick you into fixing something that doesn’t need it. He’s fast, efficient and if you call in advance, he can schedule you right in. Plus, he rocks an awesome mustache and is adorable. If that’s not reason enough to trust him with your car, I don’t know what is. Go here and avoid the Stealerships.

Mr. Fukuda is a great guy. He services 2 of my cars as well as my other family member’s cars. He has a lot of patience and thoroughly inspects/​services my cars. He is the only car service person I actually trust.

I have been to this place three times, thus I should be able to comment on my experience with him.
He is honest, and will never force you for a rip off by making you scary.
Do you have any experience of the stealership service department who constantly making you scared of your beloved car? because something simple went wrong and now you are forced to face almost-​one-​grand quote because anything that is related to that part (s) needs to be changed
You will not get that from this place, along with better, reasonable rate as well.
(I’ve seen stealerships charge 120~180/hr nowdays)
On my first visit due to possible minor leak problem, he did not find any problem, after spending two hours. rather, it was possible sign of my engine seal was going bad, which could happen as rotaries age. He also thoroughly checked for potential problems, but I was told my car was good condition other than that.
My second visit was for brake pad change. work done at the time he promised, reasonable price (500 for both front and rear akebono pads, while stealership tried to screw me with 450 for front only change).
My third time visit with different car, I had my 2 weeks old batteries going bad; he spent about two hours checking any related areas and informed me that it was just screwed not tight enough and caused this problem.(Originally I was worried about charging system/​alternator problems)
If i’ve gone to dealers, they will tell me that both battery and charging system needs replacement (and I’ve been through this couple times about two years ago with ignition system and starter; they didn’t even mention there was recall and my warranty coverage was left)
worth your visit if you live near by SF. you can trust this guy

Fukuda is great. I’ve taken my mazdaspeed3 here twice. Last time i had him look at my car he quickly realized that the thermostat was busted (a common problem on my car), instead of fixing the problem he told me that this problem would be covered under the drive train warranty and that the dealer would fix it for free. He charged me his minimal fee (I think $ 40) and I went to the dealer and got it fixed under warranty. I will definitely take my car here in the future!

Honest, competent, good communicator, courteous. Not cheap, but well worth the cost. My driver’s side mirror was completely destroyed, the mirror and holder cost about $ 350 to replace. Work was completed in two days (it took one day for the ordered parts to arrive). He called to let me know when the parts arrived and then again when he completed the installation. I will be coming back here in the future.

If you have a Mazda, or any Japanese car for that matter, bring it here when you need it fixed or serviced!
Mr. Fukuda is a very experienced Japanese mechanic, having started his career at Mazda back in Japan in 1967! I took my rotary engine Mazda RX-​8 in and he was telling me how he worked in RX-​3s and RX-​4s back in the day.
He is very honest, diligent and reasonably priced. I saved about $ 1,000 (25%) by using him instead of Royal Motors. And I’m sure he would have done a much better job too.
He replaced my clutch and flywheel and it’s almost like I’m driving a new car now. He even called me an hour after I left the shop to ask me how it went and to bring it back in if I have any more trouble. I’m definitely coming back to Fukuda for all the future work I need done on my car and never going back to the awful Royal Motors again.

Great service, very honest.
I went in with the intention of getting tons of work done on my car, as suggested by the Acura dealer. After his inspection, he only recommended changing the breaks, $ 300 out the door, inspection and breaks.
What I found the most shocking is that I was almost ready to hand him $ 1000 bucks, but he declined saying it was not necessary.
I’m definitely recommending him to friends and will be back with any of my maintenance needs

Wow, an honest mechanic, what’s that? Well, tell the brothers at Fukuda your problems and they’ll tell you what’s wrong with your car and save you some bucks by their complete honesty. You will not get ripped off or pay for unnecessary repairs at this shop. I was a loyal client for years until my 170K Nissan Sentra finally kicked the bucket (early) when the timing belt went. Had Fukuda replaced the original timing belt when it went, I’d still be driving this car.
Fukuda specializes in Japanese makes/​models and it makes me sad I now have German engineering that knocks me out of going to Fukuda.
They’re honest, they’ll go the extra mile to save you money, they”ll explain everything and your car will run great. 5 stars to these wonderful mechanics, I miss them! Give ‘em your business and you won’t go elsewhere.

My battery died. My engine flooded (disaster for a rotary engine). My sparkplugs were fried.
Royal Motors quoted me $ 875 in repairs. Mr Fukuda did the same repairs for $ 425. He explained everything that had happened to my car and was able to finish my car half a day earlier than expected. He also let me know that my tires were worn out and dangerous to be driving on (and he doesn’t sell tires so you know he’s telling the truth). I had those replaced at America’s Tires (see my other review).
Mr Fukuda is an honorable man and a diligent worker. I can’t say enough about how grateful I am for his service. My Mazda RX8 purrs like a kitten now.

I am sorry to say that I can not recommend this shop. It was recommended to me on a Miata mailing list and the high Unilocal reviews convinced me to go here for my timing belt change. After talking the Mr. Fukuda, I was confident that he could do the timing belt change (it’s not that difficult). After three tries to get it right, I asked for my money back, which I was refunded without complaint. I drove the car to a Mazda specialist who told me the parts used were minimal quality, the timing belt was off the cams by 1 tooth and 3 teeth respectively, the exhaust cam gear was not installed correctly on the cam, the crank bolt was over-​torqued, a plate was bent and rubbing on new timing belt which would have broken eventually, a bolt was cross threaded in the head and finally, the ignition wires were reversed. The bent plate was basically siliconed in place because of the cross threaded bolt. My mechanic ultimately could not remove the cross threaded bolt without causing further damage to the car, and repaired as best he could.
While Mr. Fukuda is very nice, and I believe he really tried to fix my car, he damaged it internally and could not do this basic job.

*Extremely* reasonable rates (seriously, we got two quotes and he did more work for $ 1,000 less than the other quote), very straightforward communication, quick service and as far as I can tell very honest. I haven’t felt this good about car repair in a very long time.
Without a referral from a friend we would never have found this small shop, so thank goodness for friends!!!

THE guy for Japanese service. Quality work, centrally located, reasonable rates and the utterly honest. He’s worked on a Mazda for me as well as my cranky old Subaru.