Moss Motors

These guys are so great. I was in a bad spot with my car… it needed significant repairs and I got two hugely inflated price quotes from other shops. I tried Moss Motors after finding them on Unilocal,and they quickly diagnosed the problem and gave me a reasonable repair estimate. Throughout the process they were unfailingly polite and communicative and delivered the car on time. I am so happy to have found them.

Unlike the trend which has swept most businesses and people in SF in the last few years, this is a shop where they are not total dicks. In fact, the whole vibe is low key and informal. The service manager is a mechanically minded woman, so as a female customer I was able to talk shop with her without dealing with the condescending crap most other shops deal out in this city.
I had some unusual suspension work to be done on a new-​to-​me diesel Jetta wagon which the prior owner had lowered for reasons beyond me. «Hey look at me, I have this diesel wagon and I am going put lowering springs in it». What a dick that person must have been. Anyway, the Moss Motors crew was flexible in working with me and the parts I spec’ed out, rather than other area VW places I called who wanted to man-​splain me on what they thought I needed and then charge me a higher hourly rate than Moss ultimately did. Thanks pal, but I’ve been working on cars since I was 5.
Anyway the work was done for the estimated price, they are a block from the 24^th street BART, and don’t recoil at the word «biodiesel». Recommended.

I had a relatively simple engine issue with my A4. Moss motors were able to fix my car same day and recommend some future service items to catch before my warranty expired. Thanks guys

They really know VWs. They persisted until they solved a noise problem. They had to order a belt but rejected the cheap one made in China. Only did essential repairs. Recommend them and will return.

My mother and I used moss motors for many vehicles, including BMW and VW. Moss had our cars running in tip top shape like new every time we had service. Best European mechanic in town. Period. I had an 86 Jetta GL that was faster and better running than two of my friends who owned GTI 16 Valve and GLI 16 Valve. My Mother BMW 835ie was also always in tip top condition thanks to Moss Motors. I always refer friends to this shop!

Joe and his team of mechanics at Moss Motors are awesome. We’ve taken our VW’s to them for over 20 years with no problems, reasonable bills and reliable service. Even after we moved to Oakland, we still bother to take our VWs to Joe at Moss in San Francisco. They’re that good.

Check engine light was tripped after my friends borrowed the car. Brought it by to see what’s up, and it turns out they forgot to put the gas cap on. Luckily the team here had an extra one they sold me for next to nothing. I was on my way in 5 minutes — zip zap. Yay! Definitely going to be by with bigger problems next time. Keep you posted.

Moss Motors is knowledgeable and fair, they give it to you straight without fuss. They are efficient and trustworthy and the go to place for any German car care needs!

Joe and the team have been keeping me motoring for years in my VW and MINI. I’ve had regular oil maintenance, brake work, tie rods/​wheels, assorted gremlins and even an engine rebuild. Highly recommended for folks who want to work with real people who will honestly resolve your car troubles.

I have somewhat mixed feelings about moss motors. i’ve brought my car here twice. both times i asked them to look at the brakes, which have been making a hissing/​squealing sound whenever i release them. both times, the mechanic there looked and basically told me they couldn’t/wouldn’t fix them — that i should just ignore it and hope for the best. they assured me there was nothing dangerous about continuing to drive the car… but it still makes me nervous.
other than that, my experiences have been pretty painless at moss motors. they’ve fixed a few different issues for me, and they gave me an oil change. both times i’ve been there, my car was ready within 24 hours.
i’ll continue to go here for smaller things, but i’m considering getting a 2^nd opinion on the brakes issue!

My rear left wheel started acting up on my BMW 325Ci. As my usual mechanic is all the way in Palo Alto, I turned to Moss Motors for a neighborhood fix.
Not only were they able to fix my car same day, but their price ended being lower than my usual (very good) mechanic. $ 600 all-​in vs. closer to $ 700. More importantly, their recommendations matched my usual mechanic’s diagnosis of the problem on the phone.
When I got the car back with new emergency brake pads and rotors, the right rear tire was making a funny noise. George rode around the block with me then fixed it in less than 15 minutes.
Really happy with the speed, price, honesty and the willingness to correct. George is great. Recommended.
Only loses one star because I had to come back a second time.

I brought my car in for a regular look-​over. I found Moss Motors very patient and honest. Their prices are a little on the high side but sometimes it’s worth it!

I notice my review was deleted from Moss Motors. Nice work Unilocal… real nice.
Basically they botched a repair on my 2000 VW Jetta a few years ago that could’ve killed me. Only when it was taken to a body shop (hit while parked in SF) did ANOTHER shop discover their shoddy work.
I was reluctantly refunded 50% of my money. I will never trust these people ever again.

This place is seriously the BEST. I honestly don’t have enough good things to say about it. My VW is 10 years old and was overheating. I couldn’t drive it very far to get repaired, and I had just gotten married, so $$ was very tight.
It turned out my car needed a new water pump and a timing belt. Cost was just under $ 1000.
They were completely up front about costs, so we wouldn’t have «sticker shock» later.
Everyone was super nice, understanding and helpful. I can’t even imagine how much my repair would have cost at the dealer.
This reminds me of the kind of service you used to get in the «good old days,» when a handshake equaled a promise, and honesty was commonplace, not a luxury.
I have become a customer for life. and will tell EVERYONE about Moss Motors. Thank you all so much for everything!

Questionable service and business practices at best. Take your money and your VW elsewhere.

I certainly am not one to bad mouth a business that historically has provided excellent service for my VW.
However, I wanted to offset the many glowing reviews with this review to let people know what may be happening to their vehicles when they are supposedly being serviced.
I droped my VW off at Moss Motors to have the Head Lights changed out. As usual the service people were very helpful and told me my car would be ready around 3:30pm.
Now, normally I would call them before arriving to pick up my car; just in case it wasn’t ready. On this particular day I arrived without calling.
When I arrived at the counter at 3:30 sharp I knew something was wrong. Being that the woman behind the counter looked like she had seen a ghost when she saw me coming up to the counter. I asked if my car was ready. She looked at me like she was about to hurl or something and could only mutter a few unrecognizable sounds. I asked was there something wrong. She told me that my car wasn’t there.
Well, needless to say I was a bit confused. I asked what do you mean? She said that my car was out of the shop. About that time, I see my vehicle pull into the shop and a service tech got out with a box of parts; not headlights. He looked at me briefly and walked into the shop. I asked why he was driving my car. She told me that he briefly used my car to obtain some parts for other customers vehicles. Now I know that test drives are standard when service work is done. However, I doubt that replacement of head lights requires a road test. The woman behind the counter called the Owner. He very weakly apologize to me and said that there was no harm done and that the guy only «drive it around the block».
Driving a customer’s car for business use without the customer’s permission is wrong. Even if it was supposedly only …“around the block“
Be warned.

Found this VW repair facility on Unilocal after my usual repair place forgot simple things (neglecting to replace lug nut covers — 3 times!) or tried to get me to replace tires on my 2001 Cabrio. (Costco assured me they were fine.) Moss Motors resolved a «check engine» light for just over $ 150 (this repair was over $ 500 at the dealer several years ago) and suggested I wait another 4K miles to replace my timing belt at 75K. Shop is small, personalized, CLEAN — will continue to go here.
Educational handouts on the reality of tire rotation and getting your car over 100K miles — both great!

This shop is for people who are used to the dealer who are doing routine maintenance on recent cars. Anything complicated and you should go elsewhere. Actually, even for maintenance you should go elsewhere. I’ve been here many times, had them do lots of work on two different VWs, until I started learning how to do it myself and reading on the internet. Then I discovered how bad they were messing it up.
Joe’s labor rate is $ 110 an hour. Compare around and you’ll see very decent shops in the city charging $ 80 – 90. Why do they charge so much? Because they’re supposedly specialists in VWs. And people feel good because they hand you a sheet of information about what might go wrong with your car, or telling you that BMW doesn’t recommend rotating your tires so you shouldn’t on your VW. I’ve been in many times and always heard the same canned speech about my car. I took the speech and the sheet and I compared to the FAQs on sites like vwvortex and tdiclub and audiworld (the audi TT shares a lot of parts with the Golf/​Jetta). And Joe’s sheet is just really old data with lots of opinions that you will find contradicted elsewhere.
Joe goes home most days around noon leaving the junior techs to do most of the work. If you have an issue and want to talk to the boss, sorry you’ll have to come back tomorrow before noon. Except on days when Joe is playing golf or picking up his daughter. Totally respectable, but compare to SF Auto World or Don’s where the owner is there until 7 every day. I respect Joe’s choices and I see he’s raking it in and doesn’t have to work, but I’m sending my money to the hard working guys. Joe can keep scamming folks who are paying his high labor rates for average techs who went to a VW class to do routine 60k services on their cars. He’s still charging less than the dealer, so he has a nice niche and his customers are happy because they don’t know better.
Try disagreeing with Joe. He’s not interested in your opinion — his is right. He has experience doing oil & coolant changes on thousands of VWs, so he must be right. Again, perfect for people who don’t have an opinion about their car.
On my car, he charged me an hour to replace a shock mount. It didn’t sound right after it was done. I looked online, followed a how-​to guide, and did it myself in 20 minutes. And I’ve never wrenched on a car before, nor am I an engineer. Really! I was happy with myself, but then I was sad about paying so much to have Moss do this. Then I found the stripped bolts. Unless it came that way from the factory, Moss has been the only other people in there.
Also note: many bolts and nuts on VWs are one-​time use. There’s a good reason for this — you have to replace them. Once I got the suspicion I went and looked at all the ones Moss took out. They put ‘em right back in. A place that’s telling me I get 2% higher performance by not rotating my tires should be the kind of anal place that follows the VW instructions and replaces one-​time use bolts. But these guys just don’t care that much. At least not the «back office» (the lifts) where they really do the work.
Did you know there are hundreds of little rubber parts in your VW that wear out over time (they are rubber — it wears out)? Most of them cost $ 5 or so to replace. Did Joe ever recommend you replace one or two of these, taking an extra minute which they won’t charge you for since they charge to the nearest hour anyway, while he had half your engine or suspension apart anyway? Probably not. But I’ve had that experience elsewhere, and those rubber parts make a difference.
In summary, Moss makes itself out to be the kind of place that’s into Precision and High Performance and Safety and all that — a high-​end shop. And they charge like a high-​end shop. But what you get is run-​of-​the-​mill skills, and a sweet talking frontman who is only there when you drop off your car. Two stars for decent basic service (30k services, etc) but at too-​high prices. Minus three stars for acting all high falutin’ and not having the goods.
Final thing: Do not take your diesel VW here. If you have non-​engine work, take it to a regular shop — the suspension and transmission and body, etc are like any other car. VW does have their own special transmission fluid though (and it’s expensive), make sure people use that. If you have engine work, go right away to
and look at the list of good mechanics. Sadly there are very few in the bay area, but the diesel motor is very very special and finnicky and most shops (including Moss) don’t know what they’re doing with it.

Prior to going to Moss Motors, I was a customer of Royal Motor because my Audi was still under warranty. I have heard and read horror stories about Royal Motor once you become a regular, paying customer so I decided to try a smaller shop. A friend of mine recommended Moss Motors.
I’ve only gone once so far and it was a very positive experience. I had my car serviced, the oil changed and a bulb fixed. The work and charges were clearly explained to me over the phone and when I arrived to pick up my car.
The location is super convenient because you can walk to BART or easily catch a cab from there.
If you’re looking for a new place to get your car serviced, I would definitely give Moss Motors a try!

I first brought by ’91 Jetta to Moss Motors in ’94 back in the days of shop manager Dawn. It was so refreshing to be dealing with a smart, knowledgeable and totally cool chick rather than some smarmy dude who I was sure was ripping me off, as was the case with most of my experiences with auto shops to that point. Sadly Dawn left a few years later but Joe kept hiring kick ass ladies to run the show and this kept me coming back for 12 years. Even after I moved to Oakland, I still drove across the bridge to get my VW loved at Moss Motors.
I just bought my very first new car, a Prius, so I sadly won’t be visiting Moss Motors anymore, but I feel lucky to have had such good consistent car care for as long as I did.