Advanced Import Car Service

Left with more problems then when I got there. Looks like they broke a few things while replacing my coils without telling me. Also charged me for 2 hours labor when I was quoted 1 hour. Makes me wonder if they wanted me to come back to fix the issues they caused.

Worst place you can take your car to, the owner is a nice person but not a good mechanic, I took a bmw for oil change and to get rid of a noise I was getting, when I got my car back I was charged for the replacement of shocks and other parts that I had never approved to be put in, the noise was the sway bar that was loose but the mechanic was not able to find the problem

Found Franklin on Unilocal and called him up to discuss a problem that my friends Lexus was diagnosed with. She was about to be taken for a ride from a dealership that I will not mention, he was extremely pragmatic in his approach and built instant credibility with me over the phone. Fast Forward 6 months and my mother in-​law who is also a Lexus owner was having some issues with her car, called up Franklin and he skillfully worked his craft at a VERY reasonable price. A mechanic with less integrity could have easily given another diagnostic and we would have believed him. Would not hesitate to recommend him to anyone looking for an honest mechanic offering great value.

Love this place! I was referred by another friend of mine and I just can’t say enough great things about the level of service. Franklin is a great guy and I would highly recommend anyone to go there.

Very enthusiastic and honorable guy. I have a bmw 3 2001, one time had problem with smog check, because the dealer replaced a recall of air bag and cleared all data of on boarding computer. Called dealer up and they claim they would never touch the battery and have nothing to do with it. And won’t tell me what to do.
So back to franklin, he hooked up the odbii monotor, collect the data and found out rhe cat sensor has not got enough data. He told me to drive up to the near by hill and come back, it will be ready. Sure enough, it did. If i knew it, i wont waste all the time driving to the city and frustrated with it keeps telling me not ready.
Next time i always bring my car to Franklin for service.

Best mechanic I have ever been to. Replaced my parts in one day. Due to manufacturers error had to get a second replacement and they did it on warranty same day no questions asked.
Definitely recommended.

I had a catalytic converter, which was ordered elsewhere, installed on my Bmw. I dropped my car off in the morning and he was done by the end of the day. Very reasonably priced, very fast, nice, talented mechanics. The day before when I first pulled in front of the shop he Checked my car for codes and turned off service engine light too. Worked out a deal and I came back the next day. And thats that. Really nice and understanding. My car runs like brand new again. I will bring my car to them in the future. Thanks

Franklin and the crew are awesome. It all started 6 – 7 years ago when I called around for a timing belt replacement and Franklin quoted the best price. Since then, I’ve always brought my cars here and have done lots of major and minor services. Franklin really knows how to track down a problem and get you back on the road asap. He has always stood behind both the parts and labor on any job. On top of the quality work, both he and his crew are always cheery and a pleasure to talk to. I totally trust Advanced Import with my vehicles.

Today Franklin did me a small favor that meant a lot to me! Any other mechanic would of charged me for it! My cigaret lighter was not working, and he thought me not to use cellar phone charger on it because it will below the fuse! So he installed me a fuse and adjusted the pins that holds the cigaret lighter and showed me a new adapter that I didn’t know my car had for the phone charger and got a penny out of my cigaret lighter hole that fell in before and was stuck that maybe caused the fuse to blowout! All for free of charge! Thanks Franklin !

In the past I have been taking my BMW 325i for service/​repairs to the
dealership since it was still covered under warranty. Since the warranty
expired, I had to find a good bmw mechanic. I found Advance Import Car
Service. The nice part it was also located near my house so that was
a big plus. I called Franklin to schedule a overdue maintenance service and
he was able to get me in within a few days. I took my bmw to Franklin
in the morning and got by car back the same day in the afternoon. I was
very pleased with the service and the car runs great.

I’m the owner of the Lexus that Shelly M. wrote about and her review is 100% correct. I won’t add to the details other than to say, it’s really too bad that Franklin breached our trust the way he did. He truly seems like a nice guy and his mechanic actually did quality work on my car. He made a mistake though. A HUGE lapse in judgment. A mechanic should NEVER use a customer’s car for personal errands on the weekend, especially to the extent that he did. He abused my car to the point of completely trashing a tire. And then, when I picked up the car, totally blamed the problem on the car! He just had no idea of what we already knew. Bad karma.
Here’s how it looked the night I picked it up. It had 8,000 miles on it and was rotated from the rear 2,000 miles ago.
If you entrusted your house, pet or child to someone, abused them and then denied it, would you still consider them trustworthy? Of course you wouldn’t.
The bottom line is: use your instincts and trust your gut. It’s a better judge of character than Unilocal is!

Uggh– I really hate changing my original 5 star rating, but with what I experienced I feel compelled to relay the information. First let me say I think Franklin is a nice guy and is a competent mechanic. I don’t write this review out of any ill-​will, so here’s my story: My husband dropped off our Lexus IS300 on Wednesday night, it needed extensive work (catalytic converter, sensors etc) so we knew it would take several days, no prob. Franklin had our car over that weekend. On Sunday morning at 10:50am I got a call from the San Jose Police Dept asking if I knew who had my car. I said «yes, my mechanic» they then informed me that it had been reported to them that a man was driving my car recklessly and almost hit a pedestrian in the parking lot of a liquor store at Branham Lane and Ross Ave. The driver then preceded to park in the handicap space (we do not have a handicap placard) of the liquor store. The pedestrian approached the driver and said «hey, you almost hit me». The driver then called the person he almost ran over a «stupid pedestrian» at which time the person called the police and stated what happened and also mentioned that the driver «smelled of alcohol». The vehicle was gone before the police could arrive. At first I was thinking that maybe our car had been stolen, but after meeting w/​the police officer I was fairly sure based on the description it was Franklin :-(
On Tuesday Franklin called my husband to let him know the vehicle was finished and my husband went to pick it up (we hadn’t mentioned to him the whole «incident» yet). Franklin pointed out to my husband that the right front tire had an «alignment» issue. My husband was absolutely shocked to see the right front tire was completely bald, I mean there was absolutley no tread left! The tires only had 8000 miles on them and had recently been rotated, we know that it was not like that when we dropped off the vehicle. My husband kept his cool and immediately took the vehicle over to just tires down the street. They took one look and said there is no way that was done with just normal driving.
The following day I confronted Franklin with what I knew… the vehicle had been driven recklessly and because of that, the tires (and who knows what else) sustained damage. He did agree to replace 2 tires and have the car aligned. I went straight over to Just Tires and when the employee saw the tire he said, «Holy smokes, who did that?!» so you know it was pretty bad! After the work was done I asked the employee how the alignment was and he replied (not knowing anything about what happened) «it was pretty bad, it looked like the car hit something». YIKES! So since I don’t know what happened before or after the liquor store incident, I can only speculate that the car was possibly ran into a curb which threw off the alignment so bad that when it was driven further it wore that tire right down to nothing – who knows. I do know that he lost mine and my husband’s trust, which really sucks because I thought I had finally found a honorable mechanic. :-(

Terrific, honest mechanic! Franklin is wonderful!

It’d be impossible not to give this place a 5 star review. I had to get my 90k mile service done on my car and was waiting until almost 100k miles, because the prices were ridiculous everywhere I went. I wanted to get the timing belt and water pump as well, so the whole procedure was going to be pricy, so I needed the best deal. My mom and whole family goes to Franklin for their cars, and I remembered I also had him do my 60k, so I gave him a call. It was important for me to get my car done asap, because I was reaching the 100k mark, and my car was starting to need it. Plus, I commute in very bad traffic and pretty far for work and school every day, so I didn’t want to procrastinate any more. Franklin was able to get me in the next day, and he told me he could finish it by the end of the day. Most other shops told me it was a couple days work. I dropped off my car by 9, and he had it done by 3, timing belt and all! He gave me a good price, and he is a really cool and funny guy! No complaints at all. If you want good service, good pricing, and fast service, Franklin at Advanced Import is guy!

I’ve been taking my BMW 330Xi, BMW 325Ci, and Lexus RX300 to Advanced Import on Winfield Boulevard for many years. Franklin is a honest individual. I trust him and he has treated me well with a lot of good advice.
One weekend, my wife’s car had a fan belt break on Highway 85. The car was towed by AAA to Advanced Import. Fortunately Franklin was there and he had the car repaired by the end of the day.
The only issue I have in general is the lack of available parking space. However, it is located within walking distance to the light rail station, which is convenient for me. I normally will schedule an appointment, drop off the car early in the morning, and walk to the light rail station to get to work.

Had a check engine light come on after taking my car to another place for an oil change. Brought it in and Franklin asked me to come back in a few hours. Diagnosed the check engine light (oil change place had disconnected air intake hose), he also did my 30k mile service. Asked me to come back Tuesday to get my rear brakes done as he didn’t want to use sub-​par parts today. Truly a competent person. Looking forward to using his shop for all my car maintenance needs.

Love Advanced Import Car Service. I had a suspicious report of an oil leak by Goodyear when I took my car in for an oil change, after which I noticed the car was in fact dripping oil. Yet, it had never had leaked before. They wanted over $ 100 to replace an oil pan gasket. I said no thanks. I took the car to Franklin at Advanced Import Car Service. He put it up on the rack, cleaned out the oil that had leaked, looked around, turned one screw ¼ of an inch which was causing the leak. And my cost? Nothing. He said he didn’t «do anything.» Franklin’s my new Honda mechanic — hand’s down!

Franklin takes care of our two cars and my parents’ Lexus and Toyota. He is super honest and very reasonable. After so many terrible experiences with mechanics, it is so nice to have a great mechanic.

My car had been acting up for over a week, and I had been wary of taking into a shop for fear that it would kill my pocketbook. I drive a Jaguar S-​Type and every time I take it into the shop, for whatever reason, I come out with a bill that’s easily over two to three hundred dollars (even for minor things).
I took it into Advanced Import Car Service today (which I found on Unilocal btw) and was met by the owner Franklin. He hooks my car up to a diagnostic tablet and finds that my car’s computer had a few glitches which caused my car to drive abnormally. In total my car’s computer had almost 30 errors.
The whole process took about 20 minutes and my car was fixed. The best part was that he charged me NOTHING. He sent me home and told me that if my car continued to act up on the drive home to bring it back the next morning. Thankfully whatever he did seems to have stopped my car for stuttering.
He could have easily taken advantage of me and made some BS up about my car (like a lot of the shops in the area do). Instead he took time out of his day to help me out for free. Either way he’s made a customer for life and I would recommend his service to anyone who needs work done on their cars.

This was my first experience with Franklin. Talk about a «breath of fresh air»!
He is a real professional, and he explains exactly what the job entails. You automatically get the feeling that you’re dealing with a very competent person.
My car (2003 4Runner) was ready when Franklin said it would be. The noisy bearing has been replaced, and I have found a great mechanic. What a great feeling!