The Engine Company, Inc.

I tried to settle with this guy and the credit card company for the improperly installed transmission that another auto shop showed me what he did wrong but he lied about it and I got nothing back. My car still has transmission problems.
Another note — I overheard his wife telling someone on the phone she was going to forge the documents from parts companies they had because their warranty had expired. This way they could return them and get credit. More proof this is a dishonest place.
PLEASE DO NOT GIVE THIS GUY BUSINESS!!!

Hard to know where to start because there are so many negatives! Doesn’t even deserve one star !! BE WARNED DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES WASTE YOUR HARD EARN $$ AT THE ENGINE COMPANY!!!
My story… about 3 years ago totally feed up with our local Toyota dealership and not wanting to always drive to the dealership in Ventura I found Peter. CURSE THE DAY‘ The first service was simply installation /​purchase of a new battery. Here I was introduced to his extensive time consuming explanations which i initially appreciated but came to dread when the issues involved became more complicated and it appeared to me he was more trying to convince himself that he knew what he was during in his attempts to explain to me what he was doing. Not exacting confidence building… but heck he was obviously trying hard so let it pass, right? WRONG THAT WAS MY FIRST MAJOR MISTAKE WHICH ENDED UP COSTING ME DEARLY! READ ON…
He did a masters sale pitch on me convincing me that my Toyota Camry needed synthetic oil~ tripleing my oil change cost ~and not even including a tire rotation with the service-​which is standard procedure everywhere else. I have since found out that this is just one of his many money making scams to over charge customers for unnecessary services. According to the majority of Trustworthy /​Honest mechanics in town, whom I have since conferred with on this issue, my Toyota Camry’s does not warrant the extra expense for synthetic oil.” LOL it is not a high performance BMW Mercedes or the like. ” Per the former if it did the manufacturer would have recommended it! Logical right…
Next new rotors I had installed had to be soon replaced because they were defective. Supposedly arrived defective, WARPED! He then went to great lengths he show me how one can determine a warped rotor… what can I say… then why the F**** did you install them ?!
Didn’t you test drive the car on the freeway. like I did at 80 MPH and get the living daylights shook out of you. like I did. Why did I have to discover the defects on my own? ISNT THAT YOUR JOB?! In fact every single job I had done with Peter had to immediately be redone because of faulty parts he had had delivered! After the second time this happened the alarm bells should have started sounding in me but again Peter’s manner of apologizing profusely and of course he would guarantee all the work and not charge me double for the labor but what about the inconvenience of having to again bring my car in and leave it for at least 1 – 3 days, with no offer of a rental or replacement vehicle?
Another repair~Replacement of the High Pressure Power Steering Hose ~ left me with a strange noise which his mechanic claimed was not there and which he ’ Peter needed two weeks and three return visits from me to finally diagnose correctly. Migeul his mechanic had not replaced the hose in the correct position which was causing it to rub against some other part which was in turn caused the disturbing noise which was always present and totally annoying.
Yes eventually he found the mistake, did not charge me extra to find it, Wow how generous of him~ but what about the inconvenience of me having to bring my vehicle back to him 4 times before he got it right? AND AGAIN THE HOSE HAD TO BE IMMEDIATELY REPLACED BECAUSE IT WAS DEFECTIVE! Wow, Peter maybe you should change the company (s) where you buy your parts?! Am I cursed or are you simply doing business with bad suppliers?
And Now to the Grand Finale and the motivation to finally break all ties with the Engine
company and it’s owner. UNAUTHORIZED WORK & TOTAL FAILURE TO FIX AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM WHICH HE DECEIVED ME INTO BELIEVING HE HAD THE COMPETENECE AND MORE IMPORTANTLY THE EQUIPMENT TO DIAGNOSE!
PART I. At my last visit to the Toyota dealership in Ventura I had the 90, 000 maintenance service performed. Even though my water pump had no leaks it was recommended that it be replaced with the standard 90,000 timing belt replacement.
!0,000 miles later, now with Peter, SAYS that my coolant needs to be flushed. Logically right because normally at 100,000 this is required. I clearly inform Peter that I do not see the need for this service because the coolant had just been replaced at 90, 000. { Coolant Flush is recommend per Toyota 50,000 miles after the 100,000 flush IN MY INSTANCE IT OCCURRED AT 90,000 MILES}.NOT ONCE, NOT TWICE BUT THREE TIMES I TOLD HIM NO THANK YOU. The third time he simply had his mechanic do the work anyway. yes without my authorization. Having a medical emergency at home i did not notice what he had done until a few days later and am now in boiled with my banks claims disputes. NOT FUN.
THERE IS A PART TWO WHICH IS 1,000 TIMES MORE HERRIFIC BUT WHICH I CAN NOT INCLUDE BECAUSE Unilocal INFORMED ME I HAVE REACHED MY WORD LIMIT.
SO my Unilocaler friends contact me per. message if you want to hear more… SAVE YOUR SELF, YOUR FRIENDS /​FAMILY, HECK EVEN YOUR ENEMIES FROM THIS BUSINESS…

Peter always explains to me all of the repairs needed and gives a detailed list of upcoming repairs too! So great to know he is keeping me and my family safe on the road!
I highly reccomend the Engine Company!

Nope no and no. I will never go back to this place. The owner had my car in the shop for almost 2 weeks, and began doing things and THEN telling me how much it was going to cost instead of telling me a quote first and letting me decide. He was very sweet at first, but he is conniving and will over explain things to attempt to compensate for overcharging you. I called a few other mechanics in town after my ordeal with Peter and they all said he is known for screwing people over. Don’t be a fool like myself, and do your research.

Please save your time and money. He is a very nice guy but they have done more damage than good to my vehicle. Do your research and find a quality mechanic that actually knows your car and will not rip you off.

Peter is a great guy and was very informative with the issues concerning my van. Better than fair pricing and a real gear head!

I’m a physician in Santa Barbara and wanted some good care for my 2001 Porsche Carerra which was in need of a tuneup and a thourough investigation into a strange sound that came from the left rear area of the car. Peter seemed very knowledgable of the vehicle and was patient with me describing what he felt needed to be done. I left the car there for the day and when I returned I again received a detailed explanation about what was done and the condition of my vehicle. He let me know exactly how much time I had before the brakes needed service. He had read through all the stored fault codes and determined everything to be fine. My oil was changed and the throttle body cleaned. The car was then extensively test driven but the left rear noise dissapeared and has never returned. I feel well treated and I feel that Peter is both knowledgable and trustworthy and my bill was very inexpensive. I will be taking my beloved porsche back to Peter in the future for any service or repair that it requires.

If you want to get ripped off, go here!
This place is horrible!!! I had the worst experience with them ever… so bad that I had to bring them to court because they refused to give my money back after I paid over and over for the same issue to be fixed and they never fixed it! The problem would temporarily go away and then within a day come back…
If you don’t know what the problem is after a span of 3 months… and you don’t bother being accommodating, by offering a rental car so the customer can at least get to work. then just admit it and let someone else work on their car, who actually knows what they are doing. instead of draining customers bank accounts while you play the guessing game on how the fix the issue…
I had even filed a complaint about them on the BBB website. and their responses to my complaint were filled with lies, just so they could keep my money they didn’t deserve… ewwwww
I ended up bringing my car somewhere else, who offered a rental car and then fixed the problem in 1 day with no problem.
I won the lawsuit and then they appealed it and I won again, they owed me more the second time around… just don’t go here…

About 6 years ago, I drove my ’93 Honda Prelude into the Engine Company’s garage. The car was spewing smoke because I had stupidly trusted a tire shop mechanic of little integrity to replace the timing belt. The car was in pretty bad shape. Peter was quite honest in his assessment that it would take more money to permanently fix the problem than the car was worth. So for the last 5 years, he has with great patience, and what can only be described as mechanical magic, kept the car running at a much cheaper rate than replacing the timing belt and fixing the valves would have cost me. I really appreciate that every thing he did to the car he explained in meticulous detail to me. Every estimate he gave me vis-​a-​vis time spent on the job and cost was spot on, and the work was always finished on time. Peter would also drive me to work as part of the service.
Last year, even with his great efforts, the car simply wouldn’t pass smog. Not only did Peter go the extra mile on the internet, finding me the paper work to trade the car in for $ 1,000 under the California Vehicle Retirement Program, but he also found me a ’95 cherry condition Infiniti Q45 for the exact same amount! So basically, I ended up getting that car, in near perfect condition, for FREE! It didn’t happen over night, as I had him hunting around for about 4 years, but the fact that one car paid for the other was nothing short of AMAZING!!!
I would and do recommend the Engine Company as a slam dunk to all my friends. In this world where mechanics have a reputation as rip off artists, it’s comforting to be able to take my car into the Engine Company and know exactly what to expect. They are professional, courteous and most importantly, straightforward about everything. I won’t take my car anywhere else.

We have had nothing but positive experiences with Peter and his company. They go the extra mile to please the customer. You get what you pay for.

Absolutely Horrible Service. I had my Subaru engine rebuild there. Half the engine was replaced as suggested by Peter because he claimed it would last another 100,000 miles. I got another 6 months out of it before it started having problems. Big problems. I had to have the engine rebuilt again because of a blown head gasket. While my new mechanic was taking it apart he found missing parts, wrong parts, and parts put back in the wrong place all over the engine. 6 months after that my car was in the shop again to fix more problems from Peter’s rebuild. I’ve had to replace half the parts Peter put on. I’ve tried contacting Peter to get his side of the story multiple times and have not heard back.

This place is running quite a scam. Twice during my visit, the woman who handles billing lied to me. She also tried to sell several expensive extras that my car does not need, including pricey synthetic oil. They charged twice what the same service would cost at Big O Tires or any mainstream service center. To their credit, the mechanics did seem quite competent and thorough. Save your money. Find an honest shop.

I found the engine co. 10 years ago and never looked back! Peter (the owner) is great mechanic and very nice man.
I can usually get my car in the same day. My standard experience is that I call in and he tells me to «just bring her in». I pull in and am very promptly greeted by Peter. He takes a quick look and takes my keys. He rings my cell (usually about an hour or two later) and tells me whats wrong. I go back to the garage and he walks me around, through, and under my car giving me details on whats wrong and what will happen if I chose not to fix it. ;)
He prints everything out and gives me a quote. When I get my car back he has had it cleaned and personally test drove it to make sure its ready for me. If you don’t want an Engine company license plate cover you should speak up.
Over the last 10 years he has been very good to not only me but now he services my whole family and most of my friends.
This is an especially good mechanic for woman. He will explain everything about your car in painful detail.