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Family Auto Care
Category: Automotive Auto Repair Auto Repair [Edit]
400 Villa StUnit B
Mountain View, CA 94041
(650) 938-8288
- Hours:
Mon-Sat 8 am - 5 pm
$65 for $100 Certificate
Jason M. said: "I've taken 3 cars to this body shop and will keep going back for anything in the future. The customer service is awesome and the work they do is…" read more »
14 reviews for Family Auto Care
14 reviews in English
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Review from Andrew Y.
Palo Alto, CA
Updated - 9/10/2011
Last year I moved to San Diego and was forced to find new mechanic. The new location had some 45+ glowing reviews (average 4 stars) and many people attested to the honesty and quality of service. I took my car in because my gear-shifter wouldn't move off of "park" without manually pressing an override button underneath my dashboard. The new mechanic pointed out a large unit under my shifter and said it needed to be replaced. It was a dealer-only part and would cost $350, and another $45 for the work.
I trusted him because of the yelp reviews, but I didn't want to pay so much to fix it when I could continue pressing the manual override. I paid him $45 for looking at my car, and continued using the manual override.
Fast forward 6 months, and I'm back in the bay area for vacation. It's been a hassle finding the override every time I start the car, and I figure I'll take it in to David to see what he thinks. I begin describing the problem and not even 2 minutes into describing the problem he thinks he knows what needs to be replaced. An hour or two later, he tells me the whole thing did NOT need to be replaced.
"This is what's faulty. There's no need to spend $350 on replacing the whole unit" (I told him the last dealer said it was a $350 part). He got the faulty part for about a quarter of what the other dealership quoted me for the whole unit. There was also the service charge, but everything ended up costing less than 50% of what the other mechanic was asking for the parts alone.
Cheers to David!1 Previous Review: Show all »
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12/21/2008 First to Review
New place with great service and prices. Very friendly owner David runs the place. Very fun to talk… Read more »
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Review from Lindsay S.
San Francisco, CA
Updated - 1/4/2012
Went back today with a tail light out. It took them 4 seconds to fix it (thank god it was just the bulb), and they didn't even charge me.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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7/5/2011
When I was growing up, my dad owned an auto shop. He was acutely aware that his customers depended… Read more »
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Review from Kjell S.
Mountain View, CA
1/26/2012
Love these guys. Great work ethic, flexible, proactively showed me the parts that were replaced (after I hedged on if it was worth spending what it took to get my car back to a "safe" operating condition!), and also proactively did some math and shopping around to try to save me some money on the work they proposed. All in all I felt these were guys who objectively appraised my car's situation, sought to find the best deal or work around for me, and then did an excellent job of performing the service. That's pretty much exactly what i want from a mechanic - someone who's looking out for me and whom I can trust.
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Review from kate d.
San Mateo, CA
12/10/2010
I showed up here to get my car checked out because it was making weird noises from the engine. David sat down, asked some basic questions and recommended that we take it to the dealer. He was so upfront and honest, saying "I don't want you to spend money on something if you don't have to... it might be under warranty, have it checked out at the dealer."
He was exceptionally nice. I can't speak for his actual work on the car, because he never touched it. BUT he didn't touch it because he was HONEST.
I definitely would recommend him!! -
Review from Melissa H.
Mountain View, CA
4/26/2011
Good mechanics are hard to find, but I found one!
I'm fiercely loyal to a mechanic when I find a good one, Family Auto Care is only my third in ten years. I used to take my Mazda 3 and Toyota Tacoma over to Fremont Ford/Mazda and loved the customer service. Brian Nunes was great, but when he stopped handling customers I stopped going. The new girl jerked me around one too many times. The last time I made the trip, when she said she could squeeze me in, she had me arrive just as the guys were taking lunch. I had to wait an hour before anyone could even look at my car.
So, off to Yelp where I found Family Auto Care. It turns out the struts the new girl at Fremont Ford/Mazda wanted to replace on the Mazda, didn't need replacing after all. Makes sense since they weren't leaking. David at Family Auto Care took a look (after making sure the car wasn't still under warranty) and said it was just the shocks. So he replaced them and the two back tires that had been wearing weird because of the bad shocks, and my Mazda was good as new. He patiently explained everything to me and answered all my questions. He finished the work in less than 24hrs, a day early.
Thanks David for saving me money and telling it to me straight! Both my vehicles are going to your shop from now on. -
Review from Kat A.
Mountain View, CA
1/31/2011
My dad's best friend has his own auto repair shop and I have been going to him since I could drive (8 years) and I thought I couldnt find anything better. My friend moved away, had to find another place. Tried two places and NOTHING. I am a huge yelper and take everyone's opinion into consideration.
I see why Family auto care got 5 stars by pretty much anyone who went there. I LOVE DAVID, sweet sweet man. Very honest with me, for I know nothing about cars. I am a mechanics dream for I'll believe anything. He told me that even though my car was close to 30 K to wait since I dont drive it that often and to wait. Where as the shop before him tried to push me to buy things my car didnt even need.
David is a great mechanic and great business man. Please take my opinion into consideratioon and know that this is a great, reliable service. -
Review from Himani A.
San Jose, CA
2/11/2011
What an amazing place! The owner is super nice and really good at what he does. I called in at 5:10pm on a Friday because I had a flat tire. Even though the shop had already closed and all his guys had already gone home, he told me to come by anyways since it was an emergency. He fixed my tire in 15 minutes and his prices were very reasonable! yay for Family Auto Care!
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Review from hiral p.
Mountain View, CA
4/1/2009
David is awesome! He has worked at Volvo and BMW and is now starting his own shop. I have a '93 4-door Toyota Camry, which is the gift the keeps on giving at over 100K miles. I want to use it 'til it can't run anymore and invest only in safetly-related fix-ups. I explained this to David and he let me know what I needed to do on the brakes and quoted me a really reasonable price. I brought the car in on a Monday morning and it was ready at the end of the day. The autoshop has good proximity to the Mountain View train station (if your company has a shuttle, this can make a weekday trip easier) and Castro Street (if you can work from a coffee shop, this is perfect).
I enjoyed chatting with him his family and his business. I think he may be Buddhist (per a hanging in his shop). He is a family man and an overall great guy! -
Review from Caroline A.
Fremont, CA
3/28/2010
I never thought I'd find a mechanic that was honest, did quality work and was cheap. Seriously. For me, it was like believing in the tooth fairy.
That is - before I met David.
David was recommended by every single one of my coworkers. I thought, huh, that takes a lot. Then I brought my car in for a $19 oil change (less than Walmart). So far so good. Brought my car in for some weird noise from a belt - David took a look at it, sprayed it, gave me some advice, and didn't charge anything. Then I took my boyfriend's car in for some weird noise - he showed us it was the strut; repaired it in 4h, gave us the option of keeping the old part. We had compared with another mechanic, and David was 25% cheaper. My car then started making racing car noises - it turned out it was the muffler. What does David say? "I can't do this, you need someone who has the best equipment. I could charge you but it would be too expensive. Here's the business card of the guy who's a pro with this, get it repaired there." Can you believe that? He didn't just take my car, got it repaired somewhere else and charged me. He did what was best for me.
I can go on and on and on, but here's the gist: when my car needs something, he tells me straight up. When he doesn't think I should do it, he tells me straight up.
My best friend got into a car accident and needed to replace her Civic. She saw an ad for a Scion. Who did I ask her to take it to for review? David. The seller was there, saying nothing was wrong with the car. He tells him straight up: you're lying man. Shows everybody: see the bolts, and under the hood, see this distortion? This car's been in an accident, no doubt. She didn't buy the car - and he didn't charge for it "because she shouldn't pay money for a car she's not buying".
He's simply the best mechanic I have ever known. Coupled with honesty. He's a gem and I couldn't be happier to refer him to everyone I know. -
Review from Dilip S.
Santa Clara, CA
2/22/2010
i use yelp almost everyday in my daily life. but never had an account. this time i could not hold back without rating family auto care, so just opened my first ever yelp account just to begin.
i was going to buy a pre-owned car and looking for a reliable mechanics. one of my work colleague recommended this workshop and i called these guys if they have some time to squeeze in before closing. lucky me they said yes and i organized the checkup within an hour.
i was told David is an owner and was an expert in car body work, mechanics in Volvo, BMW. he looked into my prospective car and within few minutes he gave me decision making feedback. found out the car was in accident previously and the owner did a good job to cover up. he could tell slightest of reworks on any parts of the car without having to spend much time on it which my eyes would have never found out. thanks david, you are the savior.
highly recommend. i will definitely go back there for my future mechanics service. -
Review from Peter D.
Los Altos, CA
7/21/2010
I also showed up as we agreed upon, at 8AM ( actully I was there at 7:55AM) and he did not show. I called him at 8:30 and he said he was on his way as he was dropping his kids off. I respect that, but if he had told me to be there at 9AM I could have hung out with my child.
I think I would have had a better expereince if David worked on my truck, but I would not take another full-size truck here. I would take an import but most likely for nothing more than routine service. I had a brake job done and the other mechanic popped the piston out of the caliper. It is pretty standard to place a block or put a clamp on the caliper when the piston is being compressed back into the caliper to make space for the new pads, but this guy forgot. I had to wait an extra day for what should have been a 2 hour job as they felt they needed to buy a new caliper. I appreciated that when it did go wrong, David did go the extra mile to fix it. The price was good but I wont come back for anything other than a oil change. -
Review from Randhir V.
San Jose, CA
8/25/2009
I took my car (2000 Camry) to David because it was convenient. But now we take both our cars to him because we trust him. We thought we had brake issues on my wife's car. He gave us a quote, took it for a test drive and did an inspection - he found a metal part that was creating the noise and removed it. He didn't even charge a service fee.
He strikes a nice balance between taking care of your car and not sticking you with unnecessary "repairs". He knows what he is doing, explains what the issue is, has reasonable prices and his service is great. -
Review from Shashikant K.
Mountain View, CA
2/21/2011
This is right opposite my office. David is the best, and the most honest mechanic I've seen. I go there always, and have recommended many people to him. Don't need to say more.
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Review from B T.
Fremont, CA
10/14/2009
Great mechanic. Gave me all the information I needed to make a good decision. Let me know what he thought was necessary or what he thought was just recommended so I could decide on the services I wanted for my car. He's been honest with me every time and very quick with auto work. I take my car to David for all my maintenance now. Gotta love an honest mechanic.
