Zimmer’s Auto Repair

I own a GM car and Blaine made sure to tell me how horrible he thinks those cars are and my solution for repair is to buy a Toyota. In fact, those were the first words he said to me. He then called me Mr. Cadillac. Seeing as how much he hates them, it was insulting. I asked him to quote me an ignition switch so I could compare his pricing. He instead replaced the part without quoting me and then raised his voice with me when I reminded him that all I wanted was a quote. He said it would be done on Friday, and I had to call him on Friday at 4pm. He told me my car was in pieces all over his garage and wouldn’t be ready till Monday. I picked up my car on Tuesday to discover very long scratches in the paint along the side.

These guys will shoot you straight and give you the best service and price out there. Blaine Zimmer will explain to you exactly what the problem is so that you know what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. Every time he fixes my car, he keeps the broken part to demonstrate to me what was going wrong. You can tell that cars really fascinate him because he gets excited when he shows you the broken, rusty, damaged part whose removal just saved your life. Plus, they treat you like family there. If you’re around during lunch, they’ll offer you a taco. And that’s really nice in a day and age where so many mechanics just see you as a person to shake down for cash. Not Blaine. He’s old school Austin. Friendly, honest, and good people.

I’ve taken 2 vehicles to Blaine over the 4 yrs I’ve lived off South Lamar. I’m a pretty handy guy around a wrench but there are a few jobs that are just next to impossible to tackle without a lift.
I’ve always been treated fairly here. They will charge you the msrp for auto parts. Which every auto parts store will do. But they are a local business. Don’t be afraid to haggle. I have a discontinued Pontiac. The parts are hard to come by. An alternator was a whopping $ 400. Looked it up online and the msrp was $ 420. Although I did find a few for as low as $ 230 online.
I have faith in their quality of service for tough jobs. Hopefully it won’t be necessary, but if another big job arrises I will be back.

These folks are great. I haven’t had any major work done with them yet, but they have done routine maintenance on my 25 year old Nissan truck.
As a hobbyist mechanic who is also broke… I prefer to do smaller jobs myself. I went to Blaine and Zimmer’s when I bought this truck to have it checked out. He said «that things probably gonna have a leak anywhere there can be one.» Or something like that. And it was true, it did. But he has been a tremendous resource for me to educate myself about cars and has empowered me to do smaller fixes on my own.
These are not pushy sales people, and when I needed a special instrument to lower my spare tire and one could not be ordered, they custom welded me one! Talk about service.
Furthermore, they always seem to be able to make time for my needs and make me feel important somehow.

Zimmer’s is very honest and trustworthy! I had battery issues with my car and instead of selling me a new battery (which I asked for and was ready to buy), they told me that I was most likely still under warranty. They said I should check back where I bought the battery before buying one from them. Turns out, I was still under warranty. I went back to the place I bought my battery and got it replaced for free. Their honesty saved me $ 120. Thanks!

I’m visiting Austin for the summer, and this place came highly recommended to me by a family member of mine. I could not have been happier with my experience! Everyone I met at Zimmer’s was so nice, and they sat down and explained what they had done with my car and why I was having my problem. I will absolutely be using this place when I’m in town!

I was looking for a mechanic shop that would treat me like family.
I don’t like these mechanics that seem to be rushing through things to get to the next customer.
Zimmers’s was the first place I got the feeling that they where concerned about quality and took the time to make sure all was well with my car. They also get you in and out usually in the same day.
Blaine and Delva are awesome, they’ll treat you like one of their own.

I’m so glad I live so close to this place.
I used to think I had a pretty honest repair guy (also close by) but it turns out they not only fixed a previous problem incorrectly (which Blaine diagnosed easily), but they also quoted me about $ 600 for something that wasn’t even wrong with my vehicle. Blaine showed me everything that he thought had been done wrong, and why an expensive repair wasn’t necessary. It sure seems like the previous car repair place would have figured this out too, if they had only made the effort.
I also appreciated that Blaine suggested I get the very inexpensive part (to fix the actual problem) myself from Toyota rather than charging me to get it delivered and put it on. it was only a gas cap, so easy to replace.
Friendly, professional, and honest. I agree that the waiting area is nice, too.

WOW. Thanks to Unilocal,we found Zimmer’s and took our 1998 Toyota 4-​Runner in to for a look. The car suddenly sounded like it was running on straight pipes… no buffer on the exhaust. Loud and obnoxious-​like, we dropped the car off mid-​day and received a call from Blaine within a couple of hours. He asked if we’d had any work done on the catalytic converter because the welding work was slip-​shod, giving us any opportunity to take it back elsewhere for a re-​do. «Uh, no…» was our answer, his response, «Let me take another look, I’ll call you back.»
Before the end of the day, Blaine called; «Your car’s ready for pickup.» To our amazement, the (CAN-​DO CAR GUY) welded the converter back together and attached it, making the car sound better than it ever has since owning it. Honest, forthright, and knowledgeable is everything you want in a practitioner; Blaine did this repair for only $ 100.00!
Lucky him, :-/​whether he knows it or not… he’s part of the family now.

pro:
mom and pop
con:
I felt I was deliberately overcharged and received poor service too. I won’t go back.

My driver side door made a mysterious popping noise when it opened and closed. One shop off S Lamar told me the door check needed replacement. Although I believed the diagnosis, I wanted a second opinion and gave Zimmer’s Auto Repair a call.
The owner was patient on the phone and in person. He correctly diagnosed the problem (merely a loose screw) and saved me $ 150-​$ 200 in labor and parts.
Because his fix took only 5 minutes, he didn’t charge me a dime, even after I told him I’d gladly pay for the labor.
Zimmer’s is an honest, down-​to-​earth auto repair shop that’s earned my future business! Highly recommended.

I had a gas smell and took my car to another mechanic and they quoted me $ 1500 just to drop my gas tank to figure out what the problem was. I did not have the money at the time and boy am I glad that I didn’t. A little while later the smell was just out of control and I saw some really great reviews on Unilocal for Zimmers and it was super close to my house. I figured I would give it a try. When I got there they said that I had a very dangerous problem and they were going to immediately figure out what it was. At no charge they dropped my tank to figure out the problem, that day they got the parts and fixed my car, at half the price that the other place quoted. They also advised me to call GM and look into getting paid back because this is a recall issue on my car. WOW! I will never go to another mechanic again! They are professional, well priced, up front and will not try to pull the wool over your eyes!

My 2003 Honda Civic had this annoying rattling sound whenever I would start and stop my car. I also experienced a situation where my car was only capable of going 40 mph on Ben White at 5:30 in the afternoon… terrifying.
At first I called up Honda and took it in for a quick diagnostics test. They said I would have to come in a week later as they were booked up. Not exactly happy with leaving my car in limbo after my Ben White scare, I then took it around the corner from my place to Greene Auto Repair. Just thinking about it gives me a headache.
Greene Auto had my car for 5 hours, and when I came back to pickup my car and get an estimate they were «still doing calculations». I said no problem, and they told me to expect a call within the hour. I didn’t receive a call from them until the following evening around 5pm. They quoted me at $ 800 for various things. Not happening after experiencing their less than stellar customer service.
As I’m not particularly car savvy, I turned to Unilocal.Thank God for Blane and his wife, they are both so kind, honest, and accessible. He used an industrial strength wire to hold my exhaust shield in place, saving me hundreds of dollars. I also got my car battery and front break pads replaced, all for under $ 400. I should mention that they only had my car for the afternoon, so I wasn’t stranded for a couple of days without transportation.
If you are looking for an honest mechanic that will repair your car back to mint condition in a timely manner, look no further. These guys rock!

Thanks to Zimmer’s Auto Repair, my car is now in mint condition. After a misdiagnosis and completely insane incident at Sam’s Auto Care on S. Lamar, I had my car towed to Zimmer’s. Blaine helped figure out what needed to be replaced (my battery, not my starter), and thanks to him, I saved a ton of money and got the work done that needed to be done.
It is a little bit off the beaten path, off Thornton Road off W. Oltorf and S. Lamar, but they are definitely worth going to. Friendly staff, good service, I will definitely be going back.

This business would be great if it told customers its hour of operation I kept calling them because of their reviews but i guess i won’t find out how «great» they are.

All the reviews are true, Zimmer’s Auto Repair is the best! I decided to bring my Camry in based on the good reviews I read and I’m so glad I did. I had quite a bit of necessary repairs done this week and Blaine was able to get everything done quickly and now my car is running better than ever! I was able to use my extended warranty that I had purchased when I bought my car used. Glad I had it since the work needed was pretty extensive. Like I said, car runs smoother than ever thanks to Blaine! His wife is wonderful, too! Overall, my experience was great at Zimmer’s and I will be recommending anyone that owns a Toyota, Honda or Nissan to his shop (those are the cars he specializes in).

Recently, my 2007 Ford Ranger would not start — lights came on, but engine would not turn over. I looked up the «most honest mechanic in South Austin» on Unilocal,and at the top of the list was Zimmer’s Auto Repair off South Lamar. I called them up and got the owner Blane himself. I told him my «expert» opinion that my starter was out. I explained that I had a new battery and all my electrical was working so I was sure that part was fine. I wanted to have it towed in to his shop so he could check it out.
Blane asked how many miles I had on my truck. I told him 72,000. He said it was unlikely that the starter would be out with mileage that low and he told me to check the battery cables. He said they were probably just loose and not making a strong enough connection to start the engine. So, I went and did that — and VIOLA! They were loose as heck. I tightened them up and my truck started right up. Wow! He could have had me tow it in, replaced my starter or who knows what, but instead, he gave me great advice and I did not spend a penny. Go see them if you EVER need auto work. Their ratings are high for a reason. Yay. Happy ending.

Honest, reliable, intelligent and courteous… There are no shady undertones just tried and true expertise. The office is very clean and beautifully decorated… even the bathroom is like a showroom… waiting for your car to be ready is not a depressing dirty corner with old coffee and bad TV… rather calm, sweet smelling leather sofa… Blane is awesome and his wife Delva is very accomodating… I cannot say enough about this place… to be able to take my car somewhere that I trust and even enjoy is priceless!!!

These nice folks fixed my tranny issue, no questions asked!
Really though, apparently there was a puncture in my transmission pan for WEEKS and when I finally noticed the leak my baby started making this awful sound. I called them up late afternoon and they took a look at my car last minute and gave me the bad news about what needed to be done on it.
Delva answers the phone while her hubby gets his hands dirty.
It took a few days longer for the part they ordered to come in, but that’s not their fault. I took it in this morning, waited about 2 hours, then done and done.
I felt very comfortable here and they were nice and didn’t try to upsell anything and were just all around decent folks.
What they charge for labor is about typical to other places, but I’ll go here again knowing they will give me and my tranny (how many tranny inyourendos will I make?) all the attention we need!
This place is nestled in a cute neighborhood off Lamar and Oltorf, totally secluded. They should do you good!

Disclaimer: the Zimmers are old family friends.
That being said, they will treat everyone like old family friends. Blaine is the best mechanic I know, and he will be upfront with you and try to explain the situation in layman’s terms. He will also try to fix your problem the cheapest way, instead of getting you to buy all these parts you don’t necessarily need, like other garages would. I was recently in a car accident, and after getting a quote from a different place (it would have been about $ 1000, plus any other problems they found once they fixed the first problem), Blaine was able to fix (if not completely, 99%) my car for half that price.
Judging from the other reviews, people feel the same way I do about Zimmers. I am and will keep giving my business to Zimmers Auto Repair.