Magazine Beach Shell Service

I’ve been here twice for a state inspection. No fuss either time — no wait, and done in under the quoted 15 minutes. Inspections are cash only (except for corporate vehicles), though their sign does say you can get change at the attached office.
Gas tends to be the among the most expensive in the area, even higher than the two stations at the intersection of River Street and Memorial Drive. As of today, premium is $ 2.69, versus $ 2.59 just up the road. The Sunoco on Mass ave is at $ 2.39.

State Inspection sticker: Efficient and courteous!

The customer service is very good and they are very nice, especially Ting, the person from the front desk. I had problems using the gas tank I just bought from Magazine Beach Shell Station and she came out to help me. She was very patient and polite. I highly recommend going there!!!

This service station is absolutely amazing. Their main mechanic, Phil, is extremely competent and courteous. I’ve brought my car there to be serviced multiple times and every time I go they have done a great job. A few months ago the muffler connection broke. They said they could order a new exhaust pipe + muffler (super expensive!), or just weld the old connection back together for way less money and it would be just as good. Last month, I brought in my car because the tires were making a lot of noise. They took a look and said it was uneven wear on the tires but not a safety issue at all, and that we could easily use the tires for a while without any issue. A lesser mechanic could have said the bearings and tires needed replacing and made a lot of money off of me, but their mechanics are honest and give you all the options. They even work hard to accommodate your schedule if you have to drop off the car after work and pick it up later that evening. I cannot recommend this place enough, if you’re looking for a good, honest service station, this is the place to go!

good times!

Moved to Cambridge in 2004, and took my car to these guys for the state inspection and I HAVE NEVER BEEN TO ANOTHER MECHANIC SINCE THAT DAY! The Best and Most HONEST men I have ever had the pleasure to run across in this sort of business. Don’t consider bringing your car to these fellas, JUST BRING IT QUICK. You will Not go Wrong.

Even if it is convenient, do not go to this business for your State Auto Inspection. With so many five star ratings you would think customer service is their top priority. That is not the case. After paying $ 35 to have my car inspected, I discovered the lid to my car armrest had been broken. I addressed this immediately with the attendant and he flatly denied breaking it and said it was broken before I came to the service station. This business responded extremely poorly to my compliant, acted defensively, and ignored any wrong doing. In addition, the interior was a disgusting mess of dirty finger prints and the sticky residue of the previous registration sticker was not cleaned off the windscreen. I called my auto dealership to order the replacement part. With it costing over $ 200 I will be filing a formal complaint against this business with the Better Business Bureau.

I’ve been coming here for 6 years and Philip has taken good care of my car. Oil changes, fixed a nail in my tire, all with fast turnaround and friendly service. On one occasion he suggested that I replace my tires due to worn treads and sure enough i had been driving on bald tires. I’m a fan.

This is a review for the State Auto Inspection Sticker service (I’ve never purchased gas here or had any work done on the car).
The service was excellent. As good as it could be. There’s a sign where you pull up and wait, it says «Inspection: Pull up here and wait, have your registration and $ 35 cash in hand, exact change». I waited there for about 30 seconds and a dude came up to the car and checked the lights. Then I stepped out of the car and he took it from there. 10 minutes later I was on my way. He was very friendly.

I discovered this place by accident when my car broke down near here. Since then I have been trusting my car repairs to Phil (for last several years). Phil has amazing skills of quickly diagnosing any kind of car problem and coming up with minimal cost ways of keeping the car on the road. If you have an older car and live nearby (located conveniently in Cambridge on Memorial Drive near BU bridge with a huge Shell sign — supposed to be historic), this is definitely the place to come for car repairs.

Been to this place twice and both times were very positive experiences. The mechanics seem trustworthy — I don’t get any kind of slippery feeling from them as I do in most places. In fact, they might be undercharging. I had my headlights replaced today, and they didn’t charge me for the parts, only the labor ($ 70). It’s possible that they are rolling the price of the parts into the labor — it’s hard for me to know for sure, but based on bills from other mechanics, $ 70 seemed reasonable for the labor. In the past I bought tires from them. I wanted to get the same tires I had purchased elsewhere previously that were twice as expensive as normal tires, and they tried to down-​sell me. Again — who knows what the margins are from their perspective, but it is an unusual experience to be down-​sold.
My favorite thing about this place is that they work so quickly. I brought my car in today with the headlight problem on a Saturday at 12 noon and got the car back by 1pm. Seems like there is no line at all, even on a saturday!
Also, as a woman, I sometimes feel that mechanics tend to talk to my husband instead of me, and I don’t get that feeling in this place.
I plan to go back for as long as I live in the area.

I got my car fixed here with a very good price. I was very satisfied with the excellent service provided at Magazine Shell. These guys are very professional and friendly. They got me parts cheaper than many other places. I highly recommend Magazine Shell for state inspections and repairs. Would definitely come back here again.

First Unilocal review and already got a voicemail (less than 24 hours after) complaining about what I wrote.
Why in their right mind a business would think it was a good idea to contact a customer and place the blame on them is really beyond me.
Not an apology for upsetting a first time (and definitely last time) customer but rather them trying to explain to me how I am wrong.
The voice mail was followed by an email, which turned into an email exchange. Each time I was told by the shop manager that I was wrong, that somehow this was my insurance companies fault and not his. What Andy, the shop manager, doesn’t know is that I work for an insurance brokerage and this my insurance related transactions are processed, at least in part, in house.
To clarify everything… when I went to this shop on December 17^th, 2013 to have my car inspected I was told by the technician that he would complete the paperwork and send the documentation to my insurance company. I asked him to send a copy to me as well, which I never received. My failure in this was perhaps assuming that the shop had done their job when I ultimately didn’t hear anything from my insurance company. Still, I went to this shop and paid for a service. How much I paid is inconsequential. Once I paid them the liability is on them.
I bought my car new last year. Had my car been damaged or god forbid totaled during this time I would be on the hook for $ 22k. That’s what this comes down to. Magazine Beach Shell made a $ 22k mistake. I took the liberty in writing this review and I was contacted about it and spoken to rudely for expressing my opinion.
I really should post the entire email exchange so you can see how polite I was to Andy and how I told him he was only making the situation worse by continuing to attempt to blame me and the insurance company and never apologizing.
Instead I further lowered his review to 1 star and I will let this review speak for itself.
As I told Andy, this shop has a lot of good reviews and does a lot of great work for other people, but they didn’t for me and that is all I have to go on.

Awesome service! I’ve come to these guys for a few years. I’ve been able to walk right in and have them take a quick look at something without them asking for a dime. They never push service and they never over charge. In fact, they advised me against getting something done that another shop said was required.
The only thing you should look for in an auto shop is honesty. These guys have it.

Awesome Awesome. I almost don’t want to give a good review, because I want it to be my little secret. :) I called first thing in the morning, and they welcomed me in same day. They had my oil changed, and my suspension fixed for $ 265. Very reasonable. I also applaud the fact that they did not try to upsell me ONE BIT. Thank you Phil!!!

So when my engine is smoking by the end of the day after a routine oil change I start to wish zero stars was an option…
Rant: Took my car to the shop first thing in the morning. They took 2 hours to do the change even though I had an appointment and they didn’t change the filter. (To be fair, the filter sticks and has done so before for other mechanics… however, other mechanics have always given me the option to try to force it at risk of breaking it which would make it undrivable until replaced. Here, however, they said I would need to make a separate trip out there another day if I wanted them to force it cause they wouldn’t have time to deal with it if it broke).
Fine. whatever. Go on with my day. I notice the engine sounds a bit louder than usual but attribute that to driving it with my radio off at first for the first time in who knows how long.
Driving to my friend’s house that night I hear a loud sound like a pebble hitting my windshield but no car in front of me… hrrrrrm…
Turns out that was the cap of my oil tank flying off as I was driving. Luckily it landed on the ledge above the engine and stayed there and luckily it was a short drive, but even after 5 mins of driving like that it smelled like burning and there was lots of lovely smoke and lots of lovely oil covering my engine and the various other innards of my car.
FYI– just cause they say they are open late, doesn’t mean someone will answer your call. Finally got through to the poor office girl and after the first few mechanics didn’t want to deal with calling me back the next morning, Phil called back and fit me in (gee thanks) the next afternoon (missed 2 hours of work all told for this). He claims to have cleaned all the oil off but we shall see if there’s any lasting damage. I hear the oil can corrode some stuff in there if it’s not removed properly… Here’s hoping they’re better at cleaning than screwing little caps back on.

This is right up there in my top 2 favorite gas stations OF ALL TIME. While we didn’t fuel up here, every time we passed, our eyes gravitated to the gnarly sign jutting out above the mainland.

I can’t give this place high enough marks. Phil literally just saved me one thousand dollars.
I have a 2005 Subaru Forester that’s in great shape. My check engine light was on, and during my annual inspection, Phil had a look. The diagnostic code indicated a problem with a part that was expensive and, he said, would be covered by warranty if within a certain date. We looked together, and it looked like I was just outside the warranty period – but before agreeing to fix it, he insisted I call Subaru headquarters to be sure it wasn’t covered. Surprise – it was!
So I took the car to the dealership to have the part replaced. After looking it over, they confirmed that the problem was with the expensive part, and said it’d need replacing. They said it’d cost $ 1000, and that it was not covered by warranty – they’d «checked.»
Well, thanks to Phil, I’d checked, too. I had them look again, and – surprise! – it was indeed covered.
If Phil hadn’t insisted I call Subaru headquarters, I’d never have known enough to stand up to the dealership, and I’d be out a grand.
No mechanic has ever saved me this kind of money before, and I’m not sure anyone else ever will. I’m incredibly grateful.
I’ll also add that he and his team very quickly diagnosed and fixed a coil problem at a separate time, and with excellent results.
All in all, I’ve been really pleased with the work, when work is needed – and when it’s not, I’ve been even more pleased with the down-​to-​earth honesty. Thanks, Phil!

Hard to pull out of onto Mem Drive because no one will let you out…

switched insurance company, so needed to get a checkpoint inspection done.
read some reviews and decided to give this shell a try. parked car, walked into the little snack shop/​mechanics reception area, and found 3 – 4 staff working busily on separate things.
a guy with a name tag of «Philip» on his jumpsuit was on the phone. seeing me there looking at him expectedly, he tried to multi-​task and asked what i needed. then he politely asked someone else to take care of me, though that someone said he was still in middle of something else – seems like the lottery ticket guy was talking logistics of some sort with him and another older gentleman. meanwhile, the cashier lady was busy dealing with a customer.
so i just stood there for quite a few minutes, enjoying the «organized chaos» happening in this tiny space, and watching the guy assigned to my job moving slowly between the two things he’s on. meantime, i was told to move my car here and then there bc there doesn’t seem to be a designated spot for inspections and stuff.
about 10 – 15 minutes later, the older gentleman hollered into the shop, commenting on how someone’s back there «doing nothing» while a customer is waiting. this younger guy came out and was mildly «amazed» that i was still there (since he saw me come in «20 minutes ago»). went on to mumble his thoughts about the guy originally assigned to my job for not getting anything done. he then assured me that he would take care of it and it’ll be quick.
hmm, seems to me a little blaming game happening here. but doesn’t matter now; just get my stuff done. another 10 – 15 minutes later, i was on the road again.
the short time that i was there, the people seemed friendly and polite enough for me to return shall anything else happen to my car in the future (i took Philip’s business card just in case!). the only thing i would like to see improved is having an actual waiting area for people who need quick car work done. currently, the only options available are: 1. stand and wait inside in an elevator-​sized snack shop; 2. sit in one of those two chairs right outside the shop. given the weather it was this week, i chose option #1.
not so sure about coming here for gas tho; it’s mad expensive. but maybe that’s just cambridge. haha
:)