Express Auto Center & Transmission

So today on I my way Home from work, my car began to make a noise. I was terrified all I can think of was I’m going to need a mechanic and it’s going to cost me!!! The sad part was I just bought this used car my dad has been using this mechanic for a long time. So I came in and got my car checked. Turns out the noise in my car was just debris my car picked up on the road!!! Completely harmless. So Case and point I was willing to pay to get my car repaired and my mechanic was very honest and let me know there was absolutely nothing wrong with my car. I recommend this place hands-​down!!! fairly priced and yes very honest. and my dad says all the work they’ve ever done on his vehicles has been outstanding.

Once we discovered Peter and Express Auto Center, we’ve never gone anywhere else for our vehicles. Peter is always willing to help, even the time we stopped by on a Sunday. He has refused to charge me a few times, when I may have been overreacting to a mystery noise that wasn’t really anything to worry about, and has always been honest with us. He is also pretty fast — usually we get our vehicle back within the day. We definitely recommend Express Auto for whatever problem you need fixed.

They fixed my vehicle and did what they said they were going to do when I made the appointment. They all seemed nice to me; other reviewers may have found the staff ‘eccentric’ but I prefer quirky honesty to smarmy deception or dishonesty any day.
P. S. I read Mark’s review and have to agree it was likely the tires; I had some that hummed on my antique van.

I came to Carlsbad from San Francisco for school knowing the alternator was bad, it finally gave up on me, dealer was going to charge me 550+Tax for the parts and labor. Peter charged 315 out the door and finished it in one day. All in all, if you care more about saving money to fix a simple problem, this is the place to go!

These guys are honest and fairly priced compared to other places. I had to get my door lock replaced so I bought the part and had them put it in and I had the car by the end of the day.

My 3 star rating is due to the fact that these mechanically challenged mechanics get a 1 star for skill and 5 stars for effort and honesty.
The thought had crossed my mind to replace the bearings on my car myself but my laziness won out over my chintziness. Well… not completely, I mean if I really wasn’t cheap I would have taken my car to the dealership but in my frugal wisdom I took my car to Express Auto Center.
When the entertainingly cranky owner, Peter, told me they could do the job for a quarter of what the dealer would charge I shoved the red lights going off in my mind behind the $$$ signs of saving I saw in my eyes. I knew it was a gamble but everybody likes to let ‘em ride once in a while right? I also quite intuitatively surmised that Peter, with such a strong German (I think, or maybe Armenian…) accent would surely by geographical kinship alone be mechanically preferred to work on my German engineered and built vehicle.
I soon realized that the incredibly low cost of the repairs was apparently due to the economical indentured labor that the clean handed, Hawaiian shirt wearing owner employed.
Peter assured me that «it was most likely your tires». I told him the sound didn’t change even when the tires were rotated. He said he would be happy to change the bearings if I insisted.
Well, although short-​lived, I was pleased when my car was ready so promptly at five o’clock just as promised. Although, I almost profetically did ask, «so my wheel isn’t going to fall of or anything, right?»
As I drove off with a noticeably louder creak than I was accustomed to I comforted myself with the thought «things just need to settle in» and I promptly accelerated onto the freeway to 135 mph to let things work there way out properly. At that speed the whomp, whomp, whomp sound at low speed that had accompanied the new creaking just became a reasuringly loud humming that reminded me of the cabin droning of an aged C-​130 plane. Convinced that the wheels were not in fact going to be flung off now and the creaking did seem to be scared into submission I slowed down and continued on my way.
Unfortunately the whomp, whomp, whomp and creaking also continued. So a few days later I returned to Peter and he reassued me that «it must be your tires». I said that of all the sounds that I was familiar with that a tire can make, creaking and clunking were not among them. So he reluctantly told his guys to check it out.
I decided to stand close as the car was lifted which allowed me to catch the worried look on the mechanics face when he rocked the tire and it quite obviously clunked back and forth. Needless to say the wheel was close to falling off which my 135 mph experiment would have proven if I hadn’t cut it short. I was then ushered away and informed that it was just a nut that happened to have come loose. Nuts do get loose I said kindly. This nut being the large 2″ wide main nut that holds the whole thing together.
After they dutifully spent some 10 mins. torquing that nut till the whole car rocked on the lift we went for a test drive. The familiar whomping, droning noise continued but the loud creaking and clunking did go away now that the wheel was strongly attached to the car with generous amounts of «locktight». This apparently being the original problem since German engineering had not learned the importance of south of the border locktight generosity and ingenuity.
Back at the shop, after an extensive examination, for which I am grateful, it seemed that no amount of locktight would be able to remedy the whomping sound. At which point Peter knowledgeably informed me «it’s probably your tires».
He is probably right of course…
The strangest thing… I’m pretty sure I’ll go back to them. Overall they make up with honesty and effort for the mechanical prowess they may or may not lack. Who knows, the same thing might have happened at the dealer but I would have gotten charged $ 2k for it.