M & R Car Import Services II

No wonder they have such horrible ratings — in their advertising scam they put a huge sticker on my window so that I would be «forced» to get it detailed so that the sticker could be fully removed. Unbelievably unprofessional. Crooked business and dishonest people. It baked in the sun and I had to spend an hour scraping at it. Don’t ever go to these nasty petty people.

We brought in our older BMW because it needed new brakes and the rotors turned. After M&R thoroughly inspected the car, we found the problem was much worse that we thought. M&R gave us a detailed explanation of the issues as well as their suggestions for repairs. They let us know what repairs needed to be done right away and which ones could be done in a few months. In addition, they offered to top of fluids whenever needed. Taking a car in for repairs can be a very stressful situation, but the Moran’s immediately put us ease with their professionalism, knowledge and high level of customer service. Even though this was our first visit to M&R, they made us feel as though we had been working with them for years. We love it that they are a family-​owned business which has been in business in Chicago for more than 30 years.

I am writing this review to warn everyone here. Please do not think I am just another disgruntled customer. You can read through all of these reviews and think some people are just mad or ignorant and go here anyways.
Please do not under any circumstanced go here ever! They will take your car in for a small thing, tell you about another thing that is wrong. Charge you a ton for it, then you will have the same problem, they will charge you even more to try another thing. This will go on and on until you have had enough, go to a real mechanic and they fix it for half the cost one time.
This place may not purposely be stealing there clients money, but if they are not they are simply guessing what the problem is. Either way, you will have to be the one paying the bill.
They are friendly, but is $ 600 worth having someone be nice to you? If so, this is the place for you.

Hey maybe if you guys fixed cars in a legit manner you wouldn’t have to keep putting flyers out all the time, people would come back.

M&R is a family owned and operated car repair shop. When I first moved to Chicago, I lived right next to them and therefore had my car serviced by M&R. They were very efficient, even getting my car washed for me without charge. They take a lot of pride in servicing their vehicles as well as treating their customers with the utmost respect. I now live in a different neighborhood but continue to take my car to M&R because of their impeccable service. I would firmly suggest taking your car to M&R for service!

Mike and the entire staff and M & R have been incredible. This is the second time I’ve taken my Land Rover there and it has been the best service I’ve ever gotten. Everyone is ready to ask any question and is very helpful. Even better — the prices have been great! It’s true you pay for what you get, but in this case I feel like I got heck of a lot more. I’ll be taking my vehicles there for as long as I’ll live in Chicago; I wouldn’t go anywhere else!

I would not recommend this place to my worst enemy. Had an oil leak, went to Jiffy Lube on North Avenue and they highly recommended this place. They even had their business card and called one of the owner’s Mike Jr. for me — wonder why JL workers would be all over something like this? What do they get out of it?
I dropped the car off Sunday evening. Monday morning they sent me pics of the damages, engine oil leak, axle oil leak, tire that needed repair. $ 1200 only. Trusted them and they went ahead. Much to my dismay I only read about them on Unilocal after I said go ahead and couldn’t get the job stopped. Got the car back Tuesday.
Suddenly the engine seemed to be straining and idles unevenly, plus the car shudders around 60mph on the highway. Took the car back and lo and behold, suddenly there were 2 new issues with the car. The steering rack needed work and the engine diagnostic fault. About $ 880 damages.
Are these guys for real? They keep saying they have been in business for 33 years, but read the other reviews. It has taken some people years to figure out their MO. There’s even an ex-​employee that talks about how they rip customers off.
Do not be fooled by their friendly manner, the gold on the outside is a disguise for the dark on the inside. Actually, I will make a better suggestion — just avoid at all cost.

I am surprised at the number of bad reviews this business is getting. I live nearby and have used them several times with great results. The first time was a cracked windshield, which they promptly repaired at a competitive price (I called around to several dealers and it was essentially the same as the lowest bidder).
On our second visit, we had a very narrow window in which to get our plates mounted because we had to catch a flight, and the owner’s son, Mike, dropped everything to install the brackets and the plates. It took 15 minutes out of his day, and he didn’t even charge us anything.
The people at the front desk were very friendly and worked to accommodate my schedule. Some of these reviews are complaining about price. I would say that you may be able to find better deals in some parts of the city, but given the convenient location and excellent personalized service, I will always go back to M&R. Even if it means paying an extra $ 50. I know the job will be done well, and there is highly accountability (given it is a family business); which is hard to find in a car repair shop these days.

Alright, my father has been taking his car to this shop for years. I guess he did so simply because it was close to the house and it was easy for him. However, it seemed that everytime he came in, they found something absurdly expensive that was wrong with his car. So, I took it to Grace Auto Repair on Damen so they could give me a quote. It turns out that M & R Imports was charging my father nearly 5 times as much!!! It just makes me sick that they do this to people and used my father for so many years. They should be ashamed and I’ll make sure that no one I know will ever go there again. I hope they go out of business and the family learns that screwing people over will only hurt them in the end.

Chris and the rest of the family at M&R are the best. From their personal service to the quality of their work I couldn’t be happier. When I lived nearby they would even park my car back in my garage when they were done. Now even though I live a little bit further away, I still come for their sound advice and quality work.
I started taking my car here after becoming totally disillusioned with the dealership and I haven’t looked back.

Very disappointed in M&R car services. I have been going there for awhile and had always trusted what they had to say, but as I look back I wish I would have seen through these phonies. First off, I brought my car and it took them 2 days to diagnose a problem. Or was there even a problem at all? They gave me an absurd estimate and I decided to bring it somewhere else for another look. I drove 2 miles down the road to R&N Bavarian imports and told them the story. They couldn’t believe it. They said the car is completely fine and didn’t need the service suggested by M&R. Saved me 2k!

Hmm… Not sure why there are so many negative posts. I have used them several times, and they have been nothing but great to work with. Their work is always perfect (and my car has been in a couple of bad wrecks). I have never been nickled or dimed, and I find their pricing to be competitive.

I really wanted to like these guys — they’re super friendly and accommodating. Take this with a grain of salt — they just checked out the car, I didn’t have them repair anything.
However, when it comes to price they really fail. I took my 8 year old BMW 330xi in when the seat belt broke — and asked them to check a couple other things out for me. Well, they found a bunch of other things that were wrong. Let’s see — $ 316 to replace the battery? 2 other shops quoted me $ 150. $ 296 to replace the CV boot? The other shop told me the boot is fine, it doesn’t need to get replaced (also got quotes far less to replace it). $ 151 to replace the gas cap? $ 18 on-​line to buy a new one on-​line. So, if you take your car to these guys I’d recommend you call around to make sure you’re not paying way more than you need to

I cannot say enough bad things about my experience at M&R. The repairs were expensive and slow (and in some cases unnecessary). I brought the car in to have a coolant leak fixed (other than that, the car worked flawlessly) and left $ 2,000 poorer due to a whole host of add-​on repairs. When I got into the car I found peanuts spilled on the inside of my car (passenger seat, drivers seat and dash) that were certainly not from me (I am the only person who drives my car as I am single and I am allergic to nuts). Additionally, the lights in my dash didn’t work nor did my running lights and license plate light. Within a week my car developed a pronounced transmission fluid and motor oil leak — both in areas of the car which they worked on as add-​on repairs. I brought the car to them in perfect working condition for the entire 7 years that I have owned it (short of the coolant leak), paid $ 2,000 and left with a car that has electrical problems, and significant new leaks that never existed before. They further refused to correct the leaks that they caused without further charges. I would honestly say that my experience was so bad, I would not allow them to work on the car even if they offered their services for free. I question the honesty, integrity and competence of the staff.
On the other hand I have had over 4 years of consistently excellent service from Chicago Import on Clybourn which I highly recommend for their integrity (I frequently bring the car to them for top to bottom check-​ups with an open checkbook to fix anything that needs maintenance — and they always return it to me with a status update and little or no fixes).

This place has great, honest service. They charged me about 30% less than the place that I’d been referred to by my dealer. They were prompt & accommodating and extremely friendly. I am very pleased with their services!

I started going here when I needed to get my brake pads replaced. I chose them primarily for their location adjacent to the Brown Line. I could drop it off, hop on the train to work, and then pick it up.
At first they buttered me up as the wholesome family looking out for their customers to build loyalty and cement some foundation. They’d done a decent job — ostensibly — with my brakes as they stopped squeaking and responded much better than before.
Magically, however, my 2003 BMW 330i which never gave me problems until I’d brought it to M&R suddenly had problems every couple of weeks. The irony was that they insisted they’d accept manufacturer warranties and I’d asked them to examine the car thoroughly to see if there was anything I needed to address as the warranty was going to expire in about 40 days. They’d given Beam a clean bill of health, and said there were no maintenance issues that needed to addressed within the next six months so off I went.
About 6 weeks later, my window seemed to misalign itself and I took it in. They then told me that it would be $ 800 because my warranty had expired and said my on-​board computer, nav system technology, pumps, hoses, belts and such needed to be replaced.
EXCUSE ME? I have a receipt here saying «There no issues orupcoming maintenance concerns for at least the next six months.» And now, out of the blue, you have $ 3,000 worth of repairs within six weeks?
Once I shelled out the money for those repairs, my car had problems within a week. It would struggle to go from 1^st to 2^nd and 2^nd to 3^rd, but once it was in 3^rd it was fine. I brought it back in, had to pay another $ 800, and a week later, it happened again. I found out that the battery had loosened up – never mind how, the battery dwelling in my car is designed to house it tightly and securely; i’m not sure how it would come loose. So when I called to point this out, the technician told me to bring it in and they secured it for free. OK, what about the $ 800 I shelled out for you to flip a switch and loosen my battery? Any reimbursement? Nope. None.
Then a month later, while I was driving on the Kennedy, my fuel pump apparently caught fire — huh? how? — which was a $ 750 repair. I didn’t see any flames, but they said the pump caught fire quite badly. Hmm.ok.
The last straw was them saying that I needed a new Mass Air Flow Sensor which would cost $ 740. The quote listed the «discounted» price for an OEM sensor at $ 580, but when you look up who the OEM manufacturer is and the retail cost, it was $ 430. the DEALER quoted me a lower rate than this place!
I discovered that after auditing my receipts, they were routinely quoting 10 and 20% percent higher than published rates for OEM parts and freaking Perillo. Unbelievable.
I’m fully aware that since my car was five years old at the time, it needed some TLC, but how curious that all of these problems arise in sequence, and how curious that they overcharged me, and how curious that simple fixes could’ve remedied the ostensibly dramatic problems that arose.
Patty also would not release copies of my receipts to my attorney. Several phone calls and certified letters were ignored by the Moran family. Stay away — they will squeeze every penny out of you.

I have a 97 Volvo and moved to the area about six months ago. I started going to M&R because it specializes in European cars and is close to my home. I took my car there three times and had about $ 5000 worth of work done so I have pretty solid knowledge of this place.
First of all, this is a family owned business and everyone is really nice. And they have a free loaner car when your car is in their shop, which is also nice. Unfortunately those are the only two nice things I can say.
Otherwise, this shop is a complete rip-​off. They will nickle-​and-​dime you to death. Contrary to what another poster said, I was ALWAYS charged for diagnostics and «checks.» In fact on my last bill, fully one-​third of the $ 1200 in charges were just for seeing what was wrong with the car! I understand that shops don’t want to do free diagnostics and then never see the car again, but as I said I had $ 5000 worth of work done in six months so I think they were getting their money’s worth.
Even worse, they don’t really want to «fix» anything. if the slightest thing is wrong with something, they just replace everything and of course charge you a bunch for labor. I balked when they wanted to charge me $ 350 to fix a really really small coolant leak. Lo and behold I took it to another mechanic who just tightened a clamp and that was that… didn’t even have to replace the hose. Also wanted to charge me several hundred dollars to replace the hood latch (!). Took it to another mechanic who just bent it back into shape and now it is fine. Also they sent me a letter saying that my radio was getting «poor reception.» No shit, sherlock, it is a factory stereo on a 12-​year-​old car. I certainly need a new stereo, but I am not going to buy it from my mechanic!
I don’t know if they are incompetent, have no common sense, or whether they are really just calculating scam artists… probably some combination of the three. Probably they get away with it because they are in a nice neighborhood and people bring in their Mercedes and just hand them a credit card and don’t ask questions. They also do silly annoying things like offer to email you pictures of what’s wrong with your car. WTF? Just fix it. Also, the aforementioned letter offering to fix stuff on my car, for a 10% discount, but only if I bring it in by a certain date. Gimme a break. Also, every time they work on your car they put a license place frame with their logo on your car, without permission.
A place to be avoided.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON’T GO HERE!
After breaking down in the neighborhood, I took my car to this shop to have the car sorted out. After taking 2 days to diagnose the problem and driving my car over 50 miles by the time I got it back, they charge me $ 3000 for work on the car. 30 minutes before they said it was due back they told me i might have an oil leak. I chose not to get it done as I had waited 4 days and desperately needed my car for work. A week later I take the car back to get the oil leak fixed which had been quoted at $ 500. After three days of waiting I am told that there are millions of places that oil is leaking and I am charged over $ 1200 for the work. 6 months later I am getting an oil leak in 6 places fixed on my car and my new honest mechanic doesn’t think they did any work on my car at all.
DISHONEST BUSINESS, TERRIBLY RUN — PLEASE DON“T GO HERE — you will regret it.

I have been calling this place for an entire week, no answer and no voice mail available. Finally they answered, I took my car in and It IS A COMPLETE RIP OFF! Danger they charge 10 times more than it should and they charge $ 100 just to look, but then you have no choice but to give them the $ 100 and not apply towards fixing it because whatever they are going to fix will cost you $ 500, when it should really be $ 75. Ridiculous place. BEWARE!

I’ve gone here a few times and felt overcharged, but this last time took the cake. I went in for a basic service checkup, and in the end they came up with 6 separate «issues» requiring attention totaling over $ 4000. One of their recommendations was to replace 3 of my tires, even though I had done so just a few months earlier and had barely 500 miles on the new tires. I didn’t let them do any work on the car, and I took the car to Fletcher Jones. They reviewed the car, found NO issues, and charged less than 300 for a complete service check. So long, suckers…