Dave J’s German Car Service

Dave J is always friendly, reasonable, professional, quality and the list goes on. Father has been going here for years. You lose nothing compared to dealer.

Let me preface my review by saying that I think Dave is a very nice guy, and even though we must have had a miscommunication, I still think he’s a great guy and would give his shop another try.
Here’s my story.
I have an older diesel Mercedes, and one of the metal fuel lines rusted through and was dripping diesel. It was a pressing problem. I came to Dave, and he put my car up on the lift right away to have a look. Upon discovering the problem, Dave talked with another mechanic that works for him and said he can save me a lot of money by replacing that fuel line with an all-​copper fuel line custom-​bent to the shape of the original fuel line, so it will never rust again. Since copper is pliable, he wouldn’t have to remove the rear subframe (which is the costliest part of the repair) to install the new line on the fuel talk.
I agreed to the plan of action and scheduled an earliest available appointment with Dave (a week from the day I visited).
When I brought the car in for the appointment, Dave’s assistant told me I’m not in the book, and he totally forgot about the fuel line job we discussed. So we negotiated that I’ll just leave the car with him, and he’ll get to it in a couple days, as soon as he has time, and he agreed.
While the car was at Dave’s, I went on an overseas trip for a week. Upon my return, I called Dave J’s to see if the repair was done, and his assistant told me the repair has NOT been done yet, apologized and said he’ll get right on it.
After that phone call, they had the car done next day. HOWEVER, he didn’t replace the entire fuel line with the copper line like he told me he would — he simply cut the portion of my original fuel line out that was rusted and put on some rubber tubing to connect the gap in the old lines. I paid $ 160 for that — which is something I could have done myself for less than $ 10. I wanted a professional repair — to have the fuel line replaced — and that didn’t happen here.
In the end, I’m not sure what happened. I felt like I was not an important customer and that I was forgotten, and that’s not a good feeling when you pay money for the service.
I give this shop ³⁄₅ stars at this time (meaning A-​OK). They fixed the problem, but it was a temporary fix, not what was promised, and they forgot about me. If/​when I return to Dave’s in the future, and have a better experience, I will be happy to update my review and change the rating. But as things stand now, this is how I feel based on factual evidence of what happened.

Dave J’s German Car Service is run by Dave J (lead mechanic and owner) and his wife Kathy (who runs the front desk) and several other mechanics who work under Dave.
First of all, the name is a bit of a misnomer (which I suspect is simply about licensing, etc.). Dave J’s is a MERCEDES shop. (I’ve never seen any other German cars there.)
But, it is an awesome Mercedes shop. Why? Because Dave J is both a skilled mechanic and honest/​fair. So many mechanics either are incompetent or crooks, that we felt like we won the lottery when we found Dave J.
We took our classic Mercedes to him for 7 years (2000 to 2007) and he kept the old girl running.
The shop is a little out of the way and it is nothing to look at (not much of a waiting area, etc.), but if you are looking for a skilled, honest, fair, affordable mechanic to work on a Mercedes then he is your man! Honestly, I can’t sing his praises enough and I’ve never been as happy with any car service as I have been with Dave’s work.