Mini Werks

These people are legit! I went there because my service engine light came on. I didn’t have an appointment.
Andy and Brandon checked out the service code, reset it, and went on to work on my car while I waited, adding oil, cleaning all the connectors, etc. This went on for a good 20 minutes, they were really thorough!
When they were all done, they said, free of charge because it wasn’t anything serious. WHAT? Amazing, honest, and really great. They asked that I promise to go back whenever my Mini needs servicing. That goes without saying!

Great place to get service for my 2004 Mini. We’ve had it in twice: once for routine service and once for repairs. Andy is excellent to work with. He’s patient, informative, and explains issues as simple or as detailed as desired. He uses quality parts and shows the replaced, failed parts without being asked, during and after the service is complete. Very knowledgable about different components among different Mini models and vintages. If you want to avoid the absurd after-​warranty costs of service at a Mini dealer, Andy is your guy.

Andy knows his stuff. Doesn’t try and repair things that don’t need repairing. Prices are reasonable for the area. We are lucky to have Mini Werks in San Carlos.

I’ve taken my Mini to Andy on a few occasions now. I even brought my car here when I could have taken it to the dealer and have it fixed there for free (yes, he’s that good and easy to work with).
Andy is knowledgeable, honest, responsive and careful with his work. I thought I needed major work on my car because of this awful noise I thought was coming from the transmission. Nope, said Andy. Get a different brand of tires, and don’t let the tire shop sell you on alignment, the car doesn’t need it. And he was right!
I trust him and am very glad that my Countryman is in good hands.

I’ve taken my 2003 Mini Cooper to Andy on two separate occasions. I’m particular on whom touches my vehicles and I will say that I will only bring this car to Mini Werks. He is very honest and will not try and tack on work that is unnecessary and is very efficient with his work. He is also very knowledgeable and will even show you what went wrong on your old parts.
Bring your vehicles here and you will not be disappointed.

I was so happy to find Mini Werks in San Carlos! They know everything about MINIs, are honest, trustworthy, and price their work very fairly. They know the details of every MINI version, from the first generation R50 & R53 that came out in 2000, through the 2^nd and 3^rd generation models, and the unique reliability and mechanical issues of each variant. On top of all of that, Andy, the expert mechanic at Mini Werks, is a pleasure to work with. Great, clear communication. He’ll tell you in a straightforward way what you really *need* to do to care for your car now, what you can safely wait to deal with later, and how to think about tradeoffs in the service you do. Mini Werks is so much more fair, honest, and better-​priced than the MINI dealer service departments of the Bay Area, with which I have not had good experiences. Andy is also very willing to look into and try out specific upgrade parts that I’ve wanted to use to keep my MINI in top performance for track days and autocross competitions.
When I had been working in Los Gatos for many years, I brought my MINI to a good auto maintenance shop that was near my office, but once I stopped driving to the South Bay for work I needed to find a MINI expert near my house on the Peninsula, and I’m so pleased that I learned about Mini Werks and gave them a try. For two years, Mini Werks has been the only shop to touch my MINI, and it’s going to stay that way!

Andy and Don are absolutely top notch professionals that know how to fix Mini Coopers (and I believe Alfa’s too).
I owe them all the credit in the world to get my notoriously unpredictable 2007 Mini Cooper S (R56) engine up to 120k miles and ticking (seems like the average for that model is 75k to death).
Their prices are consistently about half the cost of the local Mini dealers and their skills are impeccable. They even have most of the equipment used by the actual dealer to do the difficult expensive jobs that you’re getting quoted $ 9k to fix.
Definitely check them out if your Mini is starting to have its mid-​life crisis or even needs an oil change. You won’t be sorry.

I dropped in without appointment today at 8:30 am this morning.
Andy has a line of 4 or 5 Mini (s) that needs service.
I said to Andy, «I think I have a quick fix?». Andy was in middle of servicing a Mini and
drops everything and walks with me to the sidewalk and takes a look of my
passenger door. A special nut was loose and I thought I lost a clip also.
Andy takes one look … just a nut, no clip.
Now only he tightens the passenger side.
He walks over to the Driver side and tightens that nut also.
I offer to pay … He politely refuses.
WHAT A WONDER HUMAN BEING, SERVICE WITH INTEGRITY and HONESTY AT THE HIGH LEVEL.

I went to mini Werks for transmission fluid and filter change for my r56 a while ago. Andy is a great guy with a lot of love and knowledge about minis. Very honest and patience with ur questions. Highly recommended for any mini related fixes.

Honest, up-​front, thorough, practical and friendly, Andy and co. are the best mechanics you could ever ask for.
They know all generations of Mini’s backwards and forwards, and so know the _​real_​preventative maintenance schedule to take, down to the model year for a Mini model. Even better, they’re always practical about batching big, in-​depth repairs for whenever’s convenient and whenever they’ll be ‘that far in’ anyway.
Added bonus, visiting the shop means getting to ogle the gorgeous older Alfas that are lovingly entrusted to these pros.
You couldn’t ask for better. One-​off repairs or maintenance relationships with these guys… they’re just spectacular.

I first went to Mini Werks about a year ago, having moved to the Peninsula and purchased a used Mini. I needed a small repair, and Andy speculated upon the diagnosis over the phone (and was proven 100% correct in person!). Nice shop, nice folks, price seemed fair. I also asked him if anything could be done about the high level of road noise in my car and he took it for a drive, then told me that the run-​flat tires that come standard on the car can be noisy and make a very stiff ride. If I wanted to change the tires I could probably get some improvement, but he advised me to think about it and ask for advice if I decided to make the change.
Recently, my car was making an ugly noise so I called Andy again — I told him what I thought was wrong and he surprised me by asking when I had last checked my oil level — he said that noise wasn’t likely what I thought but the timing chain tensioner would make such a noise if the oil level was very low and that these cars burn oil. (who knew?) Sure enough, I jumped out of the car and found a dry dipstick — I could have totally trashed my engine! Andy saved the day again. I took it in figuring this was a good excuse for a mechanic to charge me a fortune to see if I had done any damage but he was very reassuring and said he didn’t think there would be a problem and he didn’t charge me anything to check it out. He fixed another minor issue, and I told him I had decided to change the tires. He told me exactly which tires he recommended, and oversaw the work too. Incredibly good recommendation — I couldn’t be happier with the improvement. He didn’t mark up the tires, and got the car to another shop for mounting, etc. Saved me a ton of time and hassle and I don’t think he made any money so I’m beginning to feel guilty at this point!
Andy and crew do nice work, have a small but efficient shop, and seem like honest trustworthy folks. They’ve earned my business for the long term! Give ‘em a try but recognize it’s a small shop so you’ll probably have to leave a voicemail and get a return call later. It’s worth it. BTW the Belmont Caltrain station is maybe a 10 minute walk — they might pick you up but I just walk over and find it’s very convenient.

I cannot think of enough good things to say about this place. I took my used mini in 5 weeks after buying it to find that there was a hole the size of my fist through the engine bloc. How this escaped the 2 outside inspections done by the dealer selling the car to me is beyond me. Andy was able to help me out right away despite having lots of other business to take care of (especially considering I didn’t have an appointment), and was thorough, helpful, calm, and truly seemed to care about my car and wanted to help me find the best solution. Luckily the dealer ended up paying for a new motor and I was back on the road within 2 weeks thanks to Mini Werks. They truly went above and beyond to help me. I’ll never take my mini anywhere else!

The best service in mini cooper… Clean place to brink your mini and good prices too

Andy and team were true professionals. They answered my questions over the phone, and provided a hands on hearing approach once the issue was identified and fixed on my car.
They were able to quickly troubleshoot my car’s problem, and fix with no extra frills or up-​sells.
I’d recommend them to my closet friends, family, and even you, stranger!

super nice, trustworthy, fair pricing. what more could you ask for?
maybe better hours, but hey the guys here need to have a life too. wish they would open on weekends now and then for those of us who live in SF.

I have a 2008 Mini Cooper S. It’s a manual and at 65k miles the clutch started slipping. On a Mini replacing the clutch is a 10 hr job. Insane — yes. The SF Mini dealership quoted me $ 5,400 for parts and labor. Now THAT’S insane! I’ll by taking my slipping clutch elsewhere thank you very much. After having called a few different shops, I felt like I had found the right place. Great reviews on Unilocal,and Andy sounded knowledgeable and completely free of BS. Mini Werks turned the clutch job around + replaced my rear brakes and brake fluid. The total bill was 40% of what Mini had quoted me. The car looked spotless when I picked it up. Andy also showed me the parts they had replaced and gave me some valuable info about what to look out for down the road. I’ll be back but hopefully not too soon.

Love these guys. I can’t recommend them enough. I have an 06 MINI with almost 150k mi on it, and it is still going strong thanks to my tune-​ups with these guys. I love my car, and will never sell that car, they make me feel like I own a collector MINI.

My first 2^nd review of a biz folks. Mini werks really know how to give great customer service. This is the 2^nd time i take my baby in for minor repair, where not only did they not charge me, they even too off the oil for free. Always helpful, always cordial. Thats why i keep referring friends there.

I originally took my Mini to Mini Werks a year ago and I feel terrible that it’s taken me this long to write the review! Clearly, from my five star rating, I will continue to take my Mini here to be serviced.
The first time I visited Mini Werks was last year and my visit was prompted by my mini’s first big repair; I received a quote from the dealership and wanted to see if I could get a better deal. I found Mini Werks on Unilocal and decided to give them a try. I was pleasantly surprised! Andy is great to work with, knowledgeable, approachable and professional. He answers all your questions thoroughly and you get the feeling that he cares about the health of your car. The prices are fair and when you come to pick up your car, Andy gives you a thorough breakdown of what he did and why needed to do it.
Just a note: since they’re a small operation it can take one or two calls to get a hold of them, but leave a message when you call and they’ll give you a call back.

I was out of warranty for my mini and all of the pre scheduled services now had to be covered by me so I wanted a nice shop to bring the car to that was close by.
I’ve been bringing my Mini here for a just over a year now and am really impressed with the knowledge that the guys have on the vehicles. I usually work with Andy who is really nice and straightforward with what needs to be done on the car.
I had a big problem with the mini driving one day on the freeway where the oil chain tensioner broke and all the oil leaked out of the car. I had it towed there at night and Andy was able to take a look at it in the morning. He was able to work on the car and get it back to me by the afternoon. Apparently there are some typical problems with these cars and this issue had a possible class action lawsuit pending but nothing ever came of it.
They put in a new upgraded tensioner for me and I am good to go. I don’t really bring my car in for anything else except for routine service and they do a through job of inspecting everything and making sure everything looks good.
Pricewise they are very good and very fair. I won’t say this is a cheap car to maintain since they seem to have issues after 60k miles but they don’t have crazy mark-​ups like the dealers do. They also work on some other cars like fiats etc but I see a lot of Mini’s in their shop so if you have one I highly recommend it. Since it’s build by BMW I bet they could work on those pretty easily as well but call and find out.
It’s a 2 man operation so they don’t have paperwork/​desk people etc so leave a message and they will call you back. A lot of people go here so it might be a week for a scheduled service but they will schedule you in. No loaner cars but they will drop you off nearby and will pick you up as well. This helps keep the costs down I’m sure so I’m good with that.
Two thumbs way up and 5+ stars for Andy and Don.