Soto’s Transmission

Extremely satisfied with the service. Prices were really good. Had a clutch job turn around was same day Omar knows his shit, even gave military discount.

I have been doing business with Omar for a long time always gives me detailed information of what’s wrong with my cars and if it’s worth it to fix or simply replace!
I admire his honesty even now that my business moved to escondido I still send him my cars!!!
Great prices great work and most importantly for me always on time on delivery of finished work!

I was referred here by my usual mechanic who does not specialize in transmissions. I’m glad I was directed to Soto’s because they really took care of me. Excellent service! Omar and Martin are great!

After putting nearly 31,000 miles on my Toyota Corolla’s transmission, I knew a basic service was in need. While having a tune-​up done on my vehicle, the fine folks at Eddie’s Tire & Muffler recommended Soto’s & after reading the mostly positive reviews, I decided to bring my vehicle in.
I first talked to Omar about getting a basic transmission service performed along with several questions I had about transmission preventative maintenance & procedures in general. Omar was very patient & professional & took the time to answer all my questions. He even managed to give me quite an education when it came to my vehicle’s transmission.
The service included draining the fluid, taking off the tranny pan, replacing the gasket, filter, inspecting the pan for metal shavings, debris, etc. & topping off of the tranny fluid. A test drive would be performed including another final check of the fluid level.
My question to Omar during the procedure was concerning the old fluid trapped in the torque converter. He explained that there was no drain plug to drain the existing fluid in the converter. I asked about performing a power flush where the old fluid is forced out from the converter. He explained that some manufacturers do not recommend power flushes & that the procedure can actually damaged some transmissions! He said yes, there will be a small amount of old fluid that will mix with the new but as long as you have regular servicing done with your transmission then that is not an issue. Just for clarity, the fluid does not stay in the torque converter forever. It flows & cycles around with the rest of the fluid in the tranny.
Omar also recommended that regardless of the miles, it is best to have a transmission service done once a year. The price breakdown was $ 85 for the labor & $ 82 & change for the parts & fluid. The total was a little over $ 167. My car required synthetic tranny fluid so the cost was extra. Omar went with the Toyota brand of tranny fluid since that is what the car originally came with. He said too, that if there was ever a problem with the powertrain under warranty, Toyota could not use the excuse of it broke because you did not use their brand of fluid.
In the end, I was very satisfied with my experience at Soto’s Transmissions. Paying $ 167 for a tranny service is cheap insurance & is certainly better than paying a costly repair bill down the road due to neglect. Transmissions live a hard life so they need to be serviced just like the engine on a regular basis. Omar said everything looked great & they did not try to sell me some bogus services or parts that I did not need like Jiffy Lube or Aamco would have done. I feel better now that my tranny has been taken care of & I would recommend others looking for servicing or repair to give Soto’s a try.

I rang around a lot of VW garages asking them who they would trust for a transmission fix on a 2005 VW Jetta. If any of you are unfortunate enough to have a VW Jetta 2005– or VW Beetle you might have encountered the hard shift problem which eventually leads to complete transmission failure. Its due to a valve body fault and unless you were lucky enough to get it replaced under warranty then you have an expensive car repair on your hands. I brought the car to VW City dealers and they diagnosed the problem and gave me an eye watering quotation. The car not being quite worth it, after calling around, Sotos was recommended by a VW garage well known for working with older VWs. So I went down there left the car for a confirmatory diagnostic (free of charge if taking the repair) and was given the options of a transmission rebuild in the worst case or a valvebody replacement as the best case scenario. Martin and Omar were very professional and told me the valvebody fix had a very high chance of solving the problem or at least slowing the degradation of the tranny and if it did not work they would knock that repair cost from a tranny rebuild. Picked up the car last week with a 1 year guarantee on the repair and its been driving very smoothly since. The cost was almost $ 800 cheaper than VW and I am very happy with it. So, in short I thought the guys were professional, courteous and very experienced. If you have a VW Jetta and you have the hard shift problem these guys have repaired many many of them so they know what they are at. Of course with these things nothing is guaranteed a certainty as you can see in other reviews but my experience was great and I would recommend them to any other VW owner with a dodgy tranny.

I went to Soto’s on the recommendation of a friends mechanic. I am very pleased with the work they did on my truck! I had to have the transmission rebuilt. I have a 2001 Chevy Silverado with over 201,000 miles on it so I guess I was due. The truck operates like new and drives like it got a tune up! I guess it was getting bad for a while and I just did not notice.
Omar was very thorough in explaining what exactly was wrong, and various options I had. He was also very generous in working with me when I explained to him that I had just been laid off from my job.
I absolutely would recommend Soto’s Transmission to anyone in need of work on their vehicle!

Omar was great, very helpful. Ethical shop, I would highly recommend them, as did my local taxi driver that gave me a lift home.
Thanx guys

Simply the BEST! Thank you Omar and the rest of the guys that took care of my son’s truck.

Thought the transmission had gone on my classic truck again and I had it towed to Soto’s. Talked to Omar on the phone saying maybe we should just replace the old tranny with a new one I found on Jegs for around a grand. He told me he would drop the tranny and take a look to make sure the transmission was bad. He kept me informed everyday of a few issues that were causing the problems. After a few days, a couple adjustments, and 5 or so new parts the truck was good to go. They also voluntarily showed me all the parts that were replaced. Tell me another transmission shop that would let you out the door for less than $ 500.

I am so pleased with the results. The staff was very professional and couteous while providing a quality repair for half the cost of the dealership. Thanks Guys I would highly reccomend to anyone.

Was really concerned about taking my car for transmission repair. First spoke to Omar on the phone and without letting him know I have mechanical knowledge his answers to my questions assured me I had picked the right place. Instead of just taking my money and rebuilding the transmission they instead tried to diagnose and replace some cheaper parts to fix the problem I was having. Unfortunately it did turn out to be a worn out transmission. Although they kept the car for a week it was worth it to try and save money on an unnecessary repair if it wasn’t required. Also get a full one year warranty on the repair! They will get my business now for all my vehicles needing transmission services or repair!

This place has been a blessing to me. I have a small business in chula vista with 5 trucks one of witch is lifted. I have had 3 trucks fixed here. One of them had been worked on by another shop first. A wheel baring had gone out and was replaced along with the shaft I payed $ 1500.00. 6 months later oil started out of the wheel. I went back and they wanted to charge me to fix it again. The warranty was not good because of the lift on the truck. Would have been nice to know that at the time of the fix! So I took it to Soto’s. They did the rear right baring the rear left baring and the diff. Basically they did the rear end. And all that was less then what I payed at the other place. Next I started having trouble with one of my F-​150 work trucks. Took it in to Soto’s thinking I needed a new trany. He had me out of there in about 30 Hrs. from when I left it there. He replaced a small part for very little and got my work truck back to work. About 1 year latter the front left wheel baring went out. My employees drove the truck for about a month and the wheel about fell off the truck. The damage was bad. I limped it in to Soto’s. Thinking I mite have to putt a fork in it. Omar worked all his connection to find me all kind of parts at unbelievable prices. In the end he saved my truck from going to the junkyard. He did me a big favor on this one. Thanks Soto’s!!!

Went here to get my transmission rebuilt on my nissan pickup. After discussing different option rebuild or used, I chose to rebuild. After paying and waiting an extra couple of weeks, I got my truck back. Three months later it starts to grind again and I take it back. They told me that my tranny fluid was leaking and it caused the problem and I should have noticed the leak. There was no leak, I park my truck in the same spot every night and it’s dry. So after charging me another few hundred bucks and replacing a few other parts that were «bad» I was on my way. A couple of weeks later same problem. In the end I gave up and sold the truck for cheap to someone and explained to them what happened. I put almost $ 1800.00 into the work and the truck was only worth $ 3500.00. So do yourself a favor and go somewhere else!!! I believe it was Omar I dealt with.