LAcarGUY Body Shop

Great service on time delivery honest people. I send all my friends there when they need collision work done. Ask for John Speckman!

5 months ago I got hit from the back.
Went to another popular collision center but they only work by appointment. So I went to the LAcarGuy that was close by. This place is great! People are pros and friendly. Didn’t wait long, Communication was excellent, keeping me up to date with daily emails, photos of the progress, and phone calls when necessary.
The car came out perfect after the repair. Few months later I realized that the light inside the trunk was probably not put back at the end of the body work, so I called them. Within a few days, they had ordered the part and installed it in 2 minutes.
Great place overall, good customer service and friendly staff.
I highly recommend.

Insurance recommended this shop. Shop originally me that it would take 2 – 3 weeks to fix my car. I told them didn’t want to wait ANY more than 3 weeks or I would be taking my vehicle elsewhere and thus they assured me it would be done by then.
2 weeks later I call the shop to see how repairs are coming along they tell me they JUST got the parts in and that it’s going to be 20 – 22 more business days for the labor of the repair.
Absolutely ridiculous. Misinforming customers to keep business. It does not take 20 days to repair a vehicle and this shop are absolute slackers.
HORRIBLE SERVICE. WOULD NOT RECOMMEND TO ANYONE.

About five weeks ago my mom was in an accident. During the time that the car was in their shop, Kathy went out of her way to ease any anxieties and concerns My mom had about my car and kept her up to date with almost-​daily calls. If you have the misfortune of getting into an accident you couldn’t be in better hands.

Filed a comprehensive claim through my AAA auto insurance for damage to my rear brake line, bumper and right wheel well. I live in Santa Monica and had the initial estimate done at the LAcarGUY ‘estimate’ shop attached to the Lexus of Santa Monica Dealership. They told me they had an initial estimate within 24 hours, and had my AAA claims rep come and sign off. My Lexus was then towed to the actual LAcarGUY body shop in Inglewood.
It took 10 days (6 business days) for LAcarGUY to produce an actual written estimate, which is unacceptable. I was called only one time by LAcarGUY, when my vehicle arrived at their Inglewood location on 12÷18÷15. The written estimate came to me on Monday 12÷28÷15, which I approved to begin work immediately.
The vehicle completion date was for 1÷5÷16. I called 6 times from 12÷18÷15 to 1÷5÷16 to check on my vehicle and my rep Genevieve told me on 3 separate occasions she would be calling me and emailing me every Tuesday with updates about my car. It is Friday 1÷8÷16 and I have never received one email or phone from Genevieve, and I still do not have possession of my vehicle. I confirmed my email and phone number with Genevieve.
When I inquired about why my vehicle was not ready on the completion date of Tuesday 1÷5÷16, I was told the rain had slowed them down.
Fernando guaranteed me that I would be driving off in my vehicle on Thursday 1÷7÷16, and that they had called the flat bed tow truck (at 1:46pm) to come take my car back to the Lexus of Santa Monica Dealership, but informed me that they were getting an error message on my dashboard about my headlights during the final quality control inspection. Fernando informed me that they had done all they could do and could not get the error message to go away so they wanted Lexus of Santa Monica to check it out before I picked it up.
At 5pm I contacted my rep at Lexus of Santa Monica, to inquire if they had inspected the vehicle. They told me they had not yet received the vehicle.
At 5:29pm my LOSM rep let me know the vehicle had just arrived and that they would inspect it today, Friday 1÷8÷16. LOSM just called and let me know that LAcarGUY had broken a sensor and did not repair it, so Lexus of Santa Monica repaired it free of charge.
LAcarGUy had possession of my vehicle for 21 days. They made repairs on the vehicle for 12 days. This is an unacceptable amount of time. I have had Harry’s Auto Collision work on AAA claims twice for me, and come nowhere near this amount of time.
I am extremely unsatisfied with their lack of professionalism, customer contact and care, and time allotted for repairing a vehicle.
I have been paying for a car rental from the Enterprise office inside of Lexus of Santa Monica for 21 days @ $ 30/​day. My deductible for the claim is $ 250, and because of LAcarGUYS lack of performance time. I now also owe $ 630 to Enterprise.
What should have cost me max $ 600 (deductible and car rental), is now costing me almost $ 1,000.
I advise all consumers to use any other auto body shop in the LA county area. I advise Lexus of Santa Monica to discontinue business with LAcarGUY, since their reputation is now also sacrificed. I advise AAA Auto Club to discontinue LAcarGUY as a AAA approved auto body shop.
LAcarGUY is nowhere near AAA standards of customer care and service. I have escalated this issue to management at AAA, and will being doing the same at Lexus of Santa Monica.

Where do I begin?
Quality of work: Great, the actual body work on my Audi S3 is very nice! I took it to them because they are approved through Audi. Bumper was crushed in, couldn’t be happier about the actual result.
Everything else: This is where things got not great. From the start, things were slower than necessary. I dropped my car off on a Wednesday, no movement was made on it at all (including simply dismantling for the estimate) until the following Monday. I was told each day that the assessment would be done the following day.
From there, the information I received from the staff was always what I wanted to hear but never really accurate. It was always «the parts are coming later today/​tomorrow» but would then turn into, «not today, tomorrow». I get it, they want to give me good news, but I would prefer the truth to platitudes.
The completion of the work turned into another issue. I was told that the work was done and that my car would be back at the Santa Monica location that afternoon. I prepped everything for the drop off and then called to confirm my car was at the SM location… it was not. Ended up being that my car was actually not done. Not sure why they told me it was. Anyway, told me it would not be done until the following day.
Enter the following day. I call them and they confirm car is done and «on the way» to the SM location. 2 hours after that (more than enough time for car to make it to SM) I arrive to pick up. Car is not there and they confirm car has not even left the Inglewood location. Another instance of giving me information I would want to hear, not the correct information. Car arrived in Santa Monica later and ended up with car looking great.
Long story short, great work and craftsmanship but need to work on their expectation management.

This review is about why this business is great for what they did not do. I took my car in to inquire about possible work to fix some minor damage to the front grill of my car and the emblem affixed to the grill. Instead of trying to up-​sell me, the staff explained how I could order the part myself and install the part without incurring any unnecessary part or labor costs in the process. So that’s exactly what I did, saving myself hundreds of dollars. They were very friendly and responsive and I would definitely go there if I had serious damage that needed repairing.

My car got damaged while it was parked at home and I was out of town. Such a bad feeling when you come home to damages that could have easily totalled my car. LaCarGuy was the Highly recommended BodyShop in my area! Went in to drop off my car to get it repaired and was assured that they would do their best to get me my car back! They explained the repair process. Connie was my repair advisor and her team Celene kept me updated throughout the repairs! Finally got my Beautiful car back and it is as good as new being a 2011! Wouldn’t go anywhere else if I needed to get my car repaired! So happy to be back in my own car!

I came here because I needed to wanted to get some minor repairs on my Lexus SC430 and didn’t want to pay full retail at SM Lexus. Michael went out of his way to make sure that I was taken care of and Damien is really a wizard who was able to do some repair work for me right on the spot in the parking lot which I really appreciated. Although there are some bad reviews, I think that in the end these guys will stand by their work and provide excellent service at a competitive price to other body shops (as compared to dealership repair prices). I did have some complaints along the way but I am not an easy customer to please and I can still recommend these guys with 5 stars because they followed through with what they said and I feel that both Michael and Damien both went the extra mile to make me happy. Give them a chance and don’t be shy to let them know what you need. They charged me less than half what SM Lexus would have and that was including genuine Lexus parts that we even walked over to the SM Lexus parts department to pick up.

My car was in a major accident and I decided to take to LaCar Guy body shop because I trust them the most. They really took good care of my car and even called me each step of the way to keep me in the loop. Michael my estimator was amazing he really took great care of my car and provided services that other places wouldn’t even have done for me. I am so happy that I took my car to them and they are the only shop I trust. I also got my windows tinted with them which came out really good. Thank you LA Car Guy Body Shop

My experience with L.A. Car Guy Body Shop was amazing, being involved in a car accident was a horrible experience but the guys at this facility really made sure I was happy, and now that i have my car back I could not be happier! it looks amazing just like when I bought it! I will definitely recommend this place to to all my family and friends. Thanks guys!

I got an estimate from Mike. He was professional and very helpful. I would recommend LAcarGUY body shop.

I recently purchased an Audi RS5, which I’m totally in love with, and wanted some custom work done to the trim. Damien hooked me up on short notice, and it came out perfectly. He and Michael went out of their way to take great care of me. Can’t thank them enough and they’ve definitely earned my return business! Not to mention any referrals I have.

Had to take my Lexus in before I left on a trip for a few weeks. Started at Lexus Santa Monica Service, with my advisor George Connolly. He was friendly, knowledgeable, and helped me get my car fixed quickly and efficiently. Such a great experience! My car was repaired at the LA Car Guy Body Shop where I was helped by Michael. Also a great, efficient experience there too. My car is like brand new! Highly recommend both spots and both George and Michael to help you.

I could have not had a more easy going experience. In the past when dealing with body shops my guard was always up. They weren’t very trust worthy. I did not find that at all at lacarguy, I felt like I was in good hands. The work was premier and punctual, having my vehicle back early and looking like new. I will highly recommend and now have a new go to shop. Thank you lacarguy body shop.

I came to this place because it is Lexus certified and my brand new car had been hit while parked. The driver side back fender was dented in and part of the passenger door was scratched.
It took them an entire month to finish this work. I took a cab to pick up the car when they told me it was ready. As soon as I saw the car I noticed that something didn’t look right where the rear fender meets the passenger door. I took a closer look and noticed that the paint had strange grooves in it.
I can’t believe that something so obvious was not caught before they made me come out to pick the car up. Terrible paint work. If they can’t spot something clearly that bad in the work they do then they should not be in the body shop business.
I don’t even know how Lexus would certify this place.

They returned my parking pass like this. So professional to cut it out of the old bumper and mail it to me 2 weeks after the car has been finished.

So, aside from all the drama you have read about in my other reviews for this place (which you should read, as this minor update is only one small issue), I recently caught someone in the parking lot who hit my door with their door as I sat in my car; ultimately, I got their insurance to pay for the damage. Yay!
However, when the body shop I used (obviously not LA Car Guy) returned my car to me, I noticed what appeared to be heat damage (cracks) to the black area around my window. After doing some research, I spoke with the body shop and asked if they could retape that area (with blackout tape), as it appears that the heat applied to expedite the curing process for the paint on the door damaged the tape.
Fast-​forward three days: The body shop calls me back and says that there actually was NO tape on that area of my car. Rather, they said that the last repair shop PAINTED that part of my door instead of retaping it, which according to the body shop is NOT what body shops are supposed to do. Painting is the do-​it-​at-​home version of retaping to cut supply and labor costs. That said, blackout tape is cheap (less than $ 10 on Amazon) and often has a lifetime warranty (e.g., Amazon example) while paint, well, does not. Another indication that LA Car Guy sucks.

These guys don’t stand by their work.
Paint started peeling 6 months after I had my bumper replaced here. Was told by another Auto Body shop that it was due to either contamination or a missed step in priming and that should be covered under warranty.
Stopped by Santa Monica LA Car Guy and the the man I spoke with said he couldn’t find my information in the computer and I needed to come back with my paperwork if I want to speak to them about the peeling paint. By the time I came back I had bumped into another car while parking and left a scratch in the center of the bumper.
Was then told the paint was peeling due to the «impact» to my bumper. Didn’t know that it was normal for chunks of paint to peel off from the underside of the bumper due to a scratch in the center, especially when it had started beforehand.
Took my car to a shop on La Brea (recommendation from a friend) and the guy told me there was so much contamination that he couldn’t get the paint to stay on. They had to repaint it 2x.
The whole situation was extremely annoying.
My advice is to: 1. Don’t go here. 2. Always keep all your paperwork from repairs and if you find anything faulty with the work do not wait, take care of it right away, take photos & document everything.
Will not be back.

I have to clarify that the body shop actually did a great job. But, this review isn’t about that… it’s about the overall experience that left a bad taste in my mouth and will make me think about heading someplace else if I need work done.
I was involved in a minor fender-​bender a couple weeks ago. Going in to see about getting an estimate and all that, deciding to work through insurance or letting the party that hit my car pay directly, not a problem. The assistant manager, Imraan (yeah calling him out by name because that’s how annoyed I am), totally patient throughout the intake process.
Bryan, my point of contact in the Inglewood shop (where the work is actually done), was good about keeping me updated and working with the claims department.
My so-​so review comes from the day of pick-​up. I get a call from my insurance company that my car is finished and is already back at the Santa Monica office for me to get.
So, if I didn’t get a call from my insurance company, I wouldn’t have known this. I call Imraan, since he helped me out at the beginning to confirm… he’s at lunch and will call me back. Fine. Calls me back to let me know that I need to pay XXX. Uh, thanks. How about, yes, your car is ready and looks fantastic. It’s ready to get picked-​up when you are, sorry we didn’t let you know sooner. Nope — they wanna get paid and don’t want to bother with the pretense of pretending to care for the customer.
Again, fine. I mentioned that my insurance company will be sending a supplement check to them, so… Imraan interrupts and proceeds to tell me that I have to pay the invoice or they won’t release my car to me. Wow. How about letting me finish my question about getting credited back once they get the check from my insurance company? His response? Oh, yeah, of course. Why not tell me that from the get-​go instead of threatening to keep my car hostage?
I go to pick up my car. Imraan, nowhere to be found. I find myself dealing with Carlos. I bring up the insurance check information, and he goes to tell me he has no idea. Apparently it’s in an email from Imraan, but he still has no idea how refunds work there. Makes me all kinds of confident, let me tell ya.
There are a ton of body-​shops in the area, and honestly? I expected a LOT better considering it was part of the LA CAR GUY family.