Ron’s Automotive

I live in Los Angeles and saw a van for sale I wanted to buy in Yucca Valley, but wanted to have a pre-​purchase inspection done before I went ahead with it. Mike, John, and Shane were kind, fast, knowledgeable, and seemed to truly have my best interest in mind. They deemed the van unsafe with an excessive amount of work needing to be put in it and helped me to decide to not buy the van. They could have convinced me to buy it and gotten thousands of dollars of work from me, but were honest and helped me save money. Thanks guys!

I’m am so thankful I read the reviews and went to Ron’s. Everyone was great! They not only did everything to fix the problem but also made every effort to save me money. Honest and knowledgeable — what more can you ask?
I soon realized as I listened to others coming in for service that many were long time customers and they were back because they have confidence in Ron’s. Now I know why.
The only place I’ll ever need to bring my car in for service.
They are the best.

Great honest guys. My car broke down in Joshua Tree and we went into multiple auto shops that couldn’t help us, we ended up at Ron’s by mistake trying to turn around and asked if they could help. They were super busy but got to work on it right away and fixed the problem.

Always get good service when we go to Ron’s. Mike and his crew are very helpful and make sure that they provide a full explanation of the issue and a resolution to the problem.
I usually know when something is not right with my car and they take good care of it. I have used a couple of other shops in town and they were basically worthless. Poor quality work and lied to me or treated me with indifference because I am a woman. Hate the «eye roll» reaction and attitude of «yeah, like she knows what she’s talking about…» Since I grew up around cars, I have more than a working knowledge of cars and can well figure out what’s wrong with my car before I take it into the shop. So I appreciate the good attitude and treatment that my husband and I get at Ron’s.
John, has been a great addition to the front desk. Friendly and always willing to help.
My car has over 180,000 mile on it and Ron’s Automotive keeps it running, very well.

This place is incredibly slow and they don’t do the job right. I tried to get an alignment done and the steering wheel is crooked and they still haven’t fixed it. My car sat there for over a month and nothing got done to it when I took it there for a fuel pump. I had a few things that I needed to get done and in the end only one thing got done poorly. When I picked up my car it still sounded terrible and I have no idea what was going on with it. They are slow and if you don’t call them constantly they will never finish the work that you want them to. I will never take any vehicle of mine there again it was that bad.

I brought my car in for a repair that my boyfriend couldn’t figure out. It kept burning out alternators and starters. They were able to get the problem sorted out quickly and explained it to me in a way that made sense. And they charged a reasonable amount. Overall I am quite happy with the repairs and the costs.

Nightmare of overcharge for NOTHING. This place has done to me exactly what the other poor reviews claim.
Don’t be fooled by the positive reviews… the staff must create them. Delay then give some B.S. story and need more parts
etc. I want everyone to contact me who has been overcharged and mistreated by this company. Let’s get a class action lawsuit
against these criminals. I am contacting anyone else in these reviews by email. reporting this company to the BAR and i have gotten a lawyer. Here is my experience. my subaru is not passing smog, so I took it to rons auto. they did smog test and said it needed a new carb and that a successfully new running carb would make it pass smog. it took 4 weeks to get the part only to find out it was the wrong car part. So they ordered the right one «supposedly». they said they replaced the carb but it was still not passing smog and that it is so close to passing all it needs is a catalytic converter which is another $ 375 on top of the $ 1000 they are already charging us. we did our research on rons auto and discovered the scam they are pulling. he asked to see the old carb. and they said they sent it off and don’t have it. he looked at the carb and told me it’s the same one that’s been in there. my husband asked the mechanics what is going on. they said the catalytic converter needed to be replaced, my husband asked why they couldn’t figure that out from the past 5 smog tests before the carb. was replaced. the mechanic said «well, the old carb was running so good we didn’t know the cap needed to be replaced», anyone else who has been conned by these assholes contact me at
. they never changed the carb they won’t show us the receipts. they don’t have the old parts. they are lying and have not done anything to better my car. it has just been sitting up there with no attention and they are making up fraudulent bills to charge us. contact me ASAP. Enough is enough.

They ordered the wrong part and expected me to pay for it. It took a month to get something simple fixed.

Just got my Volvo back from a service visit and as usual had a great experience. They replaced a sensor located in my outside mirror of all places and did it in a timely manner as well as courteously. I truly appreciate being able to bring my Volvo to a local shop with out worry. Thanks to Mike and his team!

I have never had any problems at Ron’s automotive. Mike (Owner) has been wonderful as well as the rest of the crew. I take all my vehicles there. I have referred all of my family to use Ron’s. My husband was worked for a towing company and when he was asked by a customer where a good auto shop was, he told them he «personally used Ron’s Automotive» Most would call the towing company to THANK my husband for the referral. I just took my diesel truck in last week and talked to Mike about my concerns of reviews on Unilocal.He has never disappointed me in the work he does. Ron’s is the ONLY shop I will go to or refer anyone to! In my opinion a person can do 99 things correct and 1 thing not to someone’s liking, and that 1 person will try to ruin you!!! More people need to compliment a business or a person when they are pleased with the hard work someone does. And for those of you that feel that life is all about being negative, look how many things you do correct in a day and SHUT UP!!!

Brought my older Subaru in with a misfiring problem that a Subaru dealer checked and «repaired» last month. In short order mechanic brought me the broken spark plug and cracked wire the Subaru shop missed. This is one very satisfied customer.

Twice. I’ve had my car into Ron’s twice. The first time, for two and a half months, to trace and discover the source of an electrical problem that was putting a ½ amp drain on my battery. Having worked on cars quite a lot, I understand that electrical problems can be the DEVIL– that is why I took it to Mike (who is the owner by the way– not one of the mechanics). But, with a shop full of mechanics and testing equipment this should have been a relatively easy fix. He did fix it, although not in a very timely manner. Still… two and a half MONTHS! I checked in every week or so cause lord knows there is NO WAY he is calling you to give you any sort of update on progress– but this is probably because there isn’t any. Further, I am pretty sure he left my car open because when I got it back it smelled like cat piss, and I don’t own any cats! Anyway, this review is not about THAT two and a half months… its about the three months that he had my vehicle most recently. Well, fool me once shame on you… fool me twice shame on me. I should have known better, but I though I would give a local business man who seems like a pretty nice guy the benefit of the doubt.
So, my vehicle would not start. Had it towed to the shop at the end of may. Every time I stopped by to see how things were going my car was parked on the side of the shop, inside a locked gate, and it never looked like it moved. Meanwhile, the shop is full of mechanics and cars coming and going (presumably getting fixed, but we can’t be sure). After another two and a half months of run around, I finally show up at the shop one day and tell him that this is totally unacceptable, that I need my car, and if he can’t fix it I need to tow it elsewhere. He explains to me that he only puts one mechanic on each car and that ‘my’ mechanic has been called out by the national guard… wow– not my problem. That is why you employ more than one person. So, he looks me in the eyes and says, it will be ready next friday or its free. Really? OK, sounds like you are really confident it’ll be ready… awesome! The next thursday afternoon he calls me and says it needs a new carburetor, why it took monday, tuesday, wednesday, and the better part of thursday to figure that out one can only guess. Needless to say it was not ready on friday. The next week (middle of august) I show up to pick up my finished car and the receptionist says $ 439. I say no way, I had Mike’s word it was fixed last friday or it was free. She goes out to the garage and gets him and he says, «You’re right I did say that… it was nice knowing you» and WALKS AWAY. And the receptionist says… «I think that’s his way of saying don’t come back»! WOW! IS HE JOKING? WHAT AN ASS! And that is the WHOLE reason I am writing this review– I can handle bad service since it has pretty much become the norm these days, but after all the waiting and run around, I was treated like I did something wrong for holding him to his word. I was always VERY polite and VERY understanding and above all patient. To be treated like I did something wrong is the highest form of ignorance I can imagine. People like this don’t deserve to be in business. BOYCOTT THIS BUSINESS!!! p. s. my car was free

Don’t trust these theives. They ordered the wrong part for our car after giving us an estimate of 300 dollars in work, and made us pay for the part THEY ordered wrong and then charged us another 200 dollars for the right part. Secondly, the car was not done until 4 days after they said it would be. They never answered there phone and were pretty rude the one time that they did. Mike the man who gave us the estimate obviousley doesn’t know what he is doing as a business associate or a mechanic. Take it from me and the others who left a negative review GO SOMEWHERE ELSE.

This is the second time we’ve had our car taken here for transmission work. The first time it was there for almost two months. This time, it’s been almost three weeks and it’s still not finished. They are fixing the transmission problem that should have been fixed the first time… I have had to call back every single day for an update on the car and how it was coming along because no one ever called me back from Ron’s when they claimed they would. I was told the car would be ready at the end of last week. It wasn’t. I was told it’d be ready Monday, and it wasn’t. I was also told I’d have the car by tonight, and we still don’t have it. They are doing warranty work so maybe that’s why they take their good old time. Nobody from this shop seems proficient enough to actually get stuff done.

I pretty much had the same problem as Ann B. I had my car in there for over a month and a half. Two reasons why I had it there for so long: 1) So many people recommended this shop; 2) my car wouldn’t move and I didn’t feel like paying to tow it to another shop.
Anyways, oil was leaking into the alternator. I told them AT LEAST 5 times that it was engine oil and Mike (one of the mechanics) insisted that it was power steering fluid. His reason was because the power steering fluid is right above the alternator. I pointed out to him that the oil was EVERYWHERE and that it was possible for the oil to be hitting the fan while the car was moving and the fan sprayed it everywhere… but I’m just a girl so what do I know?
So they had my car for 3 weeks, they never called once to tell me what the status of my car was. I had to call almost everyday so see what they were doing and everyday they told me they were looking for power steering fluid. It took him 3 WEEKS to put dye into the power steering and see if the fluid that was leaking had any dye in it. SUPRISE, SUPRISE, it was NOT the power steering fluid. When I asked him if they actually looked for engine oil, Mike responded, «No maam, we did not physically go under your car to look for engine oil.» I’m no rocket scientist, I’m not even a mechanic, but when something is leaking, shouldn’t you be UNDERNEATH to see where it’s leaking from?! Usually when things leak, it falls, right? ugh…
My friend who is a mechanic in Indio told me to hook it up to a smoke machine and wherever the smoke blows, that’s where the leak is. When I told Mike the mechanic, he responded, «Oh…I never thought about using it for that purpose.» SERIOUSLY?! So it took them another FULL WEEK (WEEK 4) to do this and they finally found the source of the leak. Of course they never called and I cut it down to calling them every other day. The receptionist told me that they had to order the part and it should be delivered by Tuesday (WEEK 5) so if they get it early in the morning, my car should be ready by Tuesday evening… but if they got it in the afternoon, my car would be ready by Wednesday.
Okay so Wednesday rolls around and I give them a call… the lady told me that they found another part they had to order so give them til Friday. Friday came around… car wasn’t ready yet, would be ready by Monday. Monday (WEEK 6)…MY CAR WAS FINALLY READY! I asked them for the old parts and they handed me one part. Where the fuck was the 2^nd part they had to replace? Oh… there was no second part? SO THEY LIED TO ME ABOUT ORDERING THAT 2ND PART?! Which probably means they didn’t order that original part when they said they did! UGH!!!
Oh it doesn’t end there. The old part doesn’t look broken AT ALL. I asked the mechanic what was wrong and he said that it was too short. Seeing as how this part is a genuine Volvo part, I’m thinking that Volvo should be responsible for making a faulty part since nothing was broken, it was just made wrong, according to the mechanic. Of course he didn’t help me out with any advice because I already paid him!
I demand a discount for the inconvenience of calling everyday, the lies, and the fact that I kept telling them it was ENGINE oil and not power steering fluid for 3 WEEKS! And if, in fact, it was a faulty Volvo part, I shouldn’t be paying them at all, it should be Volvo… but somehow I think the mechanic was just lying to me again.
DO NOT GO HERE FOR ANYTHING! EVEN IF THEY WERE THE LAST SHOP ON EARTH!

I would not recommend this place. I brought my car in because the air conditioner wasn’t getting cool. They said they had to replace a part, and ended up keeping the car FOUR WEEKS. I called 3 or 4 times, and each time I was told it was almost ready and that they would call me the next day. They never called. Finally after my husband called and got a bit heavy with them, they had the car finished the next day. The air conditioner still doesn’t get very cold, and in addition to that, a couple of weeks after picking up the car we were driving it up north and the air conditioner started leaking on the inside of the car. Don’t ever give these people your money!