H&B BMW and Mini Cooper

Worst place to have your car looked at. I took my car to see what’s wrong with it and they told me it would be $ 70 dollars to run a diagnostic, after running a diagnostic they called to inform me that they were unable to find out what was wrong with it and need to go into my engine to see what the issue is for a total of $ 900!!! Which is just for labor and that still isn’t guaranteed that they would know what is wrong with my car. The only reason I went to them is because they gave me the cheapest quote at first. I went to them a couple months back for my radiator and they charged $ 150 for a diagnostic and gave me a whole list of issues that were wrong with it and told me I would need to spend $ 2000 to get it fixed, I took it to another mechanic who only charged me $ 600 dollars. Stay far away!!!

Love these guys! So helpful! And gave me an amazing deal!
Price isn’t bad at all! Especially compared to the dealership.
Brought my 07 mini in that was having some issues. Now she’s running super smooth!
Going back next Tuesday to finish up some issues.
Overall had a great experience.

I cannot recommend this place highly enough!
Great, friendly service, fair prices, quick service. I came here for an oil change and brake fluid replacement, and it was done with a minimum of effort. The service manager was super friendly as well. Bravo– if you own a BMW or Mini, come here. Period. Skip the dealer.

They are professional, do great work, and charge about half of what the dealership quoted me. I wish I’d found this place sooner.

Best in class! I have never had such great customer service in any repair facility. This shop is clean, folks are reliable and honest. Their repairs are well done, and reasonably priced, especially compared to dealerships that can’t touch H&B’s work ethic and customer commitment. I wouldn’t take my Mini anywhere else.

H and B is exceptionally skilled, professional, and well priced. They are very reasonable with proposed work and solutions. I’ve trusted them with all our BMWs for 15 years.
Most negative reviews on the site are based on pricing. BMWs are more expensive to maintain than other cars. It’s the nature of the beast. If you compare them to dealerships or other private shops, you’ll find them to be highly competitive. I highly recommend them without hesitation.

My check engine light came on in my Mini and they said I needed a new timing chain which would cost a total of $ 2,200.
Took it to another Mini specialist and turns out it was something completely different and not as costly.
Mechanics should be honest and not crooks.

They are so snobby its ridiculous. If they did good work then I really wouldn’t care. The fact is they miss things all the time. When they make a mistake they are too proud to admit it! They will do everything to cover it up. They think they are the only good shop around and they talk badly about everyone else. Again, if they did good work that would be ok… but they are horrible. The only way they stay in business is by charging extremely high rates for estimates. Go ANYWHERE but here!

I had a great experience at H&B, needed a belt replacement and they were able to do the job the same day I called. They even washed my car before returning it to me!

H&B has been a godsend for me. Allen and George are highly knowledgeable, and very practical regarding money and repairs– I do not feel pressured, but do feel that they have my best interests at heart. They always take the time to explain the issues, and are patient with me when it takes time to understand. I am currently having a difficult insurance-​related issues, and Allen has been remarkably helpful in navigating the insurance reimbursement process. I work in the customer service area myself, and think that H&B really sets the bar high in that area. I trust them completely.

After years of expensive repairs at a Mini dealership in WI (in which I never got out for less than $ 400 and there was always some surprise problem) I moved here and took my 2006 Mini Cooper to H&B. My first service bill was only $ 66 and left me reeling– had I actually found an honest place at reasonable prices that wouldn’t gouge me for everything they could get?
The gentlemen at H&B are unfaillingly friendly. I can always get my car in quickly and it’s always been ready by the end of the day. I pay for what I need and have never felt taken advantage of. When I changed my rusty old WI plates for shiny CA ones, they helped me with the rusted, stripped screws– for FREE. When my brake sensor went out they scrambled to get me a loaner car even though I’d brought the car in right before close. The rust from years of Midwestern snow and salt shocked them but they’ve been awfully nice about it.
I absolutely trust H&B for my routine maintenance and emergency repairs. I’m lucky to have found them!

I recently took my M3 in for an oil change. Nothing’s ever cheap on this car, but I’m a firm believer in you get what you pay for, and at H&B it was no different, but there’s an honesty present here that you just don’t feel at a dealer.
Doc George and his team did a fine job, and I swear the car drives better for it already. Not to mention my car came out cleaner than I left it! Spotless facilities there show that they really pay attention to the finer details too. I’ll be coming back whenever my car needs to be treated with the same, if not better care than I give it.

I highly reccomened this buisness to anyone with a BMW. We purchased a 2009 535I that is CPO w/​warranty but there are some things that are not covered (i.e. headlights). One of our day lamps went out, took it to the dealership wanted about 1K to fix it, they said it was a unit upgrade, took it to H&B, $ 200.00 labor and the part.
This is our first BMW but wont be our last as long as we have H&B in town as our mechanic.
Staff is friendly, knowledgeable and resourceful. They dont try to hog all the biz in town, if they cant or dont suggest doing it with them, they will even refer you to other folks for great work at affordable prices.

They are seriously the Mini Cooper Zen Masters! We had no idea what was going on with my poor Mini and they figured out that it was just an air bubble in the coolant. They were calm, cool, fair and straight forward with us from beginning to end. I will never, ever take my Mini to anyone else… ever! I believe, and am now a devout customer of H&B!

I took my car to the dealer for the past 4 – 5 years simply out of convenience (near BART line on my way to work) even though I trusted the guys @ H&B so much more. I dreaded taking my 2000 328i to BMW San Francisco because they usually gave me a laundry list of things I needed to fix and each item cost nearly $ 500-​$ 1000 bucks. The list of «recommended”/urgent fixes kept growing and I was even contemplating selling my beloved car of 12 years and starting over with a new BMW 328i. At one point, the rear light unit wiring was screwy and kept falling out – the dealer quoted me nearly $ 500 to fix this. Whah?
The breaking point was when I needed a simple light bulb replaced on the front turn signal light (would have done it myself but owner’s manual was stolen from my car!). I took it to Weatherford BMW on Ashby. Though it was a simple light bulb change, I couldn’t get one mechanic to help me change out the bulb! They said that I needed to pay $ 50 even if it took a mechanic only 20 seconds to change the bulb. I thought this was ridiculous and said screw you, I’m going to try H&B again. The friendly H&B parts guy not only replaced the bulb, but told me I have a bad socket I should get that replaced too. So I did. All for $ 10!
I was so impressed by the lack of bureaucracy @ H&B that I decided to give H&B a try again when soon after the bulb incident my car’s computer told me I had to take it in for the dreaded service. It was still a lot of money for maintenance, replacing the thermostat in the engine and the differential mount (all combined $ 1600). But my car has never run better in all the past 5 – 6 years that I’ve taken it to the dealer. Plus $ 1600 is way cheaper than the +$ 5,000 worth of fixes BMW San Francisco recommended. And imagine a place where mechanics talk to the service agent who then can talk to you intelligently about what’s really needed in your car and not needed (e.g, mysterious vanos pipe thing-​a-​majig that costs $ 1500!).

I have been taking my BMWs to H&B for service for 25 years– I’m now on my third BMW with them. I have found them to be as good as it gets in the auto repair/​ervice business — never even a hint of deception, poor customer service, or other negative attributes. Every service detail is explained to me in plain English. I worked in San Jose for 5 years and brought my car to H&B for service! I would not take my car anywhere else for service as long as I can take it H&B. Allen and George are the absolute best!

The folks at H&B are surely knowledgeable. For the simplest of services, they will try to talk completely over your head with technical jargon. This is how they try to sell you on absurd services that you don’t need. As an educated, car knowledgable person myself, I can’t believe that so many people still get their BMWs serviced by H&B. I had a simple service done in late January of 2011, where spark plugs were serviced, oil was changed, etc. Unfortunately, the very next day, my car broke down on the way to work… I got the car towed to H&B (where, for some reason, I have had the car serviced for years), and they say that it was due to a piece of a spark plug that broke and fell into the engine… Hmm… You serviced my car, inclusive of its spark plugs, yesterday… And… they break the next day… And you have the audacity to attempt to charge me full price for that repair? And by full price, I mean over $ 1,000? I’m not stupid, all they did was vacuum it out. That is total insanity. They told me that, all of a sudden, all of the spark plugs were going to fail and that if I didn’t replace them that instant, the engine would fail, the car would be undriveable and unsellable. Well, I picked up the car with my girlfriend after I bought a brand new 2011. I had my girlfriend drive my 740i home, and told them I would never need their services again. The look on their faces was priceless, and I wish, for the customers’ sake, that they would show their guilt/​shock more often. They asked why I got a new car, and said my 740i was fine and would just need a few more services to be flawless… In sum, this business is good at what they do; trying to confuse you, selling you things you don’t need, all at outrageous prices. Unilocal is here to help consumers make better decisions and to support and reward well run businesses– do more research and avoid this place!

Well, where to start.
They were supposed to fix my brake but ended up not finishing it.
Anyway, I need to bring my car two times and received three different quotes. I ended up spend $ 500 for them and another $ 500 for other mechanic I feel much comfortable to work with.
I think they have great knowledge, but really lousy costumer service. By the way, their labor and part pricing is way expensive. If you do not care for pricing this shop will work for you.

Rough engine start one morning caused the «Service Engine Soon» light to illuminate, car was running fine on subsequent starts. This car is not a daily driver, so not a lot of daily wear.
I’d had the car repaired at H&B previously so I took it down and got a lot of pressure to perform a «Full» service at $ 1,000 (the car is only worth ~$ 5,000). This service involved a number of things that were irrelevant to my then current issue. There was a lot of «Checking» to make the list long and justify the cost but if any work was required, such as tire rotation or alignment, then that was an additional fee. The car certainly has its issues and I recognize that fact. I didn’t want to pay $ 1,000 to create a list of issues that were going to cost even more. Just wanted the rough start and service light addressed.
Allen said they couldn’t help resolve my current issue without this full service. I was pretty sure that oiling the slide rails on my sunroof had nothing to do with misfires in my engine but they were forcing me to pay for this to get my car on the path to being fixed. It was pretty clear that after the $ 1000 service I would then need to pay for the repair that originally got me in the door. They refused to just fix the issue, likely because it would have involved only changing one spark plug. We agreed to disagree, they printed out the error codes, cleared them so the warning lights went off and I took my car home. I’ll be taking my car to Bay Bridge Motors. I had a very reasonable conversation on the phone with them while H&B had my car hostage.
Just so happens that my wife’s colleague has been a long time customer at H&B and he was just in for service. After my wife told him this story he acknowledged a similar feeling about pressure to spend more money than necessary and that he was considering alternatives.

The generally accepted myth is that german engineers are next to geniuses when it comes to designing cars. The real geniuses, I think, are the mechanics who fix those cars 5 to 10 years down the road, when the cars start showing their idiosynchracies. Allan and George at H & B are the best, not only because they know BMW’s like nobody’s business, including little incidental details (like the radio antitheft code won’t work if the battery discharges, because it has its own little battery that needs to charge for an hour before inputting the code will be successful) but they are considerate of their clients goals and needs. Some BMW owners are ultra into status and performance and want every little thing perfect. Others, like me, drive a BMW for transportation, and handling abilities. Alan and George are perfectionists, and yet know I don’t want my car’s aura fluffed, and do not offer to do so, though they certainly can, if that is what you want. Instead, they take my objectives seriously, and tell me what I really need, and what I can do without, and how it will all effect my car. Nothing is pushed on me and nothing is done without my informed consent. They are like Click and Clack (but not as funny).
I was first really impressed by them a few years ago when they had to get my 1991 318i past smog. It turns out that this family of BMW engines becomes notoriously tricky to pass as they get older. What they cleverly resorted to was to switch the computer chip in my electronic ignition with another, performance chip (they used to own a performance shop for Maserati’s etc.). Later, they borrowed my car to test this chip out in another 318i they were trying to get past smog. They gave me a free wheel alignment as a thank-​you. Now my little BMW has just past smog, again, which was even more of a bear, and this time it finally needed a catalytic converter, which usually costs mucho dinero, but they talked with me about the pro’s and con’s of BMW vs. aftermarket vs. generic converters, and I decided to go with a generic, so they referred me to Ron’s Mufflers. Alan, George and staff worked hard, thought hard, and in the end, made a referral out of their shop rather than talk me into a higher ticket item, though it would have also been a good, longer term choice. I respect that.