Hometown Garage

Excellent service, very friendly and honest. They won’t do more than what your car needs, and they’ll give you fair warning about what you will need. I totally trust Herb and his employees.

Once again, Hometown Garage has saved my ride! I know I will eventually have to retire my 15 year old car, but for now, my beloved Echo is still on the road, thanks to the excellent service she gets at Hometown Garage. I feel treated like family, and they even got my car in a day early for the new muffler, which I’m sure my neighbors appreciated as much as I did. I highly recommend them.

I bought a used $ 4k Jeep for my college-​aged son. Before handing him the keys, I decided to take it to the nearby Jeep dealership to get an oil change and have them give it a once-​over. They came back with the news that the oil change was done and that my Jeep needed a bunch of repairs, to the tune of $ 1200. Did I want to get the work done today? Because they could fit me in, today. Sigh. I decided to get a second opinion.
I picked Hometown Garage because of the reviews. My faith was not misplaced. They got me in, looked over the Jeep, and told me that while the things the dealership pointed out were accurate, in that «yeah, well, I guess if you really wanted to sell services, you could say this was needing work» kind of way, if it were their car they wouldn’t trouble with it anytime soon. They also found an issue with the universal joints that they said should be taken care of at some point but they (unlike the dealership!) did not instantly suggest to get it done today.
Friendly, responsive, non-​pushy, wow. For the price of the 2^nd opinion (a very fair $ 35), I saved over a thousand dollars.
They have now won my business for anything going forward, for all my cars.

Very courteous and helpful employees, providing me good guidance.
Since they balanced the tires, my care rides smoothly.

I brought my 2014 Chevy Suburban here because the warranty has expired, and I was looking for an alternative to the dealer service department. I chose Hometown Garage because of all the good reviews on Unilocal.My takeaway of the reviews was that Hometown would probably turn out to be on the expensive side, but was a trustworthy, reliable place for independent service, which was all fine with me. I decided to do an oil change here as a way of checking things out before committing to any major work here. Making an appointment was easy. The work took about 1 hour, as promised, and I waited for the vehicle, in the comfortable, but somewhat spartan, waiting room. Free coffee and WiFi, perfectly fine. Extremely nice and courteous people I dealt with at every stage. Later, when I got home, I discovered that the oil change sensor (that tells you approximately how much oil life is left before needing another change) wasn’t reset after the work was performed. I went online and discovered that it’s a trivially easy thing to do, and I did it myself. But it bothers me that this wasn’t done by Hometown Garage. That’s part of the job of «oil change». When I go to a professional for any type of service, a big part of what I’m looking for is the ability to completely trust that I can cross that task off my list and that I can rest easy knowing the work is done right. I don’t like to have to double-​check, although I usually do until the trust is established. In this case, now I’m not sure how I feel about this garage. On the one hand, it was a very minor omission, but on the other hand, I felt disappointed that my experience wasn’t up to all the tremendous reviews posted. Makes me wonder, «what else might have been overlooked?» Within 5 hours after having the work done, I got an email requesting I write a review. Now that I go back and look at many of the reviews on Hometown’s website, I see quite a few reviews from the same people, without much detail, which makes me a little suspicious. I understand that a small independent business needs to market themselves heavily, and I don’t want to bash this place, because they seem like nice people, I wanted very much to like it, and I still may go back again, but I wish that they’d put as much attention into making sure my work was 100% satisfactory as they did in asking for my marketing support.

From start to finish our experience with Hometown Garage was excellent. Because of how busy they are it did take us several days to get scheduled for an appointment but that was not an issue for us. Phone communication was excellent and pricing seemed appropriate for the work. We are new to the area and are happy to have found our car repair shop!

I’m still going to Hometown Garage and they’re still awesome. They give me a ride to and from work, nearly always have availability within a week when I call, and I can trust that they’re being honest with me. I’ve had a bunch of things repaired on my 12-​year-​old car here, and they always do the job right the first time. A couple of times they have sent me to other shops for work they can’t do at Hometown, and their recommendations have always been solid.

I just got my front brakes done here, and everything looks great as usual. I’ve been coming here for years. Hometown Garage is convenient because I can drop off my car and get a ride to and from work. Unlike at large dealerships I’m not sharing a ride with a busload of people, so they take me directly to the office and directly back. It’s very fast and efficient. They are easygoing, professional, generally pleasant people and there’s never a sales pitch. I am very comfortable taking my car here for service. They charged me less than what they quoted for the brake work because it went faster than planned. For a garage to do that… Wow!

I got my rear brakes replaced here back in December, and I thought everything went smoothly. They told me I’d have to replace my front brakes in ~3000 miles. Fast forward to now.
My front wheels started squealing yesterday, and it had been about 2800 miles since December so I was expecting to have to replace them soon. What was weird was that they would squeal even when I wasn’t braking, which doesn’t make sense. I took it to a local shop, and turns out my front left and rear right calipers were ceased (stuck to the rotor). This happened because only my rear brakes were replaced, so the difference in brake pad thickness applied uneven pressure between the front and back (brakes operate in an x formation — left back and front right are paired, vice versa). They also didn’t service my calipers, which should be standard as part of any brake job. Not only was my front brake pad completely worn down, but so was one of the rear ones which was brand new. Now I have to get all my brakes replaced, and if the calipers can’t be torched so that they’re not ceased anymore, I have to get those too.
If these guys had just done a proper job from the beginning, I wouldn’t be in this situation. Unbelievable.

I had a rusty and burst brake crossover pipe on my old Cadillac. HTG quoted me $ 750 to replace, refill and bleed the brake system. The reason it is so high, according to them, is because the caliper nipples were hard to open.
I ended up had it fixed at a nearby Lexington gas station for $ 175. This is in Aug. 2014.

Honest and trustworthy. How many garages do you know that can make that claim? I used to go to DirecTire in Watertown. During one state inspection, the handbrake failed. DirecTire wanted over a grand to redo the brakes and struts, even though I specifically said I want the minimum done to pass inspection. I came to Hometown Garage on a referral from a colleague at work. I was out the door in 15 minutes and just 20 dollars poorer and it passed inspection with flying colors. Since then, I use them for oil changes and all maintenance work and they have never let me down.

My past dealings with Hometown Garage left me with an impression that they were well run and efficient. However, all this expertise and professionality comes at a price. Those who say they charge less than a dealer are telling the truth. It’s just that a dealership service department charges more than God (who’s actually intimidated by car dealers). For example, someone earlier said Hometown charged them $ 86 for an oil change and $ 46 for «patching» (probably meant plugging) a tire. If a dealership charges roughly ¹⁄₃ more (and the rumors about God are true), that makes the price of a dealer-​done oil change an astronomical $ 114. This is all very discouraging, until you consider that a local gas station will charge you $ 27 and $ 10, for an oil change and a patched tire, accordingly.

I left LFC for Hometown Garage.
They are always honest, the price is reasonable.
When there was a exhaust leak, instead of fixing it and charging me a lot of money, Herb told me to take my car to Lou’s custom exhaust and repair since it’s much cheaper, which I gladly did.
One time, they over charged me like $ 30. They called me to let me know it, and offered a refund. I refused the refund so they credited me for next time.
When I was talking about my car not passing the inspection due to really unreasonable gas station’s claim (I fixed everything the first inspection’s failures fixed up, and went back and they started telling me something else), after fixing the car second time at Hometown, after listening to my story, Herb took money out from the register, gave it to a young guy there, told them to take my car to an inspection. The guy came back with the new inspection sticker. Herb didn’t bother to take money from me upfront. I think he was just mad.
I of course repaid the inspection fee afterward. I was grateful that they cared me and my car.
They have coffee, wifi and shuttle. What more do you want?

I have had Hometown repair my car for years! I have referred my family, friends and biz acquaintances, all are very happy with the service and pricing.
They are great and trustworthy at what they do and have fair prices. I would not take my car anywhere else.
They do what they say they will do and its always on time
I love that they even have a free shuttle! How convenient!
Its clean, friendly and most of all, Herb is honest! Give them a try

I am updating my review for a couple of reasons,. 1) Herb, the owner throughout this process shown himself to be very professional and caring towards the satisfaction of his customers. 2) He explained to me in writing a very detailed description of the work that was done and the reasons for the charges and he did so in a polite and professional manner. Because of this I will consider using Hometown Garage again and will update the rating pending my future experience.

Posting this now, after waiting to see how I felt after time passed. This review (written below) dates back to Aug 2013, and feeling this is warranted now Oct 18, 2013. I really prefer to leave positive reviews but feel this is an accurate description of my experience.
Feeling really bad about this auto shop. Initially these guys were great, offering reasonable prices, and actually seemed to try to help the consumer. But today, after trusting them (based on past experience), and then paying extra $$ to have my car towed to their garage… and then to discover the price of repairs of $ 695! Well did I check the price with other shops? Yes. And these are the prices given for a 2009 Camry thermostat, water pump and serpentine belt…$ 350 – 400. Why is their price $ 695? Don’t know … Due to the discrepancy and the overall faith I had in these guys, called 3 shops for price comparison. Do you know what? Other shops prices are as follows — 1) ‘Between $ 350 – 400 (Dorchester MA) 2) $ 375 (Hudson MA) 3) $ 460 (Lexington MA). What would you do??? From $ 695 quoted? A no brainer. I don’t care how you slice it, I feel like they are ripping me off, and that just goes to show they will rip you off too, once they believe they have earned your business.
FIrst, let me say that Herb the owner is above board in every possible way. But his relatively new? associate Gary is geared for profit and will always charge and charges are high. When I went to get my car today, and have it towed off their lot and asked what I owed them, Herb (really great guy) said ‘nothing’. Well I had already talked with Gary and he had said $ 31.86 was the price I owed for checking my car. That was fair enough and I told Herb I wanted to pay them. I felt bad for not doing business with them after I had had good experiences in the past. But what I am saying here is ‘Herb is great” and he is very customer service driven. Gary is probably great too, but it’s been my personal experience that when dealing with Gary, you will pay More. Gary is not giving anything without charging and I am pretty sure profit margins are up due to Gary;s pricing. I have seen it in the past, too when someone showed up at the counter questioning the pricing, and Gary had overcharged the person. Their moto ‘high tech service… with’old time values’ doesn’t really apply since the costs of their services does not really equate to ‘old time values’. I am both happy and sad to report that I took my car (via tow truck) to another shop and I saved $ 222 total on the repairs. It’s unfortunate to say that Hometown Garage are now well established, have a good reputation, but that doesn’t mean the prices should escalate such that they are way out of line. I feel bummed about this, as I had trusted them and thought I had found a good auto repair shop, and they let me down, being relentless, saying their guys are ‘ASE certified’ and they guarantee for 24 months blah blah blah. I like to see the owners of the shop get their hands dirty, not just build in excessive costs so they can take the cream off the top of their excessive charges. Other auto mechanics are also ASE certified and do not charge as much.

I *love* this place. The owners are honest and friendly, their prices are reasonable, and I have always been happy with the work they do on my car. I now live 45 minutes away and when I have a serious car problem, I drive the distance, because I really trust Hometown Garage.

Have had mixed to poor experiences with so many mechanics in the area — things done incorrectly, parts of my car lost (yep, lost), being charged for services not done… thanks to the reviews online I’d been looking for an opportunity to checkout Hometown Garage. The first 2 times I contacted Herb he referred me to other shops because HG didn’t do the work I needed. I finally had service that they could take care of recently and had a great experience.
Easy to schedule an appt, friendly and fast service, and Herb showed me exactly what was up with my car. He sent me on my way with some advice after a fairly short wait, and I’ll certainly go back again.

I’ve been bringing my care to Hometown for several years. Great service & pricing. I saved about $ 800 when HG recommended an alternative. That’s lasted for more than a few years. I recommend HG for service, customer service and cost.
These guys are great!

A good news, bad news story for Hometown Garage.
The bad news, their repaired component failed after about 2 months and I was hundreds of miles away for quite a while, so I had it fixed by a new car dealer; that repair has lasted longer. Apparently the original failure resulted from an electrical drain in another part of the system.
The good news for Hometown Garage’s reputation, the dealer probably found the other problem as a result of HG’s work; and the dealer’s charge for the part of the job that Hometown Garage completed was double what I had paid. Also, I’m confident that if I (in my opinion, unjustifiably) complained to HG, they’d try to work something out, and if I’d been geographically able to take it back that they would have made it good.
I still feel that HG gives five star service.