Bay View Service

I just had my car repaired at Bay View service last week, this was my first time using them. They were faster than their initial time estimates, despite a family wedding they were closing up for. They were right about in the middling/​high side of cost for the repair they completed (alternator replacement) per
. Low, actually, for the labor, a little high on the part. The repair is so far so good. If I were smart I would of asked what parts they were using, but I didn’t. Take that as you will, my mom still tells me I’m smart. So, all the marks you want out of a solid repair shop so far: fast, reliable and cost effective using (presumably) solid parts.
As far as service, the gal at the counter was super friendly, as was the mechanic that took time to talk to me about the repair. They were very communicative, and courteously laughed at my bad jokes.
A couple of unexpected bells and whistles:
1. A customer loyalty plan that got me a $ 10 for future repairs, and a $ 10 to the Highbury. (This in lieu of the cash discount I asked them about, which was fair, since it doesn’t seem to be much of a thing anymore, but I always ask).
2. A roadside assistance plan, good for 1 year from the repair as a benefit of them being Bumper to Bumper certified. Bear in mind that this is reimbursement after the fact, but up to $ 225 for that period, which would almost cover my repair. Worth the leg work if you ask me.
3. Free candy and a beer coozy! What kind of savage doesn’t appreciate a gratuitous beer coozy… and candy.
All in all, I will totally be back (as my car is a turd) and will recommend to friends!

I’ve been taking my car to a different auto repair shop for years, but found myself in a bind and had to have it towed somewhere closer to my house. Bay View service is a 2 minute walk — so I decided to give them a try.
My car was dropped off after hours, and I went in the next morning to tell them what I needed. I definitely needed my flat tire replaced, but I knew all of my tires were really bad, so I had them give me a quote for all 4. They called me about an hour later with a quote that was pretty reasonable, so I agreed to replace them all. They were done early that afternoon — less than 24 hours after I dropped it off without notice.
They fixed what I asked them to and didn’t suggest any more work, which was nice. They didn’t top off my fluids like other places have done in the past, but no big deal.
Overall, I wouldn’t hesitate to take my car back to Bay View Service.

Bay View Service has taken great care of us & our Honda Element. Roads were reasonable & I felt they were honest & hardworking. They have always completed repairs on time & have communicated with us when needed. Were so happy to have them!

I used to be a huge fan of Bay View Service, but my last experience guarantees that I won’t go back and would never refer anyone else.
I’ve been here a few times for batteries, oil changes, etc. The staff is usually nice (though they do smoke inside, so with allergies I try to make my visits short). I have a foreign car, which they say they do. It requires full synthetic, and though this means I don’t need oil changes quite so often, nobody can ever seem to get that right on the sticker. But whatever, I can do math, and they were convenient, so I kept going.
I took my car in for a brake light out in June; car came back needing new brakes and various other things that sounded like safety hazards, turning a $ 200 job into a $ 600 job. I was getting ready to move and just wanted a safe car to do it in. I asked that they replace the brake lights, but not an LED strip which was also apparently broken and would cost a few hundred dollars to fix. I got this impression this was largely cosmetic and opted not to.
On moving across the state, I noticed that it looked like the front bumper on my car had come ajar. Initially I thought maybe I hit something or it had come loose. On arriving at my new house, however, I popped the hood… only to find that they hadn’t actually secured it. Meaning that I drove across the state with a hood that could have popped up in my face. I also noticed a gouge in the side of what are relatively new tires, obvious enough on the driver’s side that I think I would have noticed before. But, I had just moved, didn’t want to cause trouble, didn’t have any real recourse, and dropped it.
Three months after moving, I was flagged down by another driver and told my brake light was out. Strange, I just paid a few hundred dollars to get it fixed. I took it to the mechanic in my hometown that I’ve seen for years, who said that not only were the bulbs out, but that the LED strip mentioned earlier was actually a housing that was my main brake light. On a low-​profile car like mine, larger vehicles can’t see me at all without it. He also showed me that the brakes that Bay View Service had installed were installed incorrectly, causing them to rub and damage other parts of the brake assembly. There were also visible, significant signs of wear on the tie rods and bushings that I feel should have been caught; I really don’t drive very much and this didn’t appear to be new damage.
They are convenient for oil changes and simple matters, but if you have to go, avoid them for anything substantial. I wish I would have waited 90 miles and saved the $ 600.

I had what I thought was a slow leak in my tire and, for convenience’s sake, I took it down the street to Bay View Service. The slow leak was apparently a rip in my tire, which they offered to replace to the tune of $ 300 (or, the cheaper option they offered, $ 200). For a single tire. No offer of explanation; just take it or leave it. Because of holiday hours, Bay View Service felt like my only option, so I told them to go ahead and replace it.
After all was said and done, I was out $ 300, but had a new tire and could drive my car again. But I didn’t get very far. As soon as I’d parked my car in front of my apartment, I got a call from Bay View Service asking me to bring the car back because they had put the wrong tire on. Not only was Bay View Service unnecessarily expensive, but they turned out to be extremely inconvenient as well.

I came here based on the overall positive Unilocal reviews. At the time of the repair, I was pretty «meh» — the car was fixed, but the service was just okay, nothing special. No one offered to explain or show anything to me. Perfectly average, not really worth reviewing. But since then, the same tire has needed to be repaired again; I took it to a different shop, and that mechanic showed me where a big chunk had been gouged out of the tire, telling me that it had been caused by a shoddy removal — it had never been removed before, so the only time it could have been broken was while BVS was «repairing» it. I will not be returning.

I’ve had nothing but good service from here. The labor prices are average, but they go well out of their way to find ways to save money on parts. I figure it’s better to just list off my experiences:
1. My wife stopped by with a running stroller to ask if they could patch a leaky tire. They couldn’t, so without even asking they drove to Target half a mile away and picked up a replacement tire. They charged us $ 9.
2. My ignition jammed in my garage, keeping me from moving the car or being able to tow it because of the retaining wall behind us. They came out to our house, fixed it well enough to drive it over and do a proper repair.
3. I’ve brought my 12 year-​old car in once or twice a year for the last few years now, and they keep it running for me. I’ve only had to return once for an electrical component that broke while fixing something else.

For weeks, my car (2008 Mazda 3) has sounded like I’m carrying around a trunk load of wrenches – especially when driving on streets that appear to be more of a patchwork of quick pavement fixes than a continuous smooth stretch of road (AKA Milwaukee). Lots of metallic clanging and banging from the rear left side. Obviously not good.
Rather than dealing with the hassle of calling my dealer to find out that they can’t fit me in anytime within the next 3 weeks, I decided to drop my car at Bay View Service first thing this morning with the non-​specific instructions of «make the noise stop, please». I’d taken my last car to Bay View Service several times for routine stuff, and had always been very happy with the service – one time they even gave me a ride to work while my car was being fixed.
By 1:00 p.m., I’d received a call from the shop, and was told that they looked at the car and believed they had a good idea of what the problem is, but that there is a «Technical Service Bulletin (TSB)» for this problem & make/​model. I was told that they would fix it for me if I wanted them to, but they suggested that I take the TSB that they had printed for me to my dealer, and the dealer would likely fix it under warranty.
So, I went to pick up the car, had a pleasant chat with the lovely boxer who tends the shop, retrieved my keys, the TSB, and my car. OK, so my car isn’t fixed, but I wasn’t charged for a thing, and I was provided a good, honest evaluation. I will not hesitate to return to Bay View Service again in the future.

Needed a last minute brake job done before the holidays and again gave Bay View Service another try. They fit me in on the same day, which is great. The prices seemed a touch high for pretty much slapping a set of new pads on the car. It was easier to have them do the work than go to another place.
This place is very close to my house and they get my business due to that. They’re certainly not as bad as some of the other reviews make them out to be. They just haven’t given me any reason to mark them higher or to remain loyal to them.

After seeing Bayview Service had gotten a «best in milwaukee» award I decided to take my car here. I went in to get my breaks looked at and also has questions about a shimmy my car had at higher speeds. When I picked it up they gave me a list of items that needed repair totaling about $ 500. I asked how necessary this was because I was planning a 2 hour trip north later that week. They strongly advised me that driving was not at all safe, so I set up a time to get my car fixed that weekend. I dropped my car off and they gave me a call a few hours later indicating that there were more parts that needed to be fixed, which I agreed to. When I came back to pick up my car my bill ended up being just over $ 1300. I figured it was work that needed to be done so I reluctantly paid. Driving home I noticed that the breaks has not been changed at all. I later discovered my car had the same shimmy to it and was running exactly the same prior to bringing it it for repair. I called them and told them of my problems and they told me they’d be happy to fix the breaks and take a look at why it still might be shimmying. The break pads and rotors cost me an additional $ 313. They told me they had test driven my car and balanced the wheels to get rid of the shimmy, but also my tires would eventually need to be fixed because two of them had bubbles on them. They gave me a gift card and a rebate totaling $ 25 in compensation, which i feel was pretty insulting considering I had paid these people $ 1600 in car repairs, in which my original request (the break change) was forgotten about. I left and once again discovered that my car still was shimmying. After paying them over $ 1600 in car repairs, with the only significant difference being new breaks, my frustration led me to go somewhere else to get new tires. My tires have since been replaced, and my car still shimmies. I will NEVER go back here and will recommend anyone needing any car repairs done to not go here, unless you know exactly what it is that needs to be fixed.