Pacific Motor Service

HORRIBLE EXPERIENCED!** Pacific Motors installed a fuel pump in our car in Pacific Grove in December 2015. Gas was leaking on the garage floor after driving several hundred miles home. Kevin washed his hands of the entire matter… simply saying to call Napa Insurance which covers the warranty on the pump. His prices were 30% higher than any comps in the area or by our own mechanic in Santa Monica. We could have died from a horrific car fire on the drive back home. Kevin NEVER inquired as to our safety or took any responsibility for the faulty installation. My husband and I are elderly… I am 72 yrs old and have never had to write a review like this. But I do not want other poor customers to suffer the same experience. Other reviewers on the Google and Unilocal site have stated: «This place should be closed… they are thieves. I wish that we had noticed those reviews before «trusting our lives» with Pacific Motors

Your customer service is outstanding! My car required an additional day of service and I was provided with a rental car at no charge! I also really appreciated your shuttle service to and from work. Jim was great about explaining all the repairs that were needed and providing me with updates as needed. I will definitely be back!

I just had a pretty major BMW service done and I am very happy with the customer service and the work itself. It was all explained and done on time. The price compared with my research for other mechanics in the area. It is nice having a local mechanic agency that doesn’t charge you over the top and who takes pride in the work. I would definitely recommend them to others.

I am happy with the way they handle my car. Jim was very kind and easy to talk to. I would gladly take my car back there to get the TLC I was told it needed.
Thank You Jim!

Pacific Motors has the primary quality that is crucial for me in accessing any service. I can trust them to tell me what I really need and perform the work exactly as it should be. No hype. No selling. No guesswork. Just clear communication and superior service. Maybe you could get something done cheaper somewhere else, but it might be something you didn’t need in the first place.

Excellent service, straightforward advice and reporting. I’ll definitely come back. They helped me fix a break light alert that other shops didn’t seem to find a problem with on my older model Honda. These guys were very helpful and made all of the information clear, without talking down to me. I’ll say it again, excellent service.

My daughter is over 300 miles from home, attends CSUMB and drives a semi-​reliable Jeep. While visiting over the weekend we took her car in for much needed service. I left it in Jim and Justin’s very professional and capable hands. They notified me of any additional repairs they thought should be done and got her car back to her in a timely manner. It gives me peace of mind that she has someone who is trustworthy to take her car to while away at school.

Pacific Motor Service has done a bunch of work for me and I am happy with all of it. The charges are always reasonable. They have great customer service. They do not try to sell you on expensive service you don’t need. I would definitely recommend them to a friend.

Not a fan. I had dash lights on and a specific issue that needed to be looked at. Wanted $ 167 just to look at my car and let me know everything that’s wrong with it. My car is 10 years old! I’m sure there’s lots wrong with it but just fix what’s broken please. Instead they wanted to create a laundry list of future business for themselves. I asked if they could tell me what on the list would prevent me from breaking down or what would break first. Um, can’t tell me that. So, took my car else where and had it fixed. First impressions count folks.

I brought my car here years ago because it had trouble starting. I dropped it off and they called me to tell me it would cost upwards of $ 4000 to fix my $ 7000 car! I told them that I would be taking it to another place to get an estimate. On the car ride over I told the driver/​employee of the shop my situation and all I wanted is for my car to start again. He said that it they could do $ 300 worth of work to get it going again but it was a ‘temporary fix’. I agreed and they fixed it for a couple hundred ONLY after I threatened to take it somewhere else. This was 5 years ago folks. I would be giving them 1 star for trying to scam me, but I gave them 2 since they essentially got my car fixed.

Charged a ridiculous amount of money and left my seat, door and somehow passenger seat filthy and even left a tool under the hood and some other odd parts there, too. I used to get good service there but even I feel dirty after this transaction! Stay away!

I really want to like this business. It’s clean, the owner, Kevin Donohue is on premises. There’s Wi-​Fi, a PC, coffee and more magazines (neatly arranged) than I’ve seen in most physicians’ offices.
They’ve worked on my car a few times — again, I really do like the staff and it’s about one mile from my home.
My vehicle was towed to the facility by CSAA. Flat tire — bad and iffy spare tire. I have 14″ wheels on a vehicle with in excess of 235k miles. Because I arrived at the shop at 12:30PM, I was told I couldn’t be served until the mechanics returned from lunch at 1:30PM. I was given an estimate of $ 39.95 to repair the flat.
At 1:30, Kevin let me know the mechanics has returned and could work on my car. About 15 min. later, Kevin informed me that he did not have the 14″ tires in stock and wouldn’t have them until the next day. He drove me home telling me that the car should be ready about 11 – 11:30 AM. At noon, I called and Kevin indicated, ‘the car is almost complete, I’ll come get you in about 15 min.“
Upon returning to the shop, Kevin presents me with an invoice for $ 467. Seems he got top-​of-​the-​line UniRoyal tires (2) and did an alignment. I was not consulted on the quality of tires I wanted nor did I request an alignment — I also wasn’t advised that I needed an alignment.
I pretty much cam un-​glued. While he did deduct the cost of the alignment, the total cost was $ 327. This is a 22 yr. old vehicle, why would top-​of-​the-​line tires be used? This on an estimate of $ 39.95.
Whenever I’ve used Pac Motors, the estimates are no where near the actual cost. There’s always ‘something more’ and the estimate is cast aside.
Again, I genuinely like the business, but, I cannot imagine ever returning.
.

I want to start my review with the owner and the staff are very friendly and are not bad people. I went in to get my car fixed which needed a new radiator and cover gasket. I dropped my car off. The prices in which I understand are high because of Monterey but really!!! I talked to Kevin the owner and I do not mean to bash them because they did look at my car right away. Clean place and nice staff.
$ 160 just to look at my car and send me pictures? (at least apply that to the repair like every shop does) or give me half my money back… Way to high… Most shops are under $ 30…
Aright let’s get to the hard numbers… I called a shop with the same warranty and the same parts just as Pacific Motor had quoted me.
Pacific Motor Other Shop
Labor: $ 612.00 Labor: 264.00
Parts: $ 540.00 Parts: 514.35
Parts difference: $ 25.65 (which they were close to)
Labor: $ 348.00 (Are you joking me)
When I pressed Kevin (the Owner) on why his labor was 3 times higher than the other shop he said he was «did not understand we shop around and look at what others are charging and we are around the same» He knew I found out his little game and acted like I was crazy… I got you Kevin!!! (some people are to smart for your game)
Which car shops are you looking at Ferrari shops? The crazy part is I even bought in a coupon I had from them and that saved me $ 130. However, that is a drop in the bucket for what they charge for labor… Just be aware you have to be a millionaire to afford to get your car fixed by them… Other hardworking American getting screwed by a not honest car shop…

I understand we all need to make money, but to simply look at your vehicle, they charge 160 $.
If you are a «high-​roller» that doesn’t mind paying hidden fees, and just want your vehicle serviced eventually, this is the place.
I saw two customers leave unhappy while I was there. One woman left her vehicle here and they changed her oil, even though she didn’t ask them to, and charged her for it! She was not happy to say the least. What they do is say «oh you would like an A inspection» (which includes an oil change) but they don’t explain what that entails. She simply wanted them to check the vehicle.
I don’t have a ton if money. I do however, have a vehicle, an am a person, so I deserve honest service. That means not raking people over the coals. If you don’t have time to look at the vehicle, tell me. Or at least tell me how long it will take. It was like pulling teeth to get an estimated time.
I felt like they were beating around the bush and just wouldn’t give it to me straight. I know they need to inspect the vehicle, but they took two hours to «inspect» it. (It was a very small issue) yadda yadda.
Long story short– I took it somewhere else and they completely fixed it in 20 minutes for a FRACTION of the the price.
Maybe they do great work, I’ll never know, but they’d better for what they are charging!

just found this shop. Kevin is the best. Prices are really reasonable. My new go to automotive place. Kudos.

I tend to end up with odd cars, which perplex dealers, run-​of-​the-​mill drive-​in and hyper-​specialized auto service shops. Case in point, I once had a VW Rabbit that was converted from a diesel to a GTI-​spec, which meant service had to span four years in parts and include creative mechanical thinking (imagine servicing the car in Johnny Cash’s «One Piece at a Time» song, only in VW form).
So when I bought a weird, older, quirky high mileage BMW, I knew it would need mechanical work beyond my capabilities and researched independent options in the Monterey area for issue diagnosis, part refresh and of course, repair. In the end, I opted to give Pacific Motor Service a try. The whole experience was great. I provided them with a list of observed issues and concerns, and they provided quality triage, quality customer service, and most importantly, quality work.
When I visited the shop for an initial estimate, I looked at the cars that were in for service as it can tell a lot about the shop’s knowledge. Both the relative age and variety of vehicle makes indicated to me that this shop could understand the quirks and issues around my era of automobile. What I appreciate most is that they back their work with a three-​year warranty, which is rare and says something about the confidence they have in their own team. My BMW now feels like a BMW should and those things that I couldn’t see for myself (but knew were there) have been dealt with before causing serious and costly problems. And FWIW, my actual service bill came in several hundred dollars UNDER the estimate.
For me, fast and cheap runs too great a risk of misdiagnosis and masked problems that will haunt you later. Balanced with that is having an option beyond the strengths and limitations of a dealership and your own abilities so you’re not held hostage when it comes time to get something fixed. Therefore, quality work at a fair price that takes a reasonable amount of time (even an extra day or two) will always bring me back as a customer. Pacific Motor Service definitely hit the mark and is now my independent option for planned auto repair in Monterey.

I can’t begin to tell you how unhappy I am with pacific. Not only did they grossly over charge me, they did work that I did not authorize. His response was «Whoops. That’s not good.» After the whole fiasco in dealing with pacific, he held my vehicle hostage because he charged more than he was supposed to for the «covered» warranty work. He told me it was my responsibility to appeal with corporate and that in thr mean time he would be charging storage fees. He obviously saw I was an out of towner and he could take advantage of me since I obviously wouldn’t ever come back for his services. STAY AWAY.

Professional. Beau responded quickly to diagnose and repair after my dreaded check engine light came back on four days later the original repair. The issue was resolved in a manner that we both agreed. Bottom line is I’ll be back should something else pop up with our 2003 impala.

My car stopped working on hwy 1 and I was towed by AAA to «AAA certified repair», which is this one. In the morning they told me that problem is with serpentine belt because of ac compressor. And repair will cost 900 $ with used parts and 1100 $ with new compressor. I called my mechanic in SF, who said that it’s bullsh*t and price for a brand new compressor for my Sebring’99 is 300 – 340 $. And the other option is to make a bypass of ac, which will be 100 – 120 $ in total. So I told this to the guy at the desk, he said they will not do any bypass things, because of the liability… Okaaay.
I went across the street to the other repair, where they agreed with my mechanic, and said that’s the way they fix old car like mine.

I took my truck here a year or so ago to have a check engine light figured out. What a mistake that was!
They charged me $ 135 and told me that I needed a new catalytic converter which would cost $ 1300! I told them no thanks, begrudgingly paid the $ 135 and headed straight to another mechanic.
The other mechanic I went to looked at the truck and told me the problem was a bad oxygen sensor, which he fixed for under $ 100. That same mechanic also told me that a new catalytic converter for that truck would cost around $ 500. And Pacific Motor Service had quoted me $ 1300!!!
After the second mechanic replaced the oxygen sensor the light went out and the truck worked fine. I called Pacific Motor Service and requested my $ 135 «diagnostic fee» back because they misdiagnosed the problem. They were rude and confrontational about it and refused to give me the money back.