Independent Specialists of Reno

I have taken my cars to Independent Specialists for about 17 years! They are the MOST amazing car place I’ve ever done business with. I was really surprised to read the negative reviews for this business. I would bet there are definitely two sides to those stories!
Steve and Chris are gentlemen, and a pleasure to do business with. They are honest, which in this type of business is unusual. Their shop is clean, and the work they do is dependably superior. If there is something they cannot do, they will tell you! If I remember correctly they do not do alignments, so I was curious about the one review that said they had not done a proper alignment.
These guys are so busy I honestly don’t think these reviews matter one way or the other!

I give these guys 5 stars because I have never been treated so well by an automotive repair shop in nearly 40 years of driving. My engine light came on, I showed up with no appointment and Scott said let’s just do a quick diagnostic on it. Seems it was just low on oil. He cleared the code on the dash, put in some oil that I had brought in with me and we made an appointment to have the car seen in a week… I also needed a smog check. I returned in a week, he did another diagnostic check, the light hadn’t come back on, and he said you’re fine, no charge either time. He sent me around the corner fir an $ 18 smog check at Deano’s and I’m on the road. Most shops would have charged me $ 100 each visit, they didn’t. I will be bringing all my vehicles here in the future! Thank you for great customer service, great customer care and most of all for being honest!

I have been with Steve and Chris for years. They always find a way to get my car In when it is needed and the cost is as quoted.
They stress scheduled maintenance and it does pay off!
You leave feeling g like a valued customer. Have and will continue to refer them to anyone that has a Honda or Accura

LOVE these guys! I’ve been taking my cars to Independent Specialists for just over 8 years and they are just great mechanics. The staff is friendly, Steve will get to you know you by name within your second visit and they always do a great job. You can usually get an appointment fairly quickly and they walk through anything that they may see or that may come up with your car. If you think you’ll have a big service coming up (say a 60,000 mile checkup), they will work with you on a plan to keep costs at something that is manageable for you. I had to leave my car with them overnight once and it ended up being parked underneath a swamp cooler that leaked hard water onto my hood. I pointed it out to Steve and he had Clean Machine come out to my house on the weekend to take care of the spots at no charge to me. Great customer service and quality of work.

These guys are great. I have been taking my Toyota RAV4, my wife’s Corolla and my sister takes both of her vehicles to these guys. They do great honest work. It is sometimes hard to get in to see Steve and Bryon (Chris has moved on) but if I give it a couple days ahead for maintenance work it is generally not a problem. Repairs they seem to get in and out pretty quickly.
I do general maintenance and the occasional repair with these guys. They have an excellent alignment guy that did a thorough job on the wife’s car and suggested an aftermarket shim kit to correct factory misalignment of the wheels that was causing abnormal wear on the tires. Ever since then the tires have worn evenly and the car rides great. My RAV4 had an ignition coil go out and it was the most difficult one to get out (against the firewall) and they were completely honest about how difficult it was to replace that one. They did it quickly and had the vehicle back to me in the evening. I will continue to keep taking my vehicles to them for the foreseeable future.

We have been taking our cars here for over ten years now. They are not the cheapest place (nor the most expensive) but the work is done well and on time for the price quoted.
Sometimes the true test is when something goes wrong. We got a transmission replaced in our minivan. Years later it was making some noise. We actually thought it was already out of warranty but they indicated it was still covered, got it replaced quickly, and we’ve had no issues since. To be clear, outside of that I don’t ever remember taking something back to them with an issue. In my experience it is done right the first time, and when that one thing did fail, there was no sneaky stuff to get more money. They proactively said it was covered, took care of it quickly, and we’ve had no issues since (we just hit 200k miles on the minivan). The damn thing just won’t die thanks to them. Maybe I should give them fewer stars… A new car would be nice… :)

Had a massive oil leak on my Powerstroke, they got it in, diagnosed and fixed all in the same day! They contacted me as soon as it was diagnosed, and again as soon as it was fixed. They are top of the line and only use dealer approved parts (very important to me on my diesel). Every staff member was very friendly and honest. Highly recommend them to anybody in need of quality service!

I’ve been taking my 2004 Xterra to this shop for about 3 years now. It is small and independently owned by Steve, Chris, and Bryon. The price isn’t the best in town for various services, but they specialize in foreign trucks and SUV’s and can do any service, or repair that is required and that is what I really appreciate. They are experts at what they do and can anticipate and help me plan future services, so that I can have them completed in the least painful way. I plan on driving the Xterra for a long time, so I’ll be using this shop to keep it running and hopefully I won’t find myself stranded in the middle of a Nevada desert with these guys’ help. To summarize, great service and quality; so it would be unreasonable to expect the lowest price — and you need to take the right vehicle to them, they clearly state that they specialize in foreign trucks and SUV’s, so it is probably not the best idea to take your Prius to them.

When I moved to the area in 2008, I took my 1995 Acura Integra to these guys. In the past, they’ve always done an outstanding job on keeping my car up to par. From oil changes, to major repairs. They’ve always been good to check my car for any upcoming issues to make sure I know about them before they issues become major problems. It wasn’t until this year, yes 2013, that I noticed a significant decrease in the customer service.
I’m the type of person that when I make an appointment for my car looked at (this time it was the temperature gauge when idling — raises to hot and hover there), I bring my car in at the appointed time and expect to have them look at it within a reasonable amount of time. I received a call from the actual mechanic working on my car at 1pm on the day I brought my car in at 7:30am. He told me, «I’m just now looking at your car and wanted to clarify some problems you’re having.» 1pm? I dropped my car off at 7:30am AND had made the appointment weeks before. That day I didn’t receive a call from any of the guys there for a status update. In previous years they had called me to let me know where they’re at with my car. I got a call from Bryan that day at 5:10pm that my car was ready to be picked up. I was on my bicycle that day, and you’re calling me at 5:10pm when you close at 5:30pm? Sheeet. Screw you.
I hauled it down there on my bicycle, picked up my car with 5 minutes to spare, and was billed $ 100 for them to take a look at my car. The estimate came up to be $ 1500 for the power steering pump, return hose, new water pump, and timing belt.
Remember in past years, they were good about letting me know what issues I needed to be expecting. Did I let my car go? No, I typically take my car into them for an oil change every 5000 or 6000 miles. So I’m easily in there about 2 or 3 times a year. Easily.
Now I won’t be going back. Poor customer service (including updates), poor work flow and time management. Oh yeah, I also had my struts replaced here, and they did an alignment (of course), but wouldn’t you replace the factory installed shocks as well? And why are my tires wearing unevenly? Always good about getting alignment when I get new tires. *sigh* I can’t win.

I take my mom’s 2005 Civic to Steve and Chris, and even though we’ve been taking the car to them since 2007, when we bought it, and our 2000 Subaru Forester for years before that, I can’t seem to feel as if they even remember us half of the time. I can’t complain over how nice they are though, or how much they know about our Honda.
In all, very professional, very knowledgable, and they’re a much better alternative to the dealer.

Over the last few years we’ve brought our different cars here. We have always had good experiences. I don’t know much when it comes to cars, but I always feel I can understand what they are saying and have never felt lied to.
I have not scoured the Reno/​Sparks area and compared prices, but I feel they are average. If you want to call around I’m sure you will find places both higher and lower. I feel I can trust them and since I’ve never had that same feeling with any other mechanic, I’m willing to play a little more (if it is).

So, after a phone call from one of the owners, and a 30 minute or so conversation about my rather, harsh review, I decided to delete it and try again with a clear mind, maybe one that didn’t have crown royal circulating through the blood streams.
My entire service event started in February with getting brake pads and belts checked on a 97 Honda. I called to make an appointment the morning before I wanted to drop the car off, so I could ensure that it was completed the same day.
This Honda is nothing spectacular — its a junker car that gets people from point a to point b. It gets driven infrequently. This really isn’t my car, so when I say «me» or «I», I am collectively referring to my boss and myself, where applicable.
The people were friendly, without a doubt, and the facility is clean. My review isn’t so much about the people, as it is about the price of what I wanted done.
Since I had made an appointment for something that is considered routine maintenance on a car, I didn’t expect there to be much of a delay. So, you could imagine my shock when I had to call them at 3 pm to figure out what was going on.
They said they would take a look at the car, and get back to me the following day with a quote. They came back with a quote around 950.00 to fix some oil leaks and other items as well — however, considering the status of the car is what my boss considers a «junker» he wasn’t too interested in fixing those issues.
Bottom line: I wasn’t happy with the fact that it took over a day to get a quote to me when I made an appointment and specifically told the gentleman over the phone that I needed the car back ASAP. I wasn’t happy with the fact that they quoted me 550.00 dollars for brakes. These are my two real grievances I had, and I admit my previous review was, well, harshly written (under the influence of a couple stiff cocktails).
The owner explained that he uses honda parts, and it wasn’t the cost of parts that really bothered me so much, but more of the labor (Which I didn’t get a chance to explain to him). I think they quoted me 1.5 — 2 hours per set, and at the rate they charged per hour, I thought it was pretty expensive just to have some brakes changed. I wasn’t looking for $ 99 dollar brake job, but I wasn’t looking for a $ 550 dollar brake job either. Obviously they are in the business to make money, and it isn’t a non-​profit organization. I think I ended up figuring out that it was going to be somewhere nearly $ 400 dollars in labor, and thats really what had me going. It had nothing to do with the cost of the parts.
$ 300.00 is what we ended up paying to replace the brakes at another shop. Had the price come more in line with that, we would have happily had them do the brakes.
If my daily driver were a Honda/​Toyota, I might consider taking my car back to give them a second. I really appreciated the fact that the owner of the company reached out to me regarding my review, and it shows that he does care about the opinion of his customers. If I owned a business, I would take the same exact steps he takes to ensure that all of my customers received the best service they could possibly receive.
Sometimes I wish Unilocal would expand on their star ratings, and let us rate different aspects of a business, such as the service, quality, value, etc — because they would definitely get a 5 star for their service, but, value … probably significantly lower.

The customer service here is great but I fear that they have no clue about cars. I took my car here because I was having problems with one of my front tires rubbing and scraping the fender and after a long series of «repairs» they finally came to the conclusion that I needed a new suspension (costing, of course, a whopping $ 1000 — used). Being naïve and trusting because the customer service was so friendly, I replaced my suspension. And surprise, surprise, I was still having the problem. To make matters worse, I found out that the reason that my one front tire was scraping the fender was due to a very poor alignment that I had done. It’s also ironic that the place that I had the poor alignment done referred me to Independent Specialists when they couldn’t figure out why my tire was scraping. I don’t claim to know anything about cars but these people do. If you can’t tell if a car needs an alignment or if it needs major work, like a new suspension, you’re either an idiot or you like to rip people off.

Only one star simply given the fact they quoted me $ 950.00 for timing belt replacement and new spark plugs. I had it all done for $ 550.00 at another place. I’m not sure if they think they know better or expect ME to think they know better because they specialize in Hondas… but I’m not happy about it if someone else can do the same exact thing for hundreds of dollars less… disappointed because they came recommended to me and i was hoping for the best. Of course, I am a girl, so i feel like I’m taken advantage of as well. Too bad because they could have earned my business for life!

Great service. Fair prices. Always pleased with their work.

Steve and Chris run a top repair shop. I always get good service. I can call on the phone, give my name, and they know who I am.