50-50 Muffler & Brakes

I went in for a flow master to be installed and he did it fast and efficient. The shop is pretty cool a lot of local history. Great deal too!

Eric is the man! 2^nd time going to him for 2 different cars. Precision every time! Highly recommended for custom or installation of aftermarket kits.

Eric was Awesome! He hooked me up with a muffler I had never heard of and I love it!!! I wanted something different and cannot be happier with the Porters Muffler…

If you’re looking for a great exhaust shop in the area, then this is the place to go.
I came to ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ Muffler & Brakes looking to get an new aftermarket exhaust for my 1991 Miata installed. I called Eric ahead of time and set up a time to bring my car in on a Saturday. We got my car on the lift, he took a look at it and gave me a price. A little on the higher side for my budget, but for what kind of work had to be done (shifting the cat upstream a little ways to fit the new exhaust), it was well worth it. Eric’s craftsmanship is top notch and my car was ready to go in under an hour. It’s no wonder his shop’s been around for as long as it has been.
Sound clip of the exhaust:

Best muffler shop in the Bay Area! Not only is their work top quality their customer service is too! Eric did the custom dual exhaust on my Tahoe and got it perfect. He was very professional and honest about the questions I had. I highly recommend this shop to everyone!

Eric did a really good job helping me with a botched mod on my off road vehicle. I was referred to him by my mechanic Jim Garaffo. He did the work fairly quickly and he was persistent on trying to get it right. Unfortunately due to the previously botched job, it couldn’t be completely fixed, but it worked better than before. Because he couldn’t solve it completely, he gave me a fair discount. I would definitely go back in the future.

I took our car in yesterday to have the brakes looked at as something seemed to be off. It turns out they were as the car would kind of shimmy when we slowed down. I came into 50 – 50 just assuming that it would be at least $ 1,000 to get us what we needed but it came is significantly lower than that, as Eric was able to safely resurface our brakes vs completely replace them. I would have had no idea as I’m not a car guy but I REALLY appreciate his honesty here and we now have a place to take our cars moving forward. Great experience across the boards.

I’m surprised to see all the 5 stars, must be me. I have gone there about 4 times in three years and never once did he spend half a second looking at my car to estimate a job, everything seems really complicated and he’s always too busy because he’s the only one there. Seems more like a hobby shop than a real retail muffler shop, I go down the street to the other muffler shop and get handled really easy. For regular folks with regular exhaust problems I would recommend going elsewhere. For whatever it’s worth !!

The Cat got the rebel snarl back. My British racing green Jaguar XK was missing a deeper growl from the exhaust. I wanted it to breathe better, sound better, and have better efficiency from the engine. When I brought the car to Eric, he immediately gave me many choices for the muffler and the type of sound I was looking for. His garage had many vintage automobiles in it including an original Shelby Cobra with racing history, and an early Datsun Spider. Whoa, I appreciated the company in the garage as much as the choices for the new exhaust. A few hours later, the Jaguar XK was sounding gnarly wild to match its extraneous gorgeous looks, and the extra air coming into the engine has accentuated the torque curve throughout the gears. I can feel the difference with better back pressure even at lower revs, and love the deeper cat purr as the Jaguar climbs through the gears. Thank you Eric for the wonderful craftsmanship and service to your customers. A destination for owners who are passionate about their collector automobiles or new sports cars.

Quick service, easy to communicate with Eric, easy to make an appointment, and he called when he finished the work around noon. Eric replaced a muffler on my car.
Why 4 stars only? The short hours makes drop off/​pick up tough for me as I work long hours in SF. They are typical shop hours, and it appears to be a one man shop (at least when I was there). They have 3 lifts.

I was having a little fun on 35 when I turned a corner and heard an awful rattling noise. I pulled over and both my hangers broke. I stopped at a little store on ³⁵⁄₈₄ to grab a bite to eat and search google for a shop. I found a few in this area. Originally I called All American, a man answered the phone «hello?». Uhhh, is this All American Muffler? «yeah, what do you need». He was able to get me in immediately, so I headed over there, that shop was all kinds of nasty. Took one look and bolted to the next place on the list. That second place was pleasant, but weren’t able to fit me in for another two hours. So I called the third place 50 – 50 Muffler. He said to bring it on over and he’ll take a look. I took the 10 minute drive pulled in, Eric greeted me and said: «I already moved a car over so I could put yours on the rack, bring it right in. After he put it on the rack, I explained that it had been repaired before and the muffler was aftermarket.
He took a 2 minute look at my busted hangers for my aftermarket exhaust, said «Factory mounts won’t do, I’ll just make a hanger here, $ 40»
Done. I was in and out in 15 minutes with a better repair than the last attempt, and cheaper to boot! I’ll be going here if I ever need Exhaust work, even though it’s way out of my way.

Decided to get a new exhaust system on my Honda Pilot and reached out to ⁵⁰⁄₅₀.
Spoke with Eric, who is extremely pleasant and easy-​going, about what I should consider based on what I hope to achieve.
He advised me on which exhaust system to go with (MagnaFlow) based on my request. He started his car for me to let me hear what it would sound like too, which was very helpful.
Dropped the car off a few days later and got a call from Eric to discuss pricing prior to beginning work. Love that. No hard-​sell to get me to do it, especially since it was higher than I anticipated. «If you don’t do it now, that is ok, at least you have now done your research and know what to do in the future.» Love that too! He also mentioned that he would help by not charging me for the clamps and such needed, which helped.
I decided to go for it and am happy I had done so.
Definitely recommend ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ 100%. :)

Eric fit me in on a busy Saturday to diagnosis some issues I have been having with my performance exhaust system. He pointed out several weak links that would need to be addressed in the future, but never gave me the hard sell. He was even nice enough to temporarily fix my drooping exhaust with a couple of quick welds (no charge, who does that in this day in age?). When it’s time for a new system, I know where I’ll be heading.

Good place to have exhaust work done. They did a custom resonator into a straight pipe for me. Good quality parts and welding. Clean shop, would go there again for any exhaust needs.

Stopped by the shop as I was down the street at an appointment.
First impression, award for the cleanest and best kept shop ever seen, based on the other reviews the work is obviously the same.
Eric is very pleasant to deal with right off the bat. He had my van on a rack in moments and immediately diagnosed the issue as the baffles in the muffler as bad. Rather than immediately try and sell me a muffler he immediately told me to call the place I bought it and see if it ha a warranty as most stainless mufflers come with a lifetime he told me.
My muffler took a large crash with the gaskets blowing out, happened suddenly and had no choice but to dump the van on Eric with notice. There are two very close by, walking distance, car rental places and Eric very kindly even drove me.
I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be and didn’t even bother to ask for a quote. You just get a good feel for a person and their integrity, my judgement was spot on, even though Eric relayed news I was pretty upset to hear.
Early afternoon Eric calls with news I was not happy to hear, I quote «Did you know that the person who installed the muffler put it on backwards?». «I think you must have been losing power and creating quite a bit of back pressure».
Picked up the van and power difference about 30% increased, idle perfect, whole wrong installation caused a lot of headaches. More frustrating that Eric showed me the muffler and said he immediately saw that the threaded bolts were on the inside and that anyone should know that the threaded bolts should be on the outside to the flange.
In addition Eric took hi time having to remove the threaded stuck bolts knowing that I had to return the core.
The review below that say he is inexperienced and rips off is complete rubbish. I read the review and the guy says he went to many shops and they all said $ 125, why would he go to another, pretty easy, he is lying.
You get what you pay for, I certainly will not go anywhere else again, the previous messed up installation cost me hours of wasted time, glad I finally found a great place.
Thanks a million Eric.

Dealing with a working but out-​of-​state catalytic convertor, we contacted several folks about a replacement to pass the smog test. 50 – 50 informed us that an invoice for the part dated before registration was moved to CA would exempt us from the in-​state requirement! Saved us from potentially dropping a huge chunk of change on getting a replacement catalytic convertor! They even offered to do a free look over for other potential issues. Thanks 50 – 50!

Second time working with Eric. This time for a custom exhaust on a late model CTS-​V. First thing you notice when you enter the shop is the cleanliness, always a good sign. He’s a craftsman and works hard to ensure that his customers are satisfied. Whether you’re looking for custom work or a routine fix, I would highly recommend ⁵⁰⁄₅₀.

Went in to have a very simple muffler modification done on my Porsche that I have been quoted $ 125 and 1 hour of time by other muffler places — who said they did these easy jobs all the time.
At 50 – 50, I was quoted $ 800 and told it was «a real big job and you’d have to leave the mufflers with us.» EIGHT HUNDRED BUCKS. When I showed him pictures of the work I wanted done, and said I knew it was pretty easy, and even showed him how to remove each muffler (3 bolts and a clamp), he got real jerky and said «So why don’t you do it then?» That’s when I knew it was time to go elsewhere with my business.
Soooo… Mr. 50 – 50 a-​hole was 1) totally trying to rip me off, AND/​OR 2) so inexperienced that he thought the work would really be that difficult.
Either way, this place is 100% jerky, and 50 – 50 dishonest-​incompetent.
Good luck with that.

I brought my car with a recently acquired LOUD muffler in for a quote. Surprisingly an hour and $ 100.00 later I was driving home in a quite quiet car!
The shop is clean the owner is friendly, honest and efficient!
I highly recommend 50 – 50 for any muffler problems you might have!

I went to 50 – 50 Muffler back when I was 16 for a new muffler on my ’79 Firebird. Install was quick with quality work. Years later, and about five cars later, I had a rattle coming from the exhaust system of my current car. I brought it to 50 – 50 for a free inspection, and to find out how much I was going to be in the hole for a new exhaust system. In about 30 seconds Eric figured out exactly what was wrong, and gave me a temporary fix for free. He said I should get another year before having to replace the exhaust system.
Its nice to see there are still good mechanics out there who don’t nickle and dime every repair, and even did 10 minutes of work for free. When it’s time for that replacement, I will gladly pay every penny to 50 – 50.