Midnight Oil Motors

STAY AWAY: they have relocated to downtown San Diego and any prior reputation they might have had should quickly be disregarded. I visited this shop based on a recommendation of someone I trusted. I met with the owner Seth to discuss an engine rebuild for my e30 325is. They were going to build a 2.8l stroker motor with a performance cam for me. They required a 50% down payment for parts which I naively agreed to. After giving them 75% of the money for the total project, they constantly lied about completion dates, ignored my calls, emails, and texts. The project was supposed to take 4 days to install the new motor and I turned in my car on ⁰⁸⁄₀₂. They dragged the process out 4 months and I finally got my car back ¹²⁄₂₆ with the stock motor still in it. They had offered to compensate me for 1 month of the rental cars I had to use throughout the project and when it came time to honor their end of the bargain, they disappeared. I am out $ 4,600 and they will not answer a phone or return a call. I filed a claim with the Bureau of Automotive Repair and they would not respond to them either. Stay away from this business and go elsewhere. My experience with them was borderline criminal.

Just picked up my car from Midnight Oil today and had a great experience! A few weeks ago I took my car to the dealer and they wanted thousands of dollars for needless repair’s and HORRIBLE customer service. Took my car into Midnight Oil and found out all the parts in question were still good and vehicle was fine — just needed a little alignment and an oil change. I will definitely be back with my business, thank you Midnight Oil Motors!

This was the best experience I have ever had with a mechanic for my bmw e30. Seth always charged me less than the quoted labor fee. He got my car running perfectly and even sold me a part for half of what it normally costs. Customer service was excellent. There was no hidden costs and always told me the truth. I highly recommend taking your European cars here.

It is refreshing to find a good place to get work done on your vehicle. I have a Alfa Romeo and Dan really did a strait up great job. Midnight Oil Motors can be trusted.

I rarely write reviews unless I have an amazing experience, or a terrible one. In this case, it is definitely for these guys being amazing.
I have received nothing but friendly, honest, straightforward service from them. I took my car to a garage that specializes in european cars and was quoted $ 405 PER SIDE to replace my 2 front axles, including parts and labor, so a total of $ 810. After doing a little research on my own, I was able to buy 2 brand new axles online for $ 160 and Midnight Oil installed them for roughly the same amount, so for under $ 350 I got both axles replaced versus $ 810 at Wolf’s.
Later I was having an issue with my secondary air pump going on and off randomly whether my car was on/​running or not which drained my battery dead twice before I discovered the SAIP was the issue. Midnight Oil checked it out for me and temporarily disconnected it so I could drive until I can get it fixed, which took a while because it was a bit of a pain to get to and disconnect. They didn’t have to go through that trouble and could have let me just keep disconnecting my battery until I could get my car to them to fix the issue.
They are solid, genuine, and honest folks. They also seem to really know and care about cars since they are race focussed. I will take my VW Passat to them for any repairs I need for as long as it lives.

One of the few shops around where the staff (particulary Seth) really knows a lot about almost every vehicle ever made AND are really intelligent. They also have great fabrication skills as they build race cars also. They have been able to come up with creative solutions to problems other shops couldn’t fix and no vehicle is too exotic for them. A repair shop with this kind of knowledge base is hard to find.

This guys know cars and they do fantastic work…

Really friendly staff and prices for BMW parts are reasonable! Did a good job on BMW transmission flush. Price to replace the fuel pump was at least $ 100 cheaper than other places in the area that we called.