Hans Auto Repair

Appointments are easy to make, staff is friendly and courteous, work is done properly, garage is clean and well-​organized, prices are reasonable. I don’t have a Volvo, but I bring my cars here and recommend them.

Above and beyond the call of duty. I found Tracy and Mike to be extremely honest, hard-​working, knowledgeable, and dedicated. They stayed late on a Friday night to work rather heroically on my 1990 Volvo. I’ve gotten significant work done with them, and they are fast, pleasant to deal with, and I feel I can trust them. I plan to be a long-​term customer and would recommend them to any driver.

As always this business has outstanding customer service, is easy to schedule with and they do the best job with every service, issue or even the things that“only happen when my car isn’t there!” Mike is the most trustworthy mechanic I’ve ever taken my cars and trucks too. He is multi talented too. He can work on every type of vehicle I’ve taken in. Tracy is honest and fair. She keeps her appointments on track and cares about what is happening on my end too (being nervous about costs and not very knowledgable about parts and repairs like she is). I highly recommend Hans Auto Repair! Love and trust them all! Thank you my favorite mechanics!

Yeah I just called this place for a estimate and the lady was very rude I wouldn’t recommend this place customer service to my worst enemy maybe she will think before she’s rude to someone.

They helped me get through a possibly terrible situation and put my mind at ease! I was visiting Monterey when my oil pan was punctured. I ended up getting it towed back to SF where I live, but they looked at my car right away and didn’t charge me for the «diagnosis.» I had a solution to the problem quickly and they were very helpful. If I didn’t need to be back in SF the same day I would of absolutely had them work on my car!

I am a real pain the butt sometimes. I do much of my own work and am not happy when I get a canned story, bag of lies, misleading guesses, and people who don’t stand behind their work. I have never gotten anything but fast, professional service from Mike and Tracy. Mike explains things truthfully and clearly because he knows what is doing. He offers helpful options and treats me with respect. I switched shops only when another local indy Volvo shop was not able to repair a simple A/​C issue, and made a big oversight in an alignment job then got defensive about it instead of fixing it. Mike found the root problem with the other shop’s repair and has kept the complicated repairs of my Volvo well managed and affordable ever since. He has even stayed late after work just for me when I limped in unannounced with a mysterious ignition misfire. Mysterious to me, not to him. 206,000 miles and still the best car I have ever owned. Thanks guys!

I took my car to Hans Auto Repair for the first time last week and only wish that I had done so earlier! Mike and Tracy are great. They gave me a competitive estimate and performed the work as discussed. They’re shop is clean and organized. They are complete professionals. They are patient in answering questions and most of all, honest and dependable. I will definitely be using them going forward.

Mike Brooks is, in a word, «stellar.» I have been going to Mike for more than 7 years. During that time, I have owned 3 Volvos, and my ex-​wife has owned two. He has taken extremely good care of all of these cars.
I trust him implicitly. If he says something needs to be fixed, or this can wait, well.. . I am still waiting for him to be proved wrong. He always fixes things right, the first time. You never have to bring your car back because he didn’t fix your problem when you first brought it to him. And with 5 Volvos, in 7 years, you can only guess at how many times we’ve needed service. Mike is an excellent mechanic.
He is trustworthy. He saves all the parts he changes for you to look at. He takes the time to explain everything he does to your car carefully, so that you can understand it. (Read: he doesn’t talk to you in mechanic-​ease). He will go out of his way to accommodate you. You can drop in on him and ask him why your engine light is on, or can he check your wiper blades. Anything more time-​intensive, and you are better off making an appointment.
There is a lot of money on this Peninsula. And it is a shame that on this Peninsula, there are so many untrustworthy mechanics. Some of these guys will take it to the bank and then some, and not even bat an eye. They will take you for everything you’ve got.
Not Mike.
I recommend Hans Auto Service to everyone. I give him only my highest recommendation. If he can’t do the repair (like put headers on your car), he will send you to someone that can, that he trusts.
I recently found out that Mike works on all cars, not just Volvos. Since this discovery, I have been bringing my 1979 Corvette to him for repairs. Once again, Mike Brooks has proven himself to be an excellent mechanic. On Volvos, and any other cars you might own.
Go to him. Be thankful that Monterey Peninsula has such an honest and trustworthy mechanic. You will not be sorry.

I want to back up everything said by other reviewers. Friendly, professional, thorough, and reasonable. Have been having them service a ’98 S70 for almost 3 yrs now and I trust their diagnosis and work 100%. They have taken what I thought was a lemon and transformed it into a reliable (fingers crossed) car for my college aged son.

I found this place via Unilocal and decided to give them a try.
The Pros: After continuing to have difficulties starting my car (usually the first start of the day) I took my 1988 240 Volvo to a shop for a tune-​up and was told that the rotor, cap and spark plug wires were fine and that they replaced the spark plugs only. As it turned out, after Mike replaced the wires, cap and rotor the car has continued (for the past 3 days) to start-​up fine and now drives smooth with good acceleration.
The Cons: I recently had the transmission and clutch replaced by a mechanic in the San Jose area. When I got the car back the clutch and the transmission were smooth and the car was actually fun to drive. All new clutches need re-​adjustments and I recently drove down to San Jose to get my clutch re-​adjusted because I was not finding anyone in this area who was able to adjust it back to the way that it was when it was first installed.
Mike believed that the clutch needed to be re-​adjusted and made the change without consulting me first. I called and asked to bring the car back to have the clutch re-​adjusted and his wife, Tracy, said that it would be fine. They are closed on weekends so we set the appointment for Monday at 8:15am (their business hours are 8:15am-5pm Monday through Friday) so that I would have enough time to drive to work after the adjustment was made.
At 8:30 when they arrived at the shop Mike told me that the clutch «feels great» to him followed by — «I don’t know what I am going to do with it». The arrogant and condescending manner in which his words were spoken left a lot to be desired with regards to moving forward with an adult-​to-​adult conversation.
He went on to tell me that there should be about ¹⁄₈ of an inch of play so that the clutch does not get burned out… I told him that I did not appreciate the fact that he told me to come back for a clutch adjustment and not to waste my time this way. He replied with: «I didn’t tell you to come back, she (Tracy) did».
The clutch on my car now releases about ¹⁄₈ of an inch from the very top which makes holding the car on steep inclines with the clutch and the gas a difficult task. There are a lot of hills in Monterey…
I gave the 1 star rating for these reasons:
(1) Mike was out-​of-​line to adjust the clutch without consulting me first.
(2) It is not uncommon for a car to have problems starting when the plugs, plug wires, rotor, and/​or distributor cap need to be replaced. He could have taken the time to check these parts so that I would not have to incur the cost of a rental car and leave my car overnight, but it was suggested that I arrive in the afternoon and leave the car so that he could try to start it in the morning.
(3) After taking the extra time to go back to this shop to have something fixed that should never have been changed to begin with, deal with his self-​invoked mental and emotional strokes, and then be told to «have a good day» with a tone that basically says F U this 1 star rating was earned.
In the interest of full disclosure, he did offer to «put the clutch back the way it was» and I declined his offer. I no longer trusted this guy to put my safety and consideration before his ego and I also recognized that I did not ever want to do business with this person again.

Very good mechanics, good service and genuine people.

Phenomenal! I strongly recommend taking your car here. Prices are totally reasonable, but even better Tracy and Mike are incredibly honest. I had been told by another repair company that I would need both front and rear brake pads and rotors. Being told it would be a couple of thousand $s. I expected to be told the same by Hans Auto Repair, but no, I only had to have the rear brake pads replaced. At ½ the price of the other place to do the same work, and than I wasn’t charge for a minor interior fix and for taking me out and helping me with shifting.
The drive home was so smooth! Thank you!

This place is awesome!
I’ve always worried about checking out new places, due to bad experiences in the past– but I’m so glad we tried these guys (and gal)!
They are HONEST, don’t «sell sell sell» you repairs, are fast, and reasonably priced. I can’t say enough good things about this place! We’ve come here several times, and have never had an issue with any repair that they have done on our 2004 XC70.
Going here again in just a few minutes because of a «check engine» light and brake issues, and know that I can trust them to diagnose the problem and resolve it without breaking the bank!

This is the place to go if you drive Volvo!

Hans Auto Repair is as good as it gets.
I’ve taken my cars here and I’ve always been very satisfied. There are a couple of different things that put Hans Auto well above other garages:
1) The only three people working there are the owner, his wife and their one employee. This ensures a consistent experience. There is no worrying about whether the mechanic you get today will know what he’s doing.
2) These guys know Volvo inside and out. Every time I have come here they have correctly diagnosed the problem on the first try. This is extremely important to getting a good, cost effective repair for your car.
3) They are honest and charge reasonable rates. It’s refreshing to see a garage that only employs highly skilled workers and charges reasonable rates for that experience. It seems like nowadays more and more shops are hiring interns or guys right out of mechanic school and charging $ 114 an hour for them. Not only is this extremely overpriced but the chances of them repairing the wrong thing or screwing something up is extremely high. Fortunately you don’t have to worry about that with Hans Auto, which is probably the biggest reason I always bring my car here.
4) Friendly service and a clean shop. Pretty easy and self explanatory.
5) These guys are fast. Whenever I drop one of my cars off I like to take a moment to watch them working. I’m always amazed at how fast these guys are. There is no screwing around or time wasting.

Hans is my go-​to place for Volvo service. Mike Brooks & Tracy Polockow, the owners, took the place over from the original Hans and have really run with it, becoming Green Certified and adding Volvo sales to the mix. Service is always courteous and prompt, and they let you know about potential/​developing issues without pushing new parts aggressively. They also have a good magazine selection and wifi in the waiting area.
Bonus points for being across the street from the excellent Sweet Elena’s bakery and café!