The Import Doctors – Foreign Auto Repair Specialists

The front desk person isn’t helpful at all. I waited for several minutes while he was chatting on the phone. I had stated I only needed to see some prices I couldn’t find in their website. I was asked to wait until he was done. When he gives me a quote he explained that price included a «complimentary» service with a sarcastic tone.

I’m so relieved to have found the new go-​to place for maintenance on my Volkswagen GTI! A small shop in Renton, which I’d counted on for quality work and fair pricing, closed unexpectedly in mid-​2015 after a fire — DISAPPOINTMENT. I’d tried another shop in Renton, then a VW dealership, but didn’t care to return to either of them — FRUSTRATION.
I put off looking for another shop until I absolutely needed service, then happily found The Import Doctors on Unilocal!Appointment scheduling was a breeze, and I felt confident that details of requested service were being noted. In addition to routine service needs, I’d been driving around with a TPMS light on my dashboard for five months, and my passenger seatbelt wouldn’t fully retract or height-​adjust.
I arrived as scheduled and expected to wait for my car, but I was unexpectedly offered a loaner car so I could head into work — SCORE! As inspections were performed and diagnostics run, Steve politely phoned to kept me posted on progress. It seemed that some unusual (and expensive) parts would need to be ordered for the TPMS, so my car was kept overnight as the problem and solution were identified.
Just as I was settling in for a long wait and fearing a big repair bill, I received a call from Steve the following morning to let me know my car was ready for pickup, with no parts needed — AMAZING! As a result of the team’s diligence and expertise, the TPMS control module was reset/​reprogrammed — PROBLEM SOLVED! The seatbelt was adjusted back into working order too.
I walked out the door paying less than the VW dealership had quoted just for the routine service needs. Thank you Import Doctors team — I’ll definitely be returning, and will recommend your shop to others!

I’ve since been back here for a couple more things:
I swung by for a top-​off of coolant and a visual inspection of my coolant system to make sure there weren’t any leaks. They were very accommodating. They inspected it, put quality coolant in the system, and even showed me what they were looking at under my car, and pointed out a belt they noticed was slipping and gave me an idea of how long I could probably wait to have that nudged back into place.
I also had a two-​week-​long fiasco with a not-​so-​trustworthy body shop that painted part of my car after some dude backed into me in a parking lot. My car suspiciously wouldn’t start after that body shop had worked on it, so that body shop replaced my battery and starter.
Upon getting my car back from the body shop I promptly took it to the folks at The Import Doctors — who I trust to do thorough work and give me straight, honest information — to have them make sure the body shop had installed the right parts, the right way. The guys at The Import Doctors were great! They gave me loads of information and were just so kind and understanding of my frazzling experience (because taking your car to a body shop after someone backed into you is stressful enough; getting in your car to drive it only to find it won’t start… yikes).
Love love love these guys. If I could give them 6 stars out of 5, I would. Highly recommend.

In mid February our son who owns a 2008 VW Jetta called us and said that there was a bad vibration when he was driving. He brought the car to our house and I told him I thought it might be a motor mount. The next day (Monday) he took the car to the VW Dealership on University and later that day, they told him that the pendulum mount had broken and that the bolt attaching it to the transmission was broken and that they could not remove the broken bolt. VW stated that he needed a new transmission to the tune of $ 7000. We then spoke with Ken at The Import Doctors and he said that they could check it out at no charge so we picked up the car from VW and took it to Ken. Later that day, we received a call from them stating that the car was repaired and that their mechanic had removed the broken bolt, put in a helix and the car was good to go for ½ hour of labor – total bill about $ 90!
There was some other work that the car needed, e.g. new tires so we had them take care of the other things. They really did excellent work and it is really great to find a group of honest mechanics, especially ones who don’t want to take advantage of an inexperienced 23 year old.

Incredible shop. They have excellent mechanics (Jason especially) and they stand by their work. If they don’t get it right, they will correct the issue. They will work with you on issues, even months after service is completed. Highly recommended shop!!!
I came in for a pre-​purchase inspection for an old high mileage truck I was looking to buy from a private seller. It only took them about an hour, and they emailed me a great summary of everything I needed. They were in no hurry and talked through the issues with me too.

**UPDATE** Ken called me and fixed everything! Thanks for the quick response and customer service.
Front desk woman was not helpful. I wasn’t even able to make an appointment to get my vehicle services due to her lack of caring. I called to get an estimate, on my Acura and she told me she would call me RIGHT back with the information. She didn’t. I waited 35+ minutes for a call back and never got one. Then I called again to continue my search for best mechanic and price. But she answered the phone and when I told her it was me again she carelessly said, «Oh yeah…» Like she completely forgot, because she did. Then I got to listen to her frantically type away to look for my parts and price. Due to her incompetence, she told me she couldn’t find my part, because she was typing in the wrong thing. So then I corrected her, and she started typing away again. Never aplogizing for the inconvenience or her lack of knowledge. So I told her it was OKAY, and never mind.
**UPDATE** Ken called me right away and apologized for any inconvenience and sounded very sympathetic. Told me to come in tomorrow morning to get everything with my Acura squared away. Thanks Ken! Way to be on top of stuff. ***

I took my car here for the first time and had the best experience I’ve ever had with car repairs. From Elizabeth at the desk to the guys in the back everyone here went over the top in service. No one else in Seattle will ever touch my car!

Great place! Thorough and reliable! Great location! Ask for Steve who was extremely helpful with other services needed, thank you.

It’s rare to find a mechanic that treats you like a real person.
The Import Doctors are wonderful plain and simple.
Ken is awesome and Antonio is the best mechanic ever!

Import Doctors is great. I’ve been a long time customer and have appreciated their professionalism and patience in explaining all the ins and outs of how my car works. Ken, Steve, Jim and Antonio are honest and trustworthy and, collectively, they have helped me prolong the life of my car. Their prices are reasonable and their depth of knowledge about German cars is second to none. I highly recommend this place!

Import Doctors is great. The price is always right and the diagnostic is always clear too.
Marco was helpful and applied the Unilocal discount they offer on their Unilocal business page. These guys have huge car knowledge (German and Asian cars!) and it feels familial with good atmosphere when you interact with any staff member. They’re located one big block away walking from Chinatown.
Prior call to get an appointment is recommended, and if you do you even can ask for a estimated quotes if you know the fixes you need to the secretary responding the phone. If she has time like when I call she did it.
Great customer service because they just get what you ask them to do, you never get the pressure of potential additional fixes even if they need maintenance soon.
Kudos Import Doctors! :)

Went in to have tires mounted and balanced for less than all the other tire places I called, and they road balanced with a better machine. As an added bonus, the owner caught a missing license plate light and replaced it for free.

Love the Import Doctors!!! I’ve been taking my BMW there for a few years after dealing with some shady shops in the past. Steve, Antonio and the crew have all been super friendly, helpful and fair. Feels like going in to see old friends. They’ve done a fantastic job working on my car and went above and beyond to help get some of my costs to be covered by warranty. The best customer service and super skilled technicians. I never feel like I’m being suckered into services that I don’t need. I’d highly recommend Import Doctors for anyone needing work on their car.

I have had nothing but excellent experiences with these guys. They are considerate of your time and budget. Once, the work in my car slipped through the cracks and they took an extra day to get it done. Not good but they took care of all the labor on the work to make up for it. Mistakes happen and these guys know what customer service means.

Oh, and to boot — their initial estimate was $ 150 lower than the actual cost!

Absolutely amazing people! Antonio and the manager helped me out tremendously! They were quick and very friendly! I most definitely plan to go back for more work! They fixed my window even though they were completely booked for the day and did it just in time for the windstorm we had! Thank you so much for your generosity!

Ugh, seriously… I don’t know where to begin. My husband and I had listed my MINI for sale on Craigslist, and had a very interested buyer for it. I was totally honest in the ad, stating that it would need a new clutch soon (no slipping, but you could hear that it needed to be replaced), and some of the other very small issues that needed to be taken care of (quick fixes like an oil change and alignment that we would pay to have done before selling).
We had no issues in taking it to a mechanic for a used car checkup before the buyer purchased it. We bought it brand new in 2010 so it we know nothing crazy would have popped up. And then it was brought here for the check up.
Mechanic says it needs a new clutch. That’s a given, and we all knew and were aware of this. The best part about that was he then quoted our buyer at $ 3022 to have it done. When the week before they quoted him between $ 1800 — $ 2500. That’s quite the difference in less than a weeks time. Then just started laying it on thick with everything under the sun now being wrong. Tires are at 63% and need to be replaced. Front brakes will need to be replaced sometime in the near future. Battery is 4 years old now so you need to just replace it. Needs oil and alignment (which we knew, and were planning to take care of separately). We had the car serviced when it was on a recall a few years ago, but now this guy is saying ‘sure, it was fixed, but it will probably break again soon and then you’ll have to shell out a few grand to fix it’. Honestly, he made it sound like the car was being held together by duct tape and if you so much as looked at it the entire thing would break into a million pieces.
He then spent the rest of the time telling our buyers that they were making a mistake, and MINIs are terrible cars and don’t buy it. To not actually buy ANY MINI Cooper and just stop thinking about one, and buy a Honda instead. Going on and on about how they cost too much money and only ever have problems. Which is hilarious to me as the only issue we’ve ever had with this car since buying it has been the clutch. It’s serviced regularly, has all the proper oil changes and whatever it needs. So in the end he successfully talked them out of buying our car since apparently it’s falling apart at the seams.
Thankfully we aren’t in a rush to sell it, and I can 100% guarantee I will never recommend this place or ever think about bringing our other car here. I’ll go back to Elliot Tire in West Seattle where they don’t act like your car is a catastrophic failure, and will actually tell you if something is wrong with your car and all the options you have available to you.

Called because my check engine light is on in my VW Jetta. The woman on the phone didn’t tell me the cost of the diagnostic check and would’ve let me come in without knowing had I not asked her. Turns out it’s $ 110 just to find out what’s wrong, which seems ridiculous to me. VW dealership service center will tell me what’s wrong for $ 48, just going to go with that. Maybe they do great work, maybe they don’t, but if you a) aren’t up front about your prices and b) don’t price simple things competitively, I’d really rather not waste my time or money with you.

Awesome place. True german specialists, brought my Audi there and they had it ready 1 day before estimated. Antonio is very helpfull and knowledgeable in the german car field.
Will be bringing my Audi in for everything now. Also, excellent prices quoted me many hundreds of dollars below the dealership for same service in which they overdelivered on.

Wow, being from California I am not used to such great service! I brought my car in for several concerns and was given a free inspections, estimates for minor issues (that nobody had ever bothered to give me estimates or explain before) and best of all great face to face personal reassurance. This would be unheard of in California. Way to go!