Truckee Auto Repair

My car's voltage regulator (part of the alternator) gave up the ghost going over Donner Pass on a wintry Friday evening, and my car was towed to Auto Doctor. Even though they're open Saturdays, the guy who does German cars wasn't there, so I had to wait until Monday evening to get my 01 Audi S4 repaired. Now, as the driver of a heavily modified 12-year old German car, I'm no stranger to fixing the car myself or taking it to a shop to handle jobs I don't have the time or tools to tackle. I've been to a few shops, and what happened at this one left me thoroughly unimpressed. 1. The part in question cost $350 at a local auto parts store (I called when my car broke down to find out if the part exists locally). Auto Doctor charged me $475 for it. 2. When I first walked in through the door on Monday afternoon, the owner (?) was sitting with his side to the door talking to two of his mechanics. It took about 30 seconds for him to turn around and acknowledge the existence of a customer standing like a schmuck in the middle of his shop. Even a "hi, just a second" would have been good, but to not even acknowledge my existence was definitely a calculated power play. Further, in the hour I spent there, I couldn't get their wifi to work (I needed to do some work on my laptop). When I asked the owner (?) if he could reset the router for me (as a computer engineer, I knew that would very likely fix the problem), he gave me some BS excuse "oh, it's locked away somewhere, plus your car will be ready soon". So -- pretty shitty customer service, unless you're one of the locals who comes in regularly. 3. And finally, the big one -- the repair was done with no attention to detail. The job in question requires the bumper and the headlights to be removed. That caused 3 problems that I found pretty much immediately: a. I specifically asked the mechanic to make sure to realign my headlights, which was not done. Luckily I keep the proper wrench in my car and adjusted them after pulling out of the shop...otherwise I would have had to drive to San Francisco with my headlights illuminating only 15 feet in front of me. b. I noticed the low windshield washer fluid light when I first went to check up the finished product and asked them to fill it. After I'd paid and got my stuff in the car, the light was still on, but not wanting to deal with their crap anymore, I decided I'd fill it myself. Of course, as soon as I did that at a gas station 3 miles away, the fluid poured out all over my feet. A T-fitting broke in the headlight washer system (which is in the bumper). Now, the fitting was old and has been previously repaired, and the tech helped me repair it so I wouldn't lose all of my fluid when I brought the car back, but the fact that this little detail wasn't checked before handing me the car is a travesty. c. And finally something I only discovered when I was 20 miles away and not coming back -- they failed to reconnect one of my foglights (also in the bumper). Also a 15 second check, also not done. So these little details make me question just how well the rest of the $1200 job was done. Bottom line -- if you have a choice -- look for a better alternative.

Fantastic place. car broke down sat before christmas, they fixed it fast and stayed a little late so it could be done that day. Very reasonable, professional mechanics. They knew my BMW very well, would highly recommend them.

I was just going to write, unless your from out of town and dont know any better, go this this place. The last review was from Sacramento. This place is one of the bigger rip offs in Truckee. Priced lots of things from alignements, to shocks, to tuneups, and they average about $30-$60 more than anywhere else. Oh and make sure you understand that if you dont get something fixed there , but have them check it out for 5 minutes, they will charge you. Im not even exaggerating about that. 5 minutes to tell me something I already knew was wrong with my car. But, I wanted them to give me an estimate in price. I still got charged $120 !!! So ridiculous. But if your desperate and have no where else to go, you gotta do what you gotta do. Oh and by the way, Stones tires next door will put on your winter/summer tires for free and their alignments are cheaper too. There are choices other than this joke of a garage. Yeah, methinks not.

Such a wonderful experience with these guys!!! I'm from Sacramento and my car broke down on the 4th of July at 5pm =/. It was towed to the Auto & Tire Doctor and before 8am the next morning I had a phone call from Greg to tell me they were going to take a look at it and get back to me ASAP. At 9:30am I got a call back with a diagnosis and before 1pm they were done with the work. Since I didn't have a car the OWNER, John, drove downtown and picked us up! What a remarkable experience. I would certainly have all my work done at this shop if I were local and because it's so hard to find reliable, fair mechanics I'd even consider driving up the hill to have them do work on my car again - no joke. Greg was fair and clear about what and when I could expect to know more and the work was done quickly and with such quality that what could have been a nightmare actually turned into a fantastic extra day laying on the docks at Donner Lake! Definitely take your vehicles here without a doubt.

I had a positive experience with the Auto Doctor. It's too soon to tell how the repair will hold up over time, but the initial experience was a good one. We came into the Truckee area on 7/1. Midday on 7/2, my Trooper dies completely on 267, with symptoms that appear to be a fuel problem.. Based on a recommendation from a local, I took it to the Auto Doctor. The squoze me in, despite appearing pretty fully booked. I got a call early the next day (7/3) telling me it was my fuel pump unit, and they had a line on a replacement. The price seemed high ($500) for the part, but I called a trusted mechanic back in the Santa Cruz area, and they confirmed that that was the going rate. In any case, the car was buttoned back up by 3 PM on 7/3, and we didn't have to keep the rental across the 4th of July break. They did right by us. Unclear how we'd use the warranty if the part breaks 45 days from now...

These guys are awesome. I recently called them to get a second opinion about an axle that needed to be replaced. They literally did the work for HALF the price Meineke in Reno quoted me. They charge you by how long it actually takes them to do the work, not by how long the "mechanics book" tells them it should take. These guys are totally honest and really have a way of making you feel like family. They seem like they really try to work with you on prices too. If you get any sort of serious work done there they always give you car wash coupons and coupons for significant deals on future services like oil changes or tire rotations. They are really fast getting things done and always keep you up-to-date on what's going on with your vehicle. Great small town business and really uphold their good reputation. I will be a lifelong customer here for ALL my car work...thanks guys!!!

The Auto and Tire Doctor in Truckee is affordable, honest and reliable! Every time I go in, they greet me by my first name and everyone is so polite. There's nice couches and a clean, relaxing waiting area for customers to hang out in while they wait for their car to be serviced and the whole facility is super clean. I think honesty is so important when it comes to your vehicle - for me personally, my car is the only thing I really own and it's a comfort to know these guys will take really good care of it.

We came up to Truckee Friday afternoon. As we were about to head out at noon on Saturday, I noticed that one tire was nearly flat. I googled around and found out that the Auto-Tire Doctor was opened until 2pm. After a quick call, and inflating the tire, I took my car up there. They took care of the tire flat in less than 20mns, and priced the tire repair fairly. Staff was friendly.

Had new tires put on. Staff was friendly and the wait room super child friendly.

A solid 4-1/2. I'm from Silicon Valley and took my Subaru for a ride up to Tahoe in May 2011 (better late than never to write a review). The check engine light came on on the way up. My dilemma- do I take a chance and wait till I get back home to get it fixed, or do it now? Well with a 2 year old traveling with us, my hubby and I decided to find a reliable auto shop, mainly because we wanted to drive on back roads to get to fishing spots and did not want to get stuck in the wilderness. We used AAA to find recommendations for approved auto shops and The Auto Doctor was listed. I liked that the establishment was a Subaru specialist. They had a nice comfortable waiting area, with free video games on a table top console to pass the time. Gave us an accurate estimate, and recommended some additional work which we got done there on the spot. 4 hours later, we had our car back. I would use them again if I was in the neighborhood. We passed the time by getting lunch at a nearby restaurant and playing free video games on the table top console. Bathrooms are clean, TV available and their pet dog entertained my kid for awhile. My daughter was busy playing with toys and puzzles they had available. A little pricey in my opinion (thus minus the 1/2 point), but they did a great job and we got back home safely and in one piece!