Hustead’s Auto Body

Hustead’s has done it again! My back bumper and passenger side mirror needed body work repair. My car was fixedin 3 days. I basically called ahead. I spoke to Jr. and Mark. They did there thing! I am definately a happy customer! I wish other buisinesses shared the same efficiency, integrity, and kindness! Mark and Jr. are the reasons that I keep coming back… people you can trust! Oh!, and the work is amazing! Much love to you guys!

Just picked up my car from Hustead ‘s Auto Body in Berkeley. Junior was my service representative. Not only he was great and helpful all the way through,
my car looked a lot better even before my accident.
He really fought with Insurance company for a just additional repair that was needed. Every thing he promised came through !. The shop is very professional. The staff is great and the work is very exceptional. They also delivered the car back to me exactly as promised. I highly recommend them.

I was happy to get my car taken care of right away. Not too bad of a wait to get my new car back & repaired. Was annoyed with Enterprise Rental Car for giving me a rental. Only to pick it up from my job that same day… leaving me stranded. Due to their technical error!!! Hustead’s had no control over that, but helped me get it sorted out & reserved me a replacement with Hertz. Who even picked me up. Vince Quihuiz made it all happen! Extremely helpful & very professional.

They did a great job on my car, and even vacuumed and washed it when they were done. I wasn’t super impressed with the communication though, they said they’d call the day I dropped it off and didn’t, it took me two days to get a call back. And the service was slow, it took two weeks to fix a dent on the side of my car. Very friendly though and they dealt with insurance for me so I didn’t have to worry about it!

I took my car to Hustead’s new location on 7^th Street in Berkeley for some minor repairs (mostly small and medium-​sized scratches). I was paying out-​of-​pocket so I was sensitive to the cost. They worked on my car for three days and they exceeded my expectations. They even removed a thick layer for grime that had built up on my headlights and didn’t charge me for it.
Highly recommended.

Hello, my name is clint. I would like to thank you guys for the great service Vince Quihuiz did for me. He is a amazing worker and a tremendous help. He showed such great professional ethics and displayed true service to me. I am going to be telling all my friends and family about this place and the class vince showed, thanks again.

Pros: Body repair looked OK, service staff is friendly
Cons: Inconvenient hours, sloppy work
Took my car there because preferred by my insurance. Hustead’s service writers were both great; friendly, helpful, etc. They got my car turned around in a reasonable time.
They’re only open until 5:00, so there’s no way to pick up the car without taking time off work.
The downside, though, was that they didn’t reconnect the wiring in the door. It’s a simple mistake, easy to fix, and not a huge deal except for the inconvenient hours. So this little slip on their part meant taking another hour off.
In sum, if it’s convenient for you with your insurance, you could probably do worse. On the other hand, I’ll probably look around for somewhere else next time.

This place is great I can’t express my gratitude for all the thorough effort and work put into fixing my car. I received updates each time my car went into a different phase of repair INCLUDING WHEN It moved to the final phase of detail. Usually owners are not involved too much with the details of your car repair but the manager or owner came out to meet me both when I dropped my car off as well as when I picked my car up!!!
Besides GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE! My car is Fixed JUST LIKE IT NEVER HAPPENED !!! THANK YOU TO THE HARD WORKING MEN AND WOMEN THAT MAKE HUSTEADS AUTO BODY

Vince was a fantastic help with getting my car fixed. Absolutely great service and I will be coming back again for all of my auto body needs!

I have been here twice and I’ll put both repairs in one review. It was both on the same car but different panels. I came to Husteads because they were in Triple A’s direct repair network. I came when someone’s bad parking skills backed up to me and did a minor dent to my front bumper. It was minor bump. All it needed was to pop it out, refinished and then repainted. I was pretty happy with it initially. But upon further inspection, it looks like where the edges meet other panels aren’t painted. Example, where the top of the bumper connects to the front fender clearly isn’t painted on the edge. (maybe they masked over it so it wasn’t painted? Who knows)
The second time I came here for a basketball sized dent on my driver’s door. They took the metal off and gave me a new metal. Looking on the inside, where the metal bends to inner door panel looks pretty sloppy. They didn’t even bother to at least put a sealer on it to make it look more original from the factory, instead it looks like some bad welding job. On the outside, the new door metal isn’t flushed to match the same level as the beginning of the passenger door. The new door was slightly made more in.
Bottom line, I will not recommend this place to anyone who wants a high quality repair. They should have a quality control person inspect the repairs before sending it back to the customers. Missing areas where sections didn’t get painted or even aligning the panel to match is a sign of bad quality. But I had an older car so I wasn’t as detail oriented or OCD about this car. But if I bought in a newer car and got misaligned panels or unpainted areas I would not be impressed at all. Overall I’ll give this a C/​C+ grade. It’s sufficient but would could be better. It’s okay for an older car but it’s not worth the time to miss work to get this redone.
One thing I did like was the customer service.
They do they care of you with a rental if you need one. There’s a Hertz phone (kind of like a public pay phone but only call hertz) in the waiting room to call Hertz and you can make a video chat with a Hertz guy to get a rental and swipe your credit card and driver’s license. When the Hertz pay phone doesn’t pick up, they’ll give you a ride to the local Hertz to get a rental in their courtesy vehicle.
And they have a lifetime warranty (with asterisk). I believe they had to give one because of Triple A’s direct repair network.

This was one of the approved body shops through my insurance company but they did such a good job that I would use them if I were paying. First off, they answered and returned phone calls promptly. When the rental care didn’t show up within the specified time they helped me out even though it wasn’t their problem. When I got the car back, it looked brand new, even better than before the accident. I was really impressed with the level of customer service and workmanship.

I highly recommend Hustead’s, My son was involved in an accident 400 miles away from home, I was very nervous because of the distance and not knowing any auto body shops in Berkeley. My insurance company recommended Hustead’s and I have to say I am completely satisfied with their service and especially the quality of work that was done to his vehicle. Dustin kept us informed daily and was very pleasant to deal with. Thank you Dustin!!!

I accidentally bumped my friend’s car into the curb a couple of weeks ago and the front bumper become loose on one side (I thought it was broken). After taking the car to two other body shops which both refused to even looked at the car without an appointment, I went to the Hustead’s Auto Body shop. A guy who was busy working on another car asked me if I need help, and when I told him the story and showed my car he told me wait a minute and went to the office to bring his manager, Vince Quihuiz. They fix the car in 10 minutes and did not charge me!!! These are the nicest people in this business and saved my day!!!

I had the worst experience at Hustead’s!
The short story is:
1. Customer service is horrible: They never once called me
2. Their quality of work is horrible: they took it back the 1^st time to fix it only to have it still look bad
3. The owner said he would like to work on my car a 3^rd time and would call me to set it up but I’m not holding my breath.
I ended up going there at least 5 times to get the work completed and with a 1 year old and car seat it was so inconvenient. It was such an ordeal for a small dent in a door, I can’t imagine if I had a bigger accident!

Dear Everyone on Unilocal,
The significant other accidentally pulled my car’s front bumper loose when backing over a parking stopper. He took my car into this shop and had a great experience. Please read on:
When I entered this establishment I was immediately warmed by the home-​like vibe in the waiting area. I was greeted attentively, and connected with Judy, who speaks to people as if they are long-​time friends. This means a lot to me as a person walking into an auto-​body shop hoping to have a well-​informed and honest experience. I quickly overcame my fear about getting hustled with unreasonable prices. The front bumper on the car was largely detached from one of those horrible, yet purposeful pieces of cement in parking lots. Judy assessed the situation quickly. She was energized and positive. On her hands and knees she worked at the bumper for twenty minutes, encountering a few obstacles along the way, but swiftly reconnecting it and securing it nicely with a screwdriver. When she stood up and said «We’re done!» and I waited for the bill, but she implied that she would not accept money. It was free of charge. I absolutely tried to pay her a second time, but she would not accept any fee. I believe Judy represents what it means to balance running a successful business that exists in a community. Without reservation, this place gets five.

Jonathan, the manager, called me after my review. He apologized for the service, inquired as to what happened, and followed up with the gift certificates. I appreciate the follow up and the desire to understand what had happened.

THESE GUYS ARE AWESOME!!! Took the car in for a minor fender-​bender and a painting job for some key-​jobs done by the Willard school kids. AAA recommended us initially some guys on San Pablo which were beyond obnoxious. A client of ours recommended Hustead’s. After the bad experience with AutoBody on San Pablo, I called the insurance and made the arrangements to come to the Hustead’s. Talked with JULIE CADOT, she is awesome, and so is everybody in there!!!
The job was done superbly, earlier than estimated, the car looks like brand new… wow…they even saved the parking permit sticker from the old bumper, very nice jobguys!!!
Thank you very much Julie, and I truly recommend the Hustead’s!!! Haven’t had such a nice experience in a long while!!! Will definitely go back!!!

I was a victim of a hit and run. The dent was not huge but it was well aimed– at the nexus of the fender, bumper, and headlight. On the final walkthrough when I picked up the car I noticed that the fit of the fender was off a bit. Hustead’s saw the same thing and immediately offered to make it right. They went above and beyond, replacing the poorly fitting fender and getting the car back to me ASAP. Hustead’s proved to me that they are committed to excellent service. I will not hesitate to use them again.

Super painless and great service!
I was involved in a minor fender bender and my insurance company referred me to Hustead’s to get my car fixed. I worked with Said (pronounced sigh-​eed) and he was wonderful.
I made an appointment and I brought my car in on a Friday. Said checked the car (I had a minor dent on the front bumper), explained the process of fixing it, gave me a cost estimate and gave me a timeline to get the car fixed. All in a matter of 25 minutes. He dealt entirely with the insurance (was quick to get it approved) and all I had to do was bring the car in on a Monday and he would have it ready by Wednesday. Woot. Quick service. I also want to mention it seemed like everyone was really nice in the front office. They made sure that no customer stood there waiting.
Said called me after they took off the front bumper to confirm that there was no additional damage behind it and also to reconfirm the timeline of when the car would be ready. When I got my car back, it was so shiny and super clean, inside and out. Hustead’s even smoothed out the minor scratches I had on the bottom of my front bumper for free. It was really nice and I felt like I was driving a new car! They also offer a lifetime guarantee on the workmanship of the parts that they fixed.
If you need a car rental, they also work with the local Enterprise, to have someone come pick you up with a rental car.
The only thing is that I wished they would be open a little later in the day. Hustead’s closes at 5pm, which may be hard for those that are coming back from work to pick up their cars. But they do open at 7:30am, so if you are an early riser, this might work for you.
Thanks Hustead (and definitely Said) for fixing my car and making an annoying situation so much better!

Pros:
–Quick service
–Called Enterprise to come pick me up for rental car
–High quality service (I think, although I’m no expert)
–Really nice staff
–Worked directly with insurance companies
Cons:
–Car smelled awful for days after they «cleaned» it
–They began the bumper repair without my consent. Meaning, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to have it repaired or replaced after someone hit me. When I called them on day #2, they said they’d already moved forward with the bumper replacement. Maybe that’s what I would have chosen to do in the end, but I would have preferred to have a choice.
–They NEVER called me to tell me what was going on with my car repair. A repair that was supposed to take 48 hours ended up taking 5 days (don’t think that’s their fault in any way). I had to call them to check up on progress 3 times, including on the last day as I was driving to their shop not knowing if my car was finished or not.
Probably would go back to them again, though, because they were nice and it’s convenient.