Kevin L Hinkley Auto Tech

Wow, this place is OUTSTANDING. Pickup/​dropoff service, honest, fast, helpful, accommodating, skilled, considerate, and super snarky (oh, the snark!). This will be where we service our vehicles from now on. Highly recommend! What a great experience.

Kevin Hinkley has been a god send!
My step father was my trusted mechanic since my first car, until he passed away recently. I didn’t know where to go or who I could trust. It took me 2 years of running into bad mechanics that ripped me off to finally find Kevin Hinkley Auto Tech!
Not only did Kevin fix my 13 year old car but he explained to me what the problem was and made me feel very comfortable and welcome. The prices are comparable and I finally found someone I can trust. I found my mechanic! Thank you Kevin! :)

Kevin Hinkley auto tech has always been good to me and my friends. They always explain what needs to be fixed and I am never surprised about extra costs. They are also a very genuine, personable and fun group. I highly suggest using them!

I took my Buick over 17 yrs ago to Hinkley. They ripped me off charged me almost 200.00 for 1 spark plug. Never fixed the prob. I don’t understand these good reviews. They should be out a business. I was young and dumb never reported them to bbb. Should have. Stay away from Hinkley. Their bad karma should’ve come back to them by now.

I’ve been taking my RAV4 to Hinkley’s for years, and more recently my wife’s Toyota Prius hybrid — we get excellent quality service, at fair prices. They are an amiable bunch there, very nice, very considerate of their customers. I highly recommend them.
I also enjoy trading pretend insults with Kevin and his crew; they have a great sense of humor.

Amazing customer service with honest mechanics. For years I have searched all over the Bay Area to find a shop that provides expertise, builds customer relationships, and at the end of the day I know the work is done right. I highly recommend Kevin and his staff for quality, honest work.

I have been taking my 1990 4Runner to them for routine care/​a few repairs, for almost a year now; and I still couldn’t be happier with their team. After purchasing my vehicle, a few things kept popping up that needed to be replaced. The guys at the shop always made sure I understood what they were fixing and why, explained the cost, and really just made me comfortable all around. We all know car repairs aren’t cheap, but they really offer fair pricing and provide thorough service. I use my vehicle a lot, commuting to work; driving up to Nevada to see family. So it’s really important to me that every time I hop in my car, I can trust it to take me where I need to go safely. These guys help me with all of that, if you’re not happy with your current mechanic; I highly recommend checking these guys out!

My car had a problem in Castro Valley and by a referral I end it up in this place, they opened a spot in their busy day (I saw many cars and trucks before mine) and when I explained that I live one hour away they did everything to fix it in the same day.
Not only that, Chris the person that took care of me called me every hour and a half to explain me what was happening and what he was going to do to make it work and being a person that doesn’t understand anything about cars that is very valuable. That gives me a lot of trust in the people that works there.
Best place in Castro Valley to take your car whenever you have a problem.
Great customer service, great at fixing problems, very friendly and excellent price as well.

Recently I submitted a negative review of Kevin Hinckley’s Autotech car repair shop. I have subsequently had the opportunity to reconsider my previous evaluation after a long conversation with the owner of this well established Castro Valley business. We had a very candid and respectful conversation about the series of events that constituted my unfavorable impression of their competence. Mr. Hinkley impressed me with his conscientiousness and sincerity as well as offering a monetary compensation for any expense or inconvenience I may have incurred because of my experience. I feel that I had miss interpreted the circumstances that led to my disappointment and feel confident that going forward in my relationship with Autotech — and I do intend to continue to do business with his shop — that their efforts will be honest and competent. Mr. Hinkley is the type of business owner that I feel is too rare in our modern world; a person of impressive integrity. If I had it to do over again I would have given him the opportunity to have this conversation with me before expressing my frustrations on social media. And I’m sure he would have welcomed it.
Sent from my iPad

Doesn’t get any better. My first experience with Kevin was several years ago when he correctly diagnosed and repaired that I had been to the dealer several times unsuccessfully to have repaired. Since then he has handled all of the auto servicing for my family in multiple vehicles, and the service has always been done correctly and quickly the first time. His customer service has been exemplary, and has extended past just the service visit but into other associated services. I highly recommend this business.

How FRUSTRATING!
I really hate writing this review but I feel compelled to. My wife and I live right down the street from Auto Tech and we really wanted to leverage this mechanic because of convenience. My wife called and spoke to Kevin to get an idea of what an oil change would cost. She let him know the type of car we drove and he said it varies between $ 80-​$ 120 and to bring it in.
Once she arrived, Kevin was on the phone so my wife waited patiently. When he got off the phone, she mentioned that she was the person from the phone. He got on the computer inputing something and then walked away going to the back. She stood at the door while he went to help someone outside sitting in a car. My wife then stepped outside and asked him if he has a price or if he needed to look at the car. Kevin quoted $ 140. $ 20 more than the range he quoted on the phone! Not just that, he quoted that price without looking at the car. He knew what kind of car it was from the phone call so we don’t get it. She asked if it included anything else like tire rotation, break inspection, etc. He said NOTHING, just the oil change. Another item worth pointing out, there is a 10% off coupon which is advertised on Unilocal and his website but it expired 3 months ago! She didn’t get a chance to bring it up with him because he kept walking to the back.
Clearly it wasn’t a good day for him or he just didn’t want our business. It’s unfortunate because we would be happy to send business from our neighbors but now it’s the opposite.

So far so good! Took my car to get an oil change and was met with a price that was fair on all accounts. The dealer with coupons would of been $ 5 more and not everyone has the coupon so yea, definitely a fair price here.
What Kevin L Hinkley Auto Tech did that was nice was it went above and beyond checking the car out, fixing little things for no cost and making honest recommendations. It’s rare to really find an auto repair shop these days it seems so given my experience here, this place seems to be on and level.
I’ll definitely be back.

Great service and talented mechanics. We’ve come to Hinkley’s several times to service our ’98 Volvo wagon. We’ve always felt good about the quality of the work and the service.

What can I say, this is a great repair shop. I know a lot about cars and never once felt belittled for being a female in their shop, they actually treated me with respect when I got my car fixed. I am sad that other reviewers said that they felt overcharged because my experience was drastically different than theirs. Overall a very good mechanic and quick repairs.

Kevin and his crew have been servicing our cars since we moved to Castro Valley 24 years ago. They are up to date on all the latest technology involved in the new models and are very professional in their dealings with customers. Often, we stop in for minor problems and they are happy to come to the rescue. They are like family to us, I wouldn’t dream of going anywhere else.

I am a 67 year old woman who has been a customer since 2005. This shop has my full trust & confidence. Kevin & every member of his staff is extremely capable, competent & courteous. A woman can trust their automotive diagnosis. They will tell you if a repair is unnecessary. Their prices are competitive with other AAA approved repair shops. Their only drawback is they are a bit out of the way, but they are very accommodating about providing transportation to & from your home or Bart.

Kevin and all his staff are Marvelous!
I have been going to Kevin Hinkley Auto Tech since 2009 with my 2002 Ford Cargo van. I was highly recommend to them by another mechanic who, unfortunately, did not work on American cars.
I take my well used van to Kevin’s for everything from oil changes to new tires to full mechanical service. Anything that has gone wrong with the car, Kevin and his staff have repaired quickly, efficiently and well within my tight budget. Since this van is my sole vehicle, I need a mechanic that can do the job right the first time and at the right price. Kevin and his staff are those people.
I even have received personalized service by his staff when I have needed a ride back and forth from my home, after leaving my vehicle for an overnight stay.
I don’t use any other mechanic for my car. I highly recommend Kevin Hinkley Auto Tech to anybody who needs trusted and reliable service done on their vehicles the first time!

Watch your wallet. I went here based on the good reviews and the claims that the owner runs an honest shop. I wanted to like this place because it is close to my home and convenient. Sadly, it was not meant to be.
Kevin quoted $ 500 for an oil cooling line replacement. He had just finished another $ 500 job for me that I had not done a price check on so I decided to do a price comparison. The GMC dealer quoted the same oil cooling line replacement job for $ 325. Worse yet, I found out my original repair could also have been accomplished for $ 350 (instead of the $ 500 I paid).
It appears that Kevin Hinkley Auto is charging for jobs at a rate that is 50% more than dealership prices
Needless to say I will never go back. Their pricing is arbitrary and way too expensive.

The warning panel in my car was flashing, showing that there was engine and battery trouble. A nearby mechanic said it was my alternator, and that it still looked new, so I should take it to where it had initially been installed, to see if it was still under warranty.
The alternator/​battery combination was only about a year and 4 months old, so, hoping that they would honor the warranty, and that I could make it, I took a chance, held my breath, and white knuckled it over to Hinkley’s.
Hinkleys was busy when I got there, but they were so gracious to take my car anyway.
They decided to replace the alternator, even though it was a 4 months over warranty. They regenerated the battery, and not only that… they did it all in the same day, and on a Saturday at that! I had to be at work at 330am the next day, Sunday, and even though they first said that they couldn’t have it done until Monday, they made a huge effort and got it done on the same day! I was absolutely amazed and sooo grateful!
I’m back in business with a car that runs great!
Thank you Hinkley’s…you’re tops with me!

Took my SUV into Kevin’s repair shop because the engine was running rough. He ran some diagnostic tests and told me two of my six fuel injectors were bad and the other four «could go bad anytime». Charged me $ 250.00 for this test. I took my SUV to another repair shop and they recommended servicing the fuel injectors. Fuel injectors were serviced. It’s been almost six months and my SUV is still running smoothly. In my opinion, this establishment deserve less than one star. Sometime experience counts, sometimes not.
This is an update to my post on 05/​20/​2012 regarding Hinkley Auto Tech: Kevin, the owner, reached out to me the other day after reading my post. He apologized for misdiagnosing the problem with my car and proactively told me he was refunding the $ 250 he charged me. A few days later I received a sincere apologize letter with a check for the $ 250.