Swedish Mechanic

«ATTENION: Curmudgeon inside, posted hours not accurate» That should be the warning sign out front of Swedish Mechanic.
Showing up at 5pm does not mean they’re willing to do repairs at 5pm. Seems logical if you’re speaking of a suspension rebuild, clutch replacement or rear main seal replacement, sure. For a 3 minute job (literally connect a handheld box to your car and hit a few buttons, 5minutes if you’re milking it)? Nope not gonna do that either. And you’re not going to be treated with respect, of course not! (Mr Swedish Mechanic, stating with a harsh tone «yeah I know how long it takes, I’m not gonna do it.» Isn’t the best way to win customers. But from the looks of the total of 5 cars in your shop, you already know that).
I highly recommend Swedish Car Center in Venice Beach, it’s worth the drive or tow. For the same Tech2 3 minute job I stopped by «Swedish Mechanic» Irvine for, the «Swedish Car Center of Venice» not only dropped their tools to help me out on a Friday at 5, but would not accept any form of payment for the job. Kindly saying «don’t worry about it!» Now THAT is service.
Stay away from Swedish Mechanic in Irvine unless you have no other choice. As the owner stated to me when I said I’ll happily go elsewhere, «Good luck with THAT!». Real professional.

If you are looking for the stereotypical crooked mechanic, look no further. Bait and switch estimates? Check! Different quotes based on gender? Check! Finding problems where there are none? Check! Astronomical markups? Check? Defensive double-​speak when caught gouging? Check!
My wife had a 2007 SAAB that needed a little attention. We were promised a quote. The diagnostic fee (free elsewhere) was high, but we had seen good reviews here, so we tried it out. Not only did these guys «find» different problems than the one we had, they were unable, even after two tries, to fix the existing problem. After paying over $ 500 for near-​nothing, we cut our losses and had the car fixed quickly and professionally at a friendly shop in Rancho Santa Margarita instead.
When I complained to the Swedish Mechanic, even showing them proof of the unneeded work they had «diagnosed», they offered me a coupon for them to do more work on my car next time. No thanks!

Have an old 2002 Saab 9 – 3 (14 years old as of this review) that i adore as my wife. I try to baby it but not so good at it. I used to take it in to a Saab dealer when i needed work done and they would always do a perfect but expensive job. With more Saab dealerships there are only a few who can specialize in them. Stefan is one of them locally (it doesn’t hurt that he is Swedish and loves the Swedish cat brands including Volvo). They do perfect work too but like the dealer expensive.

I’ve been taking my 2004 Saab 9 – 3 to Stefan since Saab closed it’s US dealerships 5 years ago. In that time, I have found Stefan and his team honest and dependable. Service on my car has always been performed right the first time. Ken, the service manager, has been great to work with. As my car is almost 12 years old with close to 160K miles on it, they’ll sometimes recommend preemptive service to forestall any major repairs down the road. However, there is never a hard-​sell; the situation is presented objectively and an honest assessment of when the service can take place in the future will be offered. Their prices are very competitive with other mechanics in the area. Monthly e-​coupons and mid-​week specials are an added bonus. Clean shop, comfortable waiting room, and free Wi-​Fi. I don’t see myself taking my car for service anywhere else.

Honest and dependable. We brought our 2007 Saab 9 – 5 wagon in for an estimate on repairing a noisy rear suspension. Unfortunately, the entire suspension needed to be replaced. We were not pressured into having this work done. We asked a lot of questions and they gave us honest answers. We elected to have the work done and it wasn’t cheap, but the work was done well and the car drives much better now. This issue was misdiagnosed about 6 months ago at another shop, so I am glad we took the car to Stefan.

Paid $ 110 to get the diagnostic and to find out what was wrong with two specific and different issues in my car. They didn’t even put the computer on the car, I know because I took it to Swedish Asian Auto Service on Santa Ana and they showed me the diagnostic reading, which was all lit up with minor issues. Then they reset the computer on my car and restarted it, the second issue causing the other problem remained, all the minor issues were gone. Also got quoted $ 100 less on the original issue.
Ken was talking to me like he didn’t want my business. I wish I hadn’t paid for the first $ 110.
Do yourself a favor and make the trip to Santa Ana. Check the other reviews of both places, you’ll see what I mean.

Very honest place, know their cars well. Also have free Wi-​Fi in the waiting room, which is nice for the quicker jobs. Top notch service, and Stefan’s Swedish-​ness is pretty sweet. Nice atmosphere, feel like I am always in safe hands here. Thanks for the great work, keep it up!

I have had multiple Saabs repaired by Stefan, and his shop always does good work. Once one of my brakes went out in spectacular shattering fashion and made the car nearly undrivable. Took it here and he had it back to working condition in two days. Plus he had a coupon that took ten percent off that he told me about which I hadn’t heard of before hand. They’re honest and good mechanics here, and I’ll go here every time.

I brought in my 2004 saab 9 – 3 arc to get a major service done here because they quoted me at a little over $ 600 which sounded like a great deal compared to GM Tustin who wanted to charge $ 1200 to do the same thing. Upon returning my car they told me I would need $ 9,000 worth of repairs to get my car «up and running again» which for the most part was untrue. When i showed the list of things to be done to my mechanic friend he just laughed. They told me i needed to replace the battery tray and cover which anyone who looks at would see absolutely nothing wrong with among other things. They said i needed to replace my indicator bulbs and wanted to charge me $ 15 per bulb plus labor costs. Only one bulb was out and i was able to buy both bulbs at O’reiley auto parts for $ 5.00 for two standard bulbs or i could have paid $ 10.00 for the brighter ones. It took me less than 5 minutes to replace the bulbs myself. They also tried to charge me $ 40.00+ for replacing the air filter which I know they did not do because i have a custom intake on my car with a cone filter which doesnt need to be replaced. When i pointed it out they just said «nice catch» as if i wouldnt have known that. And it doesnt end there. I gave them the car running perfectly fine and the next day the car began misfiring at idle and when accelerating. I had my mechanic friend look at my car and we found that not only did they not use the correct spark plugs per the manual or website that makes the spark plugs, they also did not gap them correctly which was causing the car to have active misfires. When i brought back the car I asked them how this could have happened they told me that they order the spark plugs directly from saab and that they come pre gapped.
He offered to diagnose and try to fix the problem under warranty but I chose to decline because I didnt feel confident in them working on my car.
He gave me 4 free spark plugs to see if that would remedy the issue. when I went to check the spark plug gaps on the ones he gave me I noticed that on the box it says to make sure you gap the spark plugs to the appropriate gap, how could they not know this when they told me they use the spark plugs on all the cars they work on?
They are very friendly and act knowledgeable and probably know a hell of a lot more than i do but I would never bring my car back to them nor would I recommend anyone to bring their Saab in to get work done. Major waste of time.

Great! Love the whole vibe going on in this place. Stefan and his staff were so friendly and knowledgeable. Paid for diagnostic inspection on my vehicle and I’m so glad in did! Found out so much about the car I just bought from a scandalous dealer, karsplus in pacoima. Verified lemon ~ anyhow with Stefans expertise I may be able to get out of this shaddy deal
Thanks SM!

I went in to get my oil changed, which they did as expected. I knew my brake pads were a little worn but I wasn’t prepared for Stefan’s scare tactics.
«If you don’t get this fixed right away,» said Stefan, «you will suddenly lose control of your brakes. Your pedal will go to the floor but your car will not stop.» He made me sign a waiver to get my car saying my car was unsafe to drive.
Really??? I looked it up online and asked some friends. When your brake pads wear out this scenario does not happen. And I then took my car to a well regarded mechanic at Mission Viejo Midas who couldn’t believe Stefan actually said this. I had the brake work done there for $ 500 less than Stefan estimated (not including the ~$ 800 additional of «strut mounts, torque mounts, differential leak and dirty air filter» that Stefan wanted to goose me for). I am very happy I didn’t let him take advantage of me.
I normally wouldn’t write a review this bad but the shop also had the nerve to take off my front license plate frame without my permission and replace it with one promoting their shop. And they left off the bottom two bolts — forget about fixing your car, these guys can’t even put on a license plate frame correctly!!!

My daughter has a 1983 240 that needed some work so it could pass smog. I did a internet search and found The Swedish Mechanic and called and talked to Stefan. I told him the issue and also told him I know the car needs a lot of minor things, but I only need to get it to pass smog at this time. He completely understood. I was very pleased with the shop, clean and professional appearance. They diagnosed the car and told me exactly what was wrong, I gave him the ok and they immediately started working on the problem. They fixed everything except one item where the part needed to come from Sweden. Stefan told me to take the care and he would call when the part was in and they would install right way. The car runs better than ever and I’m extremely happy with the service and pricing. Stephan also said that he did not service the older AC units, but hooked me up with a service provider, again just a full service company. I hight recommend these guys for Volvo’s.
Best:
Mike A.

Over the course of 6 years, Ive found Swedish Mechanic to be ethical, trustworthy and mechanically proficient with all things Volvo. Mr Braun always communicates a good understanding of my car’s status. The staff is courtesy and atttentive. I dont always agree with my costs but then again who does? Its the cost of maintenance and upkeep. My ’94 Station Wgn has 350K miles which is indicative of Volvo’s standard of safe and durable driving. Swedish Mechanic keeps me on the road and affords me great peace of mind in the aftermath any service performed. I rely on Swedish Mechanic. Thank you.

The guy that gave me a quote for the repair didn’t seem very nice. I felt like I was being taken advantage of for the lack of my car knowledge. I didn’t feel too easy leaving my car here so I went to another place and got a cheaper quote for the same repair. I probably won’t go back there again.

I wouldn’t even give them one star if I had a choice.
Being a young woman, this is the place that your father warns you about. After moving from LA to OC, I decided to try this place out because it was close to my work. I called ahead of time to get pricing on an oil change and rear breaks and rotors. It was about 15% higher than my LA mechanic would charge me for breaks, but I decided to give them my business and try to establish a relationship. Since you don’t always need to replace both the rotors and break pads, I agreed to let them asses if both would be necessary. They called me an hour later and informed me that my rear breaks and rotors definitely needed to be changed AND that also the front breaks and rotors needed to be replaced. I knew this was a scam at this point and asked them to just perform the oil change.
I went to pick up my car at lunch and they changed my rear breaks and rotors WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. I demanded that they place the old ones back on and conveniently the mechanic was out to lunch for the next hour. After a huge argument with the owner he agreed to come down on the price 10% and I just wanted to cut my losses so I paid and left.
The next day I took my car to my trusted LA mechanic and three things he observed through inspection without charging me a dime:
1) My engine oil was OVERFILLED
2) They used the 2005 break pads and rotors on my car, which is acceptable, but the 2007 are known to cause less dust and last longer…
3) My front breaks had about 10k miles left on them.
I returned out of spite to have those crooks suck out the the oil engine to an acceptable level. NEVER GO TO THESE CROOKS.
If you are in Torrance driving distance go to Anders at Swedecar. He is an honest Swede and very reasonable.

I came to this shop because I felt I would save a few bucks by not going to the Volvo service center where I used to go. Disappointedly, I ended up spending more money and encountering more hassles. It was the problem related to the airbag computer module of my S40. They charged me $ 890 to fix it, which was about 70 – 80 bucks cheaper than the dealer’s quote. The next day after they fixed and returned my car, the car totally broke down in the middle of the road due to the totally shut-​down computer/​software system. I have the car towed all the way from Cerritos to Irvine to have they check and fix. Surprisingly, they did not admit that the shut-​down computer system was somehow a result of any unknown mistake they did to the airbag computer module a day before. What a big joke even for me who has been considered a mechanic idiot! Once you touch part of the computer system, don’t you need to update and make sure the whole computer/​software system is still intact? How would the computer/​software suddenly shut down on its own if you did not do something wrong to the system? Unfortunately, I didn’t have a choice but to pay $ 300 right there to have them fix the totally dead car; plus needing to say $ 150 of the tow fee. That is, I ended up spending additional $ 450 by choosing this shop.
Well, after this experience, I am more convinced that, unless you really know that is a good/​reliable independent auto shop, otherwise it may always save you less pain when going to an authentic auto dealer. At least, their skill as well as warranty may be more reliable.

Read all these reviews for the Swedish Mehanic, and it was good to see his ratings as 4 to 5 stars. Called the shop and inquired prices regarding brake jobs and other mechanical services for my volvo’s, his prices for parts and labor is almost the same as the dearler (Orange County Volvo). Because you think he is a Swede, he knows about Volvol’s? he might, but his prices are expensive and its not cheap. For prices I give him a 1 star.

I had the good fortune to find a deal on a great Volvo. I was recommended to Stefan by the Carmax salesman. I am hard to please and always skeptical of car mechanics. Stefan is patient with my incessant questions and does a thorough job. I have recommended him to 2 other Volvo owners.

Serviced my brake fluid to be flushed.
Quick service as I waited under 1 hour for competitive price.
Quality service and highly recommend it.

Stefan at Swedish Mechanic is really nice!
I brought my Volvo in for a maintenance check. He looked it over. Did the oil change. He then told me there were some things that he recommended getting taken care of.
1) Power steering reservoir leaking — replace/​fix
2) Motor mount broken — fix
3) control arm bushings cracked.
Over a thousand dollars in repairs. However, he was nice enough to tell me to take it back to the dealership since it had just come of out warranty and maybe they would do some of the work under warranty or give me some kind of deal.
Overall, really nice guy. I felt like I could trust him and he wasn’t trying to gouge me.
The only problem is they work only on Saabs and Volvos.