Hontech Automotive Inc

Great work and great job explaining appropriate service for my car! Very professional and trustworthy.

I couldn’t recommend Hontech more. Every time anyone I know has a question or a problem concerning their car, I yell out «HONTECH!» like a lunatic. But as someone who has been taken advantage of by mechanics, I can really appreciate this company.
The employees at Hontech always answer my questions over the phone and are very up front and friendly and honest. When I go in, they offer me a ride if they need to keep my car, and always explain to me what is being done to my car. They list everything that’s needed by priority, and they give me an estimated price that is always pretty spot on!
These are hard working, honest people that you can trust. ¹⁰⁄₁₀ recommend.

Super friendly, kept me informed as to what was wrong and was honest. I was referred by a friend so they gave her $ 20 gift card and myself $ 50 toward my service. In the end I didn’t need it so they gave me credit for the next time. Who does that? Thanks hontech!!!

Pretty happy with my overall experience. I first came upon Hontech just by driving by on my way to work. (conveniently located down the street). Never notice that it was a mechanic shop because it looks really nice on the outside. To be honest I spent pretty good amount of money here on my first visit but I had a lot of things I needed to be done and they were straight forwarded about the pricing. which I like because they gave me a high number for the estimate which was still reasonable considering the quality and knowledge of the cars they work on are great. My total ended up being almost 200 dollars less. (YAY). Mike was extremely helpful gave me updates cause they had the car for about two days. My car feels like the first time I bought it! runs smooth and I will always be going back. I rather spend a little bit extra money for warranties on parts and better service. See you soon Hontech! OOO… P. S. first time customers get a 40 dollar off any service just go online and print it. cant beat that.

I have been a steady customer since 1995 — covering four cars. I have always found the service to be top-​notch, with Dave, Suzie and their team providing professional guidance in the care of my cars. I’ve always felt I’ve been treated fairly and with respect.

Everyone was very friendly! They quickly fixed my car and I appreciated that they gave me a few options on how to fix it. It was also nice that they provided a ride to and from the shop, so I didn’t have to wait or pay for a taxi.

They’ve always done a great job taking care the cars and me. I can be a head case on some days and they still let me come back :).
Always factory parts! Being a customer for years, I now understand the the importance of this.
Thanks Hontech!

Hontech and their mechanics are honest and trustworthy. I drive from Orange County to San Diego to have peace of mind when getting our cars maintained. Thanks Dave and staff!

Competitive rates, good service. I appreciated that they explained to me what needed to be done and had a little flip book of illustrations to show me. I had to get several repairs done which were costly but once it was explained to me and they have a very good warranty I felt more comfortable making a big payment for my 10-​year old Acura TL.

Awesome services, good prices, competitive rates. Highly recommended. Been coming here for years.

I brought a 4Runner here that i was thinking about buying (and eventually did) due to the seller knowing someone who knew someone that had something to do with the owner. We arent from San Diego, so we were ok going with his recommendation.
the initial person i spoke with was honest and friendly, and the facility is nice and in a great location. those are really the only two things i can say positively about the place.
the car needed a lot of work and had a funny sound, but they didnt catch the sound until the end of the day when the seller mentioned it. they then said it would cost more to diagnose the sound since they had to put some kind of listener ears on it. i understand that older car issues are sometimes difficult to diagnose, but it was really frustrating because it wasnt a subtle sound, and we didnt have another day to waste, or want to spend the extra money on something so obvious. i also understand that time is money, but it just floored me it was missed.
the other reason our experience was bad is that they are overpriced, as other Unilocalers have mentioned. during the inspection, they quoted about 700 to fix a cracked something or other, that we fixed at another location for almost $ 300 less.
all in all, nice guys, nice facility, but i would look around or get a second opinion if you are getting a quote that seems too expensive.

Very disappointed. Brought car in to fix A/​C paid them 700 and it still did not work brought it back in and they said it needed new compressor after multiple calls for an estimate never received one. Going back to the dealer.

I got screwed. I took my 2012 Prius in for a 30k checkup including an oil change, tire rotation etc. I was quoted $ 96 or $ 98. I dropped it off at 9am, got a call at 1:50 that my car only needed the oil change but my model required them to use synthetic oil so they had to add $ 68 to bill. I approved, paid and when I got in I looked at the manual. Synthetic oil is not required and my copy if the receipt says tires were not rotated. So $ 164.95 for fluid levels checked and an oil change. 7 hours and an extra $ 125 more than the dealership would charge. Suckered. Look around, ask to see manual before accepting changes.

This was the worst car repair experience I’ve ever had. I’d warn any woman who doesn’t know much about cars and doesn’t have a knowledgeable guy to go in with her to stay away. They will totally take advantage of your ignorance.
My car overheated and blew a valve so I brought it in. They recommended I replace the valve, along with all the others and to replace a bunch of other things, along with a corroded valve that «might» be leaking and cause overheating in the future. Basically, they wanted me to overhaul the entire cooling system.
I got some advice from a friend who told me that the work they were recommending sounded excessive and I should ask for a written cost breakdown, so I went in for that. While I was at it, I decided to ask for a copy of all the mechanic’s notes, too, so I could read through it at home, think about the recommendations, do some research, and make a decision about what work to get done that wasn’t based on total ignorance. That’s when the first red-​flag shot up.
The guy behind the desk, Sean, got an attitude and basically refused to make the one copy until I put on the «I’m just a stupid, neurotic girl who needs copies of everything for my records because I’m really anal» act and started flirting with him. Then he reluctantly made the copy.
Then, continuing the stupid, flirty girl act because it seemed to make him much more helpful, I asked him to tell me exactly what things on the cost breakdown needed to be done urgently and what could wait. In addition to a few other things, he told me that a particular valve was very corroded, could be leaking, and therefore should be replaced immediately at a cost of about $ 400. He even offered to show me how corroded it was.
So I took him up on the offer. I went in and he showed me the valve, all the while stressing how I should have it replaced. Luckily, the actual mechanic who worked on my car showed up while I was looking at the valve and we started chatting. The mechanic mentions that there’s a simple pressure test that can tell you whether or not the valve leaks, something Sean conveniently never thought to mention. So I tell them to do the pressure test to check the valve. No leak. No need to replace the $ 400 valve.
Two months later, my car is overheating again. I bring it in, they do a cooling system inspection. What’s the problem? They don’t know. They tell me it could be that the radiator is too old to work efficiently, or there could be a problem with the water pump. They’re not sure which it is, so what I should do is fix one ($ 500) and see what happens. If the overheating continues, then fix the other one (another $ 500) and see what happens…
I decided what I would do is find a mechanic who could actually tell me what the problem was. About a week ago I took it to Skelly’s in North Park. They told me the problem was the thermostat and a small leak in the radiator, so I should replace both. The need to replace the thermostat seemed reasonable since that’s usually where cooling system problems originate. But when it came to the radiator, I smelled another scam because I’d never been told about a radiator leak by Hontech. And even if it was leaking, I didn’t mind dealing with that for awhile.
So I decided just to replace the thermostat. My car has not overheated since.
My guess is Hontech knew the problem was simply the thermostat, but thought they could milk me for money for a few months, telling me to fix everything but.
I will never go there again. They seem to have a technique for getting you to trust them. They overwhelm you with detailed information regarding the workings of the car, so they’ll seem as if they know exactly what they’re talking about and are oh so helpful and basically you will say «Okay, okay, do whatever, just stop talking…» But if you ask a lot of questions, show that you are actually understanding and thinking about what they are saying, and that you are not letting them overwhelm you with useless information, suddenly they are not so forthcoming with information.
They are liars and exploiters. I will never take my car there again. And I would discourage anyone from doing so. Their reputation is built on their lying ability, not their workmanship or integrity.

I was a customer for several years and thought that their service was good but the price for service was about the same as the dealer. I was OK with the price for service since I had a feeling that I would get personal attention and I was satisfied.
Then the customer service part of getting my car repaired lost the appeal of a small repair garage. They forgot to do things that they promised and then finally this morning they did not honor my appointment.
Might just as well go the dealer for the sad level of customer service they now provide. I think it’s inexcusable to not honor an appointment!
The most distressing part of the appointment deal was Dave never once said he was sorry for wasting my time waiting for my car while nothing was being done to it.
I live in east county so getting to North Park was an inconvenience but I thought I was getting great service. Sorry to say Hontech is like all other repair garages not reliable!

Oh my gosh, I am out in small town Minnesota and needed key information to do my own oil change. I went here before for a transmission fluid change, and Susie was able to pull up my car model and tell me exactly the type of materials I would need! From back in 2011 she had my car and name still in her system! She walked me through WHY the parts she was suggesting were important and specific to my Honda! And told me where to get them.
What matters here is that when you are a customer of Hontech Automotive once, they treat you like you are a customer for LIFE. And you are, because you will never go to anyone else who can’t and won’t treat you like them!

My almost 3 years experience here was working next to the owner.
If you are a service advisor don’t work here.
See filtered reviews and it will give you a better idea of the captain of this ship.

I’m sort of torn over my feelings for this place. On the one hand, I trust that if something needs repairing on my car that it will be done right the first time. On the other hand, they are very expensive, aren’t open on Saturdays, and based on my most recent experience, possibly untrustworthy. I brought my car there a couple weeks ago needing help with two issues. The first was my clutch, which was slipping badly. They replaced it for $ 1500; about $ 500 more than it cost me the last time I had this service done (at another shop). I also was having an intermittent issue with the car not starting, and when it would start it was hard to turn over. They had the car for a few days and claim that they couldn’t reproduce the problem. Regardless, I wasn’t imagining having trouble starting the car on a daily basis. Did they check the basics? Is the battery ok? If so, did they test the alternator? Since they had the transmission dropped already, did they test the starter? Did they consider that if they didn’t do that that I might get stranded somewhere not being able to get the car started. I have to assume that the answer to all those questions is no.
So, I got stranded last night and had to pay $ 100 to get the car towed to Hontech. Of course I also had to rent a car so that I could get to work today. They called this morning to let me know that my starter needed replacing. You don’t say! As a result of the overlap in labor costs that could have been avoided and the towing charge, I figure they wasted about $ 300 of my money. At this point I can’t help but be suspicious that they knew I’d be back soon to have the starter replaced, and they’d be charging me for 2 – 3 hours in labor that they otherwise wouldn’t have had they replaced the starter when the clutch was being replaced. I also suspect that they removed my aftermarket short shift adapter without my permission. I won’t be back.

Hontech might seem a bit costly, that’s because their service and the parts they use are exceptionally incredible. If you pay less at a junky other mechanic, be prepared to pay more in the long run due to your car breaking.
Hontech has always done us right and we haven’t had any issues with our two Hondas in the seven years we’ve been going to them. They also service a wide range of imports.
If something seems expensive they tell us whether the repairs are vital or can be delayed. They are fast too, we’ve never had the car with them for more than a day.

if you had asked me about these guys 6 months ago… I probably would have given them 3 or 4 stars. I had gone to them several times with my 2004 Honda CRV and had been pretty happy with their service. Overall I felt their prices were fair and their service was good. The only downfall I saw was that they were not open on Saturdays, which meant it was basically impossible to use them for routine oil changes.
Now, my opinion has completely changed. Why, I ask… is it so damn hard to find an honest mechanic who won’t take you for a ride?
Let me explain…
My relatively reliable Honda has reached the 120,000 mile mark and needed servicing. I called Honda Mission Valley to see what they charged for this service. Their price was $ 395. Ouch. Since Hontech has always been less than the dealer, I decided to see what they charged. Called them up and was given a quote of ~$ 100 for the inspection, and then any additional ‘work’ would cost extra based on what was needed. I told them what Honda was charging so I could get an idea of whether or not Hontech’s final price would be at least the same if not less than Honda’s quoted price. I couldn’t really get a straight answer from the guy on the phone, but decided that Hontech had served me well in the past and I would go with them.
Fast forward to mid-​day after dropping my car off for servicing. I get a phone call from Hontech to go over what is ‘recommended’.
Basic 120,000 mile service: $ 482 (WTF! Already we are $ 100 more than Honda!)
Transmission Fluid Exchange: $ 240 (included in Honda’s price of $ 395)
Rear Differential Fluid: $ 86 (also included in Honda’s price!)
Additinal Preventative Maintenance Recommended:
Outer Tie Rod End Boots: $ 90
Thermostat Switch: $ 330
Power Steering Fluid: $ 89
PCV Valve: $ 54
AC Service: $ 185
Fuel Injection Cleaning Service: $ 138 (found out later from Honda that this is completely unnecessary and Honda NEVER recommends this!)
By now I am extremely frustrated. Of course, all of the above items are just ‘recommended’ (including the basic service items) and don’t HAVE to be done… but I’ve been religious about keeping up with servicing on my car and definitely want to keep up with the basics in order to keep it running as long as possible. Come to find out, when I took it in for my 90,000 mile service there were ‘basics’ that didn’t even get done (or recommended!!) at that time because of a few other fixes that already had me at the $ 700 mark. Apparently, they figured I wouldn’t want to spend extra money on the basics since I was already spending $ 700 on the critical fixes. uh, hello? Shouldnt that be MY decision?
This felt like a complete bait & switch and still irks me when I think of it. Why the heck is it so hard to find a reliable, HONEST, mechanic who isn’t just in it for the money?
Needless to say, I picked my car up at the end of the day without having ANYTHING done to it. I figured even though I had spent $ 100 at Hontech and would still need to pay $ 395 at Honda to get the actual service done, it was still cheaper than the $ 800 I would need to spend at Hontech just to get the same servicing Honda provided.
I defintely won’t be back and definitely will NOT be recommending these guys to anyone in the future.