Bay Area Transmissions & Auto

My car started shaking violently any time I drove it over 40 miles per hour. I suspected that it might be the transmission so I called Bay Area Transmissions & Auto and they offered to inspect the transmission for free and let me know what was wrong. I dropped off the car and they said they tested it on the highway. They told me that the transmission was definitely the problem, it needed to be taken apart and rebuilt, and that it would be $ 3000 for the repair. I told them I would think about it.
I took my car home and took a look underneath — The U joints on the drive shaft clearly needed to be replaced. I purchased 2 new U joints for $ 100 each and installed them myself, completely fixing the car.
I think they lied to me about the transmission — If they did any kind of diagnostics they would have noticed that the transmission was fine and it was a drive shaft issue.

Sal is in charge and he’s fabulous to work with! He showedme a model transmission and explained how all the parts work. He also put my car up a lift to show me what was going on. He’s highly competent, patient and took all the time I needed to understand the next steps. I highly recommend Sal and this shop!

Brought my Saturn that was stuck in park in to Sal at Bay Transmission. It needed a new solenoid which I knew prior but would still cost him $ 220 to tell me what was wrong but would go to labor cost. This was on Friday morning said he would call me Monday morning. Got a call Tuesday at noon. Labor price was not to high but not great. He told me you could only get the part from the dealer for $ 130. That was not true so I got one shipped to him off the internet next day for only $ 50 plus $ 20 for shipping. The good part was even after all that he did GREAT work even kept the old part to show me without asking and reatached a brake wire that had come loose while towing. And after he recived the part he got my car right back to me. I would go back and recomend Sal shop to my friends. In the end the good outways the bad and a good mechanic is hard to find. plus city prices are always higher. Just keep him honest. Plus Sal is very nice guy and was respectful through the whole prosses.

I took my 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee with a little over 175,000 miles from Oakland to San Francisco in to have the transmission checked. I was prepared to hear a starting price of $ 5,000.00. Not only was the price $ 1,200.00 less, they even installed intakes to that would help me when I am pulling my horse trailer and it only took a day to get the work done.
Why no 5 star, they took the panel off underneath my steering wheel and wiring where hanging out.
Other than that, she runs great!!! Thank you.

My transmission blew out about 4 months ago, so my first (dumb) idea was to take it to the Honda dealer on Market. They quoted me a fix of over $ 4k and charged me two hours of mechanic’s time for the privilege.
So for the first time, I searched on Unilocal for a big-​ticket service. And that led me to BA Transmission. I called many places for estimates, but Sal was the only one who asked me to bring the car in, take a good look at the problem, and asked for no money for the estimate.
He quoted me a labor price in the upper $ 2k range, plus the cost of any parts they needed to replace once they had my tranny open. I signed off on the labor costs and asked Sal to call me before he went ahead and ordered any of the parts.
Sal was great about keeping in touch about the car, and stuck to his word on everything he said he’d do. The whole transmission is now under warranty for a year, and I’ve had no problems in the three months since the fix.
It was an expensive fix, but I was very happy that I chose to work with this shop. It seems they did a good job for a good price, and I never once felt like I was getting jerked around.
–Greg

My car broke down a block from this place and I was able to coast down to the shop.
the guy at the shop was great. He called me before doing anything and called me to update me with interesting finds (like to tell me that my last oil change had been done improperly as I was nearly out of oil — he wasn’t trying to sell me anything but wanted me to know!).
I ended up needing a new clutch and the price was a fair price. I’ve had clutches replaced in prior cars and they have all been comparably priced — if not more expensive.
They never tried to sell me things I didn’t need or do anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary to get the car running again. They did let me know some things I should take care of in the near future but this wasn’t accompanied by a «we can do this for you» speech.
I was very satisfied with the service here. My car runs great. I will definitely be using them for all future maintenance!

My experience with Sam from Bay Area Transmission was beyond my expectations:
1) Sam quoted me $ 800 LESS than Oakland Acura
2) Paid to have my car towed to the shop
3) Gave me an car rental for 5 days… FREE of charge
4) Provided 2 follow-​up phone calls to ensure that the job was done correctly
5) Gave me an honest estimate, especially as a girl, he was sincere and supplied me with all the essential facts… and NO mechanic– b.s.

Clay and Sal worked on my rebuilt my parents transmission in my parents GMC Denali. They rebuilt the transmission and changed all the warn out parts. It were a pleasure to do business with them and their honesty was appreciated. They didn’t take advantage of my parents who are in their 80’s by changing parts that didn’t need changing. The cost was less that a transmission job I had done 8 or 9 years ago (where they swapped out and replaced with a manufactured re-built).so I give these guys a thumbs up and would highly recommend them.

I have to start out by saying that Clay the owner is the most charismatic mechanic I’ve ever met and was expecting a great experience. He recently took the shop over from when it was a failing AAMCO center. Unfortunately, it seems their new operation isn’t one to count on either.
I was told the transmission work would fix a shiftting problem, and it did not.
I brought the truck back to see if they could correct this– I then stopped by with pizza and beer to see how the work was coming along. Truck was just sitting on the street. It had received a parking ticket. Clay didn’t want to take responsibility for it and I started to get nervous…
Well, I go back to the truck and it turns out there’s TWO MORE TICKETS tucked under the visor. Clay then blames another mechanic but half-​heartedly agrees to pay them.
But the tickets never get paid. As a small business owner myself, I had faith in a positive outcome, but was further surpised when they were unresponsive to phone calls and email, and so I’ve paid them myself.
If you’re interested in how the mechanics went…
Clay says they can’t fix the problem because it’s vacuum related, but that they replaced some hoses.
Well I hate to go on, but I took the truck to L & D Truck and Equipment Repair and they replaced the hoses that Bay Area Transmissions put in and had me out of the shop before I had a chance to leave! It was not the vacuum and apparently a simple fix. They charged me less than the cost of the parking tickets!
Overall, very disappointed at the lack of responsibility and organization here. You may want to try the Bryant Transmission Center.

last friday i had the day off work, my bags were packed, audio book was downloaded and my bf and i were only in need of gas to get our halloween trip to fresno (don’t ask) under way. as i crossed polk st on pine, chevron in my sights, my 93 ford taurus suddenly shut off in the midst of flowing traffic. i quickly pulled to the side of the road to figure out the dilemma.
the car was starting, idling for a few, then cutting out. gavin couldn’t see anything specific right off the bat so he went to consult with the chaps at the motorcycle shop we were stalled in front of… turns out we couldn’t have died at a better location– the hog dudes directed us across the street to bay area transmissions (we hadn’t even noticed it) and before i knew it, clay, the owner, was jogging over to lend a hand.
my stress level at that point was about a 6 outta 10… not so bad but definitely consumed primarily with concerns of where to store the beast, how to get it to said imaginary location and of course cost. so when clay started her up and whipped her right into the garage (emerging with a friendly smile), i retreated down to about a 3…
long story short, we left the «tore ass» in clay’s hands for the weekend (darn! no fresno trip!) and checked back in on monday.
Clay was very attentive to my concerns and really kept a positive attitude about everything– which certainly kept my freak out potential to a minimum. he was very thorough about everything he was finding, fixing and pricing. when he left me a message with a breakdown of my quote i was very pleasantly surprised with the detailed itemization he dictated to me, giving me every option for repair and also a great price. he also stayed late to accommodate my schedule when it came time for pick up. little things like that don’t go unnoticed…
once i finally decide whether or not it’s time to get rid of the old girl i will definitely be taking her to clay for her tune up and to fix the additional things he found. i would rec commend anyone with a car in this city to take it to bay area transmissions. their honesty, turn around and low pricing put them a cut above the rest!

This place is GREAT! Clay is one of the LAST auto shop owners who is amazingly knowledgeable, runs his business with ethics, and has a great sense of humor!
I went here with my boyfriend’s mother (along with her other son’s girlfriend) to help her through the process of getting her car fixed. Clay was very helpful and went through an explanation of what was going on with her car. He explained the problem in such a way that all three of us girls completely understood what was wrong. Our service was very speedy and we left there feeling like we were honestly helped and taken care of.
He will not «fix» anything that does not actually need to be fixed, unlike some other shops. Lastly, Clay made it absolutely clear that if, after we left, we were not 100% happy with his work, we could come back and he would rectify any problems or concerns we had.
Bay Area Transmissions & Auto is an all around fantastic auto shop that is honest which is hard to come by these days. I cannot say enough about Clay and his business. I will DEFINITELY go here for all my problems/​maintenance I have with any of my vehicles. (This is a significant statement because my cars are my pride and joys!)