Brake Depot

I’m such an idiot for taking my car back here. I needed new rotors and back brake pads pretty bad though so I thought I would give Dan and his crew another chance.
Left pissed as usual. Was quoted an hour… an hour rolls around so I go check on my car and it’s still sitting up with no rotors on it so I ask how much longer it will be and he then tells me they don’t «ever keep the parts in stock» so they had to have the guy from the parts place deliver them and it would be another 15 minutes. Um what? What kind of brake place doesn’t keep products in stock?!
So I wait another 10 minutes before asking them to just put my old rotors and brake pads back on and got back to work a half hour late from my lunch with still no new brakes.
When I told Dan that I have nothing but problems when I come here and why hasn’t he tried to improve his business he said «you should just find another brake place.» When I pulled out, I asked his employee «aren’t you going to apologize?» he shrugged his shoulders and walked away.
Seriously, do NOT bring your car here. They don’t keep parts in stock, give inaccurate quotes, have horrible to non-​existent customer service, and really could not give two shits about your business.
I leave a LOT of Unilocal reviews. My reviews are generally pleasant, but 100% of the time, they are honest. Please don’t ignore the horrible experiences (several) that I have had here… learn from my stupidity of returning here time and time again only to leave pissed off.

I was hesitant to take my car to Brake Depot due to some of the negative reviews but decided to take a chance. I’m glad I did. Price for struts I needed was excellent compared to other places and service was just as good. I found Dan to be very personable and helpful. He even gave me a discount off the already low price as I decided to have all struts replaced instead of just two. What a difference, car rides so much smoother!
Thank you Brake Depot!

Mechanics are like dentists — they like to put their hands in places you care about and most are crooked. I can say in all honesty that Dan at Brake Depot is the first honest mechanic that I’ve ever gone to. He’s worked on two of my cars and I’ve never once felt cheated. When some major repairs on my van didn’t work he took the car back and kept working until it was done right — and I didn’t get charged for the extra work. The location isn’t great — but to get an honest assessment, it’s totally worth it.

I made a huge mistake by ignoring the comments on Unilocal.
I usually ignore the bad reviews hoping I get an opposite experience,
NOT HERE, TRUST ME, GO FIND A PLACE WITH GOOD REVIEWS!!!
I bought a battery and it did not work at all, I had to came back and I asked him for a replacement and he told me NO. He did not even said why, he just said NO. We got into a serious fight, we had to call the POLICE. After they heard what happened they asked him for a replacement, we had to test 5 different batteries, none of them were working.
DON’T GO TO THIS PLACE, you will get the worst customer service.
PLEASE DO NOT COME HERE!!!

I have found Dan to be a honest shop owner. I will always have my car serviced here first.

We’ve come to trust this place as one where we can bring our cars and have them diagnosed honestly. The owner won’t rip you off. He gives you all your options at reasonable prices and no pressure. We always get speedy service and have been grateful for the honest and reliable work.

VERY UNPROFFECINAL! Bought all four tires here, thinking they would last. One was patched up! When I realized it was and went back to ask for someone to exchange it, the owner came out who had a «idgaf» attuitde and I mentioned it to him and he said he wasnt responisble! Then I mentioned that it was illegal for them to sale me a patched up tire! And just because they were closing in 5 min he wanted me to return the next day for the fix. I had to call AAA to tow me home. (AAA said its the worst place to go to because of their service and the LAME OWNER)
Another thing, they cracked my BMW cap that covers the bolts to unscrew the tire! The guy apologized and said to go back any time for a discount. Well… I went back n thats what I got in return. The owner didnt believe it. What a jerk!

The owner is a total wanker. Horrible attitude when I told him what I thought was wrong with my headlight (I thought some wiring was melted/​messed up). While I was waiting the owner was on a phone call cussing someone out.
After 45 minutes of waiting the owner then tells me that they «don’t have the part they need» to fix my headlight issue.
Luckily he didn’t have the right lightbulb because he was definitely trying to charge me $ 100, plus this fee for them to figure out what is wrong, for basically a $ 10 job.
A complete waste of time!

My brake was making noise and I took it to Brake Depot. They talked me into replacing rotor, pads, drums, which costed me a lot of money. A few months later, the brake noise returned. I took it back to Brake Depot. The woman in the office was rude and unprofessional. They are not willing to check on the problem without me paying more money. This place does not stand behind their product and services. I would not recommend it to anyone.

total scam didnt finish my breaks correctly 5 months later try to charge me $ 400 to fix them so i told them to fuck off and took it to shell and got my disc re-​turned for $ 50

Do not have your brakes serviced at Brake Depot. Do not be seduced by the low prices on their coupons. I spent several hours at Midas today waiting for their staff to correct all the mistakes made on my Toyota Highlander. The mistakes amount to over $ 400, not much less than what I paid Brake Depot for new brakes in November. The lug nuts were stripped, necessitating the purchase of new ones. Silicone was applied to the brake pads which ground on the rotors and also got into the calipers. The silicone had to be cleaned off, the rotors resurfaced, and the brake pads replaced. The brake pads weren’t worn, but they were covered with silicone. I took photos.
BEWARE the shoddy work done at Brake Depot.
Thanks Midas staff on Chapman in Orange for making my car safe to drive again.

Wad quoted $ 50 over the phone. Price was actually $ 60. People doing service are nice enough. It’s the manager that has No Customer Service. Says hello, but that’s about it. I wasn’t told where my car was going to he driven off to… «somewhere in the back». I’m not allowed back there to see what kind of work is actually being done on my car. They supposedly use laser precision, but since I’m not allowed back there and therefore can’t see or verify anything, how do I know what I’m actually paying for? I guess they still have business despite the low stars because America’s Tires on Grand recommends then and refers customers here. They are also $ 10 lower than the lowest alugnmennt price I was able to find anywhere. Thank goodness routine alignment is unnecessary and only recommended if one has unusual tire wear, steering issues, or recent suspension repair/​wear/​damage. May pay the extra $ 10 just to feel like I’m not unwanted and to be able to see work oldobe in my car. Manager was supposedly going to «walk [me] back there» but that’s obviously not happening. Not sure if its just bad customer service as measured by US standards, simply lack of customer service or perhaps he is just a chauvenist who is not polite to women since I wad the the only female body present. In any case he didn’t seem to care for my business or even want it so I’ll make sure not to bother him sitting at his desk in the future. Up to you all if $ 10 savings is worth it to you.
Also, supposedly they use laser machines, yet half of my specs were still not within range of my vehicle suggested specs according to the diagnostic sheet they provided me with afterward. Shows what degree angles you came in with, the vehicle suggested range, and what degree angles you left with. Not sure what I paid for if I came in with the same degree angles as I left with. Plus they didn’t even bother to adjust the secondary angles. Now I have to go somewhere else and spend another $ 80 to have it done correctly. He also said the price was $ 60 when on the advertisement right at the front desk said $ 59.95. I’m sorry, but no legitimate business just decides to round to the nearest dollar for convenience. This place was horrible service and would never in a million years recommend this place to anyone… CHEAP or not… now I have to get the alignment again for the price I paid here and the price I will pay elsewhere to get it done right.

I usually like to work on my own car. I took my car to Brake Depot because it overheated far from home and I didn’t want to deal with two large problems. They did two things, both of which were somehow screwed up, one more than the other.
1. The car had a massive oil leak. I asked them to check that out, and it was the oil pan (cracked). They replaced it for $ 400 on my ancient Honda. Now, the problem is the next time I went to change my own oil, I discovered the drain bolt had been cross threaded by Brake Depot. This was easily apparent because it was hard to unscrew the drain bolt, and there were metal shavings. Sure enough, the bolt would not properly tighten again. I now need to rethread the pan.
2. My car had been overheating on the 405. Brake Depot concluded the culprit was the heater hose. For this, I was charged $ 200 some odd dollars — that’s a lot of labor. Not long after the service, abnormally hot engine temperatures continued, and eventually another overheating incident occurred. I discovered I had a blown fuse underhood for the cooling fan. Upon replacing that, I also replaced the thermostat because the fan would not come on. Sure enough, this fixed the problem, and now the cooling fans work properly. A flush of the cooling system also revealed what was essentially dirty water — hardly a trace of coolant. This is the previous owner’s fault. However, I feel like this is something Brake Depot should have checked up on /​caught in diagnosing an overheating issue, and they certainly should have discovered the blown fuse for the cooling fan.
In grand conclusion, I feel the fact they stripped my oil pan, which is a fact plain and simple, is reason enough not to bring your car here. I have not bothered going back to get them to make the oil pan right, as it is far, and I am not a fan of he said/​she said arguments. Just don’t bring your car here.

I was excited to go here because of the reviews I had seen on Unilocal and because I had a coupon in a mailer. Honestly, they were nice people, but I feel like they were trying to sell me on something I didn’t need. They told me my car required ceramic brakes and that my rotors were too damaged for repair. I went to another trusted guy who used to work for NASCAR, and he looked at my brakes and said that the original brakes on my car weren’t ceramic and that I had good quality rotors that just needed resurfacing. He showed me with a tool that showed it plenty of room for resurfacing. All in all, with Sumitomo quality brakes and the resurfacing, for both axels I paid 220. Brake depot wanted $ 650.

Excellent service, Dan said we would be out of there in 15 minutes and in exactly that time frame we were out and ready to go. No complaints and I would definitely go back. Keep up the good work Brake Depot!

Very good service. Extremely fast and honest. This automotive place will take care of all of your vehicles needs.

Gets the job done. I needed my brakes and rotors replaced, was quoted twice as much as the dealer. You sure as hell dont pay for the ambiance, but for quick service that was straight and to the point, ill take that any day. Dan is a good man. No BS, no frills, just work on the car and get me out. Just awesome.

HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE! Let me tell you why:
I come in to get my oil changed & there is no one waiting in line, I however ended up waiting for about 10 minutes just to have some guy notices my car (Strike 1). He comes up to my car & asks «what I need», I tell him what I needed to get done & he basically gives me a lecture because I didn’t get the oil he recommends. He tells me my total with so much attitude & I showed him a coupon & he rudely cut me off & said «you need more oil that’s why it costs more» OKAY DUDE CHILL OUT. Anyways I wait for about 20 minutes & this whole time, this guy is on his cellphone talking to his friend about baseball or something or another. There were customers who needed assistance & no joke this guy just kept talking on his cellphone. When my car was done, I paid for my service & STILL THIS GUY WAS TALKING ON HIS PHONE! I mean seriously (Strike 2)? At this point I was very much over him so I got my receipt & left but when I got into my car, I noticed that the little sticker they put on the corner that has my next oil change appointment wasn’t even there so I went inside to tell him & he looked at me like I was interrupting him or something (Strike 3). Oh my goodness, that sent me over the top! After glaring at me for interrupting his precious conversation he yells at his employee to put the sticker on my window. HELLO DUDEEE, I’M HELPING YOUR BUSINESS so get off your cellphone & call your friend later when there is NO customers to help. His employees even looked miserable! I don’t blame them, I would dread working for a guy like him. Moral of the story people: DON’T GO HERE UNLESS YOU ARE DESPERATE.

This is a gem in a Sea of questionable Auto Repair places in the OC.
The owner is VERY knowledgable and lets you know whats wrong with your car/​truck. He is very honest and has great service and prices. As mentioned by others the waiting area is a few chairs but, just swing by to the Subway and get a bite to eat while you wait.
My favorite part is that the owner shows you whats going on with your vehicle, doesn’t hide away and will work with people to get the best service. Further, he will check things or give you a headsup as to things you may need but doesn’t push anything. If you ask, he’ll let you know whats up. I would recommend this place to anyone and everyone.

This review borders 5 stars, so I just rounded up.
Excellent service, and the owner is so knowledgeable.
Tell him EVERYTHING you know about your service history, so he can help trim your costs without being neglectful.
(the owner had 8 years as the service manager at BMW)
In my case, I had just gotten my car’s 30k service done, and it was due for its 5k maintenence. TOyota told me that I had to pay about 80 $ for my tires to be rotated, tire pressure checked, oil changed, and brakes «examined and cleaned.»
Well, I have a warantee from my tire place, so I didn’t need anything with the tires done, and told Toyota that. So they quoted me $ 35 for my oil change. Considering how they made it sound so important to «clean my brakes,“I was curious of if it was necessary. Thus, I called Brake Depot, and talked to the owner, who said he didn’t think it was necessary as I just gotten my 30k.
I brought my car in, and got my oil changed for 22 $ (after taxes). The owner also said he took a peek at my brakes, which did not have any problems nor need «cleaning.»
The waiting area is janky, okay. but, I would take janky and non-​ripoff over stylish and huge rip-​off any day.
PS: It is worth mentioning that I only found brake depot after 3 separate body shops recommended it. Since my car is newer that 2008, one of the body shops told me that it needed a different kind of motor oil and they didn’t have it. I asked for a recommendation, and the guy said to try Brake Depot as no one could beat their prices or management.
Win!
Okay. PPS: watch out when you pull out of the parking lot, because it is on a busy street, and there is not much of a driveway.