Swedish Car Center

I have been bringing my Volvos here since 2009. The guys at Swedish Car Center are honest, knowledgeable, and not out to rip anyone off. I have never had a bad experience here in all my years as a customer. In fact, when one of my previous Volvo was mangled by a cargo van last year, one of the things I was really bummed about was no longer having a Volvo to bring to the Swedes. Now that I’m back in a Volvo, I’m so happy to report that things at Swedish Car Center have not changed. Service is consistently excellent. Work done is fantastic. And they are a pleasure to deal with. I actually look forward to my visits to Swedish Car Center… how many auto shops can you say that about?

Literally the best Saab mechanic. I have taken my Saab here for years… Haakan has done many things to my Saab. He just did an oil change and transmission flush today. he is honest, nice and always working! Great guy, great place! I love my Saab. Highly recommended.

Stellar service. I came in last minute with my Saab 9 – 5 trying to get a quick job done. Obviously I should have made an appointment, but Hakan did his best to fit me in. He knew exactly what was wrong and helped me out asap. I walked out with a working radio and and a big respect for these guys. I know there’s not many Swedish specialty shops left in LA, but these guys stand out above any shop in town, foreign or domestic. Lucky for us Swedish car owners, they cater to us!

Let me start off by saying that I have never done business at this place, nor will I ever after the way I’ve been treated by management.
I live a few blocks from this auto body shop. They are constantly leaving the cars they work on parked in front of my house for weeks on end. Whenever street cleaning comes around, they just move their cars across the street, only to move them back in front of our property for the week.
Parking is bad enough on the west side of LA for residents to have businesses parking for weeks on end in front of our property. I have an infant which makes parking blocks down the street difficult.
I have contacted management to politely ask them not to park in front of our property, only to get the run around. I’ve gotten every excuse from, «those are not our cars», to «those are our employee’s cars». They never apologize… and the one time they said they would do something about it, they parked one house over, only to move their car in front of my house the following week. Management has been rude and uncaring every step of the way.
As I stated earlier, I have never done business with the company, but if this is the way their management treats their community and local residents, I recommend you take your business elsewhere.
P. S. Reading an earlier review… Someone stated they received a parking ticket (and they didn’t find out until their ticket was past due) when they left their car to be fixed… That’s because your car ends up in front of my house for the week!

DO NOT BRING YOUR CAR HERE… unless you want to risk getting a ticket because the shop consistently parks YOUR car in the local neighborhood, on a very busy street, in front of houses like mine for an entire week until street cleaning comes.
Your cars are not staying on their property, they are being parked blocks away in the neighborhood and left unattended for DAYS.
I tried to talk to the owner last week about this… I went in and asked to speak to a manager and he responded, «Depends on who is asking.» Complete silence until I asked again if I could please speak to a manager. I went on to tell him my concerns about parking in front of houses blocks away from his shop. He did not deny the cars belong to his shop or customers. There was no apology, no sense of caring that he parks cars to take up my entire street parking, making me park far away from my own house.
We have tried to speak with the shop several times, with no change in their actions. Beware that MANY people in the community ARE CALLING PARKING ENFORCEMENT on a daily basis. Maybe your call will get a ticket, maybe you will call to check the status on your car and find out it has been impounded.
Long time Venice residents are all about staying local, but the manager of Swedish Car Center is clearly not about maintaining good relationships with the locals.

Volvos and Saabs are complex automobiles, not to mention pricey when it comes to service. This place has been a godsend for me. Haken is not only a great mechanic, but also a great human being. He really cares about the work, and where you’re coming from as a customer. I never write Unilocal reviews, but feel that this man and this shop must be given the credit they deserve.

Hakan and his team have been fixing my Volvo for more than a decade and I am so very grateful to them. Hakan has been super friendly, always telling me exactly what needs to be done and fixing things in a timely manner. Not only have they been angels with my car repairs, they are also really pleasant, adding a calm to the experience of car troubles and making sure I feel comfortable driving around Los Angeles, always telling me what exactly needs to be done and doing it with efficiency. I am really grateful to them and trust them and their experience without doubt. Thank you!

I drive a 2008 Saab 93, and I wouldn’t trust it anywhere else. Great service and incredibly reasonable prices. It’s also a very happy coincidence that this is the only place in town for Saab owners.

Sadly, the Venice Beach arsonist burned three cars in our driveway and I lost that car. If I could rate the arsonist I would not even give one star, but their work was effective and took three vehicles away from their owners. I switched to a Prius and I am pretty happy.
The moral of the story is to always buy comprehensive auto insurance. I was the only one of the three that had it and as a result, I was the only one to get a check from an insurance company to help me buy a replacement car.
I do miss the guys at Swedish car Center. They are a caring group and will not charge you more than the work is worth.

I came to Swedish Car Center because they were going to fix an issue with my car for much less than other mechanics. I thought H and his team seemed like genuine mechanics that were not trying to take advantage of the fact that I do not know a whole lot about cars.
I kept giving them the benefit of the doubt until… My car kept ending up back in the shop for another issue every other month, I got a parking ticket while they worked on my car and didn’t tell me until I received the overdue notice, and when a true honest mechanic told me that they were completely and utterly ripping me off in a very sneaky way so I could not go to the Bureau of Automotive Repair with enough information on my receipts.
I understand that it must be expensive to pay the rent on the shop’s location, they all have families, and that every mechanic no matter where you go is going to make a profit. But plain and simple– I was a loyal customer to H and his team until I realized maybe I shouldn’t be giving them the benefit of the doubt.
I recommend that you remain skeptical when taking your car to this shop.

The owner Haken is awesome. And so are hos helpers. True Swede with a ton of knowledge about Volvos and sans. Always looks to repair, or lube you problem part before just replacing which can save u $ and prolong a more expensive job. Super honest mechanics are hard to find, so coming from Camarillo to LA and finding this guy I awesome!

I love this place! I brought my Volvo here after the dealership tried to rip me off! My air cond went out and the dealership tried to make me buy a new one ti the tune of $ 1200! but I took it to Swedish Car Center and he fixes the problem for $ 50. They are always straight up with you, and don’t overcharge you. Plus, the owners are so friendly and easy to talk to. You can tell they actually enjoy running their business. I will always bring my car here.

Haken is a good swede and a good mechanic. As a factory trained technician who actually worked on a Saab prototype, he knows his cars.
I have owned a Saab 95 wagon for six months now. When I first got it there was a weird clicking noise in the steering that was driving me crazy. I went to three other shops all of them with their own solution for the issue (re: replace all the parts in the front end… extremely expensive).
Haken fixed it with simple axel grease. Needless to say on the strength of that solution I had the sub frame bushings done, all fluids replaced and the plugs done.
The 95 hasn’t run better.

My experience was bad at this place. After multiple visits and more and more bills for the EXACT same problem, they refused to take ANY responsibility for the continuing problem and their failure to find the cause, so I looked elsewhere. The place was chaotic without enough personnel. And I obviously lost confidence in their ability to solve the problem.

Best car service ever !!! they fixed my car with a great price and after hasseling through different car mechanics this is the one that I ended up with and will never change. The only place where they will not try to rip you off and you will get honest service. The mechanic even made everything clear to me what was wrong with my car comparing to other mechanics who just have ripped me off. I highly recommend this place ! The service is great and prices as well !

They are extremely helpful, and most important: they do not try to fool you and make you do things you do not need to. I perceive them as totally honest. If you have a SAAB or a Volvo, go here. Nowhere else.

I broke a protective plastic plate (just the cheap snaps) off of the bottom of my car on a parking curb. It was going to be $ 115 to for the part and $ 60 «install» it (snap it on– 30 seconds). For about a quarter of that price, these fellas rigged it on tighter than a frog’s butt. Really nice people, know their stuff, very fair and was willing to try to get creative to help me out. I will return.

Have been using this business since they opened. Great price, great work, and the most important part… they are honest. They don’t try and stick you will a huge bill, they only want to fix what is wrong with your car. Their rates are much cheaper than the dealer and can even offer better quality parts than what the dealer does. Tony is great. Hakan is great. And Lillis is great. What more could you want from an independent mechanic?

These guys are the best! Took in my Saab and got a main engine mount and rear brakes for $ 600. Hoeken only tells you what you need. I actually brought my car in for a noise in the suspension and he drove with me and said don’t worry about it. Amazing. He’ll test drive a used Saab for you if you’re looking to buy and heck they may even have a Saab for ya. I’m all Saabs and these guys are the best. Plus they’re 2 minutes away. Yay!

I think they gave me the wrong car back. My car sounds like a Harley and doesn’t accelerate. My car smells like an exhaust leak. My car makes me want to kill myself and/​or ride the bus.
My car spent the weekend at Swedish Car Center. He had a world of problems. Sure, I don’t maintain the thing and really just wanted to get rid of it and buy a new car, clean slate. But, I gave it a shot and learned that it was actually worthwhile to fix Mr. Saab. In fact, a weekend was a short amount of time considering the long list of repairs that I had done. Alas, he is fixed. He is a turbo again.
This is a good little shop. The people were friendly, didn’t talk to me like I’m stupid, were patient in explaining the repairs. I don’t know anything about cars, so I can’t really tell you how honest anyone is, but I never got the feeling that I was being taken advantage of. On the contrary, they advised me that certain repairs were just unnecessary and costly. The prices seemed on par with what I’ve paid in the past (a little bit cheaper.) Everyone working there is nordic looking and has a little bit of an accent, so I think they speak Mr. Saab’s language, which makes him comfortable. He feels like he’s back home with the Swede’s, where he belongs. I think they may have given him some lingonberry jam and knackebrod to snack on. I saw crumbs on his grill.
So, I’d say if you are like me and have some ridiculous foreign car, take it to a place that specializes in your type of ridiculous foreign car. I can’t tell you how much frustration would have been saved if I avoided the regular mechanics. It feels much better to be confident that these people know what they’re doing and I wont be left fixing the problems caused by people that don’t know how to fix my car.
5 stars, with room to edit if my car spontaneously combusts in the coming weeks.