Looking for Shop Recs in SF/Bay Area (1 Viewer)

[mattyokan]

Hey all,

I’m looking to see if anyone has shop advice in San Francisco or the greater Bay Area. I live near Toy Shop off of Geary in SF who seem pretty good from what I can tell in reviews, but I walked over there today and they said they are booked out until September! I need to get my Heater Ts taken care of on my 2006 with 197K as I plan on some more road trips and don’t really want a catastrophic failure.

Anyone have any shop recommendations? Working in my parking spot of my apartment complex unfortunately isn’t that compelling of an option, although maybe I can take care of an oil change at least

 

[Trunk Monkey]

 

[RAMf1]

Hey all,

I’m looking to see if anyone has shop advice in San Francisco or the greater Bay Area. I live near Toy Shop off of Geary in SF who seem pretty good from what I can tell in reviews, but I walked over there today and they said they are booked out until September! I need to get my Heater Ts taken care of on my 2006 with 197K as I plan on some more road trips and don’t really want a catastrophic failure.

Anyone have any shop recommendations? Working in my parking spot of my apartment complex unfortunately isn’t that compelling of an option, although maybe I can take care of an oil change at least

I just got my 2006 LX470 back from TOP Shop Auto in Walnut Creek. They have been doing excellent work on my vehicle, including a complete engine replacement after another shop destroyed the original engine. Frank the owner its very knowledgeable on all things Land Cruiser... Heck, their shop truck is a 100-series Land Cruiser. You can catch Frank on YouTube Videos from Mike at Overland Bound as they've been taking care of his 80-series for quite awhile now. I trust them completely and they stand behind what they do... Definitely get those Heater T's done and have them do a once over...
If you go, tell them Russ with the pearl white LX sent you

 

[newbielx470]

Even though similar threads get created every once in a while, there is still much value for discussing the most up to date info on bay area Toyota specialty shops. Because of the high rent and high biz turnover rate, many good shops became closed for financial or other reasons, esp. during the pandemic. And the highly popular ones are booked months in advance (and unfortunately, in some cases, can have quality decline after overbooking and shorthanded for too long ). So it's always good to know new or relatively new bay area shops that do great work on Toyota trucks.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

Then that info can always be added to an existing thread to keep information in one place and easy for others to search for in the future.

 

[4LoforSno]

let's make it this one . i appreciate the updated rec's, might check out the Walnut creek shop (in Half Moon Bay)

 

[awesomeissquid]

Up in North Bay I have had good luck with the Novato Toyota dealer. Their rates were comparable to a few specialty Indy shops I got quotes from on a couple jobs. I have also seen a few other 80 and 100 series being worked on there.

 

[mattyokan]

Then that info can always be added to an existing thread to keep information in one place and easy for others to search for in the future.

I'm not sure about you, but it's not like everyone immediately goes back to 1/2/3+ year old threads to bring up a new shop they found. Given how much turbulence there's been in shops in the Bay Area in the last couple years, it seemed fine to me to post a new thread, and there's already plenty of new recommendations that wouldn't be in those old threads if I had necroposted. Apologies if that's how you run things here, but this is the first forum out of hundreds where I've seen a policy like that (usually, making a new thread is preferable to necroposting).

 

[Trunk Monkey]

Not sure why the new recommendations wouldn't be offered if you bump an on topic prior thread, is there some rule on hundreds of forums against that? Same reason every "check this rust" and "what tire size" thread gets moved on merged, it starts to dilute the info and people loose interest. No policy, just trying to keep things clean from multiple posts on the same topic for those that do search. Enough drift, back to tech, thanks.

 

[Octous]

Hi Matt. I live in half moon bay as well and would be happy to help you with heater tees. It’s a pretty straight forward job.

I’m traveling now so timing might now work but thoughtbidboffer

 

[4LoforSno]

Hi Matt. I live in half moon bay as well and would be happy to help you with heater tees. It’s a pretty straight forward job.

I’m traveling now so timing might now work but thoughtbidboffer

OP doesn't live in HMB... I do

 

[Dansk]

I have taken my LX470 to a couple shops in the area, based on recommendations from digging around here in the past. I was getting major maintenance done at both places, which of course was pricey, but they struck me as relatively similar in cost.

A+ Japanese Auto Repair in San Carlos: Really great customer service - they sent a PDF with pictures and then called to talk through everything they wanted to do over the phone with pricing broken out, then also did a free tune-up 500 miles after that. Again, you are certainly paying for it, but given the time they took to talk to me and walk me through options, I good driving away from the encounter. I could see some of you interpreting the communication as salesmanship / pushy, but I did not get any questioning when I said I would pass on some things, and there were other items they recommended to me to defer since they felt things were already in good shape.

Top Shop Auto in Walnut Creek: This still went fine, and with all of the Land Cruisers around the shop, I am confident they know what they are doing. But the level of communication was definitely different. They did the work I brought it in for, no questions asked. No other comments when I picked it up, nor recommended things to look out for in the future. The response I got to the overall checkup they did with the other work was almost literally, "Yup, looks good." I would still go back, but I will admit I was expecting a little bit more back and forth with the shop after my other experiences.