Oren's Automotive

I was horribly over charged for my requested service - over three times what it had cost me at the dealership. When I complained about it to Oren he told me that I should have shopped around. He is right of course so I suggest to anyone considering using his shop that you shop around first.

Oren has serviced my Subaru for years. Honest, fair and they do really good work.

My experience with this place was quite a shady one... I had my 2013 Hyundai Elantra up for sale and a very interested buyer wanted me to take my car here for a Pre-Purchase Inspection. He told me he knew the owner there (which I should have taken as a red flag since you are supposed to find a 3rd party mechanic to perform these), but I agreed knowing that there was nothing wrong with my car except for a few scratches on the bumpers. I told the potential buyer that I had never been in an accident. I disclosed that there was an incident where I scraped a curbside coming in too wide into a parking space and that the other scratches on front and back bumper were from people scuffing my car in parking lots. I felt like I had nothing to hide. As soon as I was contacted by one of Oren's mechanics telling me that the car was ready, I received a text from the potential buyer claiming that they after speaking to Oren they no longer wanted to purchase my car. I asked him why and he told me and I quote, "I suggest you take your car in to your own mechanic and have it thoroughly inspected"... I contacted Oren's Automotive and they started giving me the run-around. Claiming that they couldn't tell me what was wrong with my vehicle because I wasn't the one who paid for the inspection. I wasn't about to take this for an answer so I personally went over there and started talking to one of the mechanics. He finally divulged what it was that they discovered. He said, and I quote, "you're car was involved in a major front-end collision and there are a bunch of after-market parts under your hood that were probably replaced due to the accident". My jaw almost hit the floor... I explained that I had never been in any kind of major collisions and that the scrape on the bottom of my bumper was due to me scraping a curb... The "after-market" parts that they referred to were some fasteners and clips that had been replaced under warranty for a completely unrelated issue due to a faulty sensor. They completely sabotaged my sale and made me look like a liar to the potential buyer because now he thought that I had some kind of major accident that I didn't report. I later found another potential buyer who agreed to take my car into Firestone Tires for a Pre-Purchase Inspection which came out great and had no reports of any major front-end collisions or suspicious aftermarket parts under the hood. I ended up selling the car without an issue to the new buyer thanks to Firestone's honest inspection of my car. PLEASE SPEND YOUR MONEY ELSEWHERE. I will never recommend this place to anyone during my time living in Santa Barbara.

Oren will treat you right. He's fair and lets you know what is happening up front.

Was so happy to find Oren. I have had a couple of bad experiences with two other Mercedes repair establishments in town. It's so difficult to know who to trust until it's too late. Oren is knowledgeable and trustworthy, I am so glad I found him.