Got a BMW, Mercedes or Volvo? Tired of getting reamed up the ass by dealers? Then you should check out Auto Analysts. They're an independent shop in SOMA that does great work at a fair price. Weird, huh?

When I first moved to San Francisco, I went to someplace called Pete's Garage that did good work on Japanese cars. But when we bought a 1995 BMW, we had to find a new (and more conveniently located) mechanic. That's when I walked next door to my office and tried Auto Analysts. I noticed that most of the NBC affiliate employees took their cars there, so I tried them out.

Look for the big arrow overhead.

When I walked over to pick my car up, a man in his 60s walked over to me and said, "You are new here. I am Cesar. This is my shop." Needless to say, I was pretty impressed that he knew his clientele that personally. Frankly, he couldn't have made a better first impression. From then on, I took my car there for every service and every problem.

After a few years, they moved to their current location at 5th and Howard. It's not as convenient sometimes, but they've done a great job maintaining my car and it now has almost 250,000 miles on it.

As an independent shop, Auto Analysts doesn't have nearly the overhead of a dealer. So they charge you what it costs them in parts and labor. Period. No funny stuff, and they'll walk you through all the charges if you ask them. They have nothing to hide, and they do good work—I should know, I used to race cars in my youth and know my way around an internal combustion engine.

The family in ‘family-owned’

Don’t believe me? Check out their reviews on Google. Or look them up on Yelp. (And, hey, why don't you believe me? That hurts. It really does.) If you're worried that taking your car there will void your warranty, relax:

Federal law prohibits new car dealers from implying or denying warranty service because routine scheduled maintenance was performed at an
independent repair facility. — Magnuson-Moss Act (1975); Title 15, Chapter 50, Section 2301-2312

And you can be sure that I am not being paid for this endorsement in any way. I mean, there was something they said about movie tickets or something, but I wouldn't take them. I haven't been to the theater since I went to see Avatar and now I just feel...dirty. That wasn’t a good movie.