First of all a tip-of-the-hat to Mike Solis (owner).

I recently brought in my 2006 Mini Cooper to 5601 Garage for a second opinion for various things which the local Mini dealership requested that I have done. I was not impressed with the dealership's service and was shocked by their prices; this is where Mike comes in.

First, 5601 Garage quoted me well below others, about 30%-40% lower. Numbers like that are usually suspect, because you get what you pay for; however, in this case I was proved wrong. I dropped the car off, picked it up a few hours later and when I was handed the invoice it was actually lower than the quote. When I asked why, I was told that the strut mount that I was having replaced was "easy and went pretty quickly", so they deducted some labor costs. What!?

This is the most honest and fair garage I have ever been to!

$$$ SIDE NOTE: While replacing my broken strut mount Mike noticed that my vehicle still had shipping spacers on both front struts. (BWM installs these plastic spacers prior to shipping vehicles to the US. and they are to be removed as soon as the car comes off the boat.) I have had my Mini into 3 different dealerships, in 3 states, twice complaining about the ride of the car and twice for full-vehicle inspection and not once did they notice this. Mike said that the spacers more than likely caused my strut mount to fail. He gave me the blown-out strut mount and the plastic shipping spacers and told me to take them back to the dealership, where I bought the car new, and ask them to reimburse me for his work. UPDATE: as of last week R.S. Mini is supposedly cutting me a reimbursement check for Mike's work.

Does it get any better than this?

– Jared A, via Yelp.com on November 1, 2010