Oceanworks

Oceanworks is due a 5-​star review, but it’s the same feeling I always have when recommending a favorite spot – you don’t want everyone to find out about it and then there’s no space on the schedule for you!
We and our extended family have been taking our Hondas and Toyotas to Oceanworks for many years. Angus and his team always deliver. They fix the problem fast and you have confidence in the work. Also they are upfront about costs and especially honest about whether you actually need to get something done.
Recently we had our Prius in for an oil change and the mechanic dented our hood. Angus disclosed the damage immediately and fully covered the cost of the repair at a top body shop including a rental loaner in the interim.
An even greater sign of Angus’s integrity is that he doesn’t want you to drive a car at all– he’ll try to sell you one of the bikes that he keeps stocked onsite. (That’s where I bought my Xootr Swift, a folding bike I’ve had for 7+ years.) He’ll give you advice on your bike for free.
Five stars for competence, value, and customer service.

I’ve been taking my 1993 Miata to Oceanworks in Berkeley since buying it in 1999. Angus and Natalie have helped keep my little car in tiptop condition and I fully expect it to outlast me (I’m 77 years young) thanks to their expertise, honesty, and reliability. I cannot thank them enough and certainly do recommend Oceanworks to everyone looking for the best in car care in all the East Bay — and probably all of Northern California too! I agree with «Jay S»: Unilocal needs an extra 5 stars for Oceanworks!

Unilocal needs an extra 5 stars for Oceanworks. We’ve taken all of our cars exclusively to Oceanworks for over 20 years. Angus & Natalie are the absolute best and Oceanworks is THE best small business I know of on top of being the best place to take your Japanese car for absolutely anything. Their knowledge of Japanese cars is deep beyond belief, plus they’re friendly, patient, clear, thorough, more helpful & less expensive than you’d expect or hope for even after going to them for years. We love Oceanworks and you will too.

They are the best… Did a great job taking care of my car for 5 years. Super professional and super nice.

I just called on the phone to ask for some advice and Natalie was super helpful, patient and compassionate. I called on the recommendation of my friend Nikki, and tho they weren’t able to help me in the way i wanted, I’ll definitely hit them up again!
And she took my number if she’s able to help me in a different way sooner

I’m back, four years later, to say that Oceanworks is still the bees’ knees! Angus, Natalie, and team are simply phenomenal. They are a touchstone of truth, and I never feel a teaspoon of uncertainty when I have to bring my car in.
Today I brought my car in for some basic maintenance, and they changed my oil and transmission fluid, replaced a broken taillight, changed my air and cabin filters, adjusted a chirping belt, checked and cleaned the dust out of my squeaky brakes. Natalie quoted me $ 300 and it came out to $ 260 — score! Sure, *maybe* I’m paying a bit more (I don’t even think I am in this instance), but I’m financially privileged enough to consider it a very worthwhile tradeoff. I’d so much rather be out an extra $ 50 than to have $ 200 worth of anxiety!
They also do a late pickup service with Juan’s Mexican Place down the street if you can’t pick up your car by the time Oceanworks closes — really convenient and helpful.
tl;dr — Oceanworks is boss.

Ocean Works was referred to me as a team of high professionals. I never had problems with my car as I hardly drive and the car has low mileage (besides just being reliable) but I wanted real experts to take care of my car and perform regular maintenance. I was not a frequent customer at Ocean Works but I trusted them and paid extra for the expertise.
Here is what made me loose all confidence in Ocean Works.
I brought my car in because the «Maintenance light» would not go off and asked to reset the light. Two hours later I picked up my car and was told that the oil was changed and the light was reset. It would turn back on after approximately 4000 miles of driving.” I left the shop, got into my car, turned on the engine and the «Maintenance Required» light was ON. I came back into the office and asked about it. The answer was: «Oh, we forgot to mention that your light is defective and does not respond to the reset test.» Then it was followed by a tirade of technical terms and explanations of how hard the computer diagnostics is; how this problem with the light is particularly rare, how it would need an extensive research as it is not trivial to find the reason for this failure etc etc etc … I scheduled another appointment with Ocean Works but since I already lost half of the day at the repair shop I drove by Honda dealership on 1500 San Pablo (just couple of blocks away).
I explained at Honda Dealership that apparently I have a very rare failure of the system and an experienced professional does not know how to fix it and I really worry that the computer system in my car is malfunctioning. The technician turned on the engine, pushed down the black button next to the Maintenance icon, held it for 3 seconds and the light turned itself off. That was it!!!
I called Oceanworks to cancel my appointment and had a conversation with the owner which showed that the company is not only lacking technical expertise but also courtesy in admitting their mistakes and apologizing for them.
It is a big disappointment since on the surface everything looks and seems so good about Oceanworks. I will not be going back there and would not advise anyone to use their services especially if you do not know much about cars.

A good sign that you have an honest mechanic is when they send you home without doing any work. Many times, Angus has advised against doing work or recommended waiting until a few smaller items are batched so as to maximize the shop time later. Because of the tremendous honesty, competency and care they put into their business, Oceanworks is one of the few places I let work on my Toyota.
A fun benefit is that Angus will often pepper each visit with facts about my truck; the location of the factory it was made in, the crew that built it, the name of the lead engineer. He’s a walking Toyota encyclopedia. I dare you to try to stump him!

My fiancée and I recently bought our first (used) car. So exciting! Except it turns out that we bought a car in terrible condition, with so many problems that we had to return it. The whole experience was terribly stressful, but Oceanworks’ incredible customer service made it all bearable.
After bringing in our car for an initial inspection, Natalie patiently walked us through all of the problems they found. She even gave us a mini-​lesson on how to better assess used cars on test drives. We were pretty upset, but Natalie and Angus were so kind and helpful. They talked us through how to approach the sale cancellation process. We felt cared-​for.
Luckily, we were able to cancel the sale and got a full refund.
And, amazingly, Angus called us the next day to see how it all went. They really wanted to make sure that everything worked out.
When we *do* get a car, we’ll definitely be getting it serviced at Oceanworks.

After all of the years my family and I have been going to Oceanworks, it’s about time I provided a review. Over the years, Angus and Natalie have proven themselves time and time again to be the superior auto repair garage BAR NONE!
They are extremely knowledgeable, friendly, fair and honest. I have taken my 1997 Acura to them for its entire life. (They know how much I love this car.) I have almost 270,000 miles on it and will take it for a timing belt replacement and probably get to drive it for 100,000 more miles. And it’s all because of the great service I have received from Angus and Natalie and the staff at Oceanworks.
I tell all the people I know in the East Bay who have a Japanese car to go to Oceanworks. Thanks Angus and Natalie!

They treat me right. Totally trustworthy, try to get you in and out as quick as possible, honest decent prices. Not much more I could ask for. I’ve gone there for several oil changes on my Toyota Corolla, as well as a 15k service a couple times, and once had the brakes resurfaced. That last one cost a bit, but I’m totally happy with the result, and he warned me at the previous oil change that it might need to be done coming up at the next oil change, so I was prepared. Usually they can get me in and out in 3 or 4 hours time. Usually can fit me in their appointment book within a week and a half to two weeks. The only complaint is that sometimes Angus can be overly chatty with customers ahead of me while I’m waiting to pick up my car and pay my bill and that can be more of a delay than the actual service.

I LOVE these guys! A trusted friend who has lots of vehicle repair work done recommended them, and I used them for the first time this week to do some extensive brake work and other car-​related repairs.
They are super friendly — and Angus will tell you cool, funny and random stories, especially first thing in the morning!
I found their approach very customer-​centric, thoughtful, and respectful of budget, time, and my lack of knowledge of some of the repair work. They quickly pointed out what was critical versus optional, gave me clear timelines and costs, and did everything they could to make it work for me.
The repairs were done quickly, and they kept in touch as the repairs progressed and they had questions that would impact cost and timing.
They even have rentable ($ 25/​day) loaner cars so you can drop off and go without having to arrange a ride or take a cab.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND, and will be going back!

Brought my subaru sti in for a rear diff check up and also to see what noises the car was making. First they said the rear diff was ok and didn’t need to be immediately changed which was BS because there was metal in the oil so WTF how does that not warrant a changed part but ok whatever. The next thing was my left side wheel bearing and hubs were bad. Ok, i can pay for that no problem. How much? They say 300 for one and about 350 for the other. Which would be about right for that kind of job. When i come to pick my car up low and behold the price is not 1,150 bucks. I didn’t even bother arguing about it because there is no point. That is WWWAAAYYYY higher than what was agreed. Something in the back of my head said to get it in writing because i knew these aholes would do this. So i overpaid like 500 bucks. GREAT SERVICE GUYS!!! I WILL BE SURE TO BRING MY CAR BACK TO YOU REAL SOON!!!
If you are looking for a shop to bring your cat to i would not take it here. Go to a shop that doesn’t jack the price up on after the repairs are done. I know a few HONEST mechanics if anyone wants a few recommendations.

Oceanworks is the only shop I’ll take my car to. I’ve probably been going there 10 years at this point.
Angus and Natalie are about the greatest people you could ever meet. They’re funny, competent and thorough and have enough perspective on things to smooth out what can be a pretty bumpy experience (car repair in general).
They do great work at a good price. They won’t try to sell you service you don’t need, and they’ll tell you when you need to take care of something now or when it can wait a while and what to keep an eye on so you know when you actually do need to take care of it.
They do my oil changes and routine stuff (I don’t drive a lot, so twice a year or so?) and major service like tune-​ups, timing belts, water pumps, alignments, etc. They always have the work done when they say they will, they’re pretty flexible about when I can bring in my car (esp. if I can leave it for a bit) and they’re super convenient to pretty much anywhere in the East Bay.
Just can’t say enough good things about them. I just hope Angus never plans on retiring. I’ll never find a mechanic as good!

Really thorough. Excellent mechanics and an east bay institution! Search no further, come here for all of your car repair needs they are my regular mechanic and should be yours too. All gear heads in the east bay know Angus.

I would give 10 stars if I could.
Very competent, honest and accommodating. I can’t praise the service enough!

i trust my ’07 Honda Element to Oceanworks. I trust their advice and never feel as though I need to worry about being taken advantage of. Angus and Natalie are friendly, knowledgeable, and fair. I look forward to many years of service here.

WONDERFUL AUTO WORK.
My brake switch needed to be replaced and they got me in and out in just about an hour, even though they didn’t have the part when I came in. The service is excellent and what they billed me actually ended up being less than they had initially quoted. I paid half of what i would’ve had to pay at the dealer.
I definitely recommend this place.

Charged a lot. I told them that there is a coolant leak and they still give me a full inspection reporting nothing. Reluctant to work on my car which I don’t know why. Probably because it’s a model that they don’t like working on. Not that quick either. Dan Chin is rated lower here but I think I am still going to Dan Chin.
I told them I need an oil change and they didn’t do it for me and let me to oil changers a couple of blocks away which I don’t know why either.

If you’re looking for a cheap mechanic, keep looking.
If you’re looking for an honest, trustworthy mechanic, you have arrived. Congratulations! (And they’re cheaper than the dealers.)
These people are genius. They can hook you up with similar genius as needed. They will tell you what practically should be done, and what might be coming down the pike, so you can head it off or just start saving dough to get it fixed.
They have been spot-​on every time we’ve brought a car in for a pre-​purchase inspection. The car they told us to pass on and we bought anyway is now having serious problems. The two cars they told us to buy and we did are still on the road and going great guns.
They’re extremely helpful. They’re super funny. Angus will tell you right up, he’d prefer to ride a bicycle. He can even sell you a good one. Natalie is a walking, talking (really fast) automotive encyclopedia.
They’re pretty much up and running 7 or 8am to 5pm (earlier on Fridays), which is a bummer — but apparently they have lives too (who knew??) My one complaint about them — and this kind of sucks — I see these ASKANGUS plate frames all over town. Is there one on my car? Noooo. Is there one on my babe’s car? Noooooo. What the heck is up with that? Big meanies.