Tat On Auto Service

Honest, trustworthy and overall wonderful service.
The AC on my husband’s car broke and they looked at parts from the dealer, which ended up being ridiculously expensive. Guang, the owner, suggested we look online and buy the parts on our own, which saved us a ton of money! In the end, we paid TAT just for the labor piece of replacing the coolant thingamajig. (I’m a girl. what do I know about cars…)
Also, we were out of town once and couldn’t pick up our car in time. Since we live in Cambridge, Guang graciously drove our car and parked it in our driveway. Goes above and beyond for customer service. A+++

Tat On Auto Service truly deserves a 5-​star rating. We have three cars, and two of them are 10+ year-​old Golf and Passat. The cars are still running around fine, but periodically require various fixes just like any old cars. The VW dealers around Boston are a pain to deal with, and should be avoided like a plague.
We used to live in Cambridge, and Tat On was our friendly neighborhood body shop. I used to drop off my cars and just walked back home. Guang (the owner) would do a thorough job each time, and would make sound recommendations on what needed to fix and what not. When I picked up the cars, Guang would walk me through the long list of work he had done, and I would always be amazed at how little I paid for all the works. My experiences with VW dealers were the exact opposite.
Now we have moved to Newton, and it is not as convenient to drop off the cars. I still find myself going back to Tat On. If you find a good body shop, stick to it. I spend almost 2 hours on the road every day, and I really need to trust the guy who fixes my cars.

A good and honest mechanic is hard to find, so if you’re looking for one then seriously look no further. I found these guys on Unilocal a few years ago and decided to give them a shot… been using them ever since.
They are friendly, hard working and their prices are more than fair (especially compared to a dealer). The quote you get before they do the work is what you’ll pay when the work is done 99.9% of the time.
My truck has a lot of miles so these guys have done a lot of work for me in the past… exhausts, brakes, fuel pumps, shocks, tie rods… and I’ve always been pleased with the results. Funny thing is, I’ve historically been a DIY (do it yourself) type of guy, but now that I’ve found Tat On I don’t mind taking my truck to them for jobs I used to do myself. Saves me a lot of time, frustration and now I don’t have to bust my knuckles or get covered in dirt and grease like I used to.
All I know is I’ve been reading Unilocal for years, but this is my first Unilocal rating I’ve written because it’s the first time I’ve come across a business which has impressed me to the point where I felt obligated to write a 5-​star review. These guys are definitely worthy, so be sure to check them out when your ride craps the bed :)

I thought it was impossible to find an honest mechanic unless you were good friends with one. Turns out you can find one by typing in nearby mechanic on your Unilocal phone app when your engine light comes on! Guang is all the things others have said in previous reviews — honest, hardworking, extremely knowledgable. I’m moving out of state and am back to thinking it will be impossible to find someone else as good as these guys.

I’ve been Guang’s customer for 10 years. Guang is extremely honest, his employees are very competent, and the rates are quite modest. I recommend his shop to everybody I know.

I found this place by looking at reviews and I have to say, they definitely lived up to the five stars! First, I called after 6:30pm on Tuesday, when I ridiculously drove my car right into a curb, puncturing a tire. I was not expecting anyone to answer, but Guang did, and he was more than happy to have me drop the car off right then and there so he could look at it in the morning.
He called me the next day with two options, one was to replace the tire with one exactly the same as what I had, which was a little more expensive. The other option was to replace it with a different tire and save money. I appreciated having the choice and the fact that he cared about saving me some money. I went with the same tire, since the difference wasn’t huge. In fact, the price was right in general. I’m no expert on the price of new tires plus labor, but I felt it was reasonable and fair.
That evening after work I picked up my car with it’s shiny new tire, and the whole experience was relatively painless. Guang and his staff were very friendly and non judgemental about me having plowed my car directly into a curb. Of course, as soon as I left there, I parked at the grocery store and immediately locked my keys in the car, but that’s a story for another day. Bottom line — I’ll be using Tat On Auto again and so should you.

Recently stopped by Tat On Auto for the first time, I had a broken weld on a seat mount and it wouldn’t be a «by-​the-​book» repair (as this sort of thing generally isn’t in the book at all). Guang immediately understood how to fix my car, quoted me a very reasonable price, and had the work done the next day. High quality, decent prices, completely straight with me as the customer. I’ll definitely be back.

Tat On Auto has to be my favorite local business in Cambridge. Guang (the owner,) is by far the friendliest mechanic I have ever met, and actually does what he can to SAVE you money. Ask him about his fish in back!
After bringing my car in for service, he called me in to discuss the problems. He was clear, concise, and then gave me three options to fix it: The first — a factory part for $ 400, The second — an aftermarket part for $ 285, and the third — he cuts something from over here, welds it over there, and patches it: $ 75.
I asked him if there was any difference in the end. He said no, and that I should only spend $ 75. WHAT? A mechanic save me money?
I’ve recommended Guang to all of my friends and will keep going back as long as I own a car in Cambridge.

I used to use nationally recognized franchised repair houses like Sullivan Tire until I realized that they only pretend to do professional job and don’t do all the work they are supposed to. Trying to hold them accountable is next to impossible, because you get sales bozo on the phone who knows nothing about the car, and all they can do is to tell you what’s in their repair record. Of course, what matters are what the mechanic actually found out, what they decided to work on, and what I get billed for.
In my recent cases, without going too much detail, a nationally recognized tire franchise did a very lousy job and billed me for the professional work a couple of times in a row. They didn’t clean the dirty rim before putting the new tire on, they didn’t replace the leaky valve, etc…
I came across Tat On Auto because of the referral from the next door, Hermes Auto Body, for which I also posted a favorable review, does not do tire job. Guang, the owner and one of the mechanics, did a very fine job, explained the problem clearly, and billed me at his regular rate, which was less than what I paid the national tire shop using AAA discount for the same job, tire replacement. Guang seemed very talkative and nice guy, but his English is just a tiny bit less than perfect. But he still showed me what he found to require cleaning, replacement, adjustment, etc. and I was confident that he did the right job.
About the only advantage of big franchises is that they may have odd sized tires in stock, whereas these small garages may have to have one delivered, taking a half day longer to complete the job.
As a local small business owner and supporter of local economy, I strongly urged the owner to use more internet advertising effectively, but he is not very computer savvy. So this review you are reading is a small bit of my social justice for the day. Those who prefer big franchise may pay a premium price for lousy service but you don’t have to be one of those.