Steven & Francine’s Complete Automotive Repair Inc

Mark was completely slammed with photo inspections on a hot Saturday afternoon and could not have been nicer — definitely made the experience easier and would recommend them going forward

Had a disaster on trip to NYU and this outstanding operation saved us. Great tow service and timely repair. I’ve been to a LOT of mechanics, and you won’t find any better. Trust their judgement completely!

I have a serious distrust when it comes to mechanics. I know just enough about cars to know when I’m getting ripped off. So I am so glad I found this shop. After a few visits I have developed a complete trust in there diagnostics and pricing. I don’t think I have ever told a shop to ‘do whatever you think needs to be done’ — but that’s how I am now with these guys.
Great people, good prices, excellent and quick service. Mechanical or body work. Highly recommended.

Fast and courteous service on insurance photo inspection. Being open on Saturday was a huge help.

My 2010 Cadillac SRX broke down in Manhattan, I had it towed to Steven & Francine’s Repair Company and they repaired a issue that I had been having for months. I had it serviced at Paul Conte Cadillac where I bought it on 4 separate occasions. Cadillac was never able to detect or solve my problem. I spent over $ 1000 in the Cadillac Service Dept and still had the same issues. The guys at this repair shop detected what the actual problem was and repaired it within two days. I would highly recommend their services and will now bring my cars there to be repaired, inspected etc.
Thank you for your excellent, honest reliable friendly service.

This place is amazing! I’ve been coming here for over 5 years to get my car inspected and they always deliver! They a e a family friendly spot, Isabelle always helps with the scheduling and the owner is nothing short of a gentleman. I will keep coming here and highly recommend it. They also have a great repair shot and always look for the best solutions to leave your car in perfect condition. They even open on some holidays.

NEVER, EVER GOING BACK!!! I have been using these guys for my inspections for years. Initially I was very happy with their service, but lately not as much (trying to sell me four tires with some reason I couldn’t replace just one or two… checked with the dealer and was told it wasn’t so; trying to replace things that didn’t need replacing, etc). Buy yesterday was the final straw. Apparently they’ve lost their parking lot to store cars in. I went to get p/​u my car after its inspection and got a $ 95 parking ticket because these guys parked it in front before I was ready to get in. On top of that, they complained it happened every day. But they’re not paying the ticket. All they had to do was one of two things: either pull the car onto the street and stay inside until I come out OR leave the car inside until I’m ready to get n and drive away.

These guys are great. I have been here a handful of times for simple stuff like oil changes and more complicated things. Each time they’ve told me exactly what the price will be and what time they will be done. They take into consideration any time constraints you have and try to get it done within that time. I found them when I was pretty new to the city and appreciate that they were willing to walk me through the work being done on my car so I could be confident in it. Highly recommend to others.

The best place to go for anything from emissions tests to repairs, bodywork and towing. The nicest most professional people. What a great place I can’t recommend them enough!

These folks are excellent. It is like visiting your uncle’s shop and getting VIP treatment everytime. I get all my inspection items done here in no time with a smile and all my car maintenance needs. Highly recommended!

Good service, friendly and honest mechanics. I had just taken my car to a dealer for routine service and they caught tires that were down to the wire. Literally. And they took the time to show me and explain. I’ll definitely go back.

I’ve been coming to this place for 3 years now to get car inspected. These guys are really nice. Today I needed to put on a front plate on a new car. Mark within minutes put it on and refused to take any money.
This is a great place to get your car inspected. Hassle free.

Needing work done on your car in NYC seems like a terrifying predicament, but the team here are really terrific, and they made it easy and stress-​free, even for a car luddite like me. They’re fast, they do great work, they’re honest, and they’re just plain nice. I never felt out of the loop or like anything beyond what was necessary was being done. It was such a breath of fresh air. Can’t recommend them highly enough.

I used this company the other day based off Unilocal reviews and was not disappointed; they exceeded my expectations, were on time, professional and well equipped. I would recommend them again, spoke with two different people throughout, both were very courteous, informative and helpful, Mark was one name I remember but thanks to everyone at the shop.

First, let me say that these guys are fantastic. I normally don’t write 5 star reviews for any business for fear of the review being percieved as a fony family or friend review or because most businesses aren’t 100% perfect but these guys were unbelievably great.
I got into a pretty bad accident where I rear ended a jeep and basically destroyed my entire front end (the jeep had minimal damage of course — they’re jeeps). My car was an Infiniti G35 sedan. When the NYPD called a tow, we didn’t have a choice really in where the car was going and once it got to this autoshop, it was too difficult to transport it to a repair shop of our choosing. So we were pretty much stuck with these guys if we wanted the car back. The damage, although mostly aesthetic in nature, was significant and the cost for repairs well exceeded the value of the car as it has close to 100k highway miles on it currently. The accident wasn’t scary, paying this much to repair this much damage from an autoshop we didn’t choose was scary. I must say though, they were extremely nice and had great customer service. It was the only comfort I had in the whole ordeal so I wen’t with it once they gave me an estimate to finalize everything a few days later.
Unfortunately the one downside was that this job took almost two months to complete but in all fairness to them, the job was definitely a big one and it fell right on the holiday months (Nov-​Jan). No fault to them on this one in my opinion but it did take a while. I called them multiple times throughout the two months to make sure other secific services were being performed to the car. They also called me multiple times to keep me properly updated which was hugely appreciated.
Two months after the accident I got the car back and wow did it come out amazing. The final price was a tad bit over the estimate but like I said, this was a huge job and they really did a lot to make sure it was within that original estimate including throwing in a few free parts.
Like I mentioned, I never knew these guys and never had much choice in going with them to fix the car after the accident but wow did they do an incredible job. I was very patient with them for the two months because I knew how incredibly big and detailed this job was and they took great care of me and my car. It looks so much better then it did even before the accident occurred. I’ll continue driving it to make sure there isn’t anything wrong but so far so good the car is basically new again and I couldn’t be more thrilled with it or thankful. They walked me thru all the work they did and they absolutely nailed the job. I’ve had countless bad experiences with auto dealers and repair shops in the past (as I’m sure many of you have too) but these guys are very trustworthy and great to work with. Their work is hands down the best I’ve seen thus far from an auto shop and I’ll continue taking my car back to them even for minor services.

The reason I chose S&F was because of the good customer service I received over the phone. I called them on a Sunday with a lot of questions. The rep was really friendly and full of knowledge, and that made me want to give them my business.
I brought my car in on a Tuesday for a NYS inspection. That was exactly what I got, and all I paid for. My car needed some work (nothing I didn’t already know I needed), but they weren’t pushy about having me do the work there.
I also went in with low air in my tires, and warned the guys about that when I parked my car. S&F were great. They filled my tires up and told me what might be causing it. Again, no pressure to do the work there, just said he hoped to have my business back in the future.
I had my car at S&F for 5 hours. My schedule is flexible so that worked for me. I was also told on the phone that the wait times can very depending on how many cars they have in the shop. That day, they looked like they were hopping, so I didn’t expect a quick turnaround time. For those on a time crunch, that might be something you want to consider.
I liked this place, and would feel comfortable using them again.

I needed a NYS inspection for my SUV. We came to this place, because they told us the wait would only be 90 min. when we called.
Once we got there, my husband (who drove us) stepped inside to see who can perform the inspection. I stayed and waited in the car.
All of a sudden, this guy jumped in the driver’s seat out of nowhere and proceeded to drive my car!!! I asked him «umm, who are you and why are you moving my car?» He claimed that it was blocking the traffic. What traffic?! There was nobody else on the entire street. He then asked me what I was doing there. So to get this straight — he didn’t see my husband inside and had no idea if I was even a client or someone who was simply waiting outside in her car. Why would he assume that it was ok to enter a complete stranger’s car and drive it?! Ridiculous…
He then proceeded to tell me that we’d have to wait «at least for a couple of hours», because he had many other cars in front of us. He insisted that we go away and come back once he calls us to let us know once everything is ready. Now this seemed fairly odd to me. So I checked Unilocal (and a few other websites) and found more than a few unfavorable reviews where people were complaining about scams.
We went to get some coffee and came back within 30 min. I told my husband to watch what they are doing to our car very carefully. We just had it detailed a few days prior to that.
At some point, the guy asked my husband to «step back in the office» because he was interfering with the inspection. He was just standing a few feet away, observing the process without saying a single word. How is that interfering?
I assume they wanted to do something to the car and then claim that it needed fixing in order for us to pass the inspection…
Well, the SUV passed the inspection. But I wouldn’t trust these people to do any work for me.

Our AC was on the fritz in our ’11 Acura MDX. The job was complicated, but Mark explained the entire process thoroughly and even provided a loaner when we were in a jam. Work was completed on budget and car was detailed beautifully.
We’ve been several times and are always impressed with the service. Mark is available ²⁴⁄₇ and Isabel in office rocks!

I used Steven & Francine’s repair shop a handful of times while I was living in New York City. Let me start by saying, that I used them mainly just for annual spring maintenance on my ’05 Audi S4… i.e. changing the fluids, making sure any hoses, electrical switches, plugs were in good working order. Simple stuff.
I liked dealing with them as they seemed very knowledgeable and fair. Even though my Audi was a bit older (an ’05) it had an extremely low amount of mileage (between 22k and 38k total miles every time I brought the car in — with no noticeable problems). Like I said I was using them more precautionary maintenance than anything.
My first couple of visits were pretty reasonable (I guess) as there were only minor things to change… a hose, an ignition switch, air filter, etc. A quick summary:
1) 23k miles — two air filters replaced, emission inspection — $ 254.00 — okay
2) 29k miles — oil filter kit, check engine light reset, spark plugs, ignition coil, new battery (never had an issue with the original, but okay) — $ 1250.00 — okay, I know Audi’s are expensive to service, comes with the territory.
3) 33k miles — oil change/​filter — $ 220 — okay
4) 39k miles — THE BIG ONE — granted there was NO major problems with the car I again brought in for precautionary maintenance. Here’s what they came back to me with — air filter replace, oil change/​filter, full brake replacement — rotors, pads, fluid (front/​back), replace steering/​tie rods, replace struts, alignment, etc — $ 5100 total — wow. Again, there was no noticeable noise or grinding coming from the brakes/​bads etc, but they were adamant that there was severe wear and they should be replaced. I nearly puked when I found out the cost. I was really surprised since the car had such low mileage, but okay, just do it. I wanted the car to be really well taken care of and in perfect working condition.
Flash forward 9 – 10 months later. The steering on the car (while not mechanically impacted) started making such incredible noise, it was almost unbearable to drive. It started with tight turns (like a U-​turn), but gradually turned into the steering making a grinding/​squeaking noise continuously. It got to the point where passengers in the car were like whoa, what is that noise?
I take it to my local Audi dealership in Boston (Brookline Audi, they are great btw) and they basically told me that all the work done the previously spring was done with inferior, after-​market parts. GREAT. So not only original work, that I’m not even sure was actually needed, but it was done with crap parts that basically failed in 9 months. It cost me another $ 1200 to basically correct the issues with the steering/​tie rods among other things that were not done properly.
A rather expensive lesson learned. It’s tough to find auto mechanics that you trust, because most of us have no idea what is needed to keep our cars working well. We want them to be safe and reliable, so you have to trust the advice of your mechanic. I wish I had trusted my gut, when Steven and Francine’s first told me that my car needed +$ 5000 worth of work, when I just took it in for a minor annual tune-​up! I should have gotten a second estimate, but it’s such a pain to know which mechanics in NYC are trustworthy. That’s on me, but I wanted to share the story with others so they avoid a similar situation. I wouldn’t go back to Steven and Franchine’s again after this experience.

They talk a great game, and their work was OK, but it was overpriced, and I think they dinged my hood but can’t prove it.
I would never return, because their $ 120 hourly labor rate is high, even for Manhattan. Also because when i asked why they had put 20 miles on the car, Steven said he’d taken it for a test drive to see what it needed. 20 miles? In Manhattan? WTF?
They redid my car’s front end, but the steering was still pretty vague when they were done. They charged for degreasing the engine, but my new mechanic, a specialist, says there’s no way the car has been degreased in the last 10 years. This is a tiny point, but they also charged $ 8 for WD-​40 and $ 98 for «Shipping.» No other mechanic has ever nickel & dimed me like that before, which is especially unwelcome at their high hourly rate. Or maybe they just itemized costs other mechanics build into their rates.
The legacy of my visit there is that when I back up now, my car vibrates in an alarming new way when I’m turning in reverse (and I’ve had my car for 13 years). I keep forgetting to ask my new mechanic what’s causing it, but it NEVER did that before Steve and Francine’s got hold of it.
UPDATE:
I finally remembered to ask my new mechanic to look into the vibration. He fixed the problem and said — sounding both perplexed and disgusted — that whoever put the tie rods on did it the wrong way. That explains the above-​mentioned vibration. So much for expert car service at Steven & Francine’s. Above all, it was the smugness that I found so repellent at S&F’s. To learn that the smugness masks a measure of incompetence is even more annoying. I’m just glad I’ve found a great specialist.