Tim Thomas, an engine and gearbox specialist from Rusden Europro Automotive, one of Canberra’s most recommended mechanics. Photo: Rusden Europro Automotive.
While many of us drive cars, we’re not expert at servicing and fixing them. If you’ve ever needed your car taken care of, you’ve no doubt searched for a service centre that will make your car safe and reliable to drive.
A car service centre maintains vehicles at set intervals or after you’ve clocked a certain number of kilometres. They also tackle road-worthy issues that pop up in between. Having your car serviced by quality technicians and car service centres ensures it’s performing as it should. This protects your safety and improves your car’s efficiency.
In this article, we’ll outline the qualities to consider when choosing a car service centre, and share where to find the best in Canberra.
What makes a great car service centre?
With so many car service centres operating in the market, choosing one that is professional, reliable and thorough. This will help take the stress out of having your vehicle repaired. It will also make sure you only pay for what you get. Make sure your car is handled by an experienced, qualified and trusted technician.
It can be helpful to keep the following in mind when choosing a care service centre in Canberra.
- Experience and qualifications. The best car service centres have staff that are qualified, certified and have years of experience. Their technicians know how to diagnose and repair your vehicle. Check also to see if the car service centre is a member of an industry body or association.
- Reliable and prompt. Chances are, you want your vehicle returned as soon as possible. Look for a car service centre that promises a decent turnaround – and sticks to its deadlines. Also look for a car service centre that keeps you informed. This is especially important if unforeseen circumstances arise. This includes the technician discovering you need a new part that must be ordered in.
- Customer service. There’s no downplaying the importance of quality customer service. Your mechanic shouldn’t leave you waiting. They should always treat you and your vehicle with respect. They should also be upfront and honest about what needs to be done and associated costs.
- Service guarantee. Ask about the car service centre’s service guarantee, on both parts and labour. Good centres are confident in their work.
- Organised and clean. Check the physical appearance of the car service centre. Is it well organised and clean? If it looks like a junk yard, you may want to move on.
- Highly recommended. While searching for a car service centre, always ask for referrals from other customers. Also check for online reviews.
The best car service centres in Canberra according to you
RiotACT’s editorial team has combed through 20 years of on-site comments to compile a list of the most recommended businesses according to you.
To be listed in our Best of Canberra series, each business needs to have consistently received positive feedback on RiotACT and Facebook as well as maintain a minimum average of 4/5 stars on Google.
The motor vehicle specialists and transmission specialists at Rusden Europro Automotive have been operating for more than 30 years. Its suite of services include mechanic repairs, automotive services, vehicle inspections, vehicle upgrades, tyres, and plasti dip paint. Located centrally in Fyshwick, this car service centre provides courtesy, pick-up and delivery services. Mechanics and technicians are fully qualified and the team includes an ACT Roadworthy Authority Inspector, engine and gearbox specialist, and a gas and electrician specialist. Rusden Europro Automotive is open six days a week and offers free quotes. As Tony Zhong wrote on Google, “Always get my cars serviced or repaired there. Fair price and detailed explanation on the items done. I have recommended the team to many friends and they never disappoint me.” If you’re unable to take your car straight to the dealership for services and repairs, the team of highly qualified technicians and mechanics at Euro Speciality Automotive has you covered. Specialising in servicing state-of-the-art European cars, such as BMW, Mercedes Benz, Audi, MINI, Volkswagen, Peugeot and Citroen, and many more, ESA can get your car up and running again without voiding your manufacturer warranty. As Google reviewer David Kim writes, “Great customer service. Highly knowledgeable. Punctual. Would highly recommend to anyone.” One Stop Auto and Tyres provides the very best in car servicing and automotive repair services. Situated in the heart of Fyshwick, One Stop Auto and Tyres services all brands and models of vehicles, including commercial fleet vehicles, wheel drive and diesel. This local mechanic has Arctick Authorisation to conduct automotive air conditioning services, reducing fuel costs and protecting driver and passenger health. Customer Jacki Valk wrote on Google, “Every time I go there, I have a fantastic experience. Knowledge, professional and great at what they do. Really happy with my service and them fixing the rattle in my engine, no one else could figure out what was wrong.” For many years, Braddon Service Centre has been adding more life to cars. Its team of experienced professionals and specialists offer one-stop solutions with quality workmanship from its location in Mitchell. This car service centre not only handles maintenance and specialised repair services, it sells a comprehensive range of automotive products and provides other services such as professional car washing, cleaning and monthly inspections. Customer Shiqin Huo wrote on Google, “Fantastic work with affordable price. The reception is really kind and helpful. Highly recommended to all my friends!” Haig Park Service Centre has been servicing cars for more than 10 years. Locally owned and operated, the experienced team of technicians works out of the mechanical workshop in Mitchell, with state-of-the-art equipment. The team handles simple oil changes through to full car servicing needs — wheels, clutches, brakes, suspension, engine overhauls, and more. On Google, Cameron Beresford wrote, “Great experience … had my WRX serviced here after years of dealer servicing. Like a whole new car. Best service it’s ever had. Really friendly staff and a good price. Definitely recommend.”
Rusden Europro Automotive
Fyshwick ACT 2609
Euro Speciality Automotive
One Stop Auto and Tyres
Braddon Service Centre
Haig Park Service Centre
If you’re looking for a more help on servicing your car, check out our article on the best mechanics and the best mobile car battery repair services in Canberra. Or, if you’re looking to improve your car’s looks, check out our articles on the best car washes and the best car detailers in Canberra.
Your experience with car service centres in Canberra
Thanks to our commenters who have provided insightful feedback. If you believe we have got it wrong, please let us know.
Have you had experience with any of the car service centres listed above? If so, share your feedback in the comments below.
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I reckon you can’t go past Gordon at Mechanical Care in Belconnen. I have limped my car in to them and they have fixed tiny things on the spot for me. They understood when my partner left his car dead on their doorstep at night, to be dealt with in the morning.
The quality of their work is consistently good, they don’t treat customers like idiots, and they don’t overcharge.
This thread is two years old but taking the advice I couldn’t be happier with JAWS in Phillip, they are straight up with their advice and are great communicators , can not recommend highly enough
Hi
I stumbled across Lonsdale Auto Electrical and had a really great experience. Initially I drove out to them in Braddon with a dodgy battery / alternator. Parked a street away. Couldn’t get the truck started when I turned it off. I walked to them and Gordon walked back down with me, and between trying a battery and then his car, he got mine started again. He also gave me an approximate quote for what I needed. No obligation at all.
When I got the opportunity to go back and book in with them, their service was prompt, professional and helpful – they explained what they would do, and why. They never tried to oversell. I have no idea if they are the cheapest for electrical work, but their customer service and professionalism are stellar.
Hey friend! Thanks for asking for responses. I am also a Toyata user and I know better how the servicing costs for it. Really it’s too expensive to maintain such brands. It’s true that certified service centers would charge a lot for it but that doesn’t mean that you need to go for an ordinary repair center. You can find cheaper care centers that provide good service. I prefer: http://www.upscaleauto.com/vehicles/toyota/
You may visit it but remember always for a reputed care center rather an ordinary one.
Hi Ringer ,
Would certainly recommend getting the car serviced from a local mechanic instead of one of those fancy franchisee model repair mob.
We get our cars repaird from Adrain at Ultimate Tunes.
Good mob, honest advise and has been kind to accomadate even at the last min.
Adrain
4 Bellona Ct, Phillip ACT
(02) 6281 1821
http://www.ultimatetunes.com.au/
My 2 cents.
Looks like I am revising an old thread!
I have a very strong recommendation for International Car Repairs in Dundas Court, Phillip (6282 5868). I have used them for a number of car services (2 different cars). They provide old-fashioned careful, meticulous, polite and good-value service. They are solidly busy for good reason.
I also have used the following with good results:
TechWorkz Automotive in Tuggeranong ( a clutch replacement on a 2006 Subaru Liberty)
Lonsdale Auto Electrics, now located in Fyshwick.
MD-Automotive in Monash
EvanJames said :
The quality of the service, basically. They’re conscientious, always helpful and do a good job. I’ve got confidence in them. 🙂
Deref said :
Hmmm. I’m trying to be enthusiastic too but casting around for other options, again. What is it about them that you’re really happy about?
Ben_Dover said :
Herin lies the danger of labelling all franchises with the same brush. Just because one doesn’t measure up doesn’t mean they all will as Ben Dover points out from his own experience.
Especially as many of the Shell servos the garage portion are separate small business people who just happen to rent space in what Shell in their wisdom have called Kmart Tyre and Auto, due to their co-branding exercise with Coles.
Will be interesting to see if the co-branding exits after shell offloads their retail assets.
I’ve been using Repco City Car Care in Braddon for years. They’re excellent.
Call me Mr Contrary, but I have used the Kmart garage in Hawker for servicing my cars for many years, and am more than happy with the service.
Add me to the list of people who’ll tell you never to go to Kmart for a car service. I used the mob in Manuka twice, the second time I knew I was making a mistake. Their upselling is pathetic, the service on both occasions was poor, second time the car came out with a squeak that it has to this day. They’re the one Braddon outfit I won’t be trying.
Postalgeek said :
You are under NO obligation to go the dealer for servicing. You can go anywhere you want and they are not allowed to void your warranty.
Rollersk8r said :
Fair enough, but two points, most Toyotas are actually 10,000 service intervals but they, the dealers suggest getting the oil changed every 5,000. The Camry and Aurion (since at least the mid 2010 facelif) and maybe now some of the newer model imports are 15,000.
Where it is a big deal as I mentioned is where the fools cannot even get their computer systems to recognise what their OWN maintenance schedules are and then send out reminder sms’s that are incorrectly timed and borderline threatening and against trade practices laws.
As for warranty clearly this will surprise you as you know what one is apparently, but if the manufacturer finds a fault that can be traced to a manufacturing or design issue, regardless of their advertised warranty they are actually obliged to fix it at their cost no matter how old or how many KM’s the car has been driven.
The advertised warranty covers abnormal/premature wear to parts where the wear or fault is not an inherent design or manufacturing issue.
So if your fault was a known issue, then clearly it was a design or manufacturing problem so even if
your car was “out of warranty” then they are still obliged to repair it for free. They then simply bill Toyota Australia. So don’t think that in itself is a sign of good service.
The same applies to more or less everything you buy actually.
dtc said :
I did go to Kmart for new tyres once and had a very bumpy ride. I connected the pressure gauge and found they had been blown up to 41 PSI (recommended pressure 29PSI). The name is a giveaway. Going to Kmart and expecting a good service for your car is like going to Maccas and expecting fine dining.
Ringer said :
Hey that’s great, I am sure you will be really happy with their service. Any issues just always speak to Jay – he is the best one to deal with there (his other mechanics are great mechanics but he has the best customer service being the boss – hey not every mechanic can be great with customers too lol – it’s a skill to learn). Do let us know what you think afterwards, I am very confident you will be very satisfied with them though.
Just to add to what i said before, this is my sad car story:
My mum gave me her old Ford Festive Trio which had always been serviced by Kmart tyre and auto in wanniassa and always passed services no issues. In order to change the rego, I had to spend 1 grand on replacing the muffler/exhaust due to leaks in it, replacing all four tires with new, and replacing the windscreen to repair a crack on the drivers side. I thought this was a reasonable investment at the time.
Fast forward a few months and car starts conking out all the time. Due to a faulty oil light and my inferior engine knowledge at the time, I thought it was completely out of oil and ended up over filling it with oil, which resulted in all the gaskets and seals bursting and oil pouring out all over the place. I took it to kmart tyre and auto in wanniassa where it had always been serviced, $300 later they replaced all seals and gaskets, oil filter, air filter, and the oil and tested it and told me all was fine. They couldn’t do the rego check though (i got pinged by roads inspector with oil leaking all over engine and got yellow slipped – truly bad luck) so I took it kmart tyre and auto in phillip who charged me $120 for the rego (they claimed there was still oil on the underside of the car and that had to be cleaned as well to pass rego meh) and I drove it away thinking all was fine, only to have it start conking out on me again about 5KM out from woden.
Drove it home and rang kmart tyre and auto in phillip again, who told me they couldn’t get it back in for a week but recommended Jaws in phillip, which is how I first heard of them. Went in there after calling them and being told to bring in right in straight away (no waiting! this was the first of good experiences with jaws) and told Jay @ Jaws my sorry story. He told me he would get to the bottom of it, and true to his word, called me 24hrs later to tell me I had what i’ve heard termed “major blowback / major blowby” or in laymans terms, a major blockage in the engine that keeps forcing oil up and out where it shoudn’t go causing the pressure in the engine to go too high and making it conk it.
Now at this point Jay could have charged me good money to tell me my car engine was f****d and I needed a new engine, instead he turned around and said: I can’t fix it, and you’ve already sunk a lot of wasted money into the car, so I won’t charge you anything. That blew me away, could this be an honest mechanic I thought? So a few days later I went hunting for a new 2nd hand car from the dealerships around the place, and found what is now my current car at sale in a dealership in phillip. Took it into Jay and he gave me 25% off the full inspection check on the car then gave me a very honest report on the condition inc. taking time to explain some things in laymans terms for me so I understood properly being not a big car person to start with which I really appreciated.
I ended up buying that car and have been very happy with it since. Paid Jaws for a full service on it as it was needing one, and compared to the other quotes I got at the time Jaws was among the better prices and faster service than the others even though I was going to go with them anyway. On top of that, I have had had 2 minor situations, one where I closed the boot too hard and it got stuck shut, and he fixed it for me for free even though it took them almost ten minutes to do it, the other being a flat tyre I took in to have repaired, it couldn’t be repaired so he gave me 10% off a replacement he had in stock which happened to be identical to my other tires which was nice.
Since getting my new car I have educated myself a bit better on engine stuff through some net reading and long chats with friends who are more experienced, and I have come to see how rare it is to find a good mechanic like Jaws, and my mates who are car-heads agree with me. I hope you have such a pleasant experience with them as I did, the one thing I learnt as Jay told me is that Kmart Tyre and Auto will just take your money and not tell you your car is actually f****d whereas Jay told me that for free even though he’d just spent hours working out what was wrong with the car, that’s really good service in my book any day of the week.
dtc said :
yeh, I wrote a really long post that for someone even though submitted twice kept dissapearing from the pending post queue, I emailed admin about it and he is going to manually post it for me, it will make sense once you read it, it was originally posted before that comment I made about see post above because it *should* have posted before that comment but yeh….
Mordd said :
Why?
Your post doesnt say anything other than you have found someone else is good. Who is no where near where I live or work.
dtc said :
Never ever go to Kmart tyre and auto – see my post above – they are the worst possible option for a good mechanic ever.
JC said :
Well I have nothing to gain by defending them. However, I know what a warranty is and the car was out of warranty when I had the $1100 steering issue fixed.
Plus 15,000km is the standard service interval for most Toyotas – but of course the logbook and Toyota themselves recommend you go in every 7500. It’s not that big a deal.