South Bay British Auto Repair

Pete of Marine Motors had maintained my 1963 Austin Healey since the 1960's. After Pete retired, I had trouble finding another mechanic. Then I found Clive of South Bay British Auto Repair. He took the car and fixed everything; afterwards the car ran like it was new. I thought I would never find anyone as good as Pete, but Clive might even be better. We agreed I would take car in every year for a check-up. This year the only thing the car need was a rear tail light bulb; the service was free.

I'm very impressed by my experience at South Bay British. I brought them a well loved but well used 30+ year old Caterham Super Seven in need of basically everything. The owner Nigel helped me prioritize a sensible path forward with an eye towards safety and reliability. The technical service staff, Gene, Neil, & Tracy have been a wealth of information and I’ve really appreciated their attention to detail. Looking back I can say I’ve been totally happy with every aspect of the process and more importantly the results! Cheers!

Google will not let me leave a zero star.Stay away from this place. I wouldn't trust them with a bicycle. Just a look at the forecourt and it looks more like a scrap yard than a European repair shop. Many cars in various states of disrepair, smashed windows, flat tires etc. I am a experienced car hauler with over 20 years of business who picked a car for a client from them. The car was a Jaguar V12 and supposed to be in perfect running condition. It was not. I was misfiring on at least 2 cylinders and couldn't idle. It did not have enough power to drive up the ramps into the truck for transportation.I asked the 'mechanic ' why it was running so rough because it should have been smooth as it was a V12 and had just been repaired. He was dismissive, argumentative and told me the was fine,which it was obviously not.He said he had fixed it, but the car was coughing and sputtering with hardly any power. I pressed him on the issue on behalf of the owner(who was a friend)and he became aggressive,threatening and things could have really got out of hand.The car was covered in greasy hand marks on the door, trunk and hood. They did not have the courtesy to wipe off their mess. I personally own 2 classic cars(Bentley Continental Gt Speed and a mint condition '78 Mercedes 450 SL),two motorcycles(Ducati and BMW) and an 18 wheeler tractor trailer. I have had to deal with a multitude of good and bad mechanics over the last 20 years and this business is, by far, the most unprofessional 'repair' shop I have ever dealt with, and that is saying something. I cannot fathom how they stay in business. Maybe it's because of their extortionate labor rate (which is written in black marker pen on white board inside which makes it easy to change). Who does that these days? The interior is also in a dire state. I saw a customers' Bentley body part on the waiting room floor!!! I thought shops like this were a thing of the past. Do your research. I'm sure there are plenty of repair facilities who would put these amateurs to shame. Update...the reason the car was running rough was that 2 of the leads were attached to the wrong spark plugs. After they 'repaired ' it they did not correctly run the right leads to the right plugs.A proper mechanic would have spotted that immediately.

As promised. Flexible and honest- had a bit of trouble with fine tuning carbs after a pretty extensive South Bay tuneup after I bought my 54 Triumph TR2 from a dealer in St Louis. They came to my house in Venice and fixed the problem with no additional charges

Clive, Nigel, Niel and John are fantastic in their service, dedication and expertise. Had catalytic converters stolen from work parking lot. They worked with the insurance and got it sorted quickly. I had other issues other than cats and they went above and beyond in getting it all taken care of. Maybe a bit pricy but you are paying for expertise and getting it done right the first time.