Bay Motor Works

Cliff to the rescue again. The brakes needed work for a little while, but I wanted to wait until The Surge subsided a bit before taking my beloved MINI in. I called Cliff hoping to get in on Saturday and he said, no problem.

They replaced the pads, rotors and did a brake flush, too. He also recommended I do an oil change since it has been a while. I agreed and now my little go kart is driving like a dream.

Cliff does great work and an affordable price. He's the go-to guy for my MINI.

When it rains, it pours. My alternator started to go on me as I was driving home late Saturday night. Luckily, it limped onto my street and I managed to park it--crookedly--in front of my house. Bad news: I would need to have it towed to Bay Bridge Motors on Monday morning. As my AAA membership only offers the first 5 miles for free, I was on the hook for the additional 8 miles or so. I had no intention on leaving my beloved MINI in he hands of a less capable mechanic. So, I called Cliff right when they opened and informed him I believed my alternator died. He said, "Sure bring it in."

After a 30-minute ride in the tow truck, we arrived at BMW (just realized the acronym, nice.) and Cliff, another mechanic and I pushed my MINI into the shop. I told him I'd get some breakfast and to give me a call with the details. It turned out I needed an alternator and a battery--not cheap, but necessary. After returning to the shop he said it would take a while and offered to play a movie on the monitor, since he knew I had nowhere to go. It made the wait far more enjoyable. He had a nice, comfy couch and I watched the entire movie.

What I like, is that Cliff showed me what the problem was with my MINI and what they fixed. He even remarked that I had a good battery as it was the same one that came with the car back in '06. He topped off my fluids and told me to keep eye on the expansion tank that they replaced back in October. If needed it topped off again, he said stop by anytime. Nice.

All in all, the repairs were not cheap for a guy on a budget, but I rest assurred knowing that quality work was being done AND at a fair price. I intend to keep my MINI for as long as I can and will continue to take it Bay Motor Works.

Last Saturday was my third appointment at Bay Motor Works for my 11-year-old MINI. This time the brake pad indicator light in the speedometer turned on. I knew that it would not be a cheap fix, but hoped it would not break my tiny wallet. Cliff has been very helpful in letting me know what needs to be fixed and what could wait.

I arrived right when they opened at 9:00 am on Saturday to give them the ample time. Fortunately, there was a great breakfast place up the street where I could kill some time and meet up with a buddy. Cliff called about an hour later and informed me that both the pads and rotors needed to be replaced. He offered two options: regular and high performance. The great news was that both were under my estimates and I chose the high-performance (cross-drilled) rotors. Oh yeah. He said he'd call back when they were finished.

By 2:00 Cliff called back said I could pick up my car anytime before five. Once again, they did a good job on my car and it was under my estimates, which was awesome. Bay Motor Works is my go-to shop for my precious--and old--MINI.

My '06 MINI Cooper S began to run/idle very rough (very loud, loss of power) on the weekend. I wasn't sure what the problems was, but I knew it was serious.

I spoke to Cliff on the following Monday morning and scheduled an appointment the following Saturday. He informed me that he would need to charge me at at least one hour labor and would call me when he diagnosed the problem. With time to kill, I met up with a buddy and had breakfast in the neigborhood. Cliff called back and advised me that I had a crack in my flex pipe and would need to get it welded. He gave me that name/address of a muffler down the street. After it was welded, I would need to return to his shop to re-diagnose. At this point, I began to think the worst and calculated how much it would cost to replace the manifold/flex pipe/catalytic converter. Cliff said that the weld should fix the issue, but if it doesn't we would review my options. As it turned out, the weld fixed the issue. After bringin g back to him, he clear the fault code and I was on my way. Plus, he only charged me for a half hour of labor.

Cliff is good guy and I now have a new repair shop that I will be taking my MINI to. I really appreciated his honest and professionalism. MINI owners know to not take their car to any repair shop and that is is hard to find a good tech. Cliff is definitely one of them. He's got my business.