If you’re handy enough to turn a wrench on basic maintenance items for a German car you might save a lot of money, but not a lot of time. If you take it to a competent mechanic you’ll save a lot of time but not a lot of money. Pick your poison but also know when to say when on your shade tree abilities. In that spirit I brought my 12 year old Audi for a checkup as it will soon be handed down to my oldest child to start driving so I needed to make sure it’s safe and reliable, and I knew The battery was on its way out. left unaddressed it would surely leave a body stuck at the worst place and time. So knowing an Audi battery replacement is gonna run $500 at least I figured I’d have the vehicle given a once over and began looking for an Audi focused shop. Turns out those are rare on this side of DFW but I found Lone Star here in FTW. Of course I read the reviews here on Google (enjoyed the 1 stars!) and could immediately tell this shop is legit. How? Well When the owner personally responds to each 1 star explaining in detail the issue for all to make their own judgment and conclusion, you know he cares about his reputation and the quality work it reflects. Trent’s shop is clean, welcoming, spacious and organized with excellent parking. His Mechanics are clean and not covered in grease, so you know your interior won’t be covered in spots when you get your car back. The techs will take time to answer technical questions in detail to address concerns on recommended repairs and service to help you decide, and sometime you’ll get a free “pro tip” if you’re not a dick. The $195 fee to run diagnostics and inspection is reasonable as their time and tooling to do so is not free so I’m not sure why some people are grumpy about it but whatever. Good luck finding a shop that doesn’t have that. The guys who run the shuttle to drop you off at work and pick you up are friendly, and they made the short ride to work enjoyable with pleasant conversation and no awkward silence, unless that’s what you want. Even Trent himself was kind enough to give me a ride to the office. The only bad part was the trip was too short and I didn’t get to chat as much as I’d want… (professionals can teach you a lot) He seems like the kind of guy who I could talk shop with for hours and learn about cars… Anyway… the Bottom line is that you get what you pay for from Lone Star Bavarian: quality service backed by decades of experience, an established reputation and at a reasonable price. They do not cut corners so don’t expect a “deal…” (also, you bought a German car and thought it would be cheap to fix???) There’s plenty of fly by nighters out there if you want a discount. And while they clearly specialize in BMW and Mercedes Benz, they know their way around Audi (VW) without issue and likely have the tools and experience to handle most European imports to boot. Thank you LSB for treating my car with the same level of care that I do. I will definitely come back (if the work is out of my league)! Bravo.
Response from the owner:Thank you very much Chris for all of the kudos...you certainly covered it all and were thorough. And Yes I try to answer or respond to all of our reviews. I am regularly asked how we are different from the dealer and I can run through a list of things but in the end the one biggest difference is this....at no time are you more than one person away from me, the owner. And even after doing this for 25 years, I still love what I do and still very much care about your experience with us. So again thank you.
