I have been going to this Christian owned automotive shop for 40 years. You won't find a more honest and integrity filled staff as this one. It is a clean, woman owned and managed business. I have recommended Steve's automotive to all of my friends and people that otherwise I have had the opportunity to share this business with. Their senior mechanic is Master Mechanic certified. This requires much additional education and time in the business. Drop by and check them out!
jennifer gomersall
4 months ago
We had a couple of long standing issues with our Jeep GC. Over 5 years, 2 dealer visits and 3 visits to a well recognized independent shop. And $$$$$$. Still issues. Steve's was recommended to us bc that's where Enterprise takes their rental cars for service. Yep you guessed it fix it, first time, granted they had to do some Sherlocking, but they didn't join the pay me but we"tried" what is it that Yoda says... ? Don't try, Do. Anyway best shop in Portland. And nice folks to boot!
Noelle Matthews
6 months ago
My boyfriend has gone to this shop on and off for over 10 years, and I’ve brought my car in a few times in recent years. Our last experience was so upsetting that neither of us will ever go back.
After paying over $1,000 for a radiator replacement to fix a heating issue, the same problem returned within a week and the car overheated on the way back to the shop. This time, they said the real issue was a cracked engine block, meaning the car was beyond repair. Despite that, they still wanted to charge another $90 diagnostic fee just to pick up a now-undrivable vehicle.
I was the one who encouraged him to ask if they could reduce or waive the fee, given the circumstances. He really didn’t want to-he’s the type who avoids confrontation entirely and would rather just accept the loss. I told him he should at least ask because it didn’t seem fair after spending over $1,000 for a repair that didn’t fix the issue. He’s polite, calm, and genuinely mild-mannered, the kind of person who wouldn’t even mention it if a server got his order wrong. When he finally did ask, and did so politely, the owner immediately jumped down his throat, turning defensive and confrontational almost instantly. He barely let him finish a sentence before suggesting that my boyfriend was implying something serious or threatening toward the business. It was bizarre, aggressive, and completely unprovoked.
He left shaken, humiliated, and banned from the shop for calmly asking about a $90 fee. He talked about it for weeks afterward because he just couldn’t make sense of how someone could react that way over such a simple conversation. It wasn’t even about the money at that point; it was about the owner’s hostility and lack of basic respect. I told him we wouldn’t have gone back regardless, but it was still absolutely shocking.
Their public response calling his review “misleading” is completely false. We both had fine experiences here in the past, but this showed how they treat customers when something goes wrong with defensiveness, aggression, and zero accountability. Writing a one-star review isn’t something I take lightly, but this experience was serious enough that it felt important to speak up. I recommend anyone considering this shop go to Yelp or Google and sort by one-star reviews to see how they respond whenever a customer tries to advocate for themselves.
Alex Calbreath
6 months ago
I was a regular customer of Steve's until late last year. Just before Christmas, I took my car in for an issue with the heater. Steve's told me the radiator needed replacing, which cost over $1,000 with some other minor repairs included. I asked them to proceed with the radiator replacement to address the heating issue at hand.
Less than a week after radiator replacement, I was back in the shop due to the same exact heating issue, plus my car overheated on the way to the shop. After more diagnosis, I was told that, actually, the coolant and heater issue was from a fatal flaw in the engine block which was functionally irreparable (more than the car is worth). I was out $1,000 already for a new radiator, and now being told the issue I came to them for cannot be fixed and my car is, for all intents and purposes, toast.
Despite this, I decided I wouldn't dispute the matter, giving Steve's considerable benefit of the doubt in their explanation for why they did not find the issue in the first go-round of diagnostics. When I went to pick up my car, Steve's told me that they were charging me an additional $90 for the second diagnostic which led them to conclude the $1,000 radiator was not the issue. Like I said, I had not disputed the radiator matter, chalking it up to a loss; losses happen. But I did think that the least Steve's could do was waive or share in this relatively small additional fee, as a courtesy, and because the issue I originally came to them for was not fully diagnosed, let alone repaired. I was very surprised this wasn't proactively offered, under the circumstances, and I politely asked Bob (the owner, I believe) to help me out on the matter.
This request was met with immediate and outsized hostility. Bob took a highly aggressive stance, squaring up physically, and telling me repeatedly that he didn't like what I was insinuating. I felt purposely intimidated and threatened by Bob's posture and tone from the get-go. After trying to explain my reasoning, I realized Bob's temper was only escalating and I relented and said I would simply pay the $90. This inexplicably seemed to make Bob more angry and he initially refused to take my payment. After some additional fuming, Bob abruptly told me he would charge me $50, and that we were "done", meaning I was banned for life from the shop. I paid his $50, took my car, and exited the shop being carefully watched as if I were going to damage his shop on the way out or something.
I am small of stature and meek in attitude, and I could not for the life of me understand what provoked this aggressive treatment. I was subjected to open hostility, humiliated, and made to feel like a criminal because I asked for a minor concession under extraordinary circumstances. None of this behavior was typical of my experiences at Steve's to this point, and I was shocked and extremely disheartened. This all happened a couple of weeks before Christmas, of all times, and I could scarcely believe this was the same shop I had been taking my car to for so long.
Steve's was great for me until something went wrong, and then I could not possibly have had a worse or more inexplicable experience. I was dramatically banned for life (?!) over asking for a $90 concession, but that's no loss: I would never have brought my car back to this shop after this experience, for my own safety in addition to everything else, and I recommend you look elsewhere too.
When I first moved to Portland in 2003, an old-school taxi driver mentioned to me that he'd never take a car anywhere other than Steve's Automotive - the best and most trustworthy mechanics in town. More than 20 years and more than a few family cars later, I still wouldn't go anywhere else. We've taken an old and a new Subaru, a Honda, an old Volvo, new Audis, an old pickup truck, a minivan. Kind, honest and professional service every time.
