I heard about Hugo's reputation and trusted to bring my car there but seems like Daniel is the man in charge now. I had to put one star, unfortunately could not do less. My car has been there for about 3 months, going from one excuse to the other. Daniel even told me he had sprayed something like WD40 and that he needed to wait for it a day or two to loosen up in order to start working on it. What kind of non sense is that? He thinks he is smarter than everyone. After paying for my non functional car to get out I'm trying to tow it out through triple A and he tells them he can do the work and that I was wanting to move it do another mechanic due to price. Let me just reiterate some key info here: - My car has been there for 3 months - The car still isn't fixed - I paid to get it out and still can't get it out. read more

If you don't yet know Hugo's Auto Service, you haven't been getting extraordinary work done on your vehicle in Alachua County while saving a lot of money! In business for 40+ years (working side-by-side his father for many of those years), this is a wonderfully caring man who adores automotive repair work & providing excellent service to his customers. I'm unclear which he loves more! Hugo doesn't advertise; all of his business is customer referral-based. He's old school that way. And he doesn't do weekends-- just M - F (8 AM - 5 PM). Whether the work you need done involves a carburetor, alternator, transmission, brakes, collision repair, or a simple oil change, THIS is the garage to visit. Credit, debit, or cash, you'll save money regardless! APPOINTMENTS ARE RECOMMENDED. Hugo has provided excellent service to my family for over a decade. You name it, he's fixed it! As others have posted, Hugo insists on thoroughly explaining the mechanical problem & the repair. He understands the high cost of repairs, yet somehow manages to charge less than all other mechanics. There's a small seating area if you don't plan to drop & run. But I recommend you allow yourself time to get to know Hugo. You'll quickly be impressed w/ his level of integrity, his dedication to customers, & his ability to fix the many makes of vehicles he services. read more

Hugo's Auto Service - Photo compliments of Google:-) If you knew Hugo, you'd know he deserves a business photo! - Auto Repair Near Me - Gainesville, Florida

Dan was a disappointment and Hugo sold his name by letting this man buy his shop. Dan took 12 months, cut all wires and charged me for parts that had nothing to do with the task I originally asked for without completing the task. Originally I called and he told me Hugo said I could bring it in, neither of them ever told me it was under new ownership (that's deceitful). After months of many excuses I finally had my vintage VW bus towed away to Hilltop motors in Jax that fixed my issue in 1 WEEK. Dan cut my wires under the dash, which took $700 in additional labor to repair alone. 12 months and he still wouldnt just admit he couldn't fix it and just told me stuff like, "I'm waiting to break the rusty screw, I've soaked it in oil", for like 1 month at a time each time I'd call. He told me "your motor is shot and you should sell this thing". Hilltop told me all tests show my motor is in wonderful working condition. They were blown away at his actions cutting wires and acting like he couldn't fix the starting issue. All he did was charge for parts that had still did not fix the starting, like distributor etc, disconnect and cut all wiring inches from where they could EASILY be safely disconnected, and completely disassemble my steering column, etc. and refused to put it back together unless I gave him more money (yes I paid him for this parts). What was his end game? He really was 12 months in and over his head and just lying to cover for his inability to fix my VW. I'm embarrassed that I even let him have it that long and that I believed any amount of his stories, especially when my wife was telling me I was having the wool pulled over my eyes. It was never even brought in to a bay for proper work. My car sat out by the trash cans where it was damaged and looted by the riff raff passing by for 12 months. read more

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Hugo is great! My family has been going to him since I was little and now that I'm older, I use him too. I can't count the number of times car repairmen have tried to rip me off (sometimes successfully). I've only met two shop owners that have consistently shown they value honesty, one of them being Hugo. We go to him for everything car-related: oil services, maintenance work, and repairs. Everything he does is done with exceptional skill and care. I've been interested in learning more about cars and I asked Hugo if I could watch him while he checked my car and changed my oil. This man spent TWO AND A HALF HOURS teaching me how to change my oil, check every oil and fluid compartment there was, check my tire pressure, he took two dents out of my car, cleaned off my windshield wipers, vigorously checked everything under the car and explained what the parts did, he lubricated my windows and doors and meticulously answered every question I had FREE OF CHARGE. He actually let me drive one of his cars so I could compare what it feels like to drive a vehicle that didn't have power steering fluid. He then drove my car around the block to make sure it was driving correctly. This is a repairman who happily took a chunk of time out of his day just so I could learn. His level of care and precision is unbelievable; he doesn't just change your oil, he checks your vehicle backward and forward and tops off anything that needs it. Hugo is passionate about his work and well-respected in the community. Within those 2+ hours, a handful of different people stopped by just to hug him and say hi. I guarantee if you come here once, you'll be coming here for as long as you live in Gainesville. read more

Cannot recommend Hugo enough! VW folks: Hugo is your guy in central Florida (he has rave reviews on both roadhaus and VanAlert). We stopped here to get our ac fixed on our vanagon. He walked us through the steps, was thorough and explained the process, took his time and was really great guy. It was a pleasure to have him work on my van, it makes me kinda wish I was in Florida more often. read more

DAN IS THE BEST!!! I drive a volkswagon Passat and my check engine light came on this weekend when I was visiting uf from boca raton. I originally went to the volkswagon dealership with a 12:30 appointment and when I arrived I was told they'd have to keep my car over night and it would be $250 just to run a diagnostic which is insane. I called Hugo's and explained what was going on, Dan said he could take care of me right away with no charge for the initial check. within 10 minutes and NO CHARGE Dan was able to tell me what the problem was and that I didn't need to take care of it immediately. I hate going to the Volkswagen dealership 1. because it's a ripoff and 2. because you can always tell they don't actually care about you they just want ur money!!! Dan is the exact opposite. I felt like he actually cared and just wanted to help me. if I wasn't just visiting for the weekend I would've totally had him take care of my car. 100% recommend him to everyone ESPECIALLY Volkswagen owners. read more

Dan was great to work with. We were from out of town, out of state actually Delaware and contacted several shops in the Gainesville area who could pull our Eurovan axles so we could run them over to Raxles to have them rebuilt then put them back in. Several of the shops we called just didn't sound like they knew what it would take no less interested in doing the work, could tell by how much they were quoting. About a 3 hour job total and was being quoted as if it was a 2 day job....Dan not only quoted the job correctly but also talked through it giving us a good sense that he knew what he was doing. We scheduled the work. Several weeks later we headed down and dropped off our Eurovan in the morning, Dan went over the scope of work and started in on it. We got a call about an hour and a half later that they were pulled. We ran back to his shop grabbed them and ran them to Raxles. Raxles rebuilt them, we ran them back to Dan, went to some Pickleball courts a few miles away, about an hour and half later got a call that they were back in and ready to go. Ran back over and picked it up. No drama no excuses, charged what he quoted and the work was done right. We made the journey back to Delaware again no drama. What more can you ask for! We highly recommend Hugo's for any work Dan is willing to take on, he knows what he is doing and trust us we can't say that for very many shops out there anymore. read more

Hugo is the man.. He has been in business for 36 plus years. My wife was driving home in our 1976 VW Bus when it started sputering and stopped after being off the highway. I called Hugo after finding him on the vw site www.thesamba.com and told him what was going on. I was not with her on this leg of the journey. We towed our sick bus to his shop. He had some ideas of what was wrong and got parts from suppliers before she arrived in two hours time. After my wife showed up he looked at it and found the ignition switch in the dash was at fault. He called one in and started working on it and gave my wife his personal car to go get something to eat while waiting for it to be finished. 1hr service fee and less than $120 she was back on the road. Super nice guy and was totally honest. VW People are so FANTASTIC! I highly recommend Hugo's Auto repair Service. read more

I cannot recommend Hugo and his team enough. We were traveling across country, almost to our destination when all of a sudden we are running on three cylinders. It ended up being a huge job involving a complete outer rebuild. I have never had a mechanic pay such special attention to not only every detail of the repair, but also explaining every part of the process to me along the way. I felt like we were the most important job in the shop even though they had much going on. On top of it all, Hugo is beyond fair. This job was a bear and I know he didn't charge for all of the time he could have. This place is Mecca for VW's. read more

This was my first trip to Hugo & Sons, and I cannot praise this place enough! They identified my brake problem quickly and fixed it without trying to sell me on additional unnessesary service. After the work was done, they showed me the components that had failed and explained why. I also asked for a routine 30k service, and they did a great job - again without trying to sell me on additional stuff. Hugo spent 20 minutes explaining all the different things that he checked and the status of each item. Instead of saying "this needs to be fixed now!" (like you always hear at the dealer), they told me that we should keep an eye on a few things and explained their reasoning. After I paid, I asked about doing some minor cosmetic work to my front bumper, and instead of giving me a quote they just reshaped the plastic for free! I also rode there on my bike and Hugo helped me make an adjustment with some of his tools (again - for free). They are very friendly, honest, and clearly enjoy their craft. The shop itself is small and unassuming, but don't be fooled, these are great mechanics. read more

I have used Hugo's place for car assessment (before I making a pruchase) and repairs for more almost 10 years now. I am always happy with the service and advices I received. For example, in one instance, I was told NOT to do a repair and sell the car instead as the repair was very expensive and it was not sure weather it would last very long. I paid nothing and he spend 30 mins with me, driving the car... On another occasion, he told me that he could change the top of my girlfriend's convertible car but he would be expensive because that was not his specialty. I ended up doing it on my own instead. On more recent occasions, he's made just the repair my car would need at a reasonable price. What I really like about this place is that they don't try to change parts which does not need to be change and they know that if you are on a budget, they will make repair over time if it is possible... The only drawback is that it is far (near the airport NE Gainesville) and have to leave your car there for the day... I have recommended this place to several of my friends and they all liked it. read more