This shop is overwhelmingly honest. There have now been a couple instances where the mechanics called me and informed me of something small that occurred during a repair (for example once they accidentally snapped a plastic piece on my car that I already knew was cracked and in no way affected my car's performance; honestly I probably wouldn't have even noticed if they hadn't said something to me). They always have let me know of these things as soon as humanly possible, even pausing a repair to let me know before continuing. This shows me if I can trust them with the small imperceptible details, I can trust them with larger things as well. Love to see this sort of transparency at a mechanic. Prices are reasonable too read more

Took my infinity to get the transmission changed. Two weeks later, transmission started to give problems. Had to replace it for and extra 6k. Oh.. had to go to a different shop. Never go back to Ponderosa. read more

Great service. I'll use them again and highly recommend them. They went above and beyond to get my vehicle back to me quickly since I really needed it. It's not my first time using them and not my last. read more

These guys quoted my girlfriend 1200$ and then hit her with a 1500$ to replace a break booster and 900$ in labor are you serious!? 900$ in labor for a couple hour job!? Stay away if you value your money she had to borrow money she didn't have we should have went to Care care Automotive they quoted 800$ for parts and labor. read more

We will definitely be bringing all our cars in here now. Glad we found them. Nathan was a super honest guy and didn't have any hidden or extra fees that he didn't tell us about on my mom's Lexus. read more

Carstar wanted to charge me 1200$ for a repair - I was suspicious. So, I took my Tesla to James and Ponderosa Auto. James worked with my schedule to get my car assessed and found...surprise, I needed half the parts and labor! I have referred Ponderosa to at least dozen people now and swear to be return customers. It's hard to find a good honest shop like Ponderosa. read more

Ponderosa Auto Express - Car start wanted to replace the whole underbody and control arms - nope! James was honest and fixed it right. - Auto Repair Near Me - Cameron Park, California

My 1998 Acura is still running thanks to owner James and his team at Ponderosa Auto Express. It's been in their shop several times, but the most recent two experiences really stand out. In August, I took the car down to Jiffy Lube for an oil change, and they recommended some expensive additional services. Took it over to Ponderosa and they let me know that while the services might need to be done someday, it wouldn't be unreasonable to take a wait and see approach. Then this past week, my car misfired and started shaking violently after leaving a meeting. I was just down the street from Ponderosa so I pulled in unannounced on a busy day. But they got me right in and even gave me a ride home. The problem was identified quickly and the car was fixed and picked up a day later at a reasonable price. As an added bonus, Ponderosa Auto Express regularly gives back to our local community by supporting charitable causes. James is a former County Planning Commissioner who served several years and advocated for responsible growth and upholding the General Plan. He didn't take any BS from developers, just like he doesn't tolerate any when it comes to your vehicle. read more

We love these folks. We've been taking our cars there since they've been in operation. The mechanics have consistently been of the highest quality, and they have always done everything within their power to resolve problems. James, the owner, not only knows his stuff inside-out, but is one great guy. He has made himself available on so many occasions...talk about being there for ya. As a result, he employs mechanics of like mind. No price gauging here...just honest costs for reliable work performed. The customer service is top drawer, everyone so polite and professional. And no, we're not related. ALWAYS a pleasure doing business with you, and thank you for all these years of great service. read more

We love Ponderosa Auto Express! Have been using them for about 10 years for all our cars, they are always reliable, quick, reasonable in price when we do need repairs and dependable. We're grateful to have found them years ago and will continue to use them for all our auto service needs. Thanks for always taking great care of us Nathan and everybody at Ponderosa Auto Express! read more

I requested a 100,000 mile tune up on my 2015 Ford Fusion. The staff at Ponderosa Auto Express was very knowledgeable about what my car needed and didn't need. Quality customer service at the front desk. Great value for the amount of work they did. read more

Andrew and his crew did an awesome job rebuilding the engine on our old truck. They are always super responsive, priced well, good communication, and good work! read more

Ponderosa Auto Express - Auto Repair Near Me - Cameron Park, California

I needed a seat adjustment switch for my SUV. Andrew called and got a price over $300. We both agreed that was very high and he said he would check further. He then came back with a price under $100. He was very helpful and considerate with the repair. I highly recommend Ponderosa. John F read more

Did a great job fixing my truck. The mechanic who worked on my truck (I forget his name) did a great job diagnosing the issue and communicating back to me during the time my vehicle was at the shop. read more

Ponderosa Auto Express - My engine - Auto Repair Near Me - Cameron Park, California

I cannot be more appreciative for these peeps! I did something really stupid. Every other place told me it would cost me at least $150, ouch! Called these guys as I remember my son had recommended them in the past. I am so grateful for making the call. Happy to say they solved my problem and didn't take me to the cleaners. Thank you, Jill read more

First time using this auto shop and certainly not my last! We have an RV where the AC in the driving area was not working. I called around and Ponderosa was the most accommodating to get us in quickly. We talked about the problem on the phone and they confirmed what I suspected from watching YouTube that it was likely a vacuum leak. They took care of it for a good price in good time. I was able to pick the RV up the next day and was very satisfied with the quality of the work and the friendliness of the people I met. Very professional and I highly recommend. read more

Love this place! We have had several family cars in now for various levels of service needs. Each time the staff is professional, courteous and accommodating. Prices are reasonable and the time to complete work also seems fair. read more

My trusted mechanic! Andrew is the chillest and I trust him a lot. Highly recommend. Even if they are slammed they always make time for me. Thanks guys. read more

The best auto shop in the area. They know what they're doing, know every make and model and will save you a fortune. Additionally they are very polite and professional. read more

Been coming here for car maintenance for years. This place is always busy, cars everywhere, which gives the real feel of a mechanic's shop. The guys are very knowledgeable and you can tell they are in the business because they love what they do, not just to make a quick buck. read more

Ok well after my first Yelp review of this business the owner himself contacted me. He discussed the problem with me and apologized for how the situation was handled. I was told that particular employee would be dealt with. He did give me his word that if anything ever came up with my car again he would do his best to help me out. But to only deal with him directly. That if he wasn't there, that he could always be reached. To leave a message saying it was me and his employees would get in touch with him. I was a bit hesitant at first, but he did seem genuinely concerned about the situation and how I was treated. I recently, 4 days ago, called him because I was having a issue with my car. And dammit if that man wasn't true to his word! Everything he said he would do, he did. I am truly pleased with how everything turned out. And it looks like it really was just 1 bad apple in the bunch. I love it when people can stay true to their word and I can stay local. Thanks James! I will come back again. read more

This place is a rip-off and a scam. I came here for the last few years and they seem to take advantage of repeat customers, especially women. I went for a wheel bearing on my Subaru and to check a leak in the a/c unit. They charged $800 for the services. And after they "fixed" my a/c, it was not working a few days later (still leaking.) I took it back and the guy (James) tried to convince me that they checked the system and could not find a leak. They "checked" it again, a process that took 2 days and still no leak. I took it to my friend at Mercedes and the problem was diagnosed and fixed for under $100. They are dishonest, rude if you ask "why does it cost that much?" and a true scam. WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT TAKE YOUR CAR HERE. read more

My family has been going to this place for several years. I find them to be honest with their estimate and they do an outstanding job with the work. Andrew is friendly and takes the time to explain the work they do. I highly recommend this place! read more

My thanks to Ponderosa Auto Express. I had multiple dash lights come on and make me afraid to drive my car. But who's open on Saturday? Ponderosa Auto Express was. 1. They took in my car on a Saturday without an appointment. 2. They completed repairs that same day. 3. The charges matched their quote 4. They were friendly. My Mini Cooper is back on the road and I am safe to drive again. Thanks Ponderosa! read more

I have been taking my 2003 F150 to this shop for several years. I'm a female but I'm far from dumb when it comes to figuring out there is a problem short of running a diagnostic test. I've changed my oil, filters, a couple hoses and the spark plugs that I can reach. (If you know this engine, you know what I am talking about) I take my truck here for regular lube service. This old truck is pushing 200k miles and the only major requirement has been the rotors. When these guys say change the fluid, I have them change it. When it is running rough and they say in needs a new coil wire, I have them replace it. When my rotors were shot because I've been towing horse trailers, boats and hay trailers for years with no tow brake, I change the rotors. I have done everything these guys suggest and it has never been unreasonable. If it can wait 3-6 months I may wait a few months so I can budget for the differential fluid. Having an older car is not cheap, but if you continue to keep it well serviced and are willing to accept that older vehicles need maintenance they will last even longer. The shop owner has been an honest, stand up guy. I have never felt taken advantage of, or disrespected because I am a woman. As far as the negative posts on here, if you want to save a buck, have your friends do it in their garage. If you want run of the mill service where they get you in and out and could care less of the overall picture of safety for you and those in your vehicle, go to the big commercial shop down the hill. You get what you pay for people. I've compared the labor rate to a couple other shops in the area and these guys are competitive. If I go in for an oil change I know that these guys do a once-over and they will let me know if anything needs attention. It is in their best interests! Of course they are going to suggest something if it could be fixed or replaced, they are in the business of auto repair. This does not mean they are trying to swindle you. He is telling you this because if this were his car he would make the fix himself. Local business owners support eachother, especially in El Dorado County. I don't even live in the county anymore and I still have all my service done at this shop. They know my name and most importantly they know my truck. They know what they have done in the past and what will need to be done to keep me safe and rolling down the road. read more

These guys are great. I always have problems with smog tests on my 4runner because its old. They go out of thier way to keep it as cheap as possible for me to get it completed. Said 4runner is now dead and I bought another truck. I had a question which was no concern of thiers and they came outside and looked at my truck and answered my question with a smile....no problem. I take my wifes car there as well. Highly recommended. read more

Ponderosa Auto always does a great job on our cars. James and Andrew tell us what they are going to do and if they find other issues, they always call, explain what is going on and get our approval before completing and charging for the work. We have been going there for years and are very happy with the service we receive from them. read more

I have been taking our cars to Ponderosa Auto Express since James bought the business about 6 years ago. My husband and I know next to nothing about cars, and it was always stressful having to trust mechanics before. I will never take our cars anywhere else due to 3 experiences we have had at Ponderosa Auto Express: 1) I took my car in for a regular 30k service. After going through the car, the owner called to discuss what my car needed to have done. The dreaded sales pitch call, right? Wrong! The owner went through the list of services "recommended" and actually said we could wait on a few of the things that are easily inspect-able (air filter, etc) if I wanted to space out the cost of maintenance. Shocked to have a mechanic telling me that I could do less rather than the usual "We found more extremely expensive, unexpected problems that need fixing now!" pitch we're all accustomed to, I asked him to do what he would do for his own car. It was cheaper than the initial quote (never had that happen before either), and they had it in the computer to recheck the things we didn't do when I brought that car in for the next oil change. I didn't have to remind them. Since that initial experience, I have heard the owner having similar conversations with other clients at the shop. 2) I actually heard the owner tell one customer that the particular repair he needed would cost several hundred dollars less if he took it to a national-chain competitor because they make their own parts. When have you ever had someone tell you to use their competitor to save you some money? And more than once, I have had the owner offer the option of making payments on large bills (another first at a mechanic). 3) We buy used cars because that's what we can afford. The last time we went to buy a used car, the owner of Ponderosa Auto Express inspected the car we wanted to buy for a nominal fee (I think it was $45, which I was more than happy to pay). He found a few causes for concern, then took it upon himself to call the seller (another local business owner he knows) and made sure the problems were repaired before we bought the car. He also advised us of a problem he had experienced with cars of the same make/model, and recommended we get an extended warranty so we wouldn't be screwed if this car ended up having that problem. He didn't make any money from us buying the warranty, he just wanted to make sure that we wouldn't be on the hook for a thousand dollar repair. After 6 years of using Ponderosa Auto Express, none of our used cars has ever broken down or needed any major repairs. We highly recommend using them! read more

I forgot that I have tamper on my intake that it was supposed to take off plus there is no eo number on intake since I wrote it down on my paper and they never said anything and went ahead took smog test and failed. The reason why failed was because they saw that there are no eo number plus tamper and that's why failed and forced me pay in full price. I even took my vehicle to king smog in el dorado hills, they saw the same thing and being honest told me that it will fail and not want to run the test til I fix it....... Ponderosa auto express don't care about you, they need the money, I even came back to finish the smog check and made me paid 38.25 as final price. Rippppppp offfffff. read more

These guys were awesome! I was coming back from Tahoe and my brakes needed readjusting in a pinch. Andrew was super helpful and explained everything thoroughly. I was out the door in an hour and a half for under $100. Great service! read more

The team at Ponderosa Auto Express always give a fair estimate, and they back it up with solid workmanship. I've taken 3-4 of our vehicles there over the last 10 years, we've never been disappointed. read more

These guys are great, no "up selling", no pressure, just very good service! My truck was done when they said it would be, fixed right, and they even gave me a ride to my job and came and picked me up later. Nice to have a shop I can trust! read more

My car was overheating so I went to the closest shop, It being ponderosa auto express. The man told me he would figure out what was going on and charge me for one hour of labor, unless they saw right away what the issue was ( example: radiator leak) they wouldn't charge. I received a call later that the radiator had been leaking and needed fluid and in order to do an engine check they needed to replace the radiator for over 600 dollars. I decided I would bring the car elsewhere and came the next day to pick it up. They made me pay 47.50 despite having not done any work and knowing my car needed fluid didn't even have the decency to put a little in for me And worst of all left the radiator cap off which would have been a disaster especially with my one year old in the car. This place doesn't care about people only money I wouldn't trust them with any of my cars read more

Been taking my vehicles to James for several years. Always does a good job during smog time. Once car had to be towed in and they diag the problem and fixed it within the quote they gave me. Good honest mechanics. read more

Trustworthy and honest mechanic. When I go there I know I'm getting the best price by people who know how to work on cars.

Be very careful and double check with competitors before committing to their analysis or price quote. I have a Diesel Truck. 1 year and 5 months ago, 13k miles ago...I had a leak in my fuel filter housing. I was charged $450.00 for a rebuild, think simple O Rings only and labor. It failed recently and I took my truck back. It was out of warranty by 5 months and 1k miles. I was told that when they asked Diesel mechanics, that some housings can't be rebuilt and will keep failing. This left me with them rebuilding it again, at my cost again...or paying them $600.00 for the new housing and about a thousand dollars for the complete job. It is two bolts to put a new one on, with two fuel lines and a wire connector, my guess is less than an hour of work to simply replace with a new one. I just looked online and to my surprise I can buy a brand new housing complete for $127.00. I can replace it myself in about 20 to 30 minutes. Why I was steered in the rebuild direction originally is that they wanted to maximize their cash flow, and since it failed within 13k miles were poised to make more money off of me. My guess is I could have saved about $300.00 from the first issue, and likely wouldn't be dealing with this again now. When I paid them for the first analysis, it would have been nice if these Experts would have given me some options to consider instead of the raping they extended to me. I will not do business with them again. My hope was to find somebody locally to work on my vehicles that I can trust...but it is very apparent to me that they don't shoot straight. My suggestion, is look somewhere else...they are either incompetent, won't back their work or taking advantage of customers when they can. Maybe all three....just know I could have accomplished this fix at half the cost if they were straight, when factoring in the cost of the initial analysis. BE CAREFUL... read more

I went there couple of months ago for a transmission service and flush. I left my car there for a service and when I came back that skinny guy on the front desk said that some transmission cooler line that goes on the top of radiator is split in line, and I gotta replace it immediately because it's gonna start leaking soon and I'm gonna loose all my trans fluid. He said it's gonna cost me $250. After that I took my car to a mechanic guy that I know, he does it at his home, so he took a look at that and he couldn't find any damaged hoses, so basically everything was fine. But he wanted to check if some bolt or clamp was tight enough, so he checked it and it was loose. People, watch out for what they recommend you to fix, double check that with someone else if you can't do it yourself like me. And one more thing. My trans fluid eventually started leaking I went to transmission shop and the guy told me that my transmission oil pan is too old and it needs to be replaced, I was wondering why, because I just had trans service recently, and they should've replace that, on what he just said "you just got a bad service, mam". This place can't do their job right and they want to rip you off recommending to fix something you don't need! read more

we had some differences about my vehicle, but me not knowing anything about the mechanics world, well we had a very nice conversation. The owner (James) was willing to make it right, (even though I was probably wrong) and being a business owner myself he impressed me on his character, that in itself says a lot about a person as well as a business owner......I believe him to be a straight shooter.....well done James!! read more

I needed a smog test for my vehicle. I couldn't schedule an appt. for that day, however they had a couple of times for the following day available. James did a very good job of explaining the results and I was out the door in less than an hour. I spoke with two other customers while waiting and they also expressed their happiness with their dealings with Ponderosa Auto Express. read more

If you own a foreign car do not take it here! I had just picked my car up from their shop, paid over $1800.00 in service on my Mercedes. I called them before I took to them to ask if they could do the required Service due and they said no problem, they have the same codes as the dealer. I trusted they new what they were doing. Only I left their shop and drove to Costco and as I was leaving Costco my car went dead and lost all power, so I coasted to the side of the road thankfully and had to call a tow truck. They said there was fuel all over the ground, and they were not going to pay for the tow. My car was running fine when I took it to them for the regular service, so somehow the fuel line clip had come off at some point, and my fuel tank showed half full of fuel when I picked it up and when I got the car back after they fixed from the mess. So had to add another tow charge on my already $1800 bill to them, it was no fun being stuck on the side of the road at night and I did not think I should have had to pay them for the tow. I will never go to them again, the boss wouldn't even admit that his tech's must have messed the fuel line up. I saw the clip and it looked fine, not sure what they did but they did something they were not supposed to do. read more

Wonderful Shop. I have had 5 vehicles with Ponderosa over the years everything from Service to Radiator Replacement, to Window Motor Replacement. Shop has been on time, up front, fair with pricing, most importantly - the quality! high recommend. read more