Since my last review Jim (Anderson) has sold the place to Ryan, a longtime employee at Andersons…read more This happens often in family owned businesses, and in this case it worked out great. Ryan continues Jim's commitment to doing excellent work and helping customers maintain their automobiles at reasonable prices. More than once Ryan has told me that I'd save money taking my car elsewhere to a place that had the tools to do it. One minor change is that Ryan no longer wants to do oil changes as the costs of having so many different brands and grades of oil in the shop had become prohibitive. He'll do them, but he wants something like $50 as he now goes to the store to buy the oils you want to use.
That said, he's always been extremely honest and affordable whenever we've had repairs done there. It's still called Anderson's ( and Jim even occasionally is to be found there when things are busy), but under Ryan it remains an excellent repair shop.
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Anderson's is a small, unimpressive looking auto repair business on Country Fair in Champaign, between Springfield and John Streets. But they have earned my trust and become my go-to repair shop. Jim Anderson, the original owner is not around as much after he retired, but he made sure the shop is in good hands and he is around the shop from time to time to work on cars and check on things. I am not sure if he sold the business or simply hired more workers since he retired.
In any event, the important point is that they are scrupulously honest and highly competent. If there is a repair beyond their ability they will let you know immediately and not try to fix it themselves For example, they don't do body work. I've never had a problem with their work, never had to bring a car back, and always found their prices reasonable, even low.
More than once I've taken a car in and they tell me the fix is unnecessary or much smaller than I expected. Recently I took my van in because the brakes were squealing whenever I depressed the pedal. Expecting that I needed a brake job or rotors, I was told that when they took the wheel off they noticed the brakes had a lot of life in them but had visible rust and dirt. Their recommendation, drive the car more often; it got rusty because it sits so much of the time. He recommended that riding the brakes for a mile would be a really quick cure and wouldn't hurt anything, and he was right! He could have sold me an expensive brake job, but instead he solved the problem with no charge, not even for his time! He will always ask if you want the expensive fix or if you want the "good enough" fix when one exists. As far as I can tell, using him for ten years now, he's never sold me unneeded repairs. Even my wife feels comfortable taking her car to him without me accompanying her. He doesn't treat women any differently than he treats men. He won't take advantage of women or young people either.
That said, I'm not sure I would take a car to him if I needed a transmission rebuild or something really specialized. My hunch is it would be OK, but I have no experience with this kind of major repair (knock on wood!). If I need one, I'll ask if he can do it, but I can say for certain that he can or cannot do such repairs.
His prices, even for "expensive jobs," are always really good. Better than any other place I've found. Much better than dealerships, but that is no great feat. But his prices are always better than other independent garages I've been to. A lot of my friends use Rick's Auto in campustown, and I've used him too. Karch runs a fine shop, but Anderson's matches their quality at a much better price.
All in all, I think you should feel good taking your car to Andersons. They'll do a great job and they will tell you if you should take it elsewhere.
