I had a fuel leak on my 1977 911 that I could not figure out myself, none of the other Euro shops I had previously worked with would even take a look. I am happy I found University Imports. They cared for my car as much as I do. The part it needed was virtually impossible to find, the amount of time they put in to locate the part was worth the fair price I paid for the service alone. My baby is back on the road and runs better than it ever has. Nice guys that care about their work! read more

East university imports is one of if not the best Volvo specific in the state of iowa. I have gone there twice now and each experience was a breeze. It's a small little shop but they make quick work over there. Compared to Willis Volvo their value is so good. The first time I went I had them do a check over of my entire car and they didn't charge me a cent, which absolutely shocked me. The owner has been doing Volvo related work for over 30 years and told me all about his racing experience as well as the history of Volvo and ipd. Highly recommend this place if you own a Volvo. (They also have a shop cat that's just such a cutie) read more

Had these guys do a PCV system on an 08 S60 2.5T. Price was competitive and work is holding up well. A bonus for me was I ordered the parts and decided this job was a little over my head and they had no problem installing my parts. Four stars as it did take an extra few days, which I was ok with me as they wanted to make sure the work was done right. As long as you aren't in a rush would definitely go here again. As others noted, not sure how comfortable they are with the newer Volvos. read more

I am the second owner of a '90 740 wagon--a California car for the first 27 years of its life, so it's rust free--and I have found this place to be reliable and honest with repairs. In one case, they fixed a mistake free of charge when a brake booster repair didn't go as planned. I have not experienced the wait time issue that some have complained about. If Steve (that's the older man) doesn't think he can readily locate the part, he will tell you so upfront and call you back when he has located it and is ready to order it. This is Des Moines, after all--plenty of parts locally for Detroit Big Three and most Japanese brands and VWs, but that's not so much the case for Volvos. You can't just go down to Sunset Auto and hope to find the part. Many parts come from suppliers in California or Arizona, or abroad. There is no sensible reason to leave your car at this shop until the part has been delivered and repairs can be made. I have found the younger mechanics to be very helpful and knowledgeable. Some may seem a little edgy compared with you might encounter out in the suburbs, but that's to be expected in this location. And then there's the resident cat. The prices are fair--and there has been little or no charge to diagnose a problem. In some cases, they have caught things that even my Volvo mechanic in California hadn't totally figured out. For repairs on older Volvos, really this is your only choice now in Des Moines. Beckley on 9th Street tends to work on newer models only, and of course that's the case with the dealership (Willis). I'm told there was once another place on the South Side, but it's now long gone. If only I could find an auto paint shop that doesn't want to charge me an arm and a leg. This place doesn't do body work. read more

Really a shame what this place has become in my opinion. I first met the older gentleman who ran the place in 2012 when I had a 164e and needed some good injector cleaner. The older man is very knowledgeable with old Volvo's but unfortunately he doesn't seem to do the work anymore. The young guys he has working for him (although the kid who works there says it's his shop when he yelled for us to get the f*** out. These young guys working there Were not careful with the car and didn't care about finishing the job correctly or putting the parts back on the vehicle. My father's '91 Volvo 240 was starting poorly and I couldn't seem to get it to start in the cold right. It needed a ECT (temp sensor for the computer). I originally replaced it with a faulty part and didn't realize it, so knowing The older gentleman's knowledge I recommended this place. Unfortunately I didn't know he had rude employees. The agreement was $45 to diagnose the problem and The older gentleman said he would call if it needed anything before it was done. Sounds great so far right? My father received a call saying it was done and would be $195 but since he loves his Volvo and was happy to have it ready to drive he didn't make a stink about it. So we go to pick the car up and we pay and leave. As I'm driving it I notice the plastic panel is laying on the driver side floor that normally covers the fuel computer and I pulled over and look with my phone light and see the ignition computer and fuel pump relay are dangling down from their wires and not put back in their brackets that hold them. The plastic clips that normally hold the black carpet section up to the dash are loose on the floor and the carpet panel under the dash is completely missing from the vehicle. We turn around and drive back and The older gentleman says, "oh it should be in back," and he will ask the guy who did the repair tomorrow about where the carpet is. We drive back 4 times over the next week with no success because the guy who did the job was "sick", but to make it right they offered a nasty carpet piece from a parts car out back. The carpet that was in the car originally was FLAWLESS and some people have OCD and want their parts back exactly how they were. Is that too unreasonable? I also noticed the plastic cover for the tow hook in the bumper was missing. The car had one because I replaced it for my dad. Also one more thing to note the air box was unclipped on both sides so it was just sitting loosely against the air filter, but no big deal, easy fix. The part they installed for the ECT was a duralast and triggered the check engine light. I will be replacing with a Bosch part. Lesson learned, I will never go back and will share this unfortunate experience with my Volvo friends and anyone who asks me if I know good Volvo repair shops. If you can't figure it out you're better off taking it to an official Volvo mechanic, it will certainly cost more but you will have your car parts reinstalled and they won't scream at you to get the f*** out of their shop when you tell them how disappointing it was to have the car returned that way and making several stops back to get the original carpet piece back. Lesson learned would never let them touch any vehicles of mine again. $195 and minus original carpet and tow hook cover missing now :/ read more

HORRIBLE !! , HORRIBLE !!, HORRIBLE !! , I will start off here by saying that nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes. That being said, I will be the first to admit that " I " had failed at diagnosing a no start issue on my 1993 volvo 240. Over the years and 314,000 miles I have made plenty of correct diagnoses of issues that need fixed and the things that I have loved about my volvo are that its generaly easy and inexpensive to fix. No, I am not a professional volvo mechanic , but I do repair vehicles for an honest living So now with my experience with east university imports. Everything that I have to say here is 100% truth as it happened, no sugar coating or incorrect claims, just THE FACTS. - My 93 240 all of a sudden had a no start condition. - Raw fuel was coming out the tailpipe. - I did have spark and obviously fuel. So I got online to check for shops that might be able to help me with this. East university imports popped up that was about an hour and a half away. I called and spoke with the "OWNER" of the shop and explained my situation . I was hoping he may be able to give me some advice over the phone . He wasn't interested with giving out free advice . Understandable , right ? but he said that he was sure they could get it figured out if I just brought it in to them. I did a bit more research on their web page and read some of the reviews in which there were more good reviews than bad . The one bad review was not that old but hey they probably made a mistake too and just upset a unreasonable customer . Well.. if this customer was treated at all like I was , he was probably very reasonable and unfortunately had to deal with THE MOST unreasonable , unprofessional, insulting and rude employees ever. Back to my car, I trailered it to the shop on a sunday ,left it in the parking lot and put the key in the afterhours key drop. In my car , I left a description of the symptoms so just it case someone other than the shop owner got in to check it out, they would know what is going on. Also, I stated ,WHEN THEY FOUND OUT WHAT WA BAD OR IS WRONG TO PLEASE CALL 515-XXX-XXX. Seems like a reasonable request right? Well.. Not at this auto repair, slash powder coating, slash racing garage and whatever other businesses these jokers are running out of the building. Monday came and went with no phone call. I really didn't think much of that. Tuesday afternoon I did get a call from the Grandpa or Shop owner stating my car was up and running just like new. So with this news my initial thought was GREAT , WOW , THAT MUST OF BEEN SOMTHING QUICK, EASY AND SIMPLE LIKE MAYBE A BLOWN FUSE. Something that really didn't need authorization to actually fix. How this circus has been in business as long as they have is beyond me and just tells me that they have ripped off many many people unsuspect of their deceptive practices. So the owner claims they replaced the following. - fuel pressure regulator - new spark plugs - new distributor cap and rotor - new vacuum line - new oil filter and oil change Keep in mind here... I never gave authorization to complete ANY work ,which is required under IOWA LAW. I also never received a phone call of an estimate of what needed to be done. Which also under IOWA LAW is a customer right to have " BEFORE " any repairs are made. Knowing for a fact that the spark plugs were fine as was the distributor cap and rotor I realized the were trying to rip me off big time . So.. I knew that arguing about this over the phone was not going to work at this point .. so I went to pick up my car with two possible scenarios. 1. The car would be inside shop and I would call police to put on standby if things went south. 2.The car would be outside and I would take car to a safe location to inspect because at this point these guys were trying to rip me off and wanted the car in a safe spot where they could not try to keep it from me or sabotage it. It was outside the shop, and I had an extra key so I took it to a safe spot ,looked it over and went back to hopefully reason with them and pay them for the work that actually NEEDED to be done even though I had every right to not pay them a dime. I went in with a calm and rational attitude ready to call them out on the fact that I did not authorize ANY of the repairs but was willing to pay in cash for what needed to be fixed only. The owner and his little brat grandkids just wanted to shout obscenities and attack me and my character. absolutely no professionalism at all. none, ZERO So to make a long story short, the police came and I paid these idiots for the work they did that actually needed done for $200 less than what they were trying to scam from me . The police agreed. " I " then went and took out plugs , cap, and rotor that they replace and put old one back on that worked just fine. so... I will never go back ,ever THESE GUYS ARE DISHONEST CROOKS PERIOD. read more