It's hard to find an honest mechanic these days, But Mike works hard for his customers at a fair price! I've been coming here for years and I wouldn't go anywhere else! I highly recommend Mike/Esser Automotive to anyone looking for quality work at a reasonable price! read more

Trustworthy, fair, reliable, and great communication is what you can expect at Esser. This is the only place I feel safe taking my car, knowing that I won't get taken advantage of for not knowing a lot about automotive repair. read more

I cannot say enough about this shop. Mike and Julie are AMAZING. Mike is the only one I trust to do the work on my very tired, but rusty and trusty Suburban. Absolutely worth every penny and then some. Thank you so much for the kind and exceptional love and care you put into your work. read more

This one is probably long overdue. I've known Mike (the owner) for many years, and he is one of a kind when it comes to mechanics. A quick little story. A long time ago, I took my old 1992 Honda to Mike when my heat wasn't working. I literally had hundreds of dollars in my pocket, getting mentally prepared to drop a lot of cash to fix it. I brought it in to the shop, and Mike checked it out. A half hour later, he came out and told me that my heat was fixed and he charged me just $20 for the labor. I was extremely surprised and asked him what was going on with it. He took me over to my car, opened the hood, and showed me a little switch near the engine that would make the heat kick up and told me that my dials inside weren't making it switch on. He showed me how to get my heat to work, but told me I could come in during the summer to get it fixed permanently because my A/C wouldn't work when the time came. I was young, didn't know much about cars, and could have easily been taken advantage of. This was 10 years ago, and I still remember that moment. The integrity that Mike has makes him one in a million. He will tell you when something can wait, or, if something needs to be repaired, he'll repair it (with great workmanship, I might add,) and at a fair price. My car has 160K miles on it and it runs almost like new thanks to him. The shop is family owned and ran by family members and close friends, which is a big plus in my book. There are always friendly faces in here and the intimidation factor is non-existent. You can tell how good the shop is because of all the cars always in the parking lot and the comments that I hear from customers while I'm sitting there waiting for my car to be fixed. In this economy, you need a good mechanic because you need to get your car fixed right the first time and for a fair price. I'd wholeheartedly recommend this shop to anyone, especially if you don't know a lot about cars because Mike won't take advantage of you. I've had a few of my friends go to this shop to get their cars repaired and they have been satisfied, as well. I've brought my car in fairly recently for oil changes and what not. Thankfully, nothing has been acting up too bad, especially considering that my car has over 160K. When I bring in my car for an oil change, I notice that the battery is cleared of buildups and the windshield washer fluid is topped up. It's small, but it shows he really cares. I'd highly, highly, recommend this shop! You will not be disappointed! read more

I took my car here to perform a complete break job (rotors and pads; both axels). First off quality of work was worthy of zero stars. Driving out of the shop my breaks were squealing, screatching, screaming. The sounds coming from all new parts installed made me believe he reused old parts he had laying around instead of new parts. My car wouldn't even make sounds before the service and for 4 months after would absolutely ear piercing scream. The type of sound that makes you roll down the window and listen to hear if that is actually your car or the rust bucket next to you driving - it was mine. I returned 2 weeks later to inform Esser of the sounds. His response, "sometimes new parts do that. Try going to a parking lot, put it in reverse, accelerate and slam on the brakes a few times to wear them in". Are you F'ing kidding me ?! The quality of services performed and overall customer satisfaction and reply to my concerns after work completed makes me utterly shocked this guy is in business. I strongly feel the positive reviews on this Yelp are from friends, family and current employees at Esser Automotive. DO NOT TAKE YOUR CAR HERE! read more

I know a lot about cars. I can spot BS from a mechanic from miles away. I am long past fixing cars myself so I have the guys at Esser do all my work. They are Fast Fair and full of integrity. As for the one star review post, she must have walked into a shop in a alternative universe , is confused, or an out and out liar. I've been using Esser since they opened up and I have never ever have heard bad things about them. I've referred dozens to them and everyone has had the same great experience. Heck, my mother drives 53 miles to have her Altima serviced here!!! Yelp. That one star review is from a troll who never visited Esser. That's my guess. read more

I have been going here for a few years and have had no problems with them. I owned a Prelude and the local Honda dealership in Crystal Lake gave me nothing but problems, excuses, poor service, and either misled me or flat out lied about fixing the problems on the car. Needing an alternative, I stumbled across Esser. A small repair place but they do good work. I recently replaced my Honda with a Nissan. The brakes were starting to go and I took it here earlier this week. They fixed it up very quickly, and the bill was a little bit cheaper than the initial quote. For the one star review - quotes are just estimates. There could be more wrong with the car than they initially found, which consequently could cost more. Looking at the outside of the place, they look small and on their sign on the street says 'honest and inexpensive' or something along those lines. Every time I see that I think that is what a sleazy used car dealer would say. However, my experiences here have found the sign to be completely true. This is my first choice for car repair. read more

Great service. Very reasonable prices. No BS given by any employees, just good work. The only place I will trust with any of my vehicles. Keep up the great work..... read more

This is one of the few honest mechanics around! I have used them multiple times and they always tell me honestly what needs to be done and nothing else. One time they even told me to go to the dealership since the repair should be covered under warranty! They could have easily done the work and made a couple of thousand from me. I had a van with an issue that no one could diagnose. Other shop charged me for a bunch of other work to fix the issue yet it did nothing. The manager of other shopped even told me that he heard nothing! Clint quickly researched the issue online and immediately figured out that it was a common fault with this vehicle. Work was done and guess what, it was fixed! I highly recommend them to everyone! Julie runs a very efficient front office and Mike and Clint are very good mechanics! read more

Tried this place for the very first time and was very disappointed by the customer service. I was quoted one price and then upon pick up I was told another. What kind of business does this? I was never given a call for a change of quote. Also my car was dirty with grease on the inside of the passenger door as well as drivers seat. I WILL NOT go back to this place. Not to mention the manager is a prick. read more

We had a frustrating and aggravating month of trying to repair an alternator problem that other "professionals" failed to correctly diagnose, but Esser Automotive took the time to listen and more importantly fixed our car. There was a group of three dash lights (battery/brake/door ajar) that would flash intermittently while driving the car after it had warmed up, rain or shine, usually at 1,500 rpms, but not when the headlights were on. I had searched the internet for similar symptoms and found many owners who had experienced the problem and it pointed to the alternator. Replaced the alternator but the problem persisted. Replaced the alternator again, thinking that it may have been bad but the problem persisted. Took it to the local Honda dealer service department who charged me $79.95 for a diagnosis and said they couldn't reproduce the symptoms; their solution was to replace the alternator ($550) and fix an ABS code ($443). They actually told me they didn't think that would fix the problem with the three dash lights flashing, but we would start there. Again, the alternator had been twice replaced so I insisted it must be something else; they weren't sure. Needless to say, I took the car to Esser Automotive and after taking the time to look past the symptoms he found it wasn't the alternator (or the ABS) it was a wire to the alternator, which he fixed (for $150) and the problem is solved. Thank you for repairing my car!! read more