A few weeks ago I had the misfortune to hit a pig coming Pulehu road and the front of my Prius was toast. Took the car to Chani and he assessed the damage, (even found some things I hadn't noticed), dealt quickly and professionally with the insurance company. He got the parts and had the car back on the road in a timely fashion. This is the second time The Maui Smith shop has repaired my cars. The first time was a repair utilizing the extended warranty that also was handled quickly and efficiently. It's nice to know we have an honest and capable mechanic UpCountry. read more

Great service! Professional, honest, and well worth the drive to Kula. There are few mechanics I trust but Maui Smith Shop is stellar. I know my car is in good hands. read more

Dear Chani, Im writing you on a public forum for a couple of reasons. First, you are incredibly defensive and that makes it challenging to have my thoughts/concerns heard. Second, I judge that you are a dangerous mechanic and believe that other people need to know. We had taken our vehicles to you for just over a year. At first, we were adequately pleased with the service. Although you did complain about other customers and personal life stuff, we just let it roll off. No biggie. I was a little surprised to see a water bong in your office as that seemed a little unprofessional. Again, like water off a ducks back. I figured it was no big deal, as long as it didn't affect your workmanship. The first "issue" surfaced when we had a transmission seal replaced. It was a group of 3 seals. You replaced it and it kept leaking. So you said you would replace it again at no charge. Great. That's pono. It became very challenging to get the car in for you to replace the seals. My sweetie would set up a date and time with you to get it done, then you would forget. Then she would set up another date and time, call the day before and be told, sorry, I can't do it now. Then you would give some reason about how you have so many customers and you just can't stop to do some small kine work like that. The last time we dropped off the car, I mistakenly locked the keys in the car. My bad. Fortunately there were spare keys in a magnet. I told you about it, and you said you looked for about 90 seconds before giving up. I went up there the next day to look for the keys and found them in 3 seconds!!! Since this was my sweeties car, I had never looked for the magnet before. I called you, frustrated and you went off on me about how I shouldn't have locked them in the car and that you don't have time to look for spare keys. "You should have put the keys in my mailbox, thats what ALL my other customers do" is what you told me. After a year of working with you, that was the FIRST time you mentioned putting keys in your mailbox. We had always put the keys in the car. I just automatically locked the keys in the car this time. Keep in mind, please, that it is almost a 2 hour drive round trip, with 2 drivers and 2 vehicles to get one vehicle up there. 90 seconds seemed like a very SMALL price to pay, to find the spare keys. The next issue was when we left for a couple weeks and I left my work truck with you. I gave you a list of priorities to work on. You agreed to them. The NUMBER ONE priority -my windshield wipers getting fixed, you didn't even look at. I even texted you a priority list --TWICE! During that visit you replaced my steering arm gear box (please forgive if the terms are inaccurate as i am not a mechanic). Everything was going swimmingly until about 2 weeks later my steering was getting loose. I called you immediately and you said bring it up. As it was still driveable and I wasn't sure if it was indeed your kuliana or not, i opted to continue driving it. It's my work vehicle and I work 6 days a week. Over the next couple of weeks it got VERY loose. To the point that I was turning the wheel 90 degrees before I got any movement on the wheels. I had to stop driving it. You told me to drive it up. I told you that I was not comfortable with that as I didn't know what was going on and it was getting dangerous. I hired a mobile mechanic and IMMEDIATELY the diagnosis was obvious. The 3 bolts that hold the steering arm gear box were backing out. Almost falling out. He tightened them up and I have not had an issue since. When I called you to talk about it and ask that you pay me what I paid the mechanic (as was his suggestion) you told me that "I should have had it towed up to your place and you could have fixed it". Which makes sense. At the time, I couldn't take the risk of paying for a tow, when I didn't know what the issue was and if I was going to be re-imbursed. You never even mentioned me towing it up there. I had no idea that was an option. I've never been in that kind of situation before. You proceeded to yell at me (which I also yelled back) and to tell me all the things that I did wrong. Never once, did you apologize of take responsibility for not tightening the bolts all the way. Nor, did you seem concerned that there was any danger at all. You blamed me!! The last and final straw was when we brought my sweeties car to another mechanic and they found a BAG OF BOLTS in the distributor cap!! You are the one that replaced the distributor cap, plugs and wires. What were you thinking?! Not only that, not even a year later and some of the work you did on her car for a full tune up is faulty and having to be worked on again. My judgment is this: you are an incompetent, angry mechanic. I post this public service announcement in the hopes that others will be aware before working with you and that you may take a look at your own work and responsibilities. read more