My daughter has a 2005 Mini Cooper. She is disgusted with the service her nearest Mini dealer provides (poor diagnoses and very expensive), and has tasked me with finding a good independent mechanic, She lives in Bolton MA (half way between Boston and Worcester) and would like someone between Bolton and Providence. I live in Washington State, and do not have local contacts. I am looking for an independent who is both competent and honest. Any suggestions or references to call would be welcome. Please email (philbirkeland@gmail.com) or phone (253.279.9724 cell). I am 3 hours behind you, so please do not call before 10:00 am your time . Thank you, Phil Birkeland

this guy comes well recommended. http://www.greasysgarage.com/main/

Thanks, I'll check him out. Phil

This guy has a nationally known reputation.

As Zackary stated; http://www.greasysgarage.com/main/

There is no other.
Al.

Yep, Pete (Greasy's Garage) all the way! He will take care of you and if you tell him that I sent you he will charge you 10% more....

Seriously, Pete is the man and you can rest assure that he will not take advantage of her, he is an honest mechanic.

+1
I go there....great place for like 90% of anything a mini will ever need.
Not a super fancy shop, but convient scheduling, and Pete the Mini mechanic does most of the work on mini's...he owned/moded a mini, and his shop is the hangout spot for lots of folks from the Massmotoring club (seperate site) that is a mini centric group of drivers in the mass/nh/ri and a few folks from Maine, VT, and CT too!!

Thanks much. You are now the third person recommending him. Best, Phil.

+1

It is good to see so many other folks appreciate a good, hard working, competent, honest guy like Pete (AKA Greasy!)!

Who's Pete?

As far as I am concerned, Pete is the only one to go to. He is the best mini mechanic around.

Greasy's is certainly the best place for the OP's daughter.

I haven't tried them---no need.

For those of you/us a bit further west in Mass, I highly recommend Luke Zbylut at Zbylut Motors in Amherst. He's been taking care of my '03 R50.

He's extremely knowledgeable about Minis and all other common German brands. He does fine, careful work and will keep them operating at 100%. Plus, he's a really nice guy.

http://www.zbylut.com/

Hudson is one town southeast from Bolton. At the easternmost part of town, just past the Lake Boon General Store on Main St. (Almost to Stow) is Bolts Garage. David specializes in Mini and BMW, and does a great job. Since ours is still under warranty, we don't use him for much, but he's been good enough to swap out snow tires for cheap, replace a bulb here/there, and answer questions we've had - and it sure beats driving down to Herb Chambers for everything.

http://www.boltsgarage.com/