San Carlos & Valley Springs Auto Repair

(As seen in San Carlos Living Magazine) What makes Toole’s Garage different is our people – Francisco, Luis, Rob, Dave, and Cameron. Dave Toole, the owner, takes great care in selecting and developing his master technicians, mechanics at the top of their game in training and experience. We rely on their skills to perform the tricky diagnoses and the complex repairs sometimes necessary to get a car running well. There are two paths in becoming a master technician. First, many talented automotive technicians entered the profession at the side of another tech, learning and watching and asking questions while picking up information and confidence along the way. In time, you can get pretty good at working on cars if you learn the right techniques from a patient mentor. Alternatively, other students enter our profession in a more academic way, enrolling in an automotive technology program at a college or trade school, and studying engines, transmissions, electrical systems, gear ... read more

What's up everybody! Dave the Car Guy! Today, I'm going to let you know the best way to find your forever Auto Repair Shop Mechanic! This is a question that people ask a lot, and with good reason. There truly is some misconception out shops out there and some of it came from some poor actions of individuals owning a business. Many auto repair shops out there today have great integrity, are convenient, and do have your best interest in mind. There are many more of these type of shops than the ones that you have heard horror stories about. The great thing about being a consumer today, is that the internet has leveled the playing field. You can get a glimpse of any company in which you would like to do business with in the privacy of your own space, by searching them online. This is how we will start our search! Step 1:   Ask a friend, family member, or colleague if they LOVE the auto shop that they use. Whether they have great ... read more

Hello Fans! It has been a bit since I have written anything for you (at least worth reading), but I wanted to tell my story of novice welder to super fabricator (in my own mind)! Sorry for the length, I am chatty today. Those of you who are local or follow us on Facebook know the Toole’s Garage truck. It was a project that started out in 2009 to be just Dave Toole building an old truck to use as a shop vehicle, durable, versatile, and a road rescue machine. Well, I started out by disassembling all the wiring to put in a new multi-circuited harness and instrumentation (nothing worked in there anyway).& This of course led to a new steering column and my first attempt at welding. I bought a welder and started to weld up all the holes on the firewall. Well, needless to say, after melting holes on the firewall and spending hours grinding off the lumps of metal filler used to weld the plugs in place, I was ready to sell the wel ... read more

We are asked this question quite a bit, so we decided to write down our OPINION on this subject. Firstly, a dealer is a great option if you do not have a solid "independent specialist" within reasonable distance of convenience. The dealer offers all high quality OEM (original equipment parts). Their skill set is generally good. There is however a big curve of skill set at a dealership. There are "just started today" low dollar apprentices all the way to high caliber/paid diagnosticians or Masters of their trade. When you take a car in for routine maintenance at a dealership, the odds that your vehicle lands in the "masters" or high cost bay is usually pretty slim. They are working on more complex work. Everyone needs to start somewhere, but at a solid independent specialist, the owner is usually one of those "masters" that went out on their own, so if they are training a newbie, you still have the "masters" eyes on your vehicle when even the simplest of tasks (oil changes, etc.) are ... read more

Hello readers, it is a sad time in a car's life when it reaches that 8 and 10 year old mark (so young) when the inevitable replacement of items starts to happen. If your shop has not been proactive in the recommendation of wear items, they can start to add up. $900 for struts, $600 for hoses, $500 for ball joints, etc. If that is all recommended at once, with some fluid maintenance, you are sitting at $2,100. The question we get asked, mostly by newer customers of ours is...."The car is not worth that much, is it?" In all fairness, some are not, but most are, depending on how you look at it. If you have a car that selling value is only $2,500 but needs $2,100 worth of work, what questions do you need to ask yourself? We have a couple. How has the reliability been? Do you still like the car? If the answers are good, and yes, the answer is "yes" it is worth it. Here is why....if you go to buy a new car, let's say 30K or so, the dollars lost are $2,400 in sales tax, not counting the imm ... read more