Euro-Latino Racing-Services | Mechanic and Parts

Doing some maintenance at our Toyota Landcruiser 78. Mostly checking things. The German owner Matthias, the Mexican manager and our mechanic were very friendly. All speak English, communication was not really a problem. Our mechanic was very good. The price was fair.

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we had to change our turbo. brought the parts from Germany. the inspection of our motorhome made clear, that we have to fix other parts. we sendet it from Germany in two days by UPS to Laredo (Texas). Matthias picked them up there.

be prepared that this will need some time. Then it takes a lot of patience.

most important for us was the very good and friendly Service, both, the employees and Matthias.

The bill in our case was absolutely fair!
Thanks for all! Andrea and Jürgen

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Probably one of the best group of mechanics/bodywork in Latin America.
The owner is German, speaks excellent English and is friendly, competent, and fair. His father is a famous race car driver in Germany. He and his fellow workers can fix anything from Classic cars to any type of RV. He has specialists in aluminum welding, fiberglass repair, motor rebuilds, suspension, etc.
And his prices are very fair. This isn’t a roadside shop running out of an old container, it’s a professionally run shop with access to new parts who will go the extra mile to get the job done properly and on time. All this while maintaining a friendly and chill environment. Highly recommended.

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After 100Tkm through South America, our Truck camper needed a thorough maintenance. Matthias is an absolute expert, very friendly, very helpful not only with repair work, a great host at the same time and good friend. We stayed at his place three times for some days, it was a great pleasure to work together with his very friendly staff, the works had been carried out to our full satisfaction and at fair costs. We left our truck half a year in his storage for a very reasonable price, could not have been better. Many thanks Matthias for your help and friendship!!

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Great overall experience at Euro-Latino racing services. Arrived a bit late on Saturday so there was no mechanic available to work on our car. Matthias invited us behind his computer and provided more then enough recommendations to spent the weekend in San Miguel de Allende and we would not have wanted to miss all this afterwards. On Monday his team did a general inspection of our car and fixed/clarified a couple issues that it had so it is ready for the US. All very professional work and for a very fair price. Highly recommend this place and if you are in to cars it is definitely worth a visit because they have some interesting projects going on!

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We came here after we had some weird noises on our Sprinter van (from 2002). Matthias (the owner) is a really really friendly guy, he took our car for a test drive and found the problem quick. They were able to change the broken part quickly. They also did an oil change, transmission and differential oil change and brake fluid change.

Matthias also recommended us some good places to go and visit on our trip through Mexiko. He speaks German, English and Spanish.

We stayed at the shop while we were there. Matthias offered us his shower too. They can take you to the town if you need something.

I recommend to go to this shop if you need your car fixed or just some maintenance. Matthias knows a lot of European cars and his mechanics are very friendly guys!

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We stopped here twice. Matthias and his team are professional, friendly and won't rip you off. We got several rides into the city, the bank and grocery store from some of the guys. You are able to stay at the shop, use their bathrooms and showers if needed. It is definitely iOverlander friendly and a great option if you need any work done on your vehicle.

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We had an oil change and vehicle check done. The work was done carefully and competently. The billing was very fair! Matthias is very hospitable, gives valuable tips about the vehicle and the country.

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Mathias and his team make a good, clean and technically proper job. They are all very friendly and helpfull. He can repair vehicles of all kinds of very exotic brands. In addition, Mathias has plenty of information about Mexico and shares them gladly. He also offers the possibility to undertake the vehicle during a home vacation in its hall. For the duration of the repair you can stay on his terrain and he provides a kitchen and bathroom with hot shower. So we can only recommend him to the necessary repairs.
Thank you Mathias and team for all what you did for us. We come back for sure. See you soon.

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Matthias knows everything about Cars and Trucks. We did a lot of Work on our Mercedes 1017 and during our stay Matthias offers his Shower and other Services. We slept in our Truck in the Garage. Very good Service and the Crew is amazing and friendly. Just bring a little bit Time. Worth every Dollar for sure. We did not have such a knowledgeable Crew since we left Europe 2y a go.

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Matthias knows everything about any cars (in our case an uncommon Iveco) and will find solutions for every problem. Matthias is very helpful and offered the bathroom and a camping option inside and outside of his building, while his team worked on our truck. We preferred the profound knowledge - and the easement of communicating in german language - for a detailled and professional checkup of your car at 100.000 km. We were not looking for the cheapest mechanic as obviously do others, who complain about prices and risk to loose these rare high quality Overlander-Places... If you just have repairs any mexican mechanic with a typical mexican "garage" can fulfil, maybe you should go there? Matthias with his halls and quality tools calculated the working time, used material etc. absolutely fair. We met another overlander with the same experience. In the US, Canada or Europe you would have to spend much more money for the same work, despite the fact, that you need the service "on the way".

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We wzere from 28. to 30.10. 2019 here in the workshop of Euro-Latino. Matthias Heyer, German car technology, has very, very good expertise and always finds a good solution for problems with all makes. his team is competent and the billing was correct. Only you have to bring time and patience. We felt well cared for. This workshop can only be recommended.

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Great stop for all kind of cars; Matthias is a German car mechanic and very helpful with all kind of problems; he offers also space to store your car,camper,RV etc. for a while in his hangar- dry and safe!

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Dear Vantastiks,

I have been thinking for a long time, if at all to respond to such an unqualified comment like yours. But after speaking with a lot of other Ioverlanders visiting our shop, I got convinced to do so.
Well, here we are:
- Please tell us next time that you had installed WRONG parts from a complete different car BEFORE asking us to search them, because these old parts did not work as they were to do for obvious reasons.
- We had checked autozone first, but for above reasons, the parts were very different to the ones installed to your car. We told you, and with your approval kept on searching in other places up to 150 km (!) away, to serve you well: If you would have told us BEFORE, there even would not have been a problem.
- Still I gave you the courtesy of NOT charging you for all the extra hours, the fuel and time for trying to find your parts.
Please stay honest with your critics in future.
- Your car showed severe corrosion problems in the suspension parts, and we showed you while disassembling. We are sorry that repairs like this therefore take more time to be done the correct way. We even had to weld your car to solve these problems !!!!!
- you showed up at our shop without having an appointment. No problem here at all: As we are working on other cars normally, we still squeezed you in in our normal working schedule. I think that allows our team to work on other cars, while waiting for the CORRECT parts to arrive, do you really think different here ?
- You wanted the control arms mounted the way it was done, my recommendation was a little more quality( coming back to the welding here . .. .), don´t you remember ?
- Without going into detail, my calculation of the hours was different than the one you write here in Ioverlander, please stay with the truth.
- All this together accumulated to even more than 72 hours, yes !
- Still you are unhappy that we were giving you 50% (!!!) of discount, hours and hour price combined ???
- Still you are unhappy, that we are eating up your mistake with letting us search the "wrong" parts up to the city of Leon ???
- Please do us the favor, in future return to some of the shops which are working at the side of the road and doing bad quality repair. As we have been solving for you some of those self-made problems also, you should be happy.

Final Sentence: We are sorry that you did not understand, and that you have not been pleased with us.

This is the second time we are running into problems with people wanting 150% quality, but only want to pay the price of shops at the street corner. Most traveler we have had the honor of getting to know and even develop a friendship have been amazing and cosmopolitan people ! I do not want to offend anybody here, but it is unfair to be attacked this way. Please stay by the truth, and expect quality work and knowledge to be not for free, but for fair and rational prices !

We are doing quality work here for fair prices. Unfortunately, we are not perfect, but we really try to do the best possible work/solution to every problem we might help you with.

I stand for my words !

Matthias

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Part 3)
On Saturday, Matthias presented us the bill and it was a real slap in the face for us. He told us he had stopped counting the hours when he reached 72 hours. With the noted work and the approximation we did, we reached a total of ~15 hours of work on our van. He explained us that he had made the following calculation to reach his 72 hours: 4 days of work × 9hours per day × 2 mechanics. While on site, we saw only during 2 hours 2 mechanics working at the same time on our van (during 22hours of observation). Moreover during 10 hours of observation, no work was done on and around our van. One entire day, Tuesday, was dedicated to buying spare parts. When they told us about that on Monday, I researched the parts on autozone. I found them all, apart the brushing, in the shop 3 miles away. He went either way on a whole day shoping coming home late night, comenting he could not find the parts. I drove with him the next morning to Autozone, showed him the parts, bought by them, they were fitting perfectly.
After long discussion with Matthias, he offered us to pay "only" 42 hours of work. He had previously offered us his special discount for overlanders, and billing us only 50 hours. He made clear he would not go any lower than 42 hours. So we paid and left.

We waited now a month before writing a comment because we wanted to undersand if we had made a mistake. We visited other mechanics to gather other point of views and we can now affirm that 72 hours of work was pure fantasy. We have the feeling that we got ripped off. We don’t think this is a scam, but just a really poorly managed shop.
We discussed the issue with Matthias during 2 hours he had no better answer than lowering the hours down to 42. We sadly can't recommend this place, even with the good work done.

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Part 2)
Regarding the work on our van, they replaced both control arms on the front, replaced tie rod ends, replaced the drag link, both auxiliar arms, repainted the parts not changed to protect from oxidation. They also replaced the bushings on both ends of both sides of the leaf spring. They also changed 2 hoses for the radiator and cleaned the AC Unit, and fixed our electric window. Finally, on our demand, they treated and repainted a metal part of 40 cm2 and replaced a propane hose.

Up to now (1 month after reparation), mostly everything that has been done seems to work. We only had two loose bolts on the steering that we fixed, and the electric window that doesn’t work anymore, but the rest is all good.

The big issue for us resides in the management. On day 1, we asked Matthias to give us an approximation of the costs and the hours of work that we were facing. This to plan how long we would stay and how much it would cost us. He told us he would talk with his mechanics. In total we asked 3 times, and never received an answer until the end. We were on site from Tuesday 8am-2pm, Wednesday from 8am- 1pm, Thursday 08am-7pm, Friday 8am- 10am, 2pm-7pm, Saturday 08am - 1pm. So we can say that we're on site more than half of the time. While there, we noted down the hours of work and who was working on our van, this as a back up security for us.

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Part 1)
CAREFUL!! Read until the end!!

Edit: on the 24th of July, so only 22 days after our visit at Euro-Latino, we had to go to the mechanic again...our steering system was making weird noises. The mechanic showed us how the control arms had been badly mounted. He also told us once more that the hours we paid at Matthias were WAY TOO HIGH!! He could not believe it. Definitely disappointed about the work done.
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We have mixed feelings about our experience with Matthias and his shop.

Background information: we own a Dodge Ram B250 1988 and had done regular maintenance on it. We showed up at Matthias shop in order to have a diagnosis done on our rig and fix the encountered issues.

We stayed from Tuesday 0930 to Saturday 1230 at his shop while they were working on our vehicle. During this whole time, Matthias showed us the best hospitality ever. We could us his bathroom and warm(!!) shower, and members of his staff drove us 3 times into town. They were really kind with us and answered every mechanical question we had. Matthias gave us also a lot of really nice insiders tipps about Mexico and was always keen to help us on any matter.

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Mathias is a German and Mexican in spirit. A wonderful combination of great efficiency , technical Know-how and amazing hospitality. Who would offer his private bathroom, kitchen and fridge to a total stranger!
He also made an appointment with a German doctor for me. My car was
checked thoroughly. Shoddy work from the past was rectified. He is absolutely reliable and charges correctly for his excellent work.

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helpful owner, serviced F350 brakes, changed transmission fluid,oil etc. access to showers in daytime when the shop is open. Wi-Fi available but poor signal when the shop door is closed. buses on the main highway for 10 pesos to centre of town.

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We ended up here during Semana Santa, we were driving to Bernal and our Chevy truck started to have some serious mechanical problems. We managed to drive to Matthias' place on a holiday, and since the first minute he was such a welcoming person. He offered us to use the toilets, shower and even the kitchen at his workshop.

After the holiday, they thoroughly examined our car and it turned out our truck was more damaged than we thought. We were devastated but they really took the time to show us and explain each and every part that was missing or damaged.

In the end we decided to bring the truck to the US, so that we could have our Mexican TIP deposit back and sell the truck in Texas. Matthias brought our truck on his trailer free of charge and even dedicated a whole day to check some second hand trucks we were interested in. We ended up buying a truck that he checked during a few hours for us!

After going to Texas we came back to San Miguel (where we had left our camper) and they took care of all the maintenance that needed to be done on the new truck.

These guys are true professionals, they build vintage rally cars and even collaborate with the organization of the World Rally Car in México, and the price of their work reflects their professionalism and expertise.
So If you are looking for a cheap and dirty mechanic, this is not your place!

Mathias and his team were also very kind and helpful!! We stayed a total of 10 days sleeping in our camper (for free) and followed their advice to go visit the city by public transportation. San Miguel is truly beautiful!

We will always be greatful to Matthias and his team, they helped us a lot during difficult times.

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Hi Everybody
I am Matthias, the German Owner of Euro-Latino Racing-Services, and I think I need to ad some more words here:
FIRST : Our Location is absolutely correct now: On Carretera 111, just 4 km outside of San Miguel de Allende, heading to Queretaro, and 150 meters close to "Zirandaro - Residencial".
SECOND: Let me thank you for the friendly comments - honestly Mexico treated me very well over the years, and I like to pay back. So we really try to do everything to help & comfort travelers here, and show that Mexico really is a great and safe place to travel. Everybody is welcome here, no difference if you have a new or an old Mobile Home, Car or Bike or whatever ;-)

THIRD, AND IMPORTANT: Please do not abuse us, or think that we work like some small shops "on the side of the road"!
We have a 1.000 square meter shop here with 10 professional mechanics, and we are willing to repair everything possible !!

And up to today, we have been able to help everybody.

I have been traveling a lot before settling down here in beautiful San Miguel de Allende, so I understand most needs and problems: Therefore we provide you here with a safe space ( 24-Hour Security Guard ) to stay over night, if you may need a repair or not. You can use our shower etc. for free, no problem. You even might use my kitchen, if you like. During repair, or if we can, we will give you a ride into town for free, but maybe ask you to come back with a Taxi at night - depending on plans . . .

FOURTH: Due to that resent case with a very abusive German couple, I unfortunately, but absolutely, need to state here the following:

You expect professional "German" Work, and you will get it.
We expect "normal" Clients - people who will not try to abuse our will to help into the night and on Saturdays or Sundays, if needed.

Please be aware, that from today on unfortunately I need to select our will to help a little bit, and I am very sorry that I have to write
this sentence here - up to that case, I only had real nice experiences with people traveling Mexico.

PLEASE do not try to abuse or trick people willing to help you during your adventures . . . !

Matthias

YOU ARE WELCOME IN MEXICO, ENJOY YOUR STAY IN BEAUTIFUL SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE !!!!!

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Sorry, I need to state some big corrections here to a comment made by felixklein, who fraud our shop in a very very bad way :

- That Nissan Pick-Up was in really bad conditions, you never invested any money in needed service.
- WE DID NOT WORK ON YOUR DIFFERENTIAL !!!!!!
I DO NOT LIKE LIES, AMIGO !!!
- YOU replaced the original differential with a used and worn out & hardly repaired differential some time before coming to our shop.
You asked us to replace the input shaft seal & wheel bearing seals on that worn out diff. - what do you expect ???????
We told you to check the oil level frequently, and hope that you survive.
OR INVEST IN YOUR CAR FOR GOOD PARTS !!!!!! HOW CAN YOU GIVE US THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIS ???
- We did NOT add % to the spare parts we bought for you. Autozone did NOT have the correct Master Cylinder ( I TOLD YOU !!! ).
We had to make calls for 45 minutes, and had luck to find a correct part in a very small place/shop & junkyard in more than 60 km distance ( between Celaya and Queretaro ! ).
I had to send a mechanic there to solve your problem, and correct: This place did not give me any ticket - I told you !!!!
- We also could have ordered the correct part for a 3-4 day delivery from Mexico-City, but I think for 30,- USD price difference of what WE HAD TO PAY TO GET YOUR CORRECT PART, there is nothing to say against !!!
- Sorry, we are a prof. shop with 10 mechanics. Of course I do not do all the work myself. I have my specialists, well educated Mechanics, some of them even studied engineers.
All of them doing a professional job on high-class restoration. IF THIS IS NOT CLASSY ENOUGH TO WOrK ON YOUR 1980th NISSAN WORN-OUT CAR, I DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU LIKE US TO DO ?????
- YOU SAY : " He himselfs will not work on the car . . . . only the mexican mechanics working on the car " HOW CAN YOU DO SUCH DISCRIMINATION ???
YOU ARE A GUEST IN MEXICO, FOR HEAVENS SAKE !!!! At least have some respect for the people !!!!!
- Yes, of course we charge 400.- Pesos per hour for a prof. mechanic, working on your car. And I told you, that this is a special price for you travelers !!!
Normally I have to charge 425,- Pesos for a Mechanic hour.
( If you like to have your car repaired on a shop at the side of the road, where people steal the electricity, do not pay rent, do not have insurance, do not have any mechanical deduction, etc. you are free to go there. But if you like to have prof. work, you should be happy with17,50 USD per hour. I think this is a very very low price for everybody - special because I charge you arround 5,- USD less than I normally have to charge . . . WHAT DO YOU EXPECT ?
- Your car is NOT the second most common car in Mexico: First of all it is a European car - your cars version does not exist in Mexico. You put in a complete different used engine, after your old one blew up due to lack of maintenance. Also your differential was not the correct one, and it was our problem, to find the correct filters, seals etc. for you. This usualy takes time, and to get the correct parts, we additionally needed to drive to a specialized shop in 55 km distance to compare your used parts to buy the correct seals !!!!!!!!

- Yes, I told you, that the work you asked us for would be around 500,- USD.
BUT YOU ASKED US TO DO A LOT OF EXTRA WORK AFTER WE SHOWED YOU THE CONDITIONS OF YOUR CAR - SO WHY DO YOU LIE HERE ?????
- WE INVESTED MORE THAN 55 (!) HOURS OF WORK INTO YOUR CAR - I CHARGED YOU A FRACTION OF THAT !!!!!!!
MAKE YOUR CALCULATION : 55 HOURS x 400,- PESOS = 22.000,- PESOS. PLUS 7.500,- PESOS OF SPARE PARTS = 29.500,- Pesos = 1.475,- USD.
- I WANTED TO CHARGE YOU LESS THAN 20.000,- PESOS TOTAL !!!!

AND I AM RIPPING YOU OFF ??????

We replaced front and rear brake pads ( DIAMOND QUALITY !!!), replaced both rear brake cylinders, grinded your brake discs ( I EVEN DID NOT CHARGE YOU FOR THAT !!!), We replaced engine oil, trans. oil, oil filter, fuel filter, air filter, replaced shock absorber joints and bolts, the out steering joints, all sway bar joints, nuts & bolts, repaired a lot of your electric in the engine compartment, and had to fix a lot of other problems on your car to keep you going !!!!

AND YOU REALLY THINK WE HAVE BEEN EXPENSIVE ????

YOUR BAD ATTITUDE OF RIPPING OF OTHER PEOPLE DOES HAVE CONSEQUENCES TO ANYBODY ELSE VISITING MEXICO:

PEOPLE OF YOUR KIND ARE KILLING FAIR CHANCES FOR EVERY OTHER FAIR TRAVELER !!!

PLEASE, DO NOT EVER COME BACK TO OUR TOWN - WE ARE USED TO HONEST TOURISTS AND TRAVELERS HERE !!!!!!!!!!!!

PLEASE, EVERYBODY IS WELCOME IN MEXICO, BUT WE DO NOT LIKE PEOPLE LIKE YOU, FRAUDING US HERE !!!!!

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Warning! Please be careful with this shop. We got kind of ripped off and they screwed up our Differential. 700 Kilometers later we had to go to the Mechanic again.
They charged us, for the spareparts, way more than they did cost in the "Auto Zone" Shop down the Street. Like up to 100% more.
He even refused to show us the bills.
The German owner seams very nice, but he himself, will not work on your Car. He will charge you 400 Pesos per hour for everyone working on your Car.
He tried to charge us for everything. Not only the mexican mechanics, working on the Car, but 210 Dollar for a guy who bought the spareparts "next town", which were by the way the Most expensive Parts in whole México. We Drive a Old Nissan pickup, which is the Second Most common Car in México and useually we find Parts fast and cheap.
In the beginning were talking about a 500 Dollar Checkup and in the end he tried to charge us 1000 Dollar, even with his "discount", he gave us. They are Not thieves, but will add an Hour here and there, plus the 30-100% extra charge for Parts.

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This place is in wrong location - it is located at 20.89899, -100.68043

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This place is in wrong location - it is located at 20.89847, -100.68006

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Sehr freundliche und kompetente KFZ Werkstatt. Service und Reparatur und Übernachtung mit Toilette und Dusche am Platz. Chef Matthias Heyer spricht deutsch und Englisch und Spanisch. Reelles Preis Leistungs Verhältnis. Wir wurden sehr herzlich aufgenommen und er hatte ein sehr offenes Ohr für unsere Lage. Eine sehr gute Adresse für Langzeitreisende!

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Matthias Heyer
carreta a QRO, KM 4,5 C.P. 37886

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This place is in the wrong location, but I'm not sure where it is!

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We had to make a body repair at our RV. Matthias lend us the tools and we could make the repair. He allowed us to stand overnight for sleeping on his all-terrain witch is guarded. He and his team are very nice and proficient.

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German-owner Matthias isn't the cheapest in town but you will get quality work. Specializes in Jaguar & Italian cars as well as Pan-Americana race cars, but also willing to work on our Westy. His hourly rate is 375pesos.

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