Hey Guys,

If any of you are looking for a factory trained indy Aston mechanic I wanted to give a shout out to Robbie Allen of Peninsula European in San Mateo. I bought a 2008 V8 Vantage roadster 18 months ago and bought it sight unseen without a PPI. Yes I know foolish on my part. Received the car and found many undisclosed issues with the car. Initially I took it to BR Racing for the initial service. While they were good they also were by the book. Aston only parts, no used or 3rd party parts. Given their initial findings I thought I was looking at $20k + in repairs to get the car back to fighting trim. Well Rich at Redpants suggested I talked with Robbie. I did and couldn't be happier!

Robbie owns a small shop where it is just him and his employee who also is an Aston mechanic. They service Aston and Range Rovers only. Robbie was factory trained on both and worked prior at Los Gatos Luxury Cars servicing Aston's. My issues were several ranging from suspension to body related (I have a roadster and had some issues with the top). Robbie went through them all and now the car is a 100%. Also Robbie is very creative with coming up with solutions to help save some money. In several cases he sourced used parts where they made sense and saved me thousands of dollars. Where other aspects he would trim his labor to make it work for me. And BTW Robbie has all the same diagnostic and computer tools the dealers have. Its a one stop Aston shop.

I have told Robbie this and it's true. He is the best feature of my car! Without Robbie I would be suffering with this car or near broke having to have to use the dealer (which is down the street from me but charges $255/hr for labor!) to get it together.

My car is perfect now and I am enjoying the Vantage thrills with no excuses. If you are in Nor Cal and need some help Robbie is your guy!

Robbie can be reached at robbie@peninsulaeuropean.com and his mobile is 17079535871.

 

I used Robbie's shop but I'm not sure I would recommend. 1st off Robbie does not do all the work himself and when I took my car in for service some young guy did it (Robbie was not even there). Robbie's website does not mention other techs so not sure if this guy was a AM certified tech (he certainly did not have 25 years experience). Secondly, he missed a tie rod issue which certainly should have been found with proper inspection when the car was on the rack (found a couple weeks later by another shop). Maybe others had a better experience...my 2 cents...

 

My Aston is gone now, but in the time I had it, I took it to Robbie for a couple services, and he was always great. Not to say SF911c2's experience isn't valid, but in my dealings, he was awesome.

 

Robbie has a tech named Praveen working for him who is does a lot of the maintenance work that comes in. Praveen has been trained by Robbie and is not Aston factory certified. But working with Robbie for a few years he is quite knowledgeable.. Praveen has done some of the work on my car and I have had no issues. I believe Robbie is the only indy Aston trained mechanic in the Bay Area that has the diagnostic tools and personal resources you need for dealer level capability. Robbie has sourced for me like new coilovers (to replace my leaking ones with only 25k miles!!), a used replacement key fob that he programmed, had my leather repaired and a myriad of other parts and solutions that I needed to right my car at a small fraction of what it would have cost me at the dealer. When I would call and say Robbie my car is doing "x" or I hear a noise "y" I usually get the response "No worries I know what that is and it's no problem to take care of". In all cases this has been true enough.

Not to say sf911c2 experience was wrong but in my experience it is not the norm and I have had many many interactions with Robbie to base that on.

The best thing I can say is Robbie has made my Aston ownership viable. Without him Id have sold this car long ago and taken a huge hit. Now I have a perfect ride. Ive told Robbie this and it's true. If Robbie goes so will my Aston. I would not own this car without him to take care of it. He is the best feature of the car!

 

I am of similar mind to sf911c2. I used Robbie and found him unresponsive and did not have a good experience. Does anyone else have any recommendations for Indys in the Bay Area?

 

 

 

Ive only recently found out about Robbie. I was referred to him by Stuart at Velocity AP. Robbie even stocks some of Velocity AP's parts. Ive gone to Robbie the last two Fridays for some work and couldn't be more happy with the results! He is probably the most honest mechanic Ive ever dealt with. Despite not collecting the labor on a couple routine maintenance jobs Im closing in on, he told me to save my money and that its not needed, yet. He will go out of his way to make sure you are happy with your results and his prices are extremely fair! When I need more work done there is no one else I will trust my car with, as long as Im within driving distance. In fact I currently live in Monterey, roughly two hours away, with traffic, and still prefer to go to him. And in regards to his employee Praveen, he was quite knowledgeable too. I have no issues with him working on my car. He worked on my car today without Robbie there at first. When it came time for something to be done that he wasn't certain of he waited for Robbie to return.