Car repair shops in Spain get top marks: rated higher for their service than for their prices

It seems that, in a country where everyone says “I’ll take it to my cousin, just in case,” professional workshops are making a splash. Who would have thought? In a world full of invoices and diagnoses, car repair shops in Spain have achieved the unthinkable: they’ve become likeable. And that’s no exaggeration. According to the latest report by Ipsos, based on more than 240,000 Google reviews, drivers rate them a solid B+, a 4 out of 5.

What’s surprising is not the score (well, a little, let’s be honest), but why Spaniards are so happy. And no, it’s not because they charge little. The report “Google and the experiences of Spaniards at the workshop” debunks one of the great myths of the motoring trenches: price is not what matters most. 36% of the reviews have to do with the staff, while the dreaded “prices and payments” section barely reaches 14%. The study reveals that users value above all the human touch: friendliness, speed, empathy… words that sound like they came from a self-help manual, but which in the world of motoring have gained real traction, and a lot of it.

A 29% of the reviews that speak well of the staff do so with an enthusiasm that would border on suspicious were it not for the average score, which hovers around 4.6. In short, more than one person leaves the workshop with their wheels aligned and their soul balanced.

Complaints, when they come, don’t shout as loudly

On the dark side of motoring, the main complaints are less about the financial blow than about delivery times and telephone customer service. In other words: the problem isn’t how much it costs, but that nobody picks up the damned phone. These details spoil the experience for 8% of users, who rate these aspects a sorry 2.2.

Another obsession of the average driver is that the workshop be transparent. No ambiguous quotes or invoices. 60% of the comments that mention price do so by valuing clarity in the quote and the invoice. Only 29% directly mention low prices. Translation: we’d rather know what we’re being charged than pay less for something we don’t understand.

What gets fixed in Spanish workshops?

If you have a car in Spain and still haven’t been to the workshop for tyres, you’re probably defying both statistics and physics. More than 50% of maintenance reviews focus on tyres: punctures, changes, rims… The rest of the podium is made up of the classic maintenance items: oil (11%), batteries (10%) and lights (8%). The romance of the engine lives in the tyres, not in the engines.

And if anyone takes the trophy home, it’s Euromaster. For the fourth year running, it is the best-rated workshop network in Spain with a staggering 4.7 out of 5. They have achieved not only the best overall score, but also the highest in every category analysed: service, prices, type of work and customer care.