Chicago just earned a title no city wants: least trusted place in the world to get your car fixed. In a new global ranking of mechanic trustworthiness, the city scored only 10 points out of 100, placing last among 155 cities analyzed. The result hit local news on March 12, 2026 and has quickly turned into fuel for debate among drivers and shop owners. The list is based on how people talk in online reviews, not on any formal inspection of repair quality or consumer-protection records.
According to Scrap Car Comparison, researchers scraped Google reviews mentioning “mechanic” and “car repair” across 155 cities, fed them into a multilingual language model to flag trust-related phrases, and required each business to have at least 20 reviews to be included. The data are current as of February 2026. In that analysis, Quito, Ecuador landed the highest Trustworthiness Score at 81, with a global average of 43.6. Chicago’s 10 was the lowest recorded score. The study also reports that North America had the lowest continental average at 33.4 and that six of the ten lowest-ranked cities were in the United States.
Local reaction and who else ranked low
As reported by FOX 32 Chicago, several other U.S. cities clustered near the bottom: Atlanta at 19.7, New Orleans at 19.9 and Kansas City at 21.7. Miami emerged as the top-ranked American city with a score of 50.2. FOX 32 notes that the list reflects how online reviewers describe their experiences, rather than any hands-on examination of vehicles or shop practices, and reports that the researchers stressed there are still trustworthy mechanics in lower-scoring cities. The result has fueled a broader conversation about how heavily drivers should lean on review language when deciding where to book their next appointment.
What the methodology does - and doesn't - prove
The index tallies phrases such as “honest pricing” and “overcharged” in Google reviews, then averages those signals into city-level scores instead of checking invoices or observing repairs, according to Scrap Car Comparison. Research on online ratings has long warned that review platforms tend to amplify very good and very bad experiences, can host fake or unrepresentative comments and may distort how an entire industry is perceived. Those concerns are outlined in an OECD report on online consumer ratings and reviews. The upshot is that the index is a useful snapshot of what customers write on the internet, not a comprehensive audit of every mechanic working in Chicago.
How drivers can protect themselves
Consumer Reports offers a straightforward checklist for finding a solid repair shop: confirm that technicians hold ASE certification, ask for written estimates, try a neighborhood shop with a small maintenance job before trusting it with major work and examine BBB or RepairPal records for complaint history. According to Consumer Reports, requesting to see old parts and getting warranties on work in writing are simple ways to separate careful operations from places to skip. Keeping detailed records and collecting multiple estimates can also limit the damage if a repair goes sideways.
Rankings aside, Chicago drivers are not out of luck. Reputations can be rebuilt one honest job at a time, and customers who check credentials, demand clear pricing and lean on more than just star ratings can help nudge local standards higher. The study is a reminder that online reviews shape reputations, but they work best as one tool among many when deciding where to leave your keys.
