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| - We recently moved a few blocks from here and they always have a ton of cars out front so, decided to give them a try. After setting up an appointment for an oil change, which apparently is just an appointment to drop off your car, not for the oil change itself, I brought my vehicle to them for the oil change. During the intake I explained there were some other concerns with the vehicle surrounding the suspension. The guy who helped me was nice enough, but when he was done with the intake stuff I asked how much for the oil change and tire rotation. Apparently it was going to be around $170.
A little confused I asked what that amount entailed. He quickly said there was a fee for evaluating the vehicle. This is certainly something I have not encountered before, previous mechanics will tell me what is wrong without charging, because then I can get the work done and they can charge for labor and parts. This was something even the dealership gets right, they'll charge $40 for an evaluation, but then let you apply that to work performed. If that option was available here, it was never mentioned.
Furthermore, there was some sort of mumbo-jumbo about wheel-spin analysis automatically added on to my tire rotation. I have been driving cars for almost 30 years, never heard of wheel-spin analysis as an added fee, seems its usually is part of tire rotation - but its not an added fee.
Needless to say I went back to my old mechanic, the only reason I had even thought of trying this place was they were close and seem busy. They changed the oil, rotated the tires (with wheel-spin analysis) for $50, and let me know that a number of my issues were related to the motor mounts needing to be replaced. So, I brought the car back two days later to get that done, $1000 - but they didn't try to get me to pay to find out I needed work done, or make up fees for things they should just be doing anyway. Assumedly, the folks at Virginia will just slap the tires in the new spots and not spin them for you unless you pay them to spin them, these guys need suckers to stay in business, fortunate for them PT Barnum's adage is truer than ever.
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