| rev:text
| - This review is long overdue, now that I just paid a Reputable shop to install a reman tranny after I paid Advanced Transmission in Phoenix for a rebuild. I'll take some of the blame - I took the car to them based solely on the dealer telling me they thought they heard something going on with the gear changes, but they said a new tranny would be $5k+. What I didn't know was I should have waited to see if the transmission actually started slipping or something, and THEN taken it in. (mistake #1). So it was my fault, I took it to Advanced and said I wasn't noticing a problem, just wanted to proactively fix whatever the dealer was hearing. I was so naive, so I'll take responsibility for being dumb.
It took me awhile to figure out exactly how badly I had been scammed by Greg and co.
The problems started right away. First, they failed to properly replace the axle, and I drove a long way and damaged something (seals, boots, whatever, I don't know all the damage, just remember the bill for new axle and stuff - at the dealer - and that was $1500 or something.)
Mistake #2 - I left AZ right after getting the car 'worked on' at Advanced. Within 2 days of getting the car back, the transmission started going into neutral when accelerating from stopped - so, I was concerned, but not freaking out - I had that 'warranty.' What a joke. I took it to 3 different shops and they all said the same thing, they weren't getting a code so there was nothing for them to do. To Greg's credit he did say to bring it back in to him, but as I was living in another state, I never did bring the car back to him. Finally after the year was up (no more warranty) I had the car at another transmission shop and the owner there said from what he could see without taking the transmission out, it didn't appear that the transmission had been rebuilt. He said 'basically, there are items one would expect to be replaced during a rebuild' but he could see they had not been replaced. The paperwork I got from Greg listed no parts, which all the shops found odd (they all said "He's supposed to list everything he replaced.") So I asked this shop to call and speak to Greg to find out what exactly he replaced. Greg admitted on the phone with this owner that when they do a rebuild, they only replace parts if they are broken, and they don't follow the protocol of replacing certain parts which one would expect when you go to all the trouble of dropping the tranny and doing a rebuild. Now it was all starting to make sense to me. My car didn't actually have anything 'broken' when i first took it to him, so they probably rebuilt - nothing!
Finally took it to a dealer, to see if they could diagnose the issue - and after spending a lot of time talking to the technician after his diagnostic efforts, we think the issue was a damaged seal, which is commonly caused by doing a flush. Options: rebuild, reman, or let it die. I felt like I was getting cheated out of some of the longevity of the vehicle - and I was responsible for leading her to her early death!
Fast forward to a week ago, I took the car to a shop with outstanding Yelp reviews, and they put in a reman (all new parts) transmission for guess how much? $3k. Made my stomach turn to think I was charged that for a supposed rebuild 3-4 years ago, when i could have had a reman for the same price, or less considering inflation, etc.
Bottom line? I don't think these guys replaced any parts, because I did not have a specific complaint when I first brought the car in. I think based on the issues starting right away that they did a flush (they had to do something to feel good about charging me $3k, right?) and that likely damaged that seal. My poor car has been valiantly driving and driving ever since, with the troubles always when it's cold out or whenever I would drive over a speed bump or climbing, but I could just tell she wanted to keep going. So this sounds weird, but I felt like the car was just a real trouper, and just wasn't ready to give up. I finally listened and gave her a brand new reman transmission, and she's good - car runs great, loves being spiffed and polished, and without even holding a grudge, she's assured me she's going to give me at least another 3 years or 45k, but probably 3x that. She asked one favor - alert others to save them from this shop. So this is my public service announcement. Cheers.
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