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| - I must say, I was not unimpressed at all by the professionalism in the office.
However, price gouging and typical auto shop "recommend things you don't really need" unfortunately happened on this visit. Also, the inspection failed to catch a critical issue!
For starters, their price for an oil change wasn't very good. This is originally what I came in for. They did give a free complementary inspection with it. Some shops will do this because they legitimately do want your car to be in top notch condition for you, but I feel like for this shop, that's just a segway into having you purchase more service.
Here's where the visit got unpleasant. In their inspection, the following was discovered:
-One of my serpentine belts was worn. I knew this. I was quoted upwards of $170 to replace it.
-The transmission mount was broken. I didn't know this, but confirmed later. They quoted $400 to repair it.
-I was told the rear brake pads were low.
So for the belt, the price quote was somewhat hiked up. The part costs about $40 and the work takes a skill mechanic 30-45 minutes. In my case, I had 1 belt needed to be replaced (2 total, the worn one was "inside"). You should expect a service like this to cost no more than $80 for work and $40 per belt, but they quoted around $50 over.
The transmission mount is where it gets ridiculous. Such a part only costs around $40-70, and takes no more than an hour to install. A reasonable price for this service is $120-150, not a price 2-3x greater.
And finally, the brakes. I later measured the pads and found them to be 6mm. Most "new" brakes are 8-12mm. 6mm is maybe middle of the road as far as wornness goes for these brake pads, but those breaks still probably have upwards of 20-30k miles left to drive.
Finally, I took my car to a 2nd shop and got a second opinion. There was a missed item which was critical. My coolant reservoir was cracked! Coolant was spraying out of the tank while the engine was hot. I was wondering why I kept losing coolant. I ultimately had this 2nd shop take care of that issue and my belt since their prices were a lot more reasonable. The transmission mount issue is pretty non-crucial and the breaks weren't even an issue, so I haven't acted on those, yet.
Did I have a good and calm experience at this shop: The shop experience was good, actually. I was only angry later to find out how badly I was price gouged; really glad I didn't get the work done there.
Would I return here: At this point, I live across town and no longer near the shop, so no.
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