I had been taking two of my vehicles to another place in Tempe called Sports and Collector Car Center and have been very disappointed with them for numerous reasons. Communication with the guy at the front desk (I dare you to try to get Joe to return a call), extraordinarily long wait times (One car was recently in the shop for several weeks for relatively moderate work items), they routinely overlooked items I asked them to do even though I always came in with a printed list of items which I also emailed to them. Things they fixed had to be redone, etc.
Finally I'd had enough and decided I needed to find a better shop and came across Gene's due to the great reviews here and on Google. I decided to give them a try and have had both vehicles there on 3 different visits now. OMG, the difference is like night and day. Didn't have a single one of the problems mentioned above. Each time they started with an analysis/diagnosis of the items on my list and then called me fairly quickly with a full proposal based upon cost of all parts as well as estimates for labor. In all 3 cases they came in at or below their estimates.
Not only did they do the work quickly and competently, but the prices were downright shocking to me. Twice when I picked up the vehicle I said "we must have missed something here" because I was so surprised at the low price. Then when I walked through the list of work items I found that indeed they had in fact completed everything. I guess I had just been so used to the inefficiency and high prices at SCCC that it was just shocking to me.
Oh, and to address one of the negative reviewers assertions, I'm a snowbird which is why the location of my profile gives the location of my primary residence and if you look at my other reviews you will see reviews of other businesses in Tempe. I suspect that many of the people whose location is from elsewhere may also be snowbirds, people who have since moved away, or people who moved here from another location without updating their profile. My experience on all three occasions have matched the great reviews I have read online. Your mileage may vary, but so far this seems like the best mechanic shop I have ever been to in about 40 years of owning cars.
I will update my review in a year or so when I have had even more experience with Gene's. We take two vehicles out 4-wheeling regularly which really beats the crap out of them and we have a Sprinter based RV that I was surprised to learn that Gene could also service. He said that he services a fleet of Sprinters from a local biz that uses them as delivery vehicles. Between the three vehicles I'm sure I will be visiting their biz several times within the year.
I very much admire and respect people who are great at what they do, whatever it is. So it is a pleasure to write this review of their biz as I rarely encounter this degree of excellence.