After moving my mom into memory care, her 2005 Toyota Rav4, was stolen from her garage when people broke into her house. The police recovered the vehicle, and the rear cat had been stolen. Additionally, there was a check engine light on. Since my mom didn't drive, and since her car was in the garage, she did not have insurance. After everything I'd been dealing with, I really just needed to catch a break since I'd been paying everything out of pocket. I picked this place because of the great reviews. Unfortunately, I can't leave a good review. I went into the shop around 2pm, and told the gentlemen everything. He looked under the car and said the rear cat needed to be replaced, which he already had in stock. He also said he could finish it by end of day. I received a call no more than 2 hours later and the car was done. I was charged a total of $1170 ($800 for the part, $300 for the labor, and $70 for sales tax). Given the job was completed in two hours, that would have their labor rate at $150 an hour. Today, I went to get the car smog checked at a different place, and the guy said that the check engine light (which he scanned without me asking, as is usually the case) was sending codes for the cat. I explained that I was just at a shop that replaced it. He said they replaced the rear cat, but the code was for the front cat. He said most reputable muffler shops would scan for codes, especially in an instance when the cat had been stolen and the check engine light was on. He also said he would've replaced the rear cat for $800 (he did not how much I paid), confirming what I had expected, that A-1 had overcharged me. I just called A1 to see if they checked for codes on the front cat when they had the car, and I was told, "I don't check for codes unless someone asks me to. If a car is brought in because a cat was stolen, I just replace the cat, nothing else." To me, this seems like a response from a shop that doesn't specialize in muffler work. Call me the jerk here for assuming a muffler shop wouldn't send me out the door, without making sure my exhaust system was good to go - especially after paying $1170. All they needed to do was check the codes, and update me, so that I could have made an informed decision about doing the work or not BEFORE replacing the cat. My advice to you if you go here is: ask for their hourly rate up front, do your research on parts costs, and no matter what, ask them to read the code for the check engine light if it's on - because they won't do it unless you specifically ask them. read more