I brought my van in around mid July of this year. It turned out that it needed a transmission replaced or rebuilt. I chose to have it replaced as it was more cost effective for me. I took it upon myself to find a replacement transmission which I did from a business called LKQ in Dumfries VA. I was able to find a transmission with them that had 44,000 miles and a 2 year warranty for $1150 (the transmission alone was $850) This was way less than what this Aamco (Fredericksburg, VA) was going to charge me to rebuild my transmission. I was given a quote of $2400-$3600 to have it rebuilt. Now the store manager, Keith also called LKQ and according to him was given a quote of $1250 for a transmission which had $80,000 miles on it and only a 6 month warranty. Both Keith and I called LKQ the same morning of Monday July 13th. After telling Keith (the store manager) the quote that I had received he no longer wanted to get involved with contacting LKQ to have them to deliver the replacement transmission. So I had to play the middle person with setting up the delivery and pick up of my old transmission. Why we were told 2 totally different prices I don't know. But I must say this made me second guess my decision on whether or not I should trust Aamco to complete the service on my van. At this point I started losing trust in them but against my better judgment since my vehicle was already at this establishment and I was out of town I let them go ahead and proceed with replacing my transmission. During this time I got a call from the manager stating that I needed a front engine mount and if I didn't have it replaced my van would shake while driving. I didn't have this problem prior to my van going into this shop for repairs. I went ahead and let them order and replace this part. I picked my van up that weekend on the 18th. Charges that was due to Aamco was $1250. So the total that was spent to replace my transmission was $2400. I immediately noticed an awkward smell but just associated it with possibly being fluids that may have spilled over from the transmission. A week went by and my van started over heating while on my way to work. I pulled over and called the store manager at Aamco and he was a bit defensive in saying they would not have touched anything that could caused my vehicle to over heat. I drove my van to Jiffy lube and without touching anything they immediately noticed a hose that was lose that connected to my radiator and leaking coolant. I called the store owner (Mark) and to make a long story short I had my van towed from Fairfax, VA to Fredericksburg VA for them to examine what I was experiencing. After being told that if they found the issue to be caused by there error he would reimbursement for the tow. (Never received anything towards the tow) They did fix the hose. Which clearly was caused due to the transmission being put it. Rather it was by mistake or pure negligence it was done during the time my van was in the shop for repairs. Now ever since all this, my van now makes knocking and rattling noises when turning the wheel and going over bumps and not to mention my van now shakes even though a part was supposed to have been put it to prevent it from shaking. A problem I never had to begin with. I don't want to take my van back to this place because it came out having more problems than it did when I first took it there. And the response that I got when calling back about it over heating was not welcoming and I was made to feel as though I was lying. I am a hard working mother of 3 children. Money is not something I take lightly at all. The money I spent at Aamco I feel was a waste because I now have to have someone else go behind and clean up their mess. This is not a place I would recommend to anyone. This particular location gives a bad reputation to all Aamcos across the nation. This message I will be posting on every review site I come across because had I read something like this prior to bringing my van here I would have never done so. read more
