BEWARE OF HIGHWAY ROBBERY!!!! My car broke down and this shop was recommended by AAA. After reading the reviews online, I had a positive impression and had my towed here to have work done. My water pump and thermostat were leaking, and I basically needed a whole new cooling system and a tune up. Big mistake!!! I felt completely violated by the estimate I got for repairs. I dealt with a service tech named Ryan over the phone. He quoted the parts and labor for the new water pump, hoses, thermostat and coolant for $2100! And almost $700 more for a tuneup and regular maintenance stuff, mind you some of the stuff is definitely needed, but not urgent and certainly overpriced. I will get some of the other work done soon, but definitely not here.
I went online to O'Reillys and Auto Zone to price out some of the parts. Asmar's wanted to charge me $463 for a water pump for my 2007 Pontiac G6. O'Reilly's sold the same one for $60!!! The hose upcharges on the estimate were 4 times more than retail price! Some other parts were 6-8 times as much as retail. As a businesswoman, I understand markups at a shop considering they are offering a 2 year warranty. I also grew up in Detroit and worked in the automotive industry, so I have some basic knowledge of prices for some of this stuff. This was highway robbery at it's worst. I honestly felt taken advantage of. Needless to say, I had my car towed out of here as soon as I could. I don't want to do business with people that try to rip me off. I got a bad taste in my mouth to begin with when he charged me $57 for a diagnostic. Generally, if you are getting $2000 worth of work done somewhere, it's common practice for the company to throw in the diagnostic for free. Give me a break. Ryan told me all 9 of the hoses in my cooling system needed to be replaced because they were original (the car is 8 years old and has 105k miles). He said they were brittle and cracking. Not the case according to the mechanic that actually fixed my car yesterday and two of my buddies that work on cars. They all said I didn't need half the stuff they tried to sell me at Asmar's. I ended up only getting the hoses I needed (just the upper and lower radiator hoses), the water pump, thermostat and coolant, and the wire kit and new spark plugs at the retail store, plus an air filter, all parts for less than $300. I hired a certified mobile mechanic off Craigslist and he charged me $250 labor for all the work and he took less than 5 hours in my driveway. Mind you, I'm taking a risk, but the company is reputable and offered me a warranty on the repairs and I have a one year mfg warranty on the parts, and the mechanic was certified and very knowledgeable. So instead of $2700, I paid $550 for the immediate work I needed done. It will probably cost me another $100-$200 for the other minor stuff I need. Please do your homework people! Don't be uneducated consumers! read more