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    Automotion

    4.7 (41 reviews)
    Closed 8:30 am - 6:00 pm

    Services - Automotion

    Auto maintenance

    Oil changes

    Auto repairs

    1 More Service

    Routine automotive maintenance

    Automotion Photos

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    Reviews With Photos

    Outside. Storefront. Parking lot.
    Daniel B.

    As the original owner of a 2001.5 Volkswagen Passat GLS 1.8T with nearly 300,000 miles on the original engine, I have way more than my fair share of experiences with dealerships and independent garages. For about the first nine years and almost 100,000 miles of my car's life, I went to two VW dealerships for maintenance. Since then, for the last 12+ years and close to 200,000 miles, all of my services - with the exception of rare warranty and insurance-related work - have been done by independent mechanics (https://www.yelp.com/collection/NzFzorS5DsC3jQEIMESmew). I say all this to say I know a great independent shop when I see one and Automotion is that. Boy, am I glad these guys are around. Simply put, owner-mechanic Gunnar Gronback and mechanic Dan Kearns are honest and highly-skilled. They know what they're doing, at least when it comes to my car with an Audi/VW 1.8-liter turbo engine and all its quirks. As any owner of an Audi or VW will tell you - or any European car really - the cars are difficult to work on and expensive to maintain. What amazes me is all the makes these guys have the ability to work on: "BMW, Audi, VW, Volvo and most Asian automobiles" according to their website. Before I found Automotion, most of the other independent garages I worked with only specialized in Porsche, Audi, and VW (same family). Maybe BMW and Mercedes too. Automotion has been around for over 30 years. When I met Gunnar, I knew he looked too young to have been the owner for over 30 years. He told me he acquired the business from its original owner, Ronnie, about seven years ago. That would be around 2014, I believe. The labor rate during my first visit to this shop was $112 per hour. It's lower than dealership rates and comparable to other independent shop rates I'm familiar with. When I first brought my car to Automotion, there was one item I definitely knew needed to be addressed, a driver outer CV boot tear, and my check engine light (CEL) was on. Due to the age and miles on the car, I asked Gunnar to give the car a good check-over. Due to the amount of work and parts that had to be ordered, Gunnar had my car for almost four full days, Monday-Thursday. That was fine with me. I'm used to it and I understood the amount of work involved. I believe Dan was the one who primarily worked on my car, but I know Gunnar was involved too because when I described certain details about the intake manifold unique to a previous repair that had been done to my car at a different shop, Gunnar knew exactly what I was talking about and he explained how Dan addressed it. The CEL during this visit was due to the car running lean. Dan smoke-tested my engine and found two leaks, one at the intake manifold and another in the secondary air system. Dan made the repairs, replaced my left front axle to address the driver outer CV boot tear, and also replaced two seals that were leaking, my right-side axle seal and an oil cooler seal. Parts and labor worked out to $1,007.02. It sounds like a big bill, but for all the parts replaced and heavy work involved, the cost was quite reasonable to me. Again, I have a lot of experience with repairs and repair bills for this car over the last 20+ years. I also have a lot of experience reading invoices from every dealership and independent garage I've had my car serviced at. I've saved every single invoice and keep them all together in addition to creating and keeping digital records (TMI). Automotion's invoices are typed out and very clear with one half page dedicated to parts (part number, description, price) and the other half, labor. The labor portion of the repair order was informative and written succinctly. The past two shops I went to, the guys would write a lot more, which I didn't mind (I like detail, if you couldn't already tell from this review). The invoice from Automotion was more straight to the point. Similar to some of the other independent shops I've gone to, Automotion is a relatively small, humble shop. I peeked through the chain link fence of the gravel driveway and saw they have two bays (and presumably two lifts) in the back. The wood-paneled inside of the shop's customer areas is dated and what you'd expect of a place that's been in business for over 30 years. The waiting room is also a break room with a desk, table, couch, microwave, water cooler, reading materials, etc. If you want to drop your car off after hours or on weekends, there's a key drop hole built into the front door. Keys are dropped onto the floor. Due to the height of the hole, I was a little concerned about my key getting damaged as it hit the floor, but the floor has mats and isn't a completely hard surface. I believe it's commercial-grade rubber flooring. Automotion is located on the Carrboro-Chapel Hill border. It's close to both downtown Carrboro and downtown Chapel Hill, right off of West Franklin Street. If you know where Al's Burger Shack is, Automotion is right around the corner from Al's.

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    5 months ago

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    8 months ago

    Excellent service/repair shop! Great communication. Honest & reliable. Highly recommend!

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    8 months ago

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    4 years ago

    We have always had good service experience with gunner at Automotion - he is the best!

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    3 years ago

    We have always gotten incredible, reliable, trustworthy, honest service. Can't imagine how much money (and hassle) they've saved me!

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    4 years ago

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    5 years ago

    If you are looking for a mechanic you can trust, Gunnar is it. Quality service at a great price! Look no further!

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    14 years ago

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    Page 1 of 2

    Ask the Community - Automotion

    Review Highlights - Automotion

    My Mercedes model 2003 needed a small repair.

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    Al's Garage

    Al's Garage

    (40 reviews)

    Did me a solid just moments after smashing my front fender into a Carrboro loading dock. Rolled in…read morethere, fixed in 90 min, $200 worth every penny.

    My vehicle after a diagnosis was misdiagnosed and I was told I needed a tune up to fix my problem…read more($900). After the tune up did not fix the issue, I was told my throttle body and MAP sensor needed to be replaced ($900). When they realized that didn't fix the issue, the told me I needed a new engine or to replace the cylinder head (quoted at $6,000+). At this point I told them to not do any further work and I went to retrieve my vehicle. At the time I went to get my car, I asked for them to show me my throttle body that was damaged, initially they were unable to show me the damage because they did not have it in their possession anymore and that NAPA auto parts store had it because it had a core charge on it. Well I went over to NAPA to ask if their new throttle body had a core charge and they told me there was no core charge on new throttle bodies only on refurbished ones. When I went back over to Al's Garage to ask to have the throttle body replacement chargers removed, they had no issue taking it off my bill but also "my" old throttle body magically reappeared and they put the old one back on my car. Well, I took my vehicle to get another diagnosed by 3 different mechanics, one being the actual Jeep dealership. All 3 mechanics came up with the same diagnosis and were unsure why they would do a tune up for my issue I was having. Other mechanics I spoke with as well, said in the situation if they provided me with a misdiagnosis and the problem wasn't fixed from their diagnosis they wouldn't keep charging me more to "test and check". I reached out to Al's Garage over the phone and spoke to a representative who had a very recognizable voice due to his accent. I asked if a manager was in while on the phone, and he said he did not know. I then asked if he knew who the owner was and again did not know. I then decided to return in person to speak with someone to find a resolution, the same guy who answered the phone, who referred to himself as Jerry, was there again. I explained the situation again, and he refused to work with me to find a resolution. I then asked for a business card and he refused to provide one and was initially reluctant to provide the name of the owner of the shop. It's unfortunate this situation is needing to come to this, but shops like this need to be put out of business to stop giving a bad rep for all the great mechanics and shops who are willing to do the right thing and not take advantage of costumers.

    Yeargan's Top Notch Automotive

    Yeargan's Top Notch Automotive

    (46 reviews)

    Hi Yelp. Tried to support a small business. Mistake. Hope they don't get upset, waste half my work…read moreday, get mad over nothing, melt down, and break my car (again). *shrug* Never trust mechanics who refuse to explain their work. The only things they respect less than their profession are their customers. There's a reason a nearby spot told me they stopped giving Yeargan's the time of day. They act like guilty pre-teens who got caught cheating on a test if you ask them something. Dig other reviews here. There's a pattern. Short: Something went funny with my car when it was serviced. Their attitude during follow-up was "Yeah? Drink bleach." Then came the theatrics. Paid $200 to watch some guy freak out and wag the dog. Issue left unaddressed. Long: Got something done. Cool. They noted several issues, but I was already handling those through insurance (was waiting on two checks). Paid, drove home. Lightly touched a door handle. Couldn't get out. Hadn't touched it since leaving the car with them. Cable busted under their watch. Yeargan's lost it when I tried to discuss it the next week. Everything fine on voicemail, but when I went in, it was "$800 for this mysterious issue we *totally* did not cause, jerk!" Owner(?) came unglued and grew cartoonishly condescending when I pointed out they were the last people to use the door, and that I knew how cables break due to my job. You're a tech, sure, but I didn't toss my engineering experience when I walked inside. Yeargan's dived into desperate, scammy evasiveness. They didn't clarify the issue, explain policy, or introduce me to who worked on it. "We got out of it a bunch of times" was pretty much it. Didn't buy the glib take. Suddenly, they were aristocrats, acting like I dropped cash, left, trashed my door, and then sucked up their precious internet browsing time with my unwashed problems. The Nick Cage House of Reactionary Auto Repair and Trying to Scare 20-Year-Olds. Could've said, "Here's what we saw." Instead, Yeargan's demanded nearly a grand for a basic repair, which wasn't needed before I visited, and went full rage-clown. Embarrassing. Worked when I dropped it off, and you used it last... as you said ... so... Discount Occam's Razor for a second. The narrative would read, "Nah, some linebacker Conan'ing this handle around didn't bust it; the disabled person with a bum hand severed this threaded cable, yet didn't hear anything in a silent environment. Or micro-sized ninjas did it. Or Bigfoot. Anyway, we want $800 for this menial job." Sniff test: Failed. Where there's smoke, there's fire. Plausible deniability? Okay, but if you're certain? Explain it. I paid for expertise, yes? You already took the green. Back it up. Instead, Yeargan's showed no confidence in their work and threw a self-incriminating, huff-and-puff fit. Removed all doubt. Corpse at their feet, blood on their clothes, knives in their hands, screaming "We didn't do it!" but... uh... Hit dog will holler. After watching him deflect, I quit speaking with the huffy guy. He then started jumping into my conversation with another person to tell me what was what. Asked for an evidence-based explanation? Nada. Left to his own devices? "Power move Pete." Smartest cat alive, muttering to himself and tagging every other sentence with angry platitudes. A business model based on acting like a gym coach in a bad 1983 comedy. What's "overcompensation"? Hit dog will holler. Hurt their feelings when I responded to their 758th automated text with "You owe me a new door handle!" Boo-hoo. They wasted tons of my time, and a quick DIY fix corrected their mistakes. Yeargan's whining to the pay-to-play joke that is the BBB, using selected de-contextualized recorded snippets (... creepy... ) about how they *weren't* prickly, hostile, or unprofessional, was fun. "This customer ignored me while I repeatedly insulted him after he dared to ask basic questions! WE'RE TOTALLY *NOT* DEFENSIVE!!" A hyperventilating man with a bruised ego, barkin' and fartin' to distract attention from their team's negligence? Doesn't scan very "pro." End result? Door was still busted. Contrarian outbursts did not solve the issue. Watching employees roll their eyes at their boss and his sneering, bitter asides, most of which were factually wrong? That also didn't help. Door was still busted. Again: Hit dog will holler. When I returned to my regular shop, they immediately noted I didn't even need half the work they tried to push on me. They also told me they stopped recommending Yeargan's, and that something was "obviously going on over there." Tell me about it. People need their cars. They use them to earn a living and care for their loved ones. If your options are nothing or this place? Stick with nothing. Keep looking. Your money, safety, and time are worth something. Don't entrust your vehicle to Yeargan's. "Top notch" in the same sense that throwing trash at a wall makes you an "artist."

    My tire was flat, apparently slow leak as it seemed fine when I left that morning. I drove it there…read morebecause it was close. They told me $450 for new tire and installation. Then gave me a huge "complimentary" list of things I needed to fix. I didn't appreciate the upsell. They did put air in the tire, which I appreciate so I gave the 2 stars instead of 1. I drove it to Costco and had tire changed for $270. I get that it's more expensive in local garages than chains like Costco, and I probably would have paid an extra $100-but they lost my trust entirely with their laundry list of "things wrong with the vehicle" which was actually fine. Too bad. I like to support local as long as I don't feel taken advantage of.

    Automotion - autorepair - Updated May 2026

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