Unfortunately I would not recommend this place. The mechanic does not go by book times, and he charges way more hours than others right up front. I made the mistake of going with him due to one recommendation instead of going with slews of positive reviews from other great shops like Eastman's. My daughter had broken down 300 miles from home in Rochester, so I didn't personally know any mechanics. Right away things started going awry. Despite a good start with meeting the tow truck and sending us photos, he soon became difficult. He added inappropriate fees to our job on the first quote, possibly assuming we knew nothing about clutches. Others quoted 6.6 hours for a clutch job, including .2 hours for flywheel replacement (12 minutes). He charged eight hours up front for just disassembly of the transmission and T-bearing, then after recommending a new clutch, tacked on another $300 simply to remove and replace the flywheel. It's literally five easy bolts when you're already doing the clutch. That's over 11 hours for a 6.6 hour job. I eventually got him to drop it to about 10 hours, but it's still WAY too much. Labor was even more than the VW dealer quote. He's hard to understand due to his accent, and he likes to hear himself talk. He talks but doesn't listen, and gets angry when asked about cost. He also took shortcuts. For example, I asked how the rear main seal looked and he got angry. He said I didn't ask him to change it, but this is something every mechanic does when the transmission is off. Why not change a $5 seal when it's all taken apart, rather than later at a cost of $400-$500. Overall he was very difficult to work with, and I ended up paying hundreds more in labor over what others would have charged ($960 from him, $550-$650 from others). All that, and I'm not confident the repair will last. I'm not sure - but I think he mixed and matched the new parts we bought with old parts to make things fit. It's all very sketchy, and I couldn't get a straight answer. Things were going so poorly, that when it was disassembled he offered to put on the wheels and push it out the door for $400. I took him up on the offer and made other arrangements. Shortly thereafter however he backed out on that deal. I set up towing, storage, etc. but he continued anyway. I would have been much more confident in the work elsewhere, and it would have cost less even with towing. Now I have a car with questionable parts and longevity, and I paid a price far higher than I would have elsewhere. I would not recommend this place for any reason. read more
