This review is on MD inspection and not about the general quality of the maintenance work. After having my car inspected at this place, I have strong suspicions, to say the least... I wish I read the reviews on Yelp. My case strongly resonates with the reviews left on 8/17/2012, 10/22/2013 and 5/28/2013.
I needed the MD state inspection performed on Honda Pilot 2008 EXL. My car failed because, as the inspector alleged, there was a leak in the front right strut and both rear shocks, as well as three dead light bulbs. I was quoted $785 to fix these problems. Here is what is problematic with this inspection:
The car was bought from a person who had the car maintained religiously at Toyota and Honda dealerships from day one to the day she sold it to me, i.e. Feb. 21, 2008 to Jun. 4, 2014. The car went through MD state inspection on Jun. 4, 2014 and it passed successfully. It not only passed the inspection, there was ABSOLUTELY no problem with the car. The car had 140,385 miles at that time. I bought the car in August (i.e. two months after its last MD inspection) and drove approximately 150 miles. Because of MD car registration requirements, I had to have it re-inspected. I took the car to Rockville Exxon and it failed the inspection because of the aforementioned problems. I asked the inspector how a car that passed the same MD inspection at a Toyota dealership just two months and 150 miles ago could fail it? I showed the records I had which clearly stated that on Jun. 4, at 140,385 miles, the car passed MD inspection and there was no reported problem at all. The inspector-mechanic had no explanation and just stated that he could show me where the leakage is.
If you do a basic research in the car maintenance forums about struts and shocks, you will see tons of discussions about how dishonest mechanics dip some oil on the struts and shocks and tell the driver that they were due for replacement. I do not want to state that this was the case during my inspection. But the inspection results raise serious suspicions, especially in light of the Toyota dealership inspection just two months ago that found absolutely no problems with the struts and shocks and three bulbs (seriously, can this really happen in just two months or 150 miles).
I also checked MD regulations for the grounds to reject the inspection. It appears that a leakage is not sufficient for the rejection. The leakage must be "severe." So there is lots of discretion that an inspector has. Just a leakage (as it is stated in my inspection report) is not enough. The leakage must be severe and any seeming problems with the shocks and struts must effect vehicle stability. The car rides like a champion and I have never felt any significant problem with the shocks and struts. My previous two cars were Subarus, so I am used to aggressive driving. If there was any significant damage to the struts and shocks, I would have notices that and promptly taken the car to the mechanic.
UPDATE (Sep. 8, 2014): Another mechanic also told me that both rear shocks needed replacement. There was no other problem. I went ahead and asked him to replace them. Replacing both rear shocks (part + labor) and inspection costed $390. read more