Please just go somewhere else.
My car was there for almost a month (though to be fair maybe a week of that was my insurance company trying to decide whether they were going to total it) and guess how many times Fix Auto called me with updates? ZERO. Even when I'd call and they'd say they'd have someone call me right back, no one would call. And it's not like I was pestering them with phone calls. I spoke to them 2 times a week maximum. Once I thought they called me, but despite the guy identifying himself as being from Fix Auto, it was some call service offering to come tow my car to them. This was AFTER my car had been there a week!
My car was towed to them on a Tuesday. They did an estimate. Did they ever provide me with information about this estimate? Nope. By that Friday realized that I should have taken my car somewhere else, so I asked when I could get my car on Saturday. But I couldn't because they have NO WEEKEND HOURS. Also the guy I spoke to told me that I'd have to pay $100 for the tow (from South Pasadena) if I wanted to take my car somewhere else. I told him my insurance company arranged to have it towed there, and they'd have to take it up with them. Even if I did owe them for the tow, they don't just get to make up some amount of money I owe them. If we didn't agree one a price beforehand, it's fair market value.
Since I just wanted to get things rolling, and going there during the work week was impossible for me that week, I just left my car there to be repaired. Mistake. They took forever. They 'discovered' some more damage. I guess that could happen, but what annoyed me about it was that they never notified me. I called them and asked for an update, thinking my car would be almost ready. And that's when they told me that they had discovered new damage, submitted a new estimate to my insurance company, and hadn't been working on my car while waiting for approval. They had just gotten approval and we're waiting on parts they ordered. I'm sorry, what? It's my car...you need approval from me to do work. The insurance company approves coverage for the expenses. The fact that they didn't even notify me of this was not only annoying because I thought my car was being repaired for a week when really it was just sitting there, but also it seems super shady to me that you're not updating the owner of a car about the repairs you're doing!
Also every time I spoke to them, they acted like it was no big deal that this was taking forever. They said to me more than once, "Well you have the rental car, right?" as if having the rental car meant they could just take their sweet time because apparently there's nothing I could need my actual car for.
Since they do get positive reviews, I thought that when I picked up my car I'd be glad that the repairs were done right even if it took a long time. Nope. I don't know a lot about cars, but even I can tell when my grill is a different color. Things also didn't appear to be installed well, even to me, who admittedly knows nothing. For example, there was paint overspray on my rearview mirror and there is a bigger gap between the grill and the headlights on one side of the car than the other. I don't care that much about the way my car looks, but such obvious flaws make me nervous about the work under the hood. My significant other yelled at them in obvious frustration for having the car so long and it still not being right. They washed off the paint and agreed the grill was a flawed part and should have been rejected. He told me they'd order a new one and call me when it came in. Want to guess if they called me? I still have the flawed part on my car.
I took my car several months later to another mechanic for brake work. He told me that both the oil pan gasket and the transmission gasket were resealed incorrectly. My insurance company told me to take it back Fix Auto. I called and made an appointment, telling them exactly what I had been told what was wrong. At the appointment, they refused to even look at it and said they hadn't touched those parts. Now, assuming that's true, why did you even make an appointment? Just tell me over the phone that you didn't touch those parts and don't waste my time. They wanted to keep my car for the repairs. Nope. I took my car home. My insurance company tells me that if I want to use the 'lifetime guarantee,' I have to take my car into the dealership to confirm the issue and that it was done during the other repairs. But getting that done will cost a couple hundred dollars, and then I have to go back to Fix for the repairs. I think I'll just pay out of pocket to someone I trust.
Lastly, during this last meeting they told my significant other that their feelings were hurt when he yelled at them. Um, when you're a professional mechanic, you shouldn't get your feelings hurt over a crappy job, you should be embarrassed. read more