We're new to the area and tried another garage closer to our home first, but that business' customer service was abysmal. Dodson Service is farther away from our home but it's well worth the longer drive. James has worked on our cars twice and he's been great to deal with, honest, and all the work was done in a timely manner. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Dodson Service Center to anyone. read more

Having moved to Sparta last fall I found myself in trouble when the fan clutch on my 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 started sounding lick it was gargling marbles. I called a friend who knew most of the auto repair guys in the area and he said, "Go see James Dodson". Fortunately I was right down the street from his shop on Churchill Drive. I pulled in, introduced myself and he had me repaired and on the road again in less than an hour! Well, shock my piehole! The pricing was fair, the work is professional, quick and efficient. The crew there know what they are doing and don't muck about getting it done. The next time I need work done, I'm headed back to Dodson's! read more

I had trouble replacing the front disc brakes on my 2007 Chrysler 300. I broke off the bleeder valve and I couldn't get another one in. I should never have tackled the job myself. It was an ugly job. I also felt the cylinder was leaking. I called James and had it towed in. James did an excellent job on the brakes and found the axel seal was leaking. He had me back on the road in a short time. The work was excellent, affordable , and I would recommend him to anyone. Robert Shelley of Spencer tn. read more

DO NOT USE THIS SHOP! HE IS A LIAR AND WON'T FIX THE THINGS HE BREAKS! Sometime around the beginning of the February 2019, my 2011 Ford F-250 Superduty began to leak a very small amount of oil. We took it to our local mechanic shop (Jerry Potts Auto) who have worked on it many times for a diagnosis. They found the problem to be the upper oil pan gasket failure which is a common problem for these truck but this particular shop didn't handle jobs of that size. My husband then reached out to James Dodson Service Center LLC in his hometown Sparta, Tennessee for an estimate. James Dodson said that he would be happy to fix and quoted us the price of $1000. We dropped my truck off to James Dodson Service Center LLC Thursday February 7, 2019 and was told the job would take roughly a week, that we should be able to pick it up on Wednesday February 13th. James called my husband later that day to tell him our problem was not the Upper Oil Pan Gasket but that he knew with certainty that it was actually the Valve Cover Gasket that was leaking the oil. By Tuesday (2/12) we had still not heard from James and we had left multiple messages that went unanswered. Not knowing what was going on with my truck, Saturday (2/16) I went to James' business Facebook and messaged him hoping to get an update. His cell phone number was listed on his Facebook page so I text messaged him as well. Finally, I got a response text followed immediately by a phone call. He informed me that my truck wasn't finished and that he had broken a major bolt off in the cylinder head while he was taking out my injectors. He said that it was now leaking oil and coolant. I asked him for an update date that he thought my truck would be finished and ready for me to pick it up. James responded with "I don't know why you're rushing me, I will put the valve cover back on and you can come get your **** truck right now." I told him I was not trying to rush him but at this point I was just wanting an update as we were days over the original pick up date. He said that he would need my truck for at least an additional week. I asked him what he was going to do about my cylinder head bolt that he had broken and he said that he was going to fix it, but that the bolt breaking was not his fault whatsoever. He "Fixed the bolt, put my injectors back in and started the truck. Wednesday (2/20) he called my husband to let him know it was still leaking oil. He said that he was incorrect in the diagnosis of the Valve Cover Gasket failure and that our problem was the Upper Oil Pan Gasket that we had brought the truck to him to fix to begin with. He said that he would need at least an additional week to fix the Upper Oil Pan Gasket problem. At this point, my husband and I agreed to go get the truck and not let James work on anything else. We went to the shop and picked up my truck. James said that since he didn't fix our problem that he wasn't charging us due to the fact that he misdiagnosed it but that our valve caver gasket still held the 12 month 12,000-mile warranty. Wednesday February 27, 2019, we took my truck to Full Force Diesel in Murfreesboro, TN to get the Upper Oil Pan Gasket fixed. While in their shop, they found that the bottom half of the bolt James Dodson's shop had broken was now in my oil pan. Paid $1487.51 and have had no issues at all to date from the Upper Oil Pan Gasket. On April 14, 2019 my truck started to make a knocking noise. We took it back to Full Force Diesel and when they did the diagnosis they found that when repairing the bolt they had broken, James Dodson's shop drilled the bolt crooked which caused the cylinder head to crack and led to my injector backing out of the engine. So as of today April 23, 2019 my repair bill just to fix the things that James Dodson Service Center LLC broke is a little over $3700. This includes two new injectors, two new injector line kits, a new cylinder head, 18 head gasket bolts, one new head gasket, four new glow plugs, one new valve cover gasket, one new manifold gasket, one new turbo pedestal gasket and of course the labor hours charged by Full Force Diesel. read more

I recently moved back to my hometown from Murfreesboro and eventually needed to find a mechanic for my car maintenance & repair. I had several friends recommended Mr Dodson to me and gave him a try. Twice now he has worked on my Versa Note for both repairs and regular maintenance servicing, and both times the work, prices and service was the best I could have hoped for. This is a mechanic worth traveling a distance for the excellent service you will receive. 5 stars in my book read more

James is great: fair prices on labor, and very capable. Installed a new transmission in no time flat on my Honda CRV. The job was a bit more fiddly than usual because it was a different model number, and he handled it with aplomb. Competent, prompt and fair prices are the holy trinity in an auto mechanic, folks. He's also a friendly guy and a great communicator. Highly recommended. (I wrote this review for my dad, because he wanted to write one, but isn't savvy enough for yelp yet, so he asked me to.) read more

Unfortunately we have had a terrible experience with this mechanic. We took our F250 to him in hopes that he could diagnose and fix the problem (pulling antifreeze into the oil) after several thousand dollars, a few months past and many trips there and back with it still not fixed he tells us we have a cracked block and need a new engine. Long story short we purchase said engine just exactly what he said and where he said get it. So he installed the new engine and $8000 later truck is pouring oil around the turbo and oil pan and he tells us that he will fix it for an additional $1500. So upon getting two more different certified mechanics to look at the truck we are told by both that this is indeed something that happened when he replaced the engine and that the truck should've never left his shop like that. We aren't mechanics, we entrusted him to our vehicle with the assumption that he'd be honest and he has been anything but. When confronted with the fact that he has lied and cheated us out of thousands and that we may need to acquire legal advice if he can't make it right he responds by saying "good luck with that cause I made sure to word the receipts so that you can't prove what I did and did not do" I would not and will never recommend James Dodson for anything. I will take every opportunity to discourage anyone from using his services on any level. read more