My family and I were visiting Holiday Island, AR for Christmas. We left Chicago knowing that we had a front brake issue that needed to be taken care of but couldn't get serviced prior to leaving.
Upon arriving in the evening on the 23rd, I called several local automotive repair shops and left messages for all. K-Way was the only shop that returned my call (on Christmas Eve!) and I made an appointment to come in for brake service. Upon arriving, I was greeted by Dan the owner and Chris, a mechanic, both of whom were very cordial and inviting. They immediately took my van in and put it on the lift. The master mechanic Bo immediately suggested that I have the passenger side caliper replaced as temperature measurements of both front rotors (who does that!?) suggested that it was sticking.
They worked on my van throughout the morning while Dan the owner worked on-line to secure the parts. At one point, Dan invited me to drive with him to the NAPA dealer which was an enjoyable diversion to boredom. Once the brakes were repaired, Dan and Mike proceeded to clean the scuff marks off our front bumper. Finally, Dan and Mike both suggested that I rotate the tires and offered to check my rear brake pads/rotors/calipers while my van was on the lift. I agreed and when Mike began removing the lug nuts on the driver side rear wheel, both Dan and Mike took exception to the sound of the impact wrench and announced "I think that we might break a stud and since we do not have any on hand, we're going to hold off on doing this." They told me, "when you return to Chicago, have your wheels rotated and tell them that the studs on the driver side rear wheel will probably break (and make sure that they have replacements on hand)." Dan the owner took the car for a test drive and when he returned, Mike checked the temperature on both rotors to verify that they were close in temperature (to ensure that neither caliper was sticking). I've never seen this done before but as an engineer, it makes perfect sense (and takes all of 15 seconds to verify).
I am from Chicago and as most Chicagoans would admit, no one wants to take their car in for service. So many shops in Chicago are unscrupulous and exist for the purpose of screwing you. The fact that Dan responded to my message meant a lot to begin with (most shops in Chicago would not even suggest that you leave a message let alone return the call). Meeting Dan and his mechanics immediately put me at ease.
In all, I cannot stress enough how pleased I am with the work that Dan, Mike and Bo did for me. They replaced two rotors, two sets of pads and one caliper all for $313. This is amazing. I expected that this work would have amounted to a cost of somewhere between $600-800.
I would recommend this shop to anyone within driving distance. This is an honest shop and one that is apparently committed to doing honest automotive work for an honest charge. If ever in the future I determine that I have a major repair that needs to be done, I will either drive my van from Chicago to Eureka Springs or have it towed to K-Way. There is no other automotive repair shop that could possibly rival this one. Amazing. Thanks guys! read more
