I have gone to these guys (and gal) for years, with my Mazda 323, my Toyota Tercel, and my 2 Honda…read moreAccords. I've moved several times in those years, and tried other mechanics that were closer to my home, but I just don't trust anyone like I trust Hi-Tech. They do great service, they really know the models they work on, and they are honest with you about service that does not *need* to be done.
Example: I got a coupon in the mail, and took my Accord over to the Honda dealer for a cheap oil change. The dealership changed the oil, and gave me a list of urgent maintenance that needed to be done that would total about 800 dollars. I called up Hi-Tech and went through the itemized list of "necessary maintenance" and asked how much they would charge for each thing. Their grand total if I had done all that would have been $220. I like the idea of saving $580! Then I told them that it was the dealership that had said I needed all these things done, and Mary, on the phone, told me no, I didn't need to bring it in for another 5,000 miles, that the dealership was trying me to get things done now that only needed to be done every 30K miles on the car.
Another example: on my old Mazda, the brakes were squeaking and felt a little soft, so I took it in, fearing an expensive brake replacement. Hi-Tech did a much cheaper brake adjustment instead of replacing the brakes, and told me about how long it should be before I would have to replace them, so I could plan financially for that.
A third example: When my last Honda was on its last legs (if you can say that about the car), I took it in because it just didn't feel like it had much power, and a compression test showed me it was too low on some cylinders and uneven across the four cylinders. Hi-Tech were honest with me about the fact that this was probably not something that could be fixed without basically replacing the engine - very expensive. They did a very thorough cleaning, which improved the compression as much as possible without doing that, and they advised me to either sell the car, or drive it till it quit, but they didn't pretend they could fix something they couldn't. They said my money would be better spent on a newer used car than on replacing this on an old car.
I really recommend them. I'm writing this review in 2010, and the couple who are running this are getting older. They won't be in business forever. I don't know what preparation they are making for when they retire, but I hope they are training honest, competent younger mechanics to take over for them, to keep the business running in the same way, providing great value.
