CONSUMER BEWARE: I will never go back to Luttrell's. I took my 2006 Lexus in to repair my faltering air conditioner. At the outset I told the person at the desk that I had a check engine light for a code indicating that the evaporative fuel system had a leak. I told him that if the code (P1420) was still the same to do nothing further. After a few hours, I received a call from the same person indicating that I needed a new air conditioner compressor and that there was a small leak from the condenser.
When I picked up my car, I was billed a total of $166.62 even though no repairs were performed. $75+ was for looking at the check engine light. The code, which was the one I told them about, was not even erased. I am no mechanic and, in fact, I have very limited mechanical ability. However, it is very easy to check these codes and erase them. I took my cheap code checking device from AutoZone and timed how long it took me to plug it in, read the instructions, and erase the code. It took me 3 minutes. At the rate Luttrell's charged me that is the equivalent of $1500 per hour. What a joke. If I had been told I would be charged $75 plus tax to look at the engine light code, I would have declined. If the cause of the check engine light had been diagnosed, I wouldn't have a complaint. However, in my experience a reputable company would not have charged anything for such a minor task as checking an engine light code and doing nothing more.
I had no problem paying the cost of diagnosing the problem with my air conditioner. However, the estimated cost of repairing my air conditioner was $4500+. I decided not to authorize the repair. I then went online to get an estimate of the cost to replace the compressor. According to one site, the estimated cost for our area was around $2200 for the compressor. Assuming the condenser was included in this estimate, that would cost another $800 for a total of $3000. https://repairpal.com/estimator/estimate-results. Another website estimated the cost at $2400 for the compressor and $725 for the condenser for a total of $3125. https://www.yourmechanic.com/estimates/lexus/rx400h/ac-compressor-replacement. Draw your own conclusion whether you should trust Lutrell's estimate, which was roughly $1400 higher that the second estimate.
So end the end, I was charged a total of $166.62 for "diagnostic" work, which included $3 for undifferentiated "shop supplies". While repair shops vary, I would note that I recently had my Toyota pickup serviced at Master Auto Service down the road from Luttrell's and the total cost was $200 below the RepairPal website estimated cost for the work that was performed. If that shop worked on hybrids, I would go back there in an instant. I will never step foot in Lutrell's again. read more
