I do quite a bit of work on cars myself and I used to work at Pep Boys so am pretty familiar with…read morehow most shops operate. I normally go to other places when I don't have the tools, time, and or knowledge needed for some things. I will go over my first experience with this shop and why my wife and I go here when needed.
I had an issue with an oil pressure sensor leak. I could see it, I know how much the part costs, and I know what needs to be done. However to actually access it would be a pain. I called them up and asked them how much it would cost to replace it. I believe I spoke to Steve and he mentioned generally about 200 or so. Now, that would be the case for many cars, but not this one. So I asked Steve if he could check book time.
Book time is basically the amount of time, in a perfect scenario, it should take a mechanic to complete a task. They can then give you an estimate with respect to their labor rates. For example if hourly labor is 150 and book time for say changing a starter is 1h, they can say the labor cost will be $150. Steve looks at book time and is surprised because it's higher than normal about 2x more time and was wondering why. I mentioned, that to access it you have to essentially remove a few other components. He mentions, well, you can bring it in and we can take a look.
I was hoping maybe they'd have easier ways of accessing it and mentioned I'm going to think on it a bit. I went under the car again and decided, "Nope. Too much work." I called back and setup an appointment. I drop off the car.
I'm not happy with where the car manufacturers' engineers decided to shroud the oil pressure switch and essentially up the replacement cost but it is what it is. Anyway, I get a call back and the price I have to pay is essentially 1h and the part. I head on over and am very surprised. I forget the name of the mechanic (think it started with an M) but I asked them, "I'm surprised that you got it done so fast ... how?!" They mentioned they'd dealt with those cars before as they're common so they rigged up/made a special tool to reach in and do it.
That was when I decided TrueTech is a stand up place. They could have charged book time and believe me you, I would've paid it. However they had a seasoned mechanic who knocked it out and passed those savings in their time, as savings in my pocket back to me. This isn't just a good honest mechanic being a good honest mechanic but also the higher ups, the managers and or owners.
It seems that is their standard too as they've always been pretty booked which says they're more about doing good work in good time and if they make good headway, you may luck out. You may not, their call :-) but again, book time is perfect world setup, not rusted through, seized on, broken off ... stuff. It is still a good way to understand what you may be looking at aside from the actual part.
Since then if and when needed, we go to TrueTech and we've always been happy.
P.S. Once they have you in their system (i.e. e-mail / phone), their estimates app, progress, etc and everything is great. Especially if you have a smart phone. I saw where someone mentioned they had difficulty with getting a response and I haven't ran into that. If anyone does run into that, call them and just verify they have the right info.
