My wife has recently been taking our vehicles to Route One Auto Service for various repairs. Each time a vehicle has been repaired, I am always shocked at the "extras" that appear on the final bill. This last time, although minor as compared to previous visits, they replaced the wiper blades that I had just replaced the day before the vehicle went in for service! Further, they are on the "auto mile" in Norwood, which has every make of vehicle produced within two miles of Route One Auto Service. As such, instead of getting parts from an aftermarket supplier, Bob just goes to whatever dealer he needs to go the get the parts for the needed repairs. As a result, the parts bill is always at least double what it would be if he had used parts from an aftermarket supplier instead of dealer parts.
Also, the shop rate (labor rate) at Route One Auto Service is comparable with most new car dealers shop rate. Further, if this is not bad enough, Bob the owner and ASE certified mechanic does not do any of the repair work. Rather most of the work is performed by interns from various automotive repair schools in the area. In my opinion, the reason for going to an independent repair facility is to get higher quality personal service and to pay less than going to a new car dealer for repairs. Neither is the case at Route One Auto Service. I am always totally shocked at the total cost for the work being performed.
This last time was the final straw. My wife went in to have her vehicle inspected for the State required annual inspection and to have the AC system charged. The vehicle did not pass inspection according to the report, because one of the license plate lights was not working. Then when they had the vehicle, they claim that the vehicle needed extensive front end suspension repairs. Mind you, the vehicle just had extensive front end suspension repairs one year ago. None the less, since this was my wife's vehicle, she authorized the repairs. While performing the front end suspension repairs, the intern doing the work, broke one of the oil cooler lines. As a result they needed to be replaced. Once again, Bob went to the new car dealer to get the parts and charged full price for this repair as well. So instead of getting an expected $300 dollar bill, $1400 dollars later, my wife had her vehicle back.
As a result of this last experience at Route One Auto Service, we have decided that we might as well go to the new car dealers for repairs. At least there,we know in advance that we are going to be ripped off. read more