After a few weeks of misinformation and extravagant cost estimates to repair my transmission from Subaru of Pyallup, I called and talked to Dave about the situation I was experiencing. He informed me that my transmission COULD be rebuilt unlike what the Subaru service manager said and quoted my a price thousands less than was given to me by Subaru of Pyallup. Dave called me a few days later and asked me if the dealership had informed me that the transmission needed to be replaced, and when I told him yes he said "they were full of sh!t". He stated it was the transmission module that was bad and that the transmission was fine!! The work was done for around $11,000 less than I was told it would cost me at Subaru of Pyallup. If you have a transmission issue with ANY model car I would stonily suggest you give Dave a call before anyone else!!! He is a straight-shooter. read more

Seatac Transmission handled my repair in a straightforward way. The staff explained the issues clearly and gave an estimate upfront. The work took a bit longer than expected, but the car runs fine now. Prices seemed fair for the service. It's not a fancy shop, but they get the job done if you need transmission work in the area. read more

I had a tiny bumpy start with getting a call back but once we finally connected my experience was good. David was extremely accommodating to keep our car while we were out of town and have it ready when we arrived home. My car shifts as smooth as butta! Never felt so smooth . Love love love it! read more

Great service and highly recommend this shop. They may not smile a ton, but their work is excellent.

I had my 2011 F150 transmission replaced here. I was very pleased with the service and pricing. These guys do good work and the owner will give you the truth upfront. I highly recommend these guys. read more

QUALITY SERVICE!!! Dave was real nice and very responsive. Took my car after work right before the shop closed and he was able to keep it overnight(which I had hoped)and had it checked first thing the next morning and gave me a call right away with an update and to get the green light/ok to service my vehicle.. Had a pretty bad transmission leak which created a pretty big mess in the shop yet he was able to fix it right away- he even gave me a quote for the work needed to be done before doing anything and it ended up cheaper than what he quoted which was super cool. Now my leak is fixed and also my backseat driver side window is working properly and normal(which it hadnt been working at all)!! Overall I am very satisfied and a happy customer- I will be coming back if any issues with transmission in the future I definitely recommend this shop. Thanks again Dave & the team @ SeaTac Transmission!! read more

Dave Ott is the owner manager of Seatac Transmission and who you will be talking to if there is a problem. Make no mistake from his soft spoken, absolute assurance, and friendly manor, if he chooses to be hard to deal with he knows how. They rebuilt the transmission on my van, the bill was $2,838. which is fine but there was immediate problems. It would randomly shift in and out of overdrive for no reason. It was very irritating to drive. I had to take it back four times before they finally fixed it. Warranty work does not pay and Dave Ott tried everything he could to keep from doing it. He would say drive it some more these things often work themselves out. He would say he is real busy and will call next week and schedule, but never call. He would say the transmission tests perfectly and it has to be something else on the truck but he could not tell me what. He would try and sell me other unrelated service. At one point they had the truck 28 days, (not waiting for parts) just sitting in their lot. On the 26th day they took it inside, still didn't fix the transmission but tried to sell me some suspension work. I took the van else where for the suspension work. They never would have fixed it had I not been willing to fight like a tiger for what I paid for. They finally bit the bullet, took it back apart, and fixed it right. I think they knew what was wrong and what needed to be done long before. Today it is still working right and just now gone out of warranty. But I can not recommend them. No customer should have to go through what I did. read more

Just had our minivan in for a complete transmission rebuild. When I first called Dave at Seatac Transmission, he was very helpful and was willing to give a quote over the phone. He said it would likely be $2500-3000 and said it would only take 4-5 days at the most. I did my due diligence and called around, and he was right in the ballpark of what everyone else was saying and the fact that he is a member of the Better Business Bureau and has a great record with them was the clincher for me. He even sent a tow-truck over to Vashon Island to tow our van to his shop for "free" (although I'm sure that cost is built in to what I paid). He received my van on a Monday afternoon and told me he would call me on Tuesday morning after he'd had a chance to test it out and look at it, before he pulled the transmission out so that we could get more of a firm estimate of what we're looking at. Come Thursday morning, he still hadn't called me so I called him around 9am to see what the scoop was. He said he wasn't in the shop at the moment but that he would call me back in a little bit. He did mention though that the transmission was out and his guys were halfway done with the repair. I asked him why he did that when he told me that he would call before he did anything and all he said was, "Yeah, I probably said that." Later that day, just before 5pm, I still hadn't heard from him (and now I was getting nervous) so I called him again. This time he was in the shop and told me that my van needed an expensive part that was about $800 (his cost) so that I should definitely plan on the $3000 for the repair -- plus tax and fluid. Now perhaps this is a bit naive on my part, but when he gave me the quote for the estimate, he never specified whether or not it included taxes or fluid charges. My mistake was assuming it did. He told me that it was almost done and that there was a chance it could be done the next day (Friday), but most likely it wouldn't be done until Monday. Depending on whether you start the count on the day he received the vehicle or the day he first looked at it, this would be either day 5 or day 6 of his original 4-5 days time estimate (and assuming he wasn't counting Saturday or Sunday). Friday came and went without any communication. Monday came and went without communication. Tuesday came and went without any communication. Finally, Wednesday morning (Day 7 or Day 8, depending on how you want to count it) I called to find out what was going on. I called at 9:15 and he told me the transmission was back in the van and that it was just waiting a final road test, but that should be done in the next 2-4 hours. I told him great and that my wife and I would begin making plans to come over from the island when he said to make the plans but to wait until I heard from him before we actually got on the ferry, just in case it wasn't ready yet. So I waited. Again. It wasn't until almost 3pm (almost 6 hours after he had said I should hear in 2-4 hours) that he finally gave me the go-ahead to come pick up the van because it was ready. My wife and I had to scramble in order to catch a ferry that would allow us to get over there before they closed at 5:30. So here's the deal: did Seatac Transmission rebuild and repair my transmission? I certainly hope so. It drives nicely and obviously better than it did before, but I can't climb underneath and pull it a part to see what they did. Instead, I have a final bill of $3400 as my "assurance" that they did what they said they did. But make no mistake about it, these guys aren't maestros or magicians. They rebuild, replace, and repair transmissions. There are so many transmission shops out there that even though this is what they do, it's almost irrelevant. They aren't reinventing the wheel or walking on water. They simply conduct business that provides a service that many other mechanics can do. What should set them apart is the *way* they conduct their business, and in this case, I believe it was lousy. When you give someone an estimate, explain it clearly. If you're not going to include taxes and other fees in it, then explain that to the customer so they aren't shocked. When you give a range of $2500-3000, most people will automatically hear and cling to the lower number in hopes that that is what it is. Luckily for us, my wife and I did not. Instead we planned on the $3000 and even anticipated extra fees because we understand that things don't always work out as planned. But based on my many years in the sales and service industry, I know that is far from what the general population does. So Seatac Transmission, I doubt you pay attention to Yelp, but if you do, here is some of the best advice I was ever given in my career: Under promise and over deliver. You probably would have earned at least 2-3 more stars on this review if you had. read more

Fixed my RV transmission after a nightmare experience with another shop. They know transmissions!

In April of 2002 I had the transmission of my 1995 Ford Windstar rebuilt at SeaTac Transmission, which is a member of the Better Business Bureau. They provided a one-year, 12,000 mile warranty. In October, 2003, the reverse gear suddenly stopped functioning. While my mileage was still under the warranty limit, obviously it had been more than a year since the original repair was made. Many repair shops would have said the warranty had expired and I would have to pay full price for a new repair. I was so impressed with David Ott's response to my problem. He took the car in immediately and charged no fee to repair the reverse gear. read more

The work this shop does may be good but I will never know. I took my vehicle there for what I suspected was a transmission leak. I don't usually go to shops unless it's something I can't do and transmissions fit that category. I told Dave what I was experiencing when the car was dropped off in the afternoon and he said he would call me when they had determined where and what the leaking fluid was. He called the next day about 9:30 and told me it wasn't the tranny at all but a heater hose leaking in the rear of the engine. The coolant is red also. He then said the car had some other issues also, most of what I already knew about. He then gave me a quote of almost $800 to do the repair on the heater hose. I told him I can do that work myself and also the alleged loose wheel. When I went to pick to car up I was presented with a bill for $250. As explained, it was for 2 hours of time spent evaluating my vehicle for problems. There was only one issue that was to be addressed and that was the leak. I find it hard to believe that an experienced shop should have to spend 2 hours to find a coolant leak. I did not ask Dave to inspect my entire vehicle. I think he was irritated that I didn't let him do the work to fix the leak. As I stated, I can work on my vehicles and only took it here because I don't deal with transmissions. Instead of discovering the leak was coolant and calling me, I have a laundry list of alleged problems that I did not ask for. Lesson learned. Ask how much estimate should be before dropping off key. I can't trust anyone that does business this way. read more

Dave and his crew walk on water. Dave is honest and he guarantees his work without question. My Buick needed a new transmission after about 100,000 miles. Thankfully, I had one of those repair waranties for the car. Dave took the car and negotiated the waranty with the waranty company for me. No extra charge. Transmission troubles? Call Dave. He will even tow your car to his shop at no extra charge. read more

Going to give a mixed review here: First the good: These guys are awesome for parts, they have a wholesale system for transmission parts that is just flat out one of the best around. There prices a lot of times are even less than what you could buy the parts online for, I know this for a fact because I have compared on several occasions. Now the bad: Their customer service on the service side shop side (not the parts side which is a different division of Sea-Tac Transmission entirely) absolutely sucks! I brought in a transmission in to be repaired and after soaking me for $1100 and being g guaranteed that they had fixed it I had the exact same problem. The first story was I needed to spend another $2000. After being told that and finding out what parts actually cost I asked to speak to a manager, he rudely let me know that they could discount it down to $900, when I asked why I had to pay twice on a repair which didn't fix my problem and what their guarantee was good for? I was told they were going to charge me storage at $60 per day and we're assessing a $250.00 charge for inspecting the fix I paid for that didn't fix my problem. I would not suggest taking your vehicle here for repair, I would suggest buying transmission parts here. read more

This is the worst of the worst transmission shops in Washington. They had my Mercedes for almost a month because Mercedes would not sell them the parts. Mike Ott tried to get Phil Smart to fix my car under the pretense that he was the mechanic, and to make matters even worse Mike wanted to charge me twice what Mercedes wanted. Stay far away from this shop and Eric Bertelsen from Benz Connection located in Gig Harbor. Between them both they got me for 2,800 on the pretense that they are really mechanics. Keep your money and only use reputable mechanics. read more

I mistakenly took my cube van to a shop that was close to me. Dam it I did that twice. Both shops had the van for weeks going on a month. They couldn't fix it. Finally I got smart and took it to Sea Tac. It took them a while, Dave said they were back up and they would get to it. And they did. Sea Tac did a complete road test and one of there tech's was able to solve the problem. So if you have a transmission problem take it to a transmission shop Sea Tac Tranmission. Two thumbs up! read more

I bought a 2003 Toyota Matrix 5-speed in 2007 from the original owner with 65,000 miles on it. Turns out it had a bad transmission (as MANY 5-speed Matrix do). I took it to SeaTac Transmission at the recommendation of my dad and they rebuilt the transmission for about $1800. Fast forward to July 2012, and the car has 144,000 miles on it and the transmission has failed AGAIN! The internet is full of stories of these crappy transmission failing every 60-80,000 miles. To be clear, this was not a problem with the way SeaTac rebuilt my transmission. It worked flawlessly until the same bearings failed again. This time, I did some research and it turns on the 6-speed out of the Matrix XRS, Vibe GT and Corolla XRS bolts in just fine and is way more reliable. Since my first experience with them was so good, I took my car back to them to put the 6-speed in there. I talked to the owner, and he had never done one before, and didn't know how well it bolted up, if any parts were needed, etc. I also asked him to check on the clutch while the transmission was out, since it is easier to do then. He said he would call me if there was any additional labor involved in the swap, but the only time he called was to tell me the car was done. I feel like they could have added whatever they wanted on to the labor, because I know it's not a standard swap, and I have no idea what is required to swap a transmission, but his initial estimate was what I paid. Not a penny more! These guys are really honest and I would not hesitate to go there again (hopefully I don't need to)!!! read more

I have had my car repaired twice by this shop. No $urprises and the work was done on time. I appreciated the constant communication. I would definitely go there again read more