In my opinion, avoid…read more
I really wanted to like them as it was my home shop (Encore) before it was bought by Firos II. With Encore, I really loved it and could drop of my car whenever and expect quick and quality service. That's not the case anymore. In general, my experience is that they are slow with the work and bad with communication.
First time in, I had an issue with my Tire Pressure Monitor. I took it in the morning, said it would be done by 3pm, because I needed the car to get my kiddo. They said no problem. By mid-day I had heard nothing, called them and they said it would not be finished. Ok, took it back another day, again early. This time they handed it back to me same day and said good to go, but to let them know if the Tire Pressure warning light comes on because they did not have a chance to drive it long enough to reset. Unfortunately, the light did come back on and after a third visits with them the light came back again. At that point I just gave up trying to fix it with them. Took it to Discount Tires, and had it fixed within an hour.
Based on that, I should have known better but wanted to give them a second chance. When my clutch failed. They turned it around in 1.5 days. At first, this was a decent experience at first (keep reading below), but then, after the first quote, they finally looked into the vehicle and said they clutch replacement kit they purchased needed something more. That was unfortunate and expensive, but it needed to be done.
So 2 months after the clutch, the front wheels started to bobble on tight turns. Took it to them in the afternoon and knowing they are slow, I knew not to expect it the same day. Totally fine. But then the next day, it was 11a when I called them at which point they let me know they had not even looked at it. This time, I had enough, and just picked it up and took it to another shop (finally, I know).
At the next shop, super quick turnaround, but here's the kicker, as they were examining, they let me know the looked at the clutch. And they said "whoever did your clutch job, had no idea what they were doing." They also mentioned that one of the bolts (axel nuts) should have been torqued to 165lb, but that it was done to over 200lb+, they couldn't even remove it without a gun. They speculated that Firos had also damaged the wheel hub in the clutch replacement.
So that was my experience with Firos and I'm trying to be as accurate as possible. I guess I was expecting the high quality, great communication, and efficiency of the previous owner.
My advice to Firos is they need some more experienced mechanics to help with turnaround and quality work, the front desk needs to call people with updates--even texts would be great--and help set expectations for turnaround time. Lastly, don't give quotes until you've properly reviewed the vehicle.
Hope it helps those looking through reviews and to the business owner.