The 1st time I went to the shop was for an alignment about 2-3 months ago. The price was fair (actually cheaper than most places that I've been too) and pretty the same as when you do the calculation of the price based off of their website. Lawton, one of their mechanic/rep, was the guy I talked to over the phone. He helped me with setting up the appointment. The service that I received from him was great and did a good job with the alignment. When the job was done, Lawton did a very quick test drive, about one block, and came back. I was able to see the car from the shop during the entire test drive.
I went there again for a brake fluid flush and oil change. Again, Lawton took the appointment, performed the job, and everything went well. About a week later (which was earlier this Monday) I went back to them to install a bigger sway bar. Lawton was kind enough to squeeze me in to their busy schedule. This time, Lawton had another mechanic do the install of the sway bar for my car. However, I wasn't happy with the way the mechanic put my left rear wheel onto the car. Because it was an aftermarket wheel, the lug nuts should have been hand tightened and torqued with a torque wrench. I believe that the mechanic was being freaking lazy and didn't give a damn so he just used the air gun to tighten the lug nuts. This was a little thing so I didn't bug them about it. Overall, they did a good job on the install of the sway bar.
However, the mechanic did something that ruined the nice experience. After the sway bar was installed, the idiot mechanic took the car for a long test drive. This time, he drove the car further away and I couldn't tell where the car went. I was also getting anxious about it. About 5-10 minutes later, which to me was kind of long, the car was back. When I went into the car, I decided to check the boost gauge and see what psi the car was boosted to. To my surprise, it was boosted to about 25 psi, which is the max boost for the car. I was really upset that this happened, because to me it's very very unprofessional for a shop/mechanic to floor your car during the test drive without a good reason and permission too. The mechanic have no reason to do a long test drive, drive the car to the max, or boost to 25 psi by flooring the pedal to the floor. I complained this incident to Lawton and he did apologize to me on behalf of the shop. Afterward I left and went home pissed/upset.
The following day, I received a call from Matt, which is the owner of the shop. He also apologized again to me about this incident. I reiterated to Matt that in my view as well as other people's view, that mechanic was unprofessional and shows that he is disrespectful to the customers and to their cars. What the mechanic had done also reflects the shop as well. In addition, it is also a liability too by taking a joyride and engage in reckless driving. A very simple test drive, about one block, should suffice after a simple sway bar install.
Anyway, just wanted to give everyone a heads up on what happened. Based on this incident, it would be very difficult for me to recommend this shop to anyone. read more