I have brought my Volvo (a lot of places in Allendale don't deal with European cars) car to Tolman's several times. They always look at the car figure out whats wrong, then give me a call to see what I want to do. Every quote I have gotten has been very close to what I paid. If you're looking for an honest auto repair places Tolman's is it. read more

Great experience. Had a leak around the valve step on my significant others vehicle. Some slight confusion / miscommunication regarding the dropping off of the vehicle. However, I would say the pricing was fair for the issue. read more

Just short of my son turning 16, he bought a car that he saved up to buy on his own since he was 12. Unfortunately, a bad water pump later, we get quoted $2,000 from other places because of the complexity of the fix. Not the kind of birthday surprise we wanted. I called Tolman's and talked with Philip. Not only was Tolman's more competitive, Philip was extremely professional. In fact, he promised to have it completed before my son's 16th birthday, which they delivered on. Suffice it to say, I will not be going anywhere else! read more

Had a bunch of work done on my partners new car here; new brakes and rotors, new exhaust, new battery, new control arm, new shocks and struts, and new fuel lines. Tolman's got all of this done within 2.5 days! They communicated with me on an estimated time that the car would be ready, what they had completed, how it was going, etc. I have never been so happy with an auto shop. I was extremely impressed with the virtual report that they sent to my phone. It laid out everything that was wrong, the safety rating of the car, and had videos/photos. They also got me a $25 rebate on my battery as well. Super nice and honest people. Prices were great and I felt confident with my partner driving her car after Tolman's repaired everything. :) read more

My brakes were squeaking, and it was time for an oil change. I took it to Tollmans and he asked if I could leave it overnight. I did. The next morning my car would not start it would not even turn over. I went back inside and told Jim the situation. Jim has my battery checked, and tells me that my battery is dead and I need a new battery. $200 later plus 600 on the original repairs, now my car has a check engine light on, that never had this problem before. I took it to someone else and they told me it's the camshaft sensor. I had never ever had problems with my car before. Now, it dies on me, and not only 2 months later my battery is dead. Again, I paid $200 for that battery. Should this be happening? Could the brand new battery already be giving me trouble? Btw... The brakes still squeak. Jim told me it's because I have some rust on my wheel base?? I would never trust this place again. Buyer beware, take your vehicle somewhere else. read more

Didn't seem like they cared about me as a person, it just felt like they were talking to me as if I was a dumb crappy college kid. Told me the year of my car was wrong... they told me it was a 2015 and inside my head I just thought "Do you really think a 19 year old middle class girl can afford a 2015 car?" But whatever it's fine. They didn't give me a price or tell me what kind of oil they were using they just asked for my keys and told me to wait. I felt really weird about it but by the time I sat down I felt like it was too late. So I guess I'll just have to deal with this mystery oil for now and go to a more organized and not some random auto tech shop next time. read more

Thank you Tolman Auto-Tech Group! Our son is a GVSU student and he was having car trouble. After lots of trouble shooting over the phone with his dad, we determined it was beyond our ability to fix. It was around noon on a Saturday and we are two and a half hours away. After checking Yelp, we gave Tolman a call, and were told to have him bring it in. We were expecting it to be looked at on Tuesday, but were surprised to get a phone call on Monday, letting us know what the issue was, and that it would be done for less than the (reasonable) quote. He was back on the road Monday night. Thanks for taking care of our student. We made the right call. read more

My daughter is an out of state student at Grand Valley and had an incident where she slid in snow and hit a curb. She called me and said the steering wheel was way off. I told her to drive it to another garage near school who redirected her to Tolman. What a great business! They squeezed it in and diagnosed the problems the same day. Had it repaired right before my daughter was heading back home for winter break! Highly recommended! read more

I have seen reviews from people who rave about this shop. Here is what happened to me and let the reader be the judge. I took my car in for a safety inspection and was told I needed repairs to the tune of almost $1,000 ($915, to be exact). My mechanical expertise is low to none, but even I thought that was too high an estimate to be an honest one. I took it to another mechanic and he found that the brakes needed some work, but that was all. I specifically asked him about front end/steering problems, which Tolman had tried to scare me about. He said everything looked good there. He fixed the brakes for about $200 and I was good to go. If you want to give Tolman a try, keep your hand on your wallet so it won't fall out of your pocket while you are running to another shop. read more

Marco, Philip, Tina....you are the best!!! We came to GVSU for orientation and had a problem with our van. We were kindof nervous with smoke coming from the hood. The service from Tolman's could not have been better...giving us a ride to and from orientation, great communication, and friendliness, are all what we received. We are grateful! read more

Took my Van into Tolman. It was not shifting properly and the engine would rev high due to being stuck in a gear. This was a very intermittent issue and most of the time it shifted fine. Tolman told me the transmission was shot, was one of the TOP TEN WORST transmissions they had seen and wanted $3,600 to replace transmission. Really? I drove it there fine and they said top ten worst ever. I said no thanks, paid them $90 and drove the van 30 minutes to a auto repair I used to go to that had replaced a transmission for me in the past (on a different van... which was 100,000 miles ago still going strong). This other place also put van through it's paces and determined that the transmission was fine. They replaced the transmission fluid/filter and $200 later I was on my way. Van has been driving/shifting perfect since. So warning, for a big repair get second opinion! I have had Tolman due one other smaller repair for me in the past and they were OK for that. read more

My son attends GVSU and called to let me know his power steering fluid was leaking badly, I had wanted him to be able to make it home for spring break where I could have our local mechanic take a look at it, but he said he was having to put fluid in daily. I looked around online and found Tolmans, I called and explained to them the situation and scheduled a time to get an estimate. They said it would be $200 to fix but they could bypass the line where the leak was and only charged him $82. He said they were very friendly and explained everything in great detail. We will definitely use them again if needed in the future, no one wants to have their car worked on 400 miles from home, but we had an excellent experience with Tolmans. read more

I've been here twice now, and they have undoubtedly been one of the best mechanics I've been to. Friendly, great work and the best equipment I highly recommend this mechanic to anyone looking for the best. read more

My daughter attends GVSU and her car would not start, I live 1 hour away. I had her car towed to Tolman and they do fair and honest work. Thanks! read more

I feel ripped off.. (tl:dr- I gave them a list of what I thought was wrong with the feeling there was more wrong and they called me back $90 and 1 hour later saying the only things wrong were the things I mentioned and brakes which I told them not to look over as I knew they were bad, and they never mentioned the bad wheel bearing) I asked them to look over a car I had recently purchased as it was used and I knew it would need some work done (didnt look like previous owner ever touched the cars components). I gave them a list of things I wanted them to check. Specifically I said I wanted them to check for an emissions leak, as that was the code my OBD scanner was giving, and check general steering/front end components as I suspected the struts and tie rods were bad and I wanted to know if anything else was bad around those components or relating to steering. I specifically asked them not to waste time looking at the brakes because I knew they were bad. I got a call an hour later saying that what do you know, the only components that were wrong were the ones I listed and they had no idea why my car was giving me the emissions leak error... but also my brakes on both ends were bad!... A day before I brought in my car I also noticed my wheel bearing was bad and hadn't mentioned it on the list of things for them to check as they would notice it anyway and just forgot to mention it after making the appointment.. I feel cheated that they didn't catch this if I asked them to do a general inspection of the front end with an emphasis on steering related parts and mentioned wheel noises when they asked me about the car... So not only do I suspect they didn't do anything more then literally lift the car up and look at it and call it bad, they charged me and wasted mine and their time to check the brakes I repeatedly asked them not to do instead of actually looking for other things wrong with the car! Very frustrating, I will never come here again and suggest no one else does unless you got money to burn! read more