Exercise EXTREME CAUTION with Northport Auto Repair, located at 670 Ft Salonga Rd. Northport,…read moreattached to the metro gas station. Be very cautious about the reviews as well. Majority of these reviews are about the old owner, and half of the more recent reviews are bot accounts, check the way they are written. Almost as if the new owners paid for a service to have 5 star reviews blasted on their page. Northport Auto Repair is an IMMINENT, threat to the publics safety dishonest, and at-least one of the brothers who own the shop, is a very short tempered, want-to-be intimidating lunatic.
I had brought my family members jeep, an 05 Grand Cherokee which has been meticulously maintained, with only 95k miles on it, to Northport Auto Repair, for a simple annual NYS inspection. The car was driven there, and left there with no issue, and as the car was not needed for the remainder of the day, told them we would pick it up the following day, no rush. We're charged $40 cash, up front, (fine) and when a receipt was asked for (should've been the first clue) it was brushed over and pawned off to "you can have one when you pick it up". Fine, just an inspection, not a big deal. (So I thought.) The following day, we hear nothing from them. Being that it is the primary car of someone in the family who works from home, they were not in urgent need of the car and I did not think it was a big deal as I had told them no rush. On the 3rd day they called to say the car was ready to be picked up. The family member whose car it was (who is not mechanically inclined) hitched a ride to pick up the car. Upon arrival, a receipt (that was promised) was asked for again, and the employee/owner/deskman, said it wasn't able to be printed and swiftly made his way back into the shop area after returning the keys, nowhere to be found. Again, fine, it was a $40 charge and it was just an inspection. As he goes to leave, the brake pedal went straight to the floor as the vehicle was attempted to be put into drive. After informing/questioning the mechanic, he told him that they had noticed that and it appears to be the master cylinder and "power booster" (assuming he meant break booster as I've never heard of a power booster,) and that it would need to be repaired before being able to be driven off, clearly as the car had no brakes. Being that the owner of the car is not mechanically inclined and I am, he told the mechanic he was going to leave it for the night and I would get back to him as the car was not drivable. He did however notice, that the car had a new inspection sticker on it. Strange. Upon my arrival there the following day, the vehicle was now INSIDE the mechanics bay with the hood open. When asked what the issue with the car was, the one owner did not know, so he called his brother and gave me his phone to speak to him. He told me again, that the master cylinder and power booster needed to be replaced and the parts would be here in a few days. No one had given them authorization to perform any work on the vehicle, and when the vehicle was dropped off, there was no issue with the brakes. It was there for a simple inspection. The vehicle, which had been in a parking spot outside, is now in the shop, hood open, held hostage, with "parts on order". When I asked about the new inspection sticker on the window, and how it passed inspection with no brakes, neither of the owners had an answer, aside from "they will do their best on the price for the repair". Mind you, a repair that the car did not come in needing. The owner kept repeating "you get that on these older cars. They just poof, and break"How can you pass a vehicle on inspection that has ZERO brakes? When I asked him what would happen if I drove off his lot and killed someone due to faulty brakes on a car he JUST inspected, (a car mind you that hasn't even left his lot yet) he told me, "that is why we need to fix the issue". Sir, you just inspected the car. YOU just certified this car as road ready safe to drive. Aside from the fact I think that they are running a scam to get innocent customers to fear for their safety and feel the need to spend money on a needed repair they have caused, IMMEDIATELY, the fact that they have passed this car for inspection is abysmal and an IMMINENT threat to public safety.
After refusing to release the vehicle immediately, I informed them I would be happy to take it up with the state and DMV (who licenses these repair shops). At this point, the one owner aggressively RIPPED the phone from my hand which was pressed up to my ear, slammed it on the table, and what I would imagine was cursing me out, in his native language. (Not english). Then stormed off into the shop bays, SLAMMED the hood shut, flung open the garage door, proceeded to fly off the handle throwing things around the shop, slam the car into reverse and back out of the bay into the parking lot, and RIP the emergency brake as his means of stopping the car since it did not stop with the ped
