Sadly, I need to update my previous 5-star Tune Rite Auto review from 2023. Something has changed or I was simply a sucker all along. Two of my cars came back in worse shape immediately after they touched them, and one will have to be junked.
Here's what I've learned about Tune Rite Auto. It took me two years and $10K to get there:
- Tune Rite Auto is incompetent at best, and criminal at worst
- Tune Rite Auto does not honor their own warranties nor make any gesture of good faith to address problems they were hired to solve
I want to state I have no agenda and I accept my own misplaced trust in Tune Rite Auto. I did not follow my gut. I offer my experience for anyone who will listen. If you doubt the legitimacy of this bad review of Tune Rite Auto or have questions, I invite you to message me. I'm very visible in the community, and it's easy to prove. That said, if you have had similar problems, I encourage to you to message me.
Here's the short version of the shenanigans I experienced over the last month with Tune Rite Auto:
1) In May I took my once-very-expensive car to them for an electrical issue I thought was an alternator problem because I'd noticed a minor oil leak...as most know oil leaking on alternators can burn them out, specifically on this car, which is common. The customer service rep Anthony said it was the battery, and that it needed to be replaced first (they installed a new one a year earlier, btw) so they could check things out. He insisted on a $450 full bumper-to-bumper diagnostic check before doing anything. I trusted him.
2) No surprise to me, it was the alternator. But according to Anthony, it wasn't an oil leak that caused it, but somehow the bad battery they'd installed damaged the alternator. Ridiculous. Even their own mechanic Rob later laughed about this notion. I pay them to replace the alternator and ignore Anthony's mistake because he is a friendly guy and I thought I could to trust them.
3) A few days later when I go to pick up the car, they wrangle in Rob the mechanic to tell me the oil leak is suddenly so bad that it can't be driven safely. Very high pressure, good cop/ bad cop. So I hire them to "fix" that too. After all, who doesn't like safety, right? This fix took 10 days because they "needed to buy a special tool," even though Tune Rite Auto claims to be specialists in this specific European luxury car. I have now paid them $4000 for a battery, an alternator, and to "fix" an oil leak.
4) One week later my wife and I are driving it for the first time over 50 mph, and just getting up to speed on the highway to go a few exits to celebrate a milestone for my child. The engine begins knocking like a woodpecker (telltale sign of lost oil pressure), then loses power and, well, catches on fire. I can barely turn the steering wheel and nearly get into 3 different collisions on I-95. A State Trooper helps clear a path to pull over, and shortly after Fire Rescue comes to address the fire. Now, as the car is spilling out rancid oil smoke, we all notice obvious pools of oil. Lots of it. Very alarming, but no surprise since Tune Rite Auto had been working on that leak. Then we hear an audible "pop" and we all smell and see a stream of something new: gasoline.
5) Great, they didn't fix the oil leak I paid for. OK. Fine. But now what? I tow it to Tune Rite Auto, of course, since their parts and labor are supposedly under "warranty". Of course, I'm hopeful they will honor their warranty, just as Anthony assured me they would when I paid the $4000 above. But do they? No. They refuse to acknowledge there is an oil issue at all. They claim it is only a fuel pump issue, and that their own recent $4000 in work had nothing to do with it, so they warranty wouldn't apply. Right. After 10 days of back and forth weaseling, Anthony gives me an estimate to replace the fuel pump and says there is no way they would entertain the warranty until they could determine upon closer inspection whether they were at fault (as though they could be trusted to admit that). That of course would cost 5-6 more hours in labor to figure out. In other words, it would have to pay them $1200 just so they could tell me another lie about what I already know. Notice how the previous diagnostics (1) and many hours of supposed labor solved nothing, and objectively made the car worse. They then had the audacity to hit me with an invoice for performing diagnostics I never authorized.
Sooooo. In my experience I have found that Tune Rite Auto of Davie and Boca Raton is an EXTREMELY UNETHICAL business. The customer service clerk (salesman) employs an effective soft sell while the actual work is performed poorly or not at all, even though they are one of the most expensive shops around.
Worst of all, I found Tune Rite Auto simply cannot be trusted. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and many opportunities to make things right, but every time they chose the opposite. Beware. :( read more