I have been to Complete Auto Repair a few times in the last year for an oil change, to repair my car’s a/c, and brake pads. The turnaround time and customer service has always been great, but I’ve been surprised each time by the price of each service. For example, when my a/c stopped blowing cool air, I brought it to them to see if something was wrong or if the freon just needed to be replenished. They said I should replace my entire a/c system for nearly $3,000 because there was “shrapnel” throughout the system which could keep the system from working effectively. I asked them to just do the freon, and the a/c has been working fine since.
This past week my car was having trouble starting, so I brought it to them and they said that the starter was bad and the “battery harness” needed to be replaced because it was corroded, and quoted me $970 for the parts and labor. I asked if I could just get the starter replaced, and they said that wouldn’t be possible. I called another mechanic I trust and he couldn’t understand why it would possibly cost that much. I called another mechanic down the road and they said they could do the same work for $450. I went and got my car from Complete Auto Repair, cleaned the cables and battery terminals, and replaced the starter myself for $200. They ended up charging me $70 for the diagnostic, which seemed highly overpriced. For example, to rule out if it was the battery, I went to Batteries Plus, and a guy there used a diagnostic tool on the battery and alternator to help me narrow it down to the starter. It took about 5 minutes, and he did it for free.
Long story short, I won’t be back to Complete Auto Repair. The work they’ve done on my car has been fine for the most part (a jitter I was getting around 65-70 mph got worse after I took my car in to get the brake pads replaced, and they said they were unable to replicate the jitter in a test drive), and it seems like they’ll always try to get you to pay for more than is necessary. They’ve always been friendly and I appreciate that, but I feel like I can’t trust their pricing or assessment of what is actually necessary to fix a problem anymore. ~Erickson
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