I have been a loyal customer of Magic Mechanic for four years. They are the only place I trusted to touch my car. No more.
I took my car in at 7:30am on Monday morning to have them look at the burning oil smell I was still having after they had already said they repaired an oil pan leak. (I was pretty sure it was the CV boot leaking on the catalytic converter).
I also was now experiencing strong vibrations when driving. They said they would be looking at my car at 12:30pm.
Monday at 4pm I called and they still had not touched my car. They said there were three cars still ahead of mine.
Tuesday at 3pm I called and they said their were 3 cars ahead of mine. I was rather upset that it was day 2 with still nothing done on my car and still, supposedly, 3 cars ahead of me. I wished they had told me Monday morning it would be 3 or 4 days before they would even look at my car.
At 4pm I called to tell them I was going to take my car to a mechanic who has time to work on my car but a tech had just taken it out so I thought, perhaps, they were finally going to get around to fixing my car.
They called back at 5:15pm with the following estimate:
- New CV Axle - $285
- Transmission Transfer Case - fluid is real black & need new filter - MAY need a new transmission. They were going to flush it first for $769 but a new transmission for the Subaru is over $2000 and that may be what's needed if the flush doesn't work.
- Power Steering Rack & Pinion - leak including alignment - $185
- New rear tires - $183
I knew I needed new tires.
They did not acknowledge that they mis-diagnosed the leak earlier.
They said they would flush the transmission first thing Wednesday morning and then give me a call.
I called Wednesday (DAY 3) at 1pm and was told that they had not done anything on my car yet. At this point I was pissed that I was consistently lied to and stuck having to bum rides from friends not to mention being without my car longer than I was expecting.
Magic Mechanic was not the least bit concerned about this nor were they able to give me any time frame NOR were they concerned about the earlier mistake.
I ended up picking up my car from Magic Mechanic who seemed glad to be rid of me. I took it to www.mechanicsplus.com for a second opinion.
Within HOURS Bill diagnosed my car as needing a new CV boot and nothing else. I now have my car back within one day from Mechanics Plus who provided excellent customer service and, to boot, he only charged me $180 for the work that Magic Mechanic was going to charge $285!
I now wonder how many other times I've been ripped off by these guys who don't seem to care about their customers. Perhaps it's because, as I heard, Larry is no longer there or perhaps they have grown too big and too busy to worry about keeping good customers or maybe all they want to do is oil changes. Regardless, I've learned that just because someone's on the radio and charges outrageous prices, it doesn't mean they are honest or provide good service
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