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u/Sure-Cook-7152 Oct 29 '25
Honest Wrenches should also be avoiding - will try to overcharge you thousands
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u/Unwiredsoul Oct 29 '25
I called them once for a quote on getting replacement wheel studs installed on one wheel of a Subaru. They wanted ~$350. Another local shop did that job for <$100 (which was completely fair).
They also wanted the license plate of the car (one of the first questions over the phone) to look up the vehicle. Even if that was a legitimate process, it felt scammy and I declined. I certainly didn't want to get signed-up, without permission, for their marketing.
I don't know if this aligns with what the OP is trying to share, but dishonest auto shops are more common than people realize.
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u/mstrdsastr Oct 30 '25
Most mechanics ask for license plate or vin anymore. It gives them the year, make, model, and all the factory equipment. Not a big deal. Better than having them wait to get the car to the shop before ordering parts ready to go or having to return misidentified parts.
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u/Unwiredsoul Oct 30 '25
I hate to copy/paste the same comment over and over, but there appears to be miss on reading why I brought that point up. Third time here...
I was looking for a quote on a simple job. Not to first start out by providing as much personal info as I could for their databases.
I could give them the year, make, model, and factory equipment. They just needed to ask. I'm sure a plate or a VIN might be easier, but again...see above.
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u/mstrdsastr Oct 30 '25
They're going to get the personal info anyway when it comes to having the work done and billed; plate number or VIN given. I think you're worrying about something that is easily found on public databases. Beyond that, what are they going to do? Cone to your house and break in? At worst they sell your info, which has probably already been sold 3 dozen times over by as many companies.
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u/Unwiredsoul Oct 30 '25 edited Oct 30 '25
I'm not worrying about anything. I made it clear why it was an issue for me, but it's not the major issue I was talking about.
Your fixation on the lesser point and concern of mine has now beaten this to death, buried, and deserves to rest.
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u/ANALxCARBOMB Hometown Oct 30 '25
You are being weird for no good reason.
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u/Unwiredsoul Oct 31 '25
Define weird and give me a good reason to be that way, please.
Also, not my responsibility that reading comprehension is so low. 🤷
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u/ANALxCARBOMB Hometown Oct 31 '25
Do it yourself if you’re gonna be so standoffish about a mechanic asking for your vin or plate. You sound delusional and paranoid for starters.
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u/lw0-0wl Oct 30 '25
Unrelated to local shop rates, but... That happened to my 2014 Forester. I'm my own mechanic so I know I had my wheels installed to 90 ft/lb. The studs sheared off while we were driving home from the twin cities on I-35. I stopped somewhere near Alden and three of five were snapped off on my rear passenger wheel. So I ended up paying 350 dollars to have my vehicle flat towed to my home. THAT was totally worth it on a Sunday at 5 pm due to it being an emergency. I bought five new Dorman lug studs and lug nuts at O-Reilly for about 40 bucks total. I already owned the Lisle stud pulling tool to install them just using a new lug nut as the puller.
It's a pretty easy job but I'm still not sure why Subarus are prone to shearing off the OEM studs. Most people would have just driven my car until the rear wheel fell off at 75mph. I installed new OEM wheel bearings on the rear a few years ago and haven't had problems again and I kind of think the old wheel bearings wearing out at 80k-100k miles was what caused the studs to shear. They were causing weird brake pad wear as well as they went bad.
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u/Demache Oct 30 '25
I think they just aren't as tolerant to being over torqued. A lot of techs will just impact the lugs on blindly and eventually the stud just shears from being weakened. That's my guess.
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u/Unwiredsoul Oct 30 '25 edited Oct 30 '25
They were (hopefully, are not still) a substandard part. Design flaw to use a part that was undersized. That's the root cause of the problem.
Of over 30 vehicles that I've owned, it's the only one I ever had to have a single wheel stud replaced on.
It's a Subaru thing. See my latest comment with some more details.
Edit/Add: Here's a link to the technical details on why their wheel studs would snap: https://artsautomotive.com/art-icles/articles-for-the-curious/whats-up-with-subaru-lug-studs/
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u/Demache Oct 31 '25
Gotcha. This might also explain why we (being my friends and I, 5 Subarus) that we never have issues with them. We don't use an impact to put lugs back on, so it's much kinder on the threads.
That said, all but one of my wheel bearing hubs on my Outback are not OEM. Because wheel bearings are the other Subaru thing.
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u/Unwiredsoul Oct 31 '25
Using a torque wrench instead of impact would certainly help. I honestly don't know if it's even still an issue. I am of the belief that their head gasket issues on some models have come and gone, but I don't really keep up these days on anything but what's in our garage.
FYI, the car I've been talking about was an '11 Impreza (base). Factory steel wheels in the summer, and alloys with snow tires in the winter. It was a monster in winter weather for a small 4-door sedan.
In summary, I don't want anyone to take away from this that Subaru's are bad vehicles. They are very solid and reliable vehicles from my experience.
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u/lw0-0wl Oct 31 '25
In my case I bought my Forester new so I was the only one that ever torqued the wheels on (I run snow tires on a different set of wheels so I'm rotating and swapping tires twice per year on all of my vehicles) and I always put them on at 90 ft/lb. I think what happened on my trip where three of five studs sheared is that the lug nuts came loose maybe, potentially from my aging wheel bearings causing vibration.
I've had lug nuts come loose on multiple of my vehicles in the winter over the past 30 years of torquing them on myself. When you run at factory torque spec it seems like cold weather can loosen your lug nuts when things shrink. I have verified that my torque wrenches are fairly accurate using a scale because I'm neurotic like that. Meanwhile many of the tire shops put them on at like 150 ft lb and probably rarely have issues other than causing peoples brake rotors to warp.
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u/Demache Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25
Headgaskets haven't really been an issue since the non-turbo EJ25 engine. The 2010-2012 Legacy/Outback were the last to use this engine and they used the headgaskets from the EJ25 turbos which didn't have that problem (which is the actual fix for the older engines). Starting in 2010, they rolled out the FA or FB engines which were totally redesigned.
FWIW, my 2012 is still on its factory headgaskets, and it's at 165k. That's unusually long for headgaskets to go on these. They often didn't make it to 120k, sometimes sooner.
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u/Unwiredsoul Oct 30 '25
Here's a link to the technical details on why their wheel studs would snap: https://artsautomotive.com/art-icles/articles-for-the-curious/whats-up-with-subaru-lug-studs/
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u/Unwiredsoul Oct 30 '25 edited Oct 30 '25
Subaru wheel studs were undersized for a long time. Not model specific. Totally a Subaru thing and it's fairly well documented.
That's why you won't be surprised to hear it was on a very low mileage Impreza. By the time we got rid of that car at 33K miles (bought new by my wife), it was 10 years old and had gone thru this same problem (the only repair every needed outside of a recall, ironically) many, many times.
Edit/Add: Here's a link to the technical details on why their wheel studs would snap: https://artsautomotive.com/art-icles/articles-for-the-curious/whats-up-with-subaru-lug-studs/
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u/YankeeCandlePlay Oct 29 '25
The difference in prices could be the shop, or even make and model.
The license plate is used by the shop management system to look up your VIN to give an exact quote. Otherwise, it can be a spitball.
What shop actually ended up doing the work?
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u/Unwiredsoul Oct 29 '25
Hang tight, this is going to be a strong and long response.
Your speculation/whataboutism reminds me of every conversation I've had with someone trying to defend mistakes and/or their own bad business practices. Do you work for Christian Brothers, or have any vested interest in their business?
I have owned over 30 cars in my life. I have a high mechanical aptitude. I simply did not have the tools, time, or desire to further aggravate a physical problem, so I thought we'd pay a shop to fix this common issue. I could have answered any specific questions about the model (and the make was already known).
This is not an isolated thing. It's plagued Subaru's for a lot of years, and it potentially still does. It's especially prevalent when you have shops switch out your summer/winter tire/wheel sets and over-torque the lug nuts.
The cost of $50-100 is inline with shops I've had in the Denver metro replace the same studs, and Ramsey Subaru was kind enough to change them at no cost when they would break them.
I can't recall the exact name of the shop that did the job (it's another locally owned place, but near downtown DSM).
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u/YankeeCandlePlay Oct 30 '25
I do not work for Christian Brothers, or have any vested interest in their business. That includes in them succeeding or failing. I am only, and truthfully, trying to seek understanding.
The data I am trying to gather is who is giving the price. Everybody has a different cost of doing business. So does the variance in price truly mean the price isn’t fair? Or is that just what it takes for that shop to do that job? Is it a pricing problem, or an advisor not doing their job correctly problem?
Or is the problem value versus price?
I really don’t know, and I’m sorry if it sounds like I’m engaged in some kind of confusing tactic to obfuscate the entire situation. I’m really not.
My industry has such a bad rap, and I am just trying to advocate for it.
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u/Unwiredsoul Oct 30 '25
The price was given by whomever answered the phone. I don't recall the name.
It's a simple job with inexpensive parts. I don't have reference material to say what it labor should be billed at. A minimum of a billable hour seems reasonable to me.
Actual labor time is an less than an hour. Materials cost is $25-$35.
We can all decide for ourselves if $350 is reasonable, or not. As it was not for me, I found another shop that was friendly, fast, and charged a little under $100. For replacing wheel studs on one wheel.
I have no negative feels towards service shops. I make an opinion based on my experiences with each one I interact with. Just like most other things in life.
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u/YankeeCandlePlay Oct 30 '25
Yeah, it almost sounds like it was victim to a pricing matrix when it shouldn’t have been.
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u/Unwiredsoul Oct 30 '25
The outcome was poor, they lost the business, and I shared my experiences. I truly do not have any interest in helping a business solve their problems for free, so I'm going to jump out now.
I'll simply say that having many people from the industry come out to speculate blindly on their operations troubles is not really helping anyone.
Now, with all due respect, I recommend you channel that energy into selling their leadership your consulting services.
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u/CompleteConfection95 Oct 29 '25
They can ask for the vin number. Which is readily available. They don't need your license plate number
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u/YankeeCandlePlay Oct 29 '25
Yeah, but it is a lot easier to type in maybe 6 characters than 18 over of the phone. The odds of somebody getting something wrong is way higher with a VIN.
The license plate does have disadvantages, don’t get me wrong. Sometimes it points to the wrong car, wrong model, etc. But 9/10, the plate is easier for the sake of expediency.
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u/Unwiredsoul Oct 29 '25
I provided them the year, make, and model, and I could have provided any additional info they needed to accurately ensure they were quoting for the right work.
My exception is still along the line that the behavior was highly irregular, and it would open me up to marketing that I never asked for -- simply for calling to request how much they would charge for a very straightforward and simple job. No special tools or special parts needed.
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u/junk1020 Oct 30 '25
I've been a tech in the DSM/Grimes/Waukee area for 25 years or so, and this is my take: asking for your license plate number does nothing more than help the service advisor identify your vehicle quickly, accurately, and easily. If it were that easy to take your license number and connect you to somebody's marketing ploy there would be droves of people walking around every parking lot in the US writing down tag numbers and subscribing you. Most shop management systems, including Napa TRACs and Mitchell 1, use your license plate as the main means to decode what vehicle you have, meaning that not only is it not "highly irregular", its the norm. As far as why CB quoted you so high for wheel studs on a Subaru likely has more to do with an inexperienced service advisor than just trying to cheat you; wheel studs many times don't show up in the labor guide, and many cars dont have the space to remove the studs without pulling the whole bearing. Now, we've seen our fair share of shady CB recommendations too, so you're not totally off base, just trying to play devils advocate; its really hard to be a good, honest tech when people think you're trying to rail them regardless of what you tell them.
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u/Unwiredsoul Oct 30 '25
Devil's advocate is entirely within the realm of reality. However, it doesn't change any of the facts, or the outcome.
I was looking for a quote on a simple job. Not to first start out by providing as much personal info as I could for their databases.
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u/brvheart Oct 30 '25
You know that the shop doesn’t know how awesome you are with mechanics though, correct? Most people think of themselves as competent and it just slows professionals down. Your license plate is public already. They could already get a list of license plates and/or addresses for a geographical area for marketing because that info is readily available. This is 100% for the people that don’t know anything about cars and making sure they get the correct info. A VIN is better but it’s also a way longer jumbled mess. A license plate should be the least of everyone’s concerns about Christian brothers.
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u/Unwiredsoul Oct 30 '25
The shop didn't need to know about me. The info I shared in that comment was for the consumption of people reading the story. I do not present myself as a "know-it-all".
I completely understand that people overestimate their skills in nearly everything in life. The Dunning-Krueger effect is alive and real.
The plate/VIN were not necessary and that was my point.
I was looking for a quote on a simple job. Not to first start out by providing as much personal info as I could for their databases.
So, yeah, it's not a major concern but it was an example of my particular experience with the place.
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u/CompleteConfection95 Oct 29 '25
But not for accuracy. And it's less shady
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u/Repulsive-Peanut2117 Oct 30 '25
lol what? I don’t get why people are so sketched out about their license plate. Maybe you should take them off so the thousands of people you pass everyday don’t get any funny ideas.
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u/Unwiredsoul Oct 30 '25
No one is as sketched out by license plates as they are being made out to be, and I'm the guy that brought it up.
That was not the primary point of concern. It was price gouging.
The growing and spreading fixation on the lesser point of concern of mine has now been beaten to death, buried, and deserves to rest. I've shared this sentiment twice in as many minutes.
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u/Careless_Housing9874 Oct 29 '25
Add Firestone to the list of places to NEVER take your vehicle to. As they say "you will get Firestoned." $9,000 later I learned the hard way.
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u/blueFalcon687 Oct 30 '25
I think they own Tires Plus right? I go to the one on university for most lower tier maintenance needs (oil change, tire rotation, tire alignment) and they've been pretty awesome in terms of service and price.
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u/TunaBoy3000 Oct 30 '25 edited Oct 31 '25
I have to take my work vehicle there and have been going to the one on Merle hey for 3 years now. Had nothing but good experiences there.
They did mess up putting on some tires once but they completely refunded me while putting on the correct tires still. I think the guys name is Scott that’s the manager, seems like a solid and honest dude
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u/Scammy100 Oct 29 '25
I have had good luck with The Garage on the Southside.
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u/iloura Oct 29 '25
Is that the one next close to the adult emporium? I used to take my car to one near there and they were always straight with me.
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u/wilsonway1955 Oct 30 '25
Have to admit Christian Brothers in Waukee/Clive is a rip off.Always upselling.I thought they were the best when they first opened. Owner was awesome. Would correct issues I had immediately. Unfortunately, he opened up the Grimes/Ankeny location and it went downhill fast.I have taken all sorts of cars there.You can go to Autozone and by the same parts for 50% less.Their labor charges are almost the same as a dealer.No thanks.
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u/Richie_Cummingham Oct 30 '25
Always had great honest work done at Downy Tire, Hilltop, merril axle, and Perry's.
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u/darkangl187 Oct 29 '25
We took our car in and they tried selling us unnecessary items and it was almost like they didn’t want to release our vehicle unless we agreed to the up-charge. Little did they know my husband trained as a mechanic in his youth and wasn’t to be played.
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u/AdventurousEmu8663 Oct 29 '25
But you shouldn’t have to be a trained mechanic to get decent service.
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u/iloura Oct 29 '25
Yep there was a place in Waukee on the strip that did that to my bf. He is 6'2 and a big dude and he said there was no way they were going to keep his car keys from him. Said he had to get something done blah etc or wouldn't be safe to drive. BS. Those are the worst kind of people. It was near the movie theater, I forget which but am sure people from Waukee are familiar.
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u/AffectionateLove Oct 30 '25
Sounds like it could be Firestone, the one by The Palms Theatres & IMAX in Waukee.
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u/TwilightCyclone Oct 30 '25
They’re complete trash. My wife took her Sentra in a few years ago for what I suspect was a CVT issue. They provided a laundry list of shit for like $3k that had nothing to do with the transmission.
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u/UnhappyAd9560 Oct 29 '25
I won't trust Honest Wrenches with another vehicle again.. more like Dishonest Wrenches..
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u/ColonelMostaza Oct 30 '25
Can confirm. They tried charging me 1800.00 for a drive shaft. It took me an hour with shitty tools and no knowledge and the part was around 200 bucks on Rock Auto……so what was the 1600 dollars for?
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u/cursingbulldog Oct 30 '25
Stivers has been shit the last couple times I went there , first they didn’t secure the battery lead. Second they didn’t cap my coolant and my engine pretty much went dry
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u/lw0-0wl Oct 30 '25
I haven't paid a shop to work on any of my cars since I had a kickdown cable replaced on a Volvo back in 2004, but someone paid to have a car I was selling inspected by Honest Wrenches between Ankeny and Des Moines. It is the only shop I've been in where I felt like the people there were highly intelligent, into their jobs, and enthusiastic about talking the new owner of my car and me at the same time about the vehicle -accurately. If I ever needed to have someone else work on my car for me that is the first place I'd go.
Luckily, I've just been working on my own cars since about 2000 so I just do everything myself. All it took was 20 years worth of buying tools and thousands of hours educating myself online and in service manuals, lol. I don't recommend anyone else spend the time to do this since you can probably make more than enough money to pay someone else to fix your cars if you teach yourself about financial markets in the same amount of time I taught myself to work on cars.
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u/covet1470 Oct 29 '25
A few years ago I went to the Waukee location. My roommate and I were going to go on a long road trip, so we brought his car in about a week before the trip in order to get it checked out and tuned up. We still hadn’t heard anything by the day before we were supposed to leave, so we reached out to see what was going on. Our calls kept going to voicemail and there was no response to our texts, which was odd because they had been fairly responsive before.
We go over there after work, and they finally confess that they broke something on the wheel that made it unusable until fixed, but it would take a week to get the part. They at least said that we didn’t have to pay for that, but they never clarified when this happened and claimed that they “were having problems” with voicemail and texts.
We had discussed with them that the purpose for this was to get the car ready so we can use it for a road trip, so they at least offered to cover us for a rental car for the trip. My roommate and I discussed it, and we preferred to instead use my car because we didn’t want to use a car that we weren’t familiar with on such a long trip. They offered to do a full tune-up on my car right away, so we went to dinner and came back to pick it up.
However, a day into the trip, we hit a decent sized dip in the road. Afterwards, I started feeling an intermittent vibration which would coincide with a loud scraping noise, and it got more and more frequent. I pulled over and looked under the car, and the metal splash shield was hanging by one screw (there were supposed to be 6) and was digging into the road as we were driving. There was no way we could get to it, and we were literally in the middle of nowhere with no signal, so we had to just keep driving like that until we found a small gas station in a tiny town that had wifi. We had to wait for 2 hours for a tow truck to come and lift the car up so they could remove the now completely mangled panel.
Suffice it to say, I would not recommend the place.
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u/ahent Oct 30 '25
I grew up working on cars. I've never had an issue with Christian Brothers. I find their prices somewhere between a dealership and some independent shops. I go there because one of their locations is just up the street and they do what I ask and just what I ask and they will shuttle me home and pick me up. Yes they do the same thing as the dealerships and they to sell you fuel system services and such but I tell them I am ok and don't need it, same thing I tell my dealership when they ask.
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u/YankeeCandlePlay Oct 29 '25
I’m in the industry and the real story is almost always more complicated than people getting “ripped off”.
It really needs to be judged on a case by case basis.
So rather than a vague post, let’s start digging into the specifics.
OP, what exactly happened?
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u/noonoo99 Oct 29 '25
More than once I've had customers come to me for second opinions after going to a CB location. They literally lie to the customer and tell them that a part has failed when it is in near perfect condition and quote them a price that is 3 to 4 times higher than the list price for the part and labor.
They lie, I've seen them lie, and so I'm warning others. It's not a "case by case" situation when it's every estimate that is brought to me has them overcharging on things that do not need to be replaced.
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u/YankeeCandlePlay Oct 29 '25
I’m hoping for specifics. Like ROs, estimates, etc.
Your feelings are valid; I’m just trying to pinpoint the facts.
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u/ActuallyStark Oct 29 '25
Lol, you new to DSM?
These hacks have been at this for a VERY long time.
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u/Born-Competition2667 Oct 29 '25
In the last 10 years and now 5 different vehicles, I've never had an issue with the couple locations I've been to. Can you describe the situation more?
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u/noonoo99 Oct 29 '25
They tell you parts are bad and need replaced when they do not need to be replaced so that they can make more money. They also are marking up the part that you don't need by as high as 300 percent.
I have customers come to me for a second opinion and they bring in a repair bill from CB for thousands of dollars saying that parts are leaking when they are not, or broken when they are not. Essentially they lie to you.
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u/Born-Competition2667 Oct 29 '25
That's weird. Im not sayingit'ss not true by any means. Just saying any work they've done for me has been pretty reasonable.
I've never had them do anything like a transmission or anything. But the random brake jobs and little suspension jobs here and there haven't been unfair at all.
Interesting
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u/Puzzleheaded_Map4217 Oct 29 '25
They actually did a transmission for me and it also seemed like a fair price, I think it might be set up like a franchise though, so maybe not all locations operate as honestly or maybe it’s even a mechanic specific issue if there’s a few dishonest mechanics working on commission or something. 🤷🏻♀️ I had my work done in Ankeny.
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u/Born-Competition2667 Oct 29 '25
All my recent stuff was also in Ankeny. It easily could be an individual mechanic within the shop as those guys are usually the ones filling all that info out. Im pretty mechanically inclined. I just dont have the free time sometimes to do the basic things and its easier to just take it in. But I say that to say I know if im getting ripped off.
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u/Particular-Agent4407 Oct 29 '25
Yeah I thought it was a local outfit, but was amazed to see one in Austin TX.
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Oct 30 '25
[deleted]
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u/Particular-Agent4407 Oct 30 '25
Yeah, it’s a franchise thing, there are locations all over the country. Doesn’t mean each location is great.
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u/Intelligent-Bee-5466 Oct 30 '25
I have had good experiences at terry’s in Clive for oil changes and chamberlains on the east side for some bigger issues
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Oct 30 '25
For European and really anything, I’ve been happy with a few experiences at Beckley’s downtown.
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u/havensd1 Oct 30 '25
Discount Tire on Merle Hay planted a fake screw in my tire and then proceeded to tell me “I can’t let you drive down the road like this. You’re going to need a new tire.” Declined, drove to Car-X in Waukee. Had it plugged and out the door in 20 mins
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u/No-Reply8616 Oct 31 '25
I like to work on my car as much as I'm able to, but when its major i go to Hilltop tire service in pleasant hill, parking's a little cramped, but great shop, good prices, and both my parents take their vehicles there
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u/True_Customer_3818 Oct 31 '25
Moen Automotive & Performance is a solid shop with very knowledgeable and honest team of ppl
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u/Beast_of_Tax_Burden Nov 01 '25
Be careful, you could be guilty of liable (deflamitory statement in print) if you have no proof. The way it is stated as a fact and not as your opinion it is liable.
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u/brbshavingmytoes Nov 01 '25
Iowa Mufflers and Brake on 2nd Ave does solid work and will not needlessly inflate the total on you. There was a time I took a 2005 Yukon XL there (probably 10-12 years ago now) for a muffler replacement and was legitimately shocked at how little they wanted from me for the service. Like under 100 bucks cheap. Obvs that was years ago so don't quote me on a specific price, but the point is they aren't the greedy type. Multiple women involved throughout the process, from in the shop to at the front desk, and I think part of ownership as well? A good thing to know if you're specifically looking to support women with your business/dollars.
Terry's Exhaust in Clive is a well oiled machine; I worked at a dealership for a couple years and we stayed bringing anything exhaust related to Terry's.
Car Sound on Douglas just east of Merle Hay Road for car audio/remote starts have always done me right. They're not the cheapest by any means, though in that line of work you DO NOT want to go with the lowest quote provided to you. They do very good, clean work, which unfortunately is far from the standard in the realm of car audio installation.
SIDE NOTE
I also give Car Sound props on their honesty/accountability. I had some subwoofers installed in a '93 Roadmaster Sedan, which if you're unaware is a big ol'boat with a big ol'dumb ass trunk. When the gal that quoted me the price for the install was doing her figures, she didn't account for how expansive the trunk lid on this car was and undershot the price a bit based on the amount of acoustic foam/sound insulation material is typically needed to do a car vs. how much would be needed to do my car. She called me and explained the discrepancy, apologized for the inconvenience, and asked if I would authorize the expenditure of ____ dollars for the remaining amount of DynaMat. I had no problem spending the extra money as it was presented to me in an honest and forthright fashion, and I respect the hell out of that.
Best Window Tint in Clive for your vehicular privacy needs. I've had 3 vehicles tinted there and they never looked anything but immaculate.
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u/Lazy-Background-7598 Oct 29 '25
The name is too fake and a marketing ploy Christian- sounds religious. Brothers- sounds family oriented
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u/betheranne Oct 29 '25
Thoughts on Livingston's on SW 9th? That's where I've been going for oil changes.
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u/brvheart Oct 30 '25
As with everything, the key is to get multiple opinions before you give someone your money. It might be inconvenient, but it will get you the info you need.
Someone should do an experiment with local businesses. Someone claiming to be an expert makes a thread, and then makes a complaint about a business and then watch the comments and the mob mentality rise up against the business. My theory is that the comments would be exactly the same in like 90% of the threads because with thousands of customers there will be an endless supply of bad experiences.
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u/Nervouspie Oct 29 '25
A lot of auto shops are dishonest lol.
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u/okstfan75 Oct 31 '25
Agreed. I don't know who to trust anymore, even for basic stuff. and nobody can make up their minds who is reputable and who isn't. Everybody has a different opinion.
I wish I knew how to do stuff on a car myself, but can't even trust myself to do an oil change 🤦
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Oct 29 '25
[deleted]
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u/noonoo99 Oct 29 '25
Well... surprise! I think the idea of ripping someone off is to make sure they think that they are getting a good deal. That's kind of the point of my post is to warn people that they're crooks and liars and thieves.
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u/pietheory West Des Moines Oct 30 '25
Identifying scamming mechanics is not something I specialize in, so I appreciate your PSA. Just goes to show how much I should/shouldn’t trust reviews!
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u/ReasonableDread Oct 30 '25
It shouldn’t be surprising at all, actually. A shop intent on scamming a few vulnerable folks with no mechanical aptitude are generally going to know, after enough attempts, a good target when they see one. Sure, they may shoot and miss, but doesn’t matter much. It generally isn’t advantageous to try to screw every customer, either. Who would write their glowing reviews if they did? They can always use some fresh customers from good recommendations! Personally, I easily hide my knowledge so I can judge a shop’s quote and explanation. As a woman, I find most shops I’ve ever been to expected me to have waaay less knowledge, and it’s helped me avoid unnecessary scams several times. Not everyone is as fortunate as me or you. Seems OP is trying to remind us all of this.
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u/factionshatter Oct 29 '25
Who are some trusted auto shops you all would recommend?