Pacific Motor Service

Reviews 3

MA

Matt Wall

Ive been taking my cars to Kevin, Buck, Beau, and company now for just over ten years, and I keep taking them back because I consider them competent, trustworthy, and generally among the most pleasant mechanics Ive ever dealt with. I took my main car to a dealer for the first few years we were in the area, as it was still under warranty service, but when I first took it to Pacific Motor, I was impressed by the fact that as soon as they had it up on the skids, Kevin not only figured out the car had started out the life in a snow belt state, he guessed accurately the number of years it had been there just from the pattern of wear and tear. This was a good indicator of things to come. The prices may be slightly more expensive than some other mechanics in the area -- although on the few occasions when I comparison shopped I couldnt find cheaper estimates - but I doubt youll find better value. Im convinced their attention to maintenance has kept my vehicle on the road far longer than it would have stayed otherwise, and that saves money in the long run. The staff always explain carefully whats going on, give me options, and give me good feedback when something can wait and when it cant. Ive gotten good deals on parts (I occasionally shop for parts on my own) with minimal mark-up compared to the auto parts stores, and on one occasion Beau directed me to a wreckers yard to get a replacement part I could install myself. I appreciate the fact they believe in maintenance and keeping vehicles on the road as long as its economically feasible. In recent years they switched over to a computerized system tied into the Napa system for tracking maintenance and I have a good, verifiable electronic record of whats been done to my vehicle and when (and I am the kind of person who keeps minute maintenance records anyway, even so, this has been useful). Ive gotten help from them on a variety of oddball one-off problems, without charge: contacting somebody to help me get rid of an old boat/trailer, finding the right sized chains for tires when I was taking the vehicle into back snow country. I got help with a warranty repair out of state from a related Napa-certified mechanic, which was free of charge, and the front desk guy at the time handled all the back and forth about the warranty (it was a worn part from a third party at fault). They helped me find a used car by inspecting a couple of candidates and had a long discussion about how to get the most (safe) mileage for what i needed the used car for. Once I had a catastrophic failure of my "beater" which was causing engine overheating, and I had to go pick up my son at day camp 45 minutes away right at the end of the day, which was kind of an urgent situation; they just gave me the keys to their courtesy vehicle so I could get him and trusted me to drop the car back off, no paperwork or security required. The only downmarks I can give the place is the hours: theres not a convenient after hours dropoff, and the place closes early enough in the evening that it is occasionally difficult to get in to do a pick-up, and they close for lunch. I cant keep this from giving them a rare (for me) five-star rating for their consistency, reliability, and generally able service.

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Anonymous User

I give PACIFIC MOTORS IN MONTEREY an F for jacking up the prices on a clunker, and F to the service manage arguing hard at any attempt I made to offer a solution to their error which I am sorry to say resulted in name-calling. An F to the owner whose office was next door and knew there was a problem and didnt come out to help solve the problem, an F on customer service for closing their entire shop at lunch and an F for prices. Here is why. I had a fender bender on our $700 clunker and a grinding sound developed when steering the car. I told Pac Motors about the incident and that I didnt want to spend much on my clunker because I was considering junking the car and went home to wait for a call. They charged an inspection fee of $62 but reported on and only repaired the power steering pump for $900 which I reluctantly authorized thinking that the repairs plus tax plus inspection fee would be total cost making my car twice as good. Ha Ha. HaH! Then they later called to say I had a bent suspension. Again a big charge that would alone would cost more than the car was worth to fix. I declined that repair and any others. When picking up the car they told me there was deferred maintenance that was required for another hefty charge I suppose. If I let them do what they wanted the price of repairs would have been 3 times what my car was worth. Talk about running the price up the flagpole a tug at a time. This guys are pros at doing that. As part of the the heated argument with the service manager he said he didnt inspect the suspension by driving it because it was a safety issue and was afraid to drive it. Bull. The owner said it was OK to drive it here a there as a 2nd car what ever that means. Kind of like Russian roulette I figure. The service manager finally admitted it would have been best to inspect all of my car before doing any repairs. I tried to give the owner the pink slip as payment. He laughed. So now Ive paid $900 for repairs and feel unsafe driving the car. The whole incident was a horror show from beginning to end. I know my normal mechanic would not have let me spend a nickel on my old car. I have never bothered to write a negative report on any business before, But this incident frosts me beyond belief. I think I will have bumper stickers made up and post them around his shop saying Pacific Motors is a bad bad choice. They finally agreed to refund the inspection fee because they blew it. Big deal. Most shops deduct it if you have the work done there. Not these guys. I hope they feel guilty spending my hard earned $840 and I hope you readers heed my review. They also are very expensive as you can see and close the entire shop for lunch during a time when customers have free time to bring their cars in. They were voted top shop in the area. What a joke! ..... Gary

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Anonymous User

I of course checked all the reviews online before deciding on this shop for my Infiniti repairs, choosing it over the higher rated service that would offer 10% discounts just for being Military. We took our car in for a very basic fuse fix and were called later that day and told it would be a SIX HUNDRED DOLLAR fix. Remembering these reviews, and knowing that it was possible the car could have some minor damage remaining from an accident two years ago, we agreed. We showed up to the shop to pick up our car, after receiving no more price estimates for the next TWO days, and were floored by a bill over $1200. The management was NOT helpful, insisting that a service (wash and detail) that they threw in for free without being asked for was more than enough to account for the price doubling. When asked for a detailed account of the services performed, they gladly printed up a receipt telling us that they called multiple times to quote us these prices. So I walked away from their shop feeling ripped off, taken advantage of, and holding what amounted to forged paperwork stating what I agreed too. They took advantage of a young family (My husband and I are both obviously younger and I am 8 months pregnant) and judged us on the two cars in our family, the Infiniti and a Mustang. I hope they now realize that these cars were bought using money earned while serving our country overseas. They will never see another United States Marine in their "business" again and maybe learn not to judge people by their age or family situation. Highly Unprofessional. Go anywhere else... and its not a coincidence that only the POSITIVE reviews are "certified". Do not be fooled like we were.

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