Pacific Motor Service
| Address: | 1123 Forest Ave, Pacific Grove, CA 93950, USA |
| Phone: | +1 831-372-6575 |
| Site: | pacificmotorservice.com |
| Rating: | 3.1 |
| Working: | 8AM–5:30PM 8AM–5:30PM 8AM–5:30PM 8AM–5:30PM 8AM–5:30PM Closed Closed |
Location
Photos 1
Reviews 4
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Anonymous User
This place should be shut down for being outright THIEVES. I live in PG and wanted to give this place a try because I believe locals should support the businesses in their community but this place doesnt deserve anyones support. I went in for a brake job, front and back. Before doing the $75 (taxes included) inspection, I knew my car needed a full job but the front desk man (I believe his name is Darrian) said they would do the inspection and later "deal with" the $75 inspection fee. After the inspection, I was given an estimate of $1700 for the brake job! Can you believe it, $1700 for a brake job?!! Even with having to purchase new rotors and pads for both the front and rear axle, I had never paid such an exaggerated price for this routine job. Having done a full job before for each axle separately (in another state), I figured the job should cost about $1000. Anyways, to make a long story short, I took the estimate home and did some research. Basically, this place (and probably many others) make a lot of their money on marking up the prices of the parts they use. The estimate had all the numbers of the parts, and so I went to a national auto parts dealer website and found all of them (I wont mention the auto parts dealer). The portion of the estimate attributed to the parts was around $960, while I was able to find them at the auto parts dealer website for just $350 (front and rear rotors, pads, hardware kits, and even new caliper hardware kits which werent included with the estimate at Pacific Motors). These parts were IDENTICAL to the ones in the estimate and not cheap substitutes. I ended up going to the local store of the national auto parts dealer, bought the parts myself and took them to another mechanic and ended up paying $400 for the labor. Total cost of everything was around $800!! I should also mention that before I left Pacific Motor Services, Kevin the manager or owner reduced the price form $1700 to $1200 after I returned to pick up my car. I mean, how dishonest and stupid can you be to shot yourself in the foot by reducing the price by $500 and proving that the original estimate was insane!! I guess Pacific Motors assumes everyone in PG has money to burn and so they immediately jack up the price two-fold on the assumption that consumers will just be dumb and pay it. My advice to you is to get the parts yourself, call around and find a place that is willing to do just the labor. I was able to find several auto mechanics in my area that were willing to do just the labor and one of them was actually a national auto mechanic shop so that this sort of thing isnt as uncommon as other mechanics lead you to believe. Get Educated!
JO
joan v
A REPAIR FROM HELL!* My husband and I were in Pacific Grove/Monterey CA in December 2015 when our fuel pump went out. I called Pacific Motors (found on the internet) who then replaced the pump. We drove home to Santa Monica the next day. After the car was sitting in the garage, we found gasoline leaking on the floor. This means that gas was also actively leaking from the new pump while driving several hundred miles to our home in Santa Monica. When informed of the situation, Kevin at Pacific Motors basically said that he was out of it and to call Napa Insurance who covers the warranty. The new mechanic tried to fix the bent flange but gas continued to leak and eventually the entire pump had to be replaced; parts were ordered but there was continual delay because of the intervening holidays. We were without a car for a couple weeks. And, most important, we could have DIED from a horrific car fire!**. In all this time, Kevin NEVER showed any concern or follow up.. Kevin eventually apologized for our "having to go through this ordeal" and promised some compensation but nothing was ever offered. Kevin took advantage of us because we were not local (he asked for our address within seconds of my first call to him...before we had even agreed to have him do the work!). He charged over 30% more than prices quoted by other Monterey repair shops and by our own mechanic. My husband and I are elderly; I am 72 years old and have never had to write a review like this. However I am writing it now, after 2 months, so that others do not have the same unpleasant experience. TO Yelp readers...please see other reviews contained here regarding Pacific Motors exorbitant prices for labor and parts. One Yelper specifically says.."this shop should be closed...they are nothing but THIEVES". Another says: "dont go there". I too did price comparisons for the work and Pacific Motors was way over the top...as one Yelper says.."is this labor for working on a Ferrari?"* Kevin comes across as being very friendly, but when it comes to the pricing and follow up (if something goes wrong)...BEWARE! I am an honest person who feels that a business should be reputable and fair. I dont want other people to suffer what I did.
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Anonymous User
had a couple of services here. I noticed changes right away when Kevin Donohoe bought out the shop this past February. Theres an automated telephone system, which is annoying, and it feels like Im calling the dealer. What was wrong with picking up the phone and talking to somebody directly? Kind of weird. The newsletter is nice, and the coupons are handy too. The shop is more busy and is unfortunately understaffed. Id like to see Mr. Donohoe spending less time behind the counter and more in the shop, allowing a service advisor to do that kind of work. If two master certified techs were working, it would be well worth the price they charge. The prices are a downer because they are up compared to Foresthill Auto. They are a little more expensive than an auto dealer, where you can get OEM parts and service. I dont nescessarily understand why you should be paying more for Napa parts? If they used OEM parts instead, perhaps Id be more warm to the new pricing structure. The service itself is very competent, and theres no complaints there. The recent reviews on Yelp, and here though are cause to watch Pacific Motor Service closely. I have seen Buck Blackwell and Kevin Donohoe writing reviews for themselves on other websites (here and KSBW). Whether thats intended as a joke or not is a bit unerving as a customer. The reviews should only come from a customer. The certified reviews are also in question since I was an acutal customer (although Im not going to say who I am) who wrote one for demandforce, but I was not certified. Especially after clicking on the e-mail link that demandforce provides. I hope Pacific Motor Service isnt fooling us, but Id be interested to see how other peoples experiences are.
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Anonymous User
Do NOT go to this place. These people are thieves. I went there for a minor problem. They charged a ridiculous fee for using some GLUE to fix my tire. I ended up paying $174 for that, most of it ($134) was the diagnostic fee. One big problem was that they went ahead and fixed the problem without telling me. They were supposed to diagnose it, call me first to see if I wanted it fixed, and then proceed according to what I say. On top of this, they "discovered" a leak in my transmission that would supposedly cost about $700 MINUS the labor to fix. Yeah, right! I refused the service. When I told one of my co-workers, who has lived in PG for 30+ years, she said she had been to this same place and they made up problems for her car, too. She then referred me to another mechanic, who looked at my car and said THERE IS NO LEAK. Im certainly not going back to this place. I specially warn women against going here. They see one and think "oh she doesnt know anything about cars" and will rip you off.