Centennial Automotive Repair

Reviews 3

BE

Ben Lieber

Had my vehicle taken here for a brake fluid leak. It had been sitting for a while, so the battery was also drained. I had it towed, so called to ensure they had received the vehicle and was happily surprised to hear they had already had a chance to check it out! They let me know that it needed a new brake line, and "the battery was worthless". They said they would have the line installed by the coming Wed (two days away) and gave me a quote, which I agreed to. I was a 5 year battery that I had only bought 2 months prior, so happily came and picked it up and brought it back for an exchange. Walmart noted that it was "extremely drained", gave it a 90 minute charge and it turned out the battery was fine. Considering Centennial charged me $10 to "charge and test" the battery, I was surprised to hear it was still completely dead when I brought it in. When I dropped it back off with Centennial, I mentioned that since they hadnt actually charged the battery - and cost me a good bit of time driving it around - would hope they would reverse the $10 charge. They said "My mechanic said he performed the test, I stand by his word". Its $10, so let it go with mention that I might consider this when I need a mechanic in the future, and just asked them to put it back in the vehicle (they said "sure, but those batteries are crap") Wed came and went, I hadnt heard anything, so I gave them a call to check on status. They said they hadnt received the part. "maybe tomorrow". I figured Id give it a few days and called again the following Monday. They said they had gotten the part, but it was the wrong one (suppliers fault of course), they would receive the correct part on Wed. I called on Wed (a week after the originally promised date, and Ive had to make the call every time), they said the part had come in and they had gotten it installed. They gave me the "final" total (oops, didnt realize the other one wasnt). $50 more than the quote. Apparently the part cost more, since the original one was incorrect. I would have expected this information before they installed it, but again, dont want to be too petty. Stuff happens, but communication lacking. I picked up the vehicle, The brake light came back on half way home. I parked it in my driveway overnight, and the next morning, a ton more brake fluid leaking! In summary, this shop: charged me for a battery charge/test that they never performed (battery still starts just fine, even without having been driven). Refused to reverse the charge when presented with the facts. Installed a new brake line, a week after they said they would, charged me $50 extra to do so. And didnt fix the original issue with my BRAKES. Rather than even try and get this shop to fix it again, Ill just go elsewhere. Id recommend the same, unless you dont care about such things as BRAKES, honesty, communication, or timeliness.

A

Anonymous User

I have to give it a star since I cant give it anything lesser. If youre just looking for the odd oil change you might be fine, but anything more and you will be asking for trouble. I asked for 5w20 for my car but on multiple occasions they used 5w30. Regardless of how you feel about what the difference between them is (or lack thereof), I need the work done on my car as I asked for it. I lost control over ice once and collided with the kerb on one occasion and noticed vibration in the steering column. When I took the car to this shop they claimed that my wheel rim was bent and needed to be replaced. After getting a new wheel, the vibration did not go away. They then told me that since they had rotated the wheels, the wheel that was put in the side was also originally bent and had to be replaced. Got that replaced too, and still no relief from vibration. In the meantime they told me that my tires needed replacement and I got that done too. After spending hundreds of dollars on repair, I took the car to the dealer, who informed me that the new tires were hosed too since the front arm was bent and was wearing the tires. So, I then had to get 2 new tires, less than a month after I got four tires, 2 wheels AND had to get repairs done on the front arm/ball joint. The dealer was shocked that no attempt was made to perform an alignment after the known fact that I had whacked the kerb - it was when he attempted to align the wheels that he figured out what was wrong with my car. I went back to the shop for an explanation on what happened and to get compensation for the 2 tires they ruined due to their incompetence. I didnt ask for refunds on the 2 wheels, on the other repair work - nothing. They flat out claimed that the wear patterns they had observed on the tires did not match my "story". They said alignments are not "standard" after accidents or tire/wheel changes. Also, that it was not performed because I didnt ask for it (NOW you want to listen to me?) Voices were raised and the owner Phil started yelling at me and asked me to get out. I took up the case to BBB and the owner claimed that I had attempted "multiple times" to get discounts from his shop and was trying to make money of them - all after I lost hundreds of dollars on repairs and replacements that werent needed. This is a dishonest practice, and their behavior is a ruse to cover up their incompetence. Stay away from them if you want your car to survive.

MA

Matt Hemmendinger

UPDATE! So the loser who devised the clever up-sell scheme described below gave me a call after he noticed this thoroughly informative review. He was pissed that I didnt believe him and I dared question his automotive brilliance. I told him it wasnt so much about whether or not that he was right, but that I felt like I was being shaken down by a shady mechanic. I repeated this concern three times, he failed to grasp the concept and I moved on with my day - just the type of phone call everyone wants to endure from a service provider they do business with! A couple of months later, it was time for scheduled maintenance of the vehicle at the Toyota dealership, and yea, my lame ass was salivating at the opportunity to hear a legitimate mechanic confirm my skepticism. Guess what? Everything below was 100% correct - the Toyota mechanic was very relieved to hear that Centennial Automotive Repair was not allowed to ruin my transmission. As any simple Google search for "2010 Toyota transmission" will tell you, the transmission fluid on this vehicle should never need to be flushed EVER in the life of the vehicle. And if there is something wrong with your trannys fluid, it needs to be replaced with new transmission fluid that is very specific to your particular vehicle. Further, if you let some shady, greedy independent mechanic do it, youre likely to spend good money on some idiot ruining your transmission. Centennial Automotive Repair: never EVER again! Original post: This shop needs practice on being smooth with their up-sell. I took a car in for an oil change and a rattling noise. They handled the oil change just fine and even included a tire rotation. It was nice that they didnt charge for fixing the noise . . . but then came the up-sell! The guy insisted the transmission fluid needed to be flushed. Its 15k miles short of the recommended time to check. Rather than showing me the cars dirty fluid, he shoved a chart in my face that showed what dirty fluid looked like. After I demonstrated that I knew anything about car maintenance, the assistant offered a sheepish concession that it might not need to be done. I wont be back.

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