Meineke Car Care Center

2094 Elmhurst Rd, Mt Prospect, IL 60056, USA

Address:	2094 Elmhurst Rd, Mt Prospect, IL 60056, USA
Phone:	+1 847-979-0379
Site:	meineke.com
Rating:	3.9
Working:	7AM–6PM 7AM–6PM 7AM–6PM 7AM–6PM 7AM–6PM 7AM–4PM Closed

Location

Photos 21

Reviews 4

Anonymous User

So I went in just to get a new muffler. My guy, Mark from Marks Service, who is the best and cheapest honest mechanic around by the way, doesnt do mufflers. He says to go to Meineke or something. I go to this shop in Mt. Prospect. The mechanic shows me a very small hole in the converter or resonator, very small. I said to just do the muffler because it was a small hole. Later, the guy at the front desk, Gary I think, tries to get me to buy a whole exhaust system. He comes to me with just the estimate for the whole system. I said to just do the muffler. He tries to make me believe that the system will "explode" if they just install a new muffler. He says, "If we put on just the muffler, the pipe will explode from the greater pressure cause of the hole." I majored in physics for a while and I know for a fact that this is not true. In fact the small hole makes it less likely to bust a pipe due to the release of pressure. So I realized that this place was a con. I said to just install a new muffler. He says, "This place is not a chop shop. We dont do that here. The owner told me that we dont do that." So they dont weld mufflers there. Instead they just lie to you and tell you that you will die from exhaust system explosion if you dont give them more money. They get the car off the rack. I drive off to Merlin in Elk Grove on Beisterfield: great service, nice techs; we laughed at the exploding converter hypothesis. They put the car on thier rack. The Meineke tech had already started cutting my pipes! The Meineke guys just let me drive off with half of my muffler cut off without a word! The Merlin guys say that the cut is too far back for them to be able to weld a new muffler. So I call the Mt. Prospect Meineke and Gary, I think, says that they will install a new pipe for free, as they ought to. I go in the next morning at 7am per agreement because I have an appointment with Merlin at 2pm. Gary, I think, comes out and says that the owner is inside and that he wants to give me a great deal. I say, "I dont believe a word you say. You told me that my pipes would explode. I was a physics major. Just fix what you broke." The car comes back out. Instead of a new pipe the techs just did a very bad weld job over the cut! So I say to the mechanic,"The owners in there right? Go get the owner." He starts saying derogatory things to me! So I go in to the owner and tell him to fix the car the way that Gary, I think, had said on the phone. He says, "Its fixed. Thats all Im doing." So I yelled at him and called him a cheat and a liar. He called the cops! He thought that I would run away or something. I stayed and of course was not arrested. But obviously the police couldnt do anything about this lying, cheating, no-good, dirty rotten conman. Heres an interesting question: Knowing that they lied twice, how do I know that they didnt make that little hole in the converter? You cant trust people who lie multiple times! So now I have to file some kind of complaint. What a complete waste of hours of my time! And I still dont know if my muffler will fit on the shoddy weld that they made. Now I might have to sue. What a pain! Never go to this place. Tell your friends not to go to this place. Lets run this guy out of business and out of town. We dont need such conmen doing their business here.

Sasha Berleson

I apologize for having taken so so so long to write this review. After all, a great mechanic is like gold. Actually anymore, its rare where you get work done on your car and you dont feel cheated or confused afterwards. And since the guys at Meineke have been so terrific to us for so long this review is long overdue. The first time we used the Mt. Prospect Meineke was for a squeaking noise that my wifes car was making. It sounded to me like some sort of front suspension noise, perhaps a strut or shock absorber. If you pushed down on the front fender it would squeak. We went to Niles Midas and the guy tells me I need $2000 worth of work. He wants to replace the entire front left wheel hub and a bunch of other parts because thats whats causing the squeaking noise. I couldnt believe it! The guy was absolutely unapologetic-I needed $2000 worth of repairs to fix the squeak. We left after a few heated words about honesty and integrity and the seeming complete lack thereof in auto repair garages. Not sure how I wound up taking it to Meinekes but I am glad that I did. I followed my husband there and we dropped the car off at Meineke to get an estimate for our annoying squeak. We went to a diner across the road to get some breakfast and we had not even received our food before Gary from Meineke called us. He gave us a diagnosis and a firm price for the repair. Evidently, all we needed to do was to replace a small suspension part (one that the other place had not even quoted for us despite having quoted us $2000 in repairs) Price for the repair? Less than $200. We were thrilled! The squeak was gone. And most importantly we had stumbled onto what seemed like the only honest garage in the world at the time.

Anonymous User

I had gone there for a brake replacement and had a problem tire that was losing air pressure and asked them to take a look at the tire and fix the puncture. Spent 600 bucks for the brakes, oil change and tire repair. When I went to pick up my car, I checked with the owner of the store if the tire was repaired and he replied - yes and there was a nail in the tire. I believed him and left the place. I had the car parked for 2 days and found the same tire flat again. Noticed this on a sunday and had to run to another store to get the tire repaired for a cost again since this store was closed on Sunday.They never checked the tire for any nails - said the tires were rotated and balanced (had charged me for that) and the rotation was not done. I am starting to worry now if they did a good job with the brakes or just charged me for nothing!! Hate this place. Avoid going here!

Joshua Dimand

Avoid this place at all costs!!! Ive taken two vehicles here over time and have had nothing but bad experiences. The final straw occurred after bringing my vehicle in at least four times to have the same heat & AC problem repaired. Gary the store manager eventually said the issue could not be fixed unless I brought it into a dealer. He promised a refund for this but when I followed up on getting the refund he said he would only give me a store credit. When I brought my car to another mechanic (not a dealer) they were able to fix the problem on their first go at it. I sent a letter to corporate only to get a response from Gary again offering store credit and denying having ever offered a monetary refund. I will not use Meineke again and I urge you to avoid this place at all costs.