Excel Auto Center

9571 Washington Blvd N, Laurel, MD 20723, USA

Address:	9571 Washington Blvd N, Laurel, MD 20723, USA
Phone:	+1 301-776-3778
Rating:	4.3

Location

Photos 7

Reviews 3

Tom Tang

Several weeks ago, I need to repair the flex pipe in my 2001 Honda Accord and I took the car to Excel Auto Center. The owner told me I could either change the whole front pipe or just replace the flex pipe. The price for the former is around $329.9 and the price for the latter around $169.9 before tax. Since I was in short of money, I asked them to just replace the flex pipe, that is, to weld a new piece of flex pipe. After the repair, I found some annoying rattling noise came from under the car. I thought it was about the welding. So, I took the car to Excel Auto Center again. Then, we found the noise came from the converter. I told the owner my converter was totally fine before the repair. However, he did not think so. He argued my converter should be bad before the repair. He said I asked him to replace the flex pipe. Now the flex pipe was fine. So the noise from the converter had nothing to do with their repair. He asked me to go away to check the converter by myself. Since at that time, I am not 100% sure that my converter was good before the repair, I left the shop with a noisy car. In my heart, I highly suspected that they damaged the converter. But I do not have proofs. Later, I cannot stand the noise. So, I decided to buy an OEM front pipe and an aftermarket converter and replace them by myself (The OEM converter is very expensive, around $1000). Today, I did this. I took off the converter and the front pipe off in one piece since I was not able to separate them under the car. After installing the new front pipe and the converter, I took a look at the old piece. I found something was inside the latter part of the front pipe which connects the converter. But I could not slide it out from the open side of the front pipe. I realized this something inside was the cause of the noise. So I took some effort to separate the converter and the front pipe. I found there was a steel tube left inside of the pipe. That tube moves into the converter and makes noise. I guess Honda Accords front pipes have inner pipes. When the front pipe was cut, the inner tube was loosely left insider. I do not know if the tube was left inside on purpose or not, perhaps not. But I do think the repair is not well done. So I think I should I ask for a refund. Just now, I called the owner and told them I found the the real cause of the noise. However, he did not believe me. He said he had never heard of this kind of inner tube thing. Then, I made a mistake. I lied about one thing. I told him the discovery of the real cause was done by a dealer, thinking this would convince him. Then he asked me to bring my car together with the dealers report and he would talk with the dealer. Since I do not have a dealers report, I have to tell him that I lied about this and I made the discovery by myself. Then, he said I was a lair and handed up. Since I made a big mistake about lying the dealer made the discovery, I would not ask for a refund again. However, I want to share my experience with you. This might help you a little when you want to repair your cars in shops like Excel Auto Center. I do not mean to convince you with this post that Excel Auto Center is very bad. I just want to share with you my real case. From my personal experience, I can only give it at most 2 stars. There is also a lesson from me. I really felt shamed about lying. So, the lesson is this one: Do not lie, even just a little. It is for ones own goodness. Also, in some cases, other people, including those who do something wrong but never admit, will use it to deny all your reasonable requests. This description is 100% true with my current knowledge. By the way, there is another fact: I also found the mental gasket between the front pipe and the engine was missing when I took off the front pipe. I guess they did not put back the gasket for some reason but just put some sealant there which would only work for a short period of time. This might be the way for them to get returned customers. But this is just a guess, which might not be true.

Anonymous User

Excellent service! I highly recommend these folks. Everyone at Excel Auto Center was extremely helpful and did all the repairs at extremely competitive (cheap) prices. Hassans excellent customer service made getting your car repaired as good as it gets. Excel Auto Center goes the extra mile to help you out, often without charging you for it. Read on if you want more details. For instance, the Excel folks looked at my seized up parking brake for approx 15 minutes (jacked up the car and all that) and didnt require me to pay a "diagnostic fee" (even though I offered to). True, I had paid the state inspection fee, but they are not required to do anything but tell you "parking brake doesnt work" for that. They went out of their way to give me an unofficial diagnostic so Id know whether it was worth trying to bring my car into compliance with state requirements. For the initial inspection, they sqeezed me in early in the morning when I didnt have an appointment. (Youre supposed to have one by the way.) Excel Automotive isnt afraid to work with you to fix the more "tricky" problems. Finding replacement brake cables for my car was difficult - but they were happy to put on the ones that I located and purchased myself (parking brake is working now yay!). Most shops wont want to do something like that, but these guys will work with you to fix what needs fixing. My horn wasnt grounded correctly due to a loose bracket. No problem - they simply used a bit of metal to build a new one, and drilled a new hole in the body near the old one to mount it. (The old mount hole was a mess.) They charged me a very reasonable price for this. I bought new tires through these guys and they were as cheap as you can get (remember, this is an 11 year old car :P). The only downside Id note is that while Excel does tires (installation, rotate, balance, etc) they dont do wheel alignments. Bummer - I wanted one. This is the only negative I encountered with them and it isnt much of one. Hope this review helps!

Paul Hahn

Its always difficult to find a good mechanic when moving to a new area, and luckily for me I found one on the first try. I brought my car in for Maryland safety inspection and Hassan and his team did a wonderful job. I ended up needing to replace a couple tires, and he showed me pricing options, gave me some information on each option, and let me make my own decision without any pressure whatsoever. Then in one of them most stunning displays of customer service Ive ever experienced, he offered to give me a ride home while they waited for the tires to be delivered! In the end I walked away completely satisfied with the quality of the work and the level of service I was provided, all at a price that I felt was very fair. I can officially say that Im now a loyal customer.