AAMCO Transmissions & Total Car Care

Reviews 4

BR

Brandon Boone

I’m pretty devastated… I took my car to this AAMCO & was met by a friendly receptionist & what appeared to be your average transmission shop (never been in one until now). I left the car there and was told I would have an estimate for work shortly. I received a call from the owner informing me that it would be $1200 to take the trans out & $2600 to fix it. This price fit in with my impression of a transmissions average cost so I gave a verbal OK. My first mistake. About three days later I received a call from the owner again with “Great News.” I’ll paraphrase him here, “So your transmission’s a mess. To rebuild the whole thing will cost around $8000 since the transmission, transfer case, torque converter, & solenoids are all bad. However, I was able to find you a completely assembled trans with 32k miles for around $3800. So that, plus the labor, brings us to $5240.” $5240! Are you serious!! He wanted the OK from me within the hour since my car was, “Taking up space in his shop.” I hung up the phone and scrambled to make some calls. I spoke with two mechanics that both undercut him by $1000 and included 3-year warranties (his was a 90 warranty from his parts guy). In the above paraphrase, I failed to mention that he wanted a down payment of $3,800 for the parts in CASH! Said he wouldn’t under any circumstances accept credit since he’s been “burned too many times.” I explained to him that I was afraid of getting burned too, so he assured me that this was simply to avoid paying AAMCO corporate a 10% fee. So he’s ripping off his own franchise (AAMCO are you reading this?). Now I’m asking for my car back… He says, “Oh, you can’t do that, I’ll have to charge you for the tear down and the rebuild without fixing a thing! This’ll be like $3000 for nothing. Then you’ll take it to another guy and he’ll charge you the same price!” He then went into some heavy technical details on why my car was immovable due to its make and how the engine and trans balance the car (since I suggested we take it without him putting it back together). Ultimately I caved and went with the deal since I couldnt figure out a way to get my car back. Hindsight is 20/20 though. I should have called AAMCO corporate and if that didnt work out, called the police or taken the guy to court. Craziest part is, after I get the car back Im experiencing some knocking when I make sharp turns. I immediately take the car back and he says its the muffler jiggling around! He even puts the car up on the lift and shakes it back and forth. So I took the car to a local mechanic and he says its the rear differential fluid. After refilling the differential the car ran fine. You need to stay away from these crooks, the father is a liar and a thief as far as Im concerned. Everyone I talk to tells me I was taken on this job. A hard lesson to learn, but Ill never make this mistake twice.

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m g

UNETHICAL / DISHONEST / RUDE / TERRIBLE My Car was brought in on February 25, 2016. There we agreed to pay x amount to take apart the transmission, and apply that fee to repairs should we choose to go in that direction. CHRIS, THE OWNER quoted us an exceptionally high price to repair the car. We sought out other professionals for guidance and decided, based on the exuberant amount asked, we would not fix the car there. On February 26, 2016, we agreed not to do the work at their location. As requested by the shop, we responded by 3:00pm, as the manager / owner was pressured us to do so. We DECLINED any work to be done on the vehicle. We agreed to pick up the car Monday morning. CHRIS came up with many excuses not to RETURN OUR CAR on Monday morning and in fact claimed it would cost us MORE money to rebuild what they took apart! That was not the agreement and the shop decided to hold our car hostage. We called many many times but to no avail. The owner decided he will not return our car unless we pay ADDIONAL FEES. He was rude, inappropriate, unprofessional and most of all, dishonest. Something you never want to see or experience in this situation. Moreover, CHRIS made rude comments about dumping our transmission in the trunk and towing our car”. Only AFTER we reached out to headquarters did he LIE and say that what we said was not true. Several conversations back and forth with corporate and three days later, they agreed to give our car back. It’s important to report such inappropriateness, and unprofessionalism because being UNETHICAL in business and literally manipulating the lives of hard working people is NOT acceptable. I would NEVER recommend this place to anyone and I sincerely hope that the owner work on his people skills and work on being honest!!!!

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Mary Lamb

Just got $19.99 oil change and tire rotation. Spent less than hour there. Ive known new owner l, Ray for years Ive always taken my cars to the dealer I bought from, but the dealer I bought my last car from, a Taurus in 2002, closed when Ford restructured in 2009. Right after I started getting a recurring check engine light. I took it to 4 Midas in Rockland & Orange Counties, but none could correct it. Finally the owner of these 4 towed it to the shop Ray managed and finally it was fixed. I stuck with Ray until the end with that car, even when he moved onto a Midas in Newton, NJ, for brakes, oil changes and major repairs. Thanks to Ray and my extended warranty, I got nearly 230K miles out of that car. I finally leased a new car in Nov 2024, which came with free oil changes till 36K miles. Now that I just passed that, no question who Im taking my car too now. :) Just an aside, I worked in the auto industry for over 15 years and its hard for women to find a repair centet that doesnt automatically try to take advantage of you because they assume women know nothing about cars. Ladies, you wont run in to this at Rays. Ive also been going to his Aamco in New Windsor. Happy hes got a place in Rockland now too!

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BE

Be Grateful

ONE WORD..........AMAZING!! For the longest Ive had a serious withdraw in my car that was draining the battery causing my car to not start from time to time, especially after a day not using it. And I would always have to rely on my jump starter to get it going. No mechanic could find a solution, after trying 4 different places. Then last night my car died completely (not surprised) at the the gym. Then of course went to do my research on where to go to get this solved finally, then I landed on AMMCO (down the street from my gym), and let me tell you even the tow truck saw the problem which was issues with the terminal etc and then went to the AMMCO and they gave me a new terminal for free, hooked it up, added this spray and grease and in 15min, maybe less.....my long term problem was finally solved. The man didnt even want me to pay him because the job wasnt laborious at all, but I still gave him something out of appreciation & principle. THIS PLACE IS FOR SURE MY NEW DOCTOR TO GO TO WHEN IT COMES TO ISSUES WITH MY CAR lol. THANK GOD MY CAR DIED LAST NIGHT LOL.....EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON. A BLESSING IN DISGUISE :)

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