Firestone Complete Auto Care

4126 University Dr, Durham, NC 27707, USA

Address:	4126 University Dr, Durham, NC 27707, USA
Phone:	+1 919-317-6027
Site:	firestonecompleteautocare.com
Rating:	2.9
Working:	7AM–7PM 7AM–7PM 7AM–7PM 7AM–7PM 7AM–7PM 7AM–6PM 8AM–5PM

Location

Photos 14

Reviews 5

Colin Lickwar

This place is neat and reasonably staffed, but my experience here over 4 years was terrible. They seem to be more interested in making as much money as possible than giving you the appropriate service for you car. They laugh and joke with you, but I dont need that, I need me car fixed at a reasonably price so I can get back to my life. Issues: 1.They charge a $100 dollar fee for "on board computer diagnostics". In my understanding, this is essentially plugging your cars computer into a diagnostic computer and takes less than 5 minutes. (I think Autozone across the street will do this for free). Furthermore, they found an error that they didnt know how to fix. This means they charge you a fee but dont provide the service. They will quickly drop this fee if you complain. This makes it seem like you are getting a break, because they know the fee is ridiculous. 2. They didnt fix issues I had and charged me to diagnose the same problem two years in a row. 3. They were willing to use an inferior product on my car (for reattaching the rear view mirror). They said I was finished and just needed to reattatch the mirror to its mount. As the guy was putting the rearview mirror on the mount he ripped the whole mount off. He said something like "this glue isnt any good, were supposed to get better glue". This means if the mirror had mounted successfully he would have let me drive off with bad glue. This was the second year in a row my mirror mount had to be fixed at Firestone. This means they probably used bad glue last year. They charge $50 for this service each time despite it taking ~5 min of service time and the cost of glue. $500/hr to glue something poorly. 4. I specifically asked for a state inspection and they didnt do it. I later tried to registered my car and there was no record of a state inspection. I spent 400+ dollars to get my car fixed and get my check engine light so it would pass inspection, but they didnt and couldnt fix it(see #1). So now I need to go somewhere else to get my car fixed and inspected. What is this place called? Complete Auto Care. I will never go back and I would suggest you look for a place with a better track record to start off with. There is more, but I am tired of writing.

Anonymous User

Multiple bad experiences at this Firestone. The alternator went out on my grand prix, so I took it to Firestone to get a new one because it is close to my house and I was new to the area. While it was there, the shop called me and told me that I needed a new starter. This was not a huge surpirse because the car had also been having issues starting for quite some time. I agreed and let them replace the starter. Within a week, the starter problem was back and they wouldnt do anything for me. They were just guessing at the problem and guessed wrong. Thanks for the $$$ that I didnt have to spend. I should have learned my lesson, but I didnt. A while after the starter incident, my wifes car stopped working, sounding terrible when it ran. I took it into Firestone to have them take a look at it. The called me back and told me that I needed a new engine. They said that I had blown a head gasket and there were bearings in my oil pan and I was looking at thousands of dollars to get the car running again. I couldnt afford the $$ they were charging, so I ended up finding a replacement engine from a junk yard and a shadetree mechanic to do the work. A little over a thousand dollars later and a new engine in the car, the shadetree mechanic calls me to tell me that didnt fix my problem. Turns out, there was nothing wrong with my engine to begin with and it was an exhaust problem. Really!!! How do you think you see bearings in the oil pan? Never again Firestone.

Anonymous User

Hmm....it seems fairly hit or miss with these guys. People either have a pretty good or have a pretty bad experience at this Firestone. Thus far, I am one who had a pretty good experience. I wish I had seen "NC for Lifes" post before I went. I used the Firestone Credit card for my purchase. I guess "luckily" it was over $250, so hopefully I will not have problems. Maybe I will be back after my bill for an updated rating :-). I will definitely avoid that card in the future. As far as the work completed, everything seems okay (so far). I had both front control arms replaced on my car. I did some pricing and found that Firestone was not the cheapest. So, I took them the quote and they had no problems matching the price. Plus, they gave me a deal on a lifetime alignment. I dropped off my car early Saturday morning and picked it up just before closing on Saturday evening. They indicated it would take most of the day, so I was fine with the timeframe. I did get a call near the end indicating I needed to purchase something in addition to the quoted work (I am sorry, but I do not remember the name of it....a coupling pin kit or something). However, they did not charge me labor and it was only a couple of bucks over the cost at Autozone (looked it up while we were talking). It was fairly inexpensive, so I had no issues with the addition. The two people working that day were both friendly. Based on my experience, I would definitely go back.

Eric Shen

Ive read through a lot of negative reviews here and dont really know what to say. Ive never had a negative experience here with both of our vehicles. Eddie and Chris and Travis have been nothing but polite and kind with me. Also, it sounds like a few people who have written dont really know much about cars? For instance, the gentleman who complained that Firestone lied to them about needing an alignment after new struts/shocks...YES, you definitely need to perform an alignment after a suspension change. This is actually quite important. And the other gentleman who stated that Firestone charged them $30 for the state inspection when they should have just SEEN the window tint and not accepted the vehicle. Well, if the tint was ridiculously dark then yes, but in North Carolina 35% tint is allowed and the human cant just eyeball 35%. A machine is used to measure light transmittance through the window and actually, all mechanics charge an extra $10 for this part of the state inspection so Firestone was actually being nice to you for not charging you that. Anyway, I take my cars here for the basic stuff - oil changes, coolant flushes, brake fluid change, etc. and Ive never had any problems, other than perhaps longer than average wait times. But I can live with that since the work seems to be done right. So as with all things, your mileage may vary.

Heather Kuehn

During a tire rotation & state inspection, the mechanic said I needed shocks on my Volvo and that is why my tires were wearing down (which were only 1 yrs old). Of course, I was pissed and in disbelief. So, I got a 2nd opinion and my shocks were fine. I just bought cheap tires from firestone and unfortunately for my type of Volvo, better tires were needed. Oh well, those crooks just lost a lot of business. I wouldnt trust anything that comes out of the shop after my experience. And there our 1000x better places to buy tires from! Posting 2 photos of invoices. 1st from my first tire rotation on 1/29/16 where there were many recommendations including: shocks and struts. And then the invoice (on 8/26/16) from my state inspection & tire rotation which I declined & just asked the douchebags to just pull my car down and let me leave. Also, there werent any recommendations on the 8/26/16 paperwork? Wouldnt the same recommendations from 1/29/16 apply to 8/26/16?!? Hmmm...shady business practices?? You decided. And then my 2nd photo got removed? Not sure if that was Firestones doing , but google freaking sucks too b/c I cant figure out whom to contact about my picture being removed. Go to Yelp! if you want to see both pictures.