Automotive International

Location :

• Anynomous

  04 July 2015

  Unfortunately, I have no choice but to give Automotive International (The Bug Shop) a very poor review. I'm upset after waiting at least a week, driving around for parts, and paying a couple thousand + in labor costs for a car that isn't fixed as it should be. They told me they had experience with Saab 900's and that they could do the major repairs needed on my car: transmission, clutch and related parts, shifter, and other fixes. I supplied them with all the parts, and had no choice but to find and drive for difficult to find Saab parts. I was charged a lot, lot of money for labor, at least on par with the prices asked by Saab Specialists that work exclusively on Saabs in Major cities, and when I got the car back, it is not close to 100% (the shifting is still bad, the Car doesn't go into 5th gear at all, there aren't a lot of other places around...so now I will have to drive it a distance to get work done somewhere else, in 4th gear)... Basically, this is a small town shop that, in this case, charged an very unfair price for work considering they lacked the expertise and ability to find parts for my car. Bottom Line: they are nice people and I'm sorry I have to give them such a poor review, but they simply should have told me that they didn't have the ability to fix my car, or at least shouldn't have asked specialist, big City prices for small town capabilities. They've really put me in a situation that could have been avoided simply by telling me they weren't experts.
  
  *Update the following day: The situation is even wore than I thought: one reason the car wouldn't go into gear is that a bolt was loose in the transmission (they didn't build the transmission, but they could have at least made sure the bolts were tight)... fell out.. leaked the oil out...and I nearly lost the refurbished transmission (the main point of the operation, and a $900 part by itself)...if not for the fact that the next place I took the car was an experienced mechanic who was able to get new oil in quickly and save it. That's just the beginning: They literally didn't even replace a key component (the clutch master cylinder), told me they did, and I suppose they still have the new part that I gave them (the old one hasn't been touched.... and this is why the car doesn't shift well. They left out a rubber piece that keeps pressure on the front of the engine, causing the front engine mount (newly replaced) to break. In summary, a lot of the work that I paid for will have to be redone somewhere else, and obviously they're going to have to pay for that work.
  
  Finally, after coming back to work out a fair price for the work done, and obtain at least a partial refund (and to get the spare parts back), the owner at first refused, escalated the situation, hastily ripped the key out of my car...demanding that I pay him... short of physically disabling him and taking my car, I had no option but to call the police...who facilitated enough of a negotiation so that I could pay at least a marginally discounted price and leave the shop, which was all done successfully ( I give the bridgeport ohio area police a 5/5 rating). What can I say...if you want the utmost mediocre service and think the police should have to get involved for you to negotiate a fair price...then I can't recommend this place highly enough.
  
  WAIT, IT GETS EVEN WORSE, over time, I'm realizing that short of getting a few parts together...these mechanics were nearly entirely incompetent, and literally left things out and did a shoddy job all around. After a few weeks, I have a major oil leak..from a seal that wasn't done properly (once again, I will have to spend a lot of time and money fixing their mistakes). I would absolutely would have taken this place to court for mechanic fraud, but it is just not worth the hassle and the costs, so instead, I'll just write them this terrible review and I guess I really do hope they go out of business or only do honest work (and after my experience, I'm afraid that's an entirely unrealistic hope for these guys).

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