AAMCO Transmissions & Total Car Care / Hastings, Florida

Rating: ★

Auto Repair & Service, Automobile Parts & Supplies, Auto Transmission

Address: 2664 US Highway 1 S, Hastings

Postal code: 32086

Phone: (904) 797-5000

Quality Automotive Parts, Service and Repairs.

We are an authorized independent service center featuring ACDelco parts. We offer a full line of over 99,000 automotive parts and supplies as well as vehicle maintenance, service & repair. For more information about our line of services and a complete parts catalog please visit our website or feel free to call or come by our location anytime during business hours. ACDelco.

Reviews:

Terrible, avoid at all costs.

We`d taken our car to Aamco earlier this year for some electrical issues. They were great, figured it out and fixed it for a reasonable price. We were happy we`d found a mechanic we could trust. So when our car started making a rattling noise a couple of weeks ago, we decided to bring it back to Aamco to see if they could help us out again. It would appear this shop might have changed hands since our last visit. ... view moreIt wasn`t the same person in the office area, and the runaround we got this time was ridiculous. We dropped the car off, went to run some errands and wait for the call to tell us what the rattling sound was. They called to say that a pulley wheel was causing the problem, and they could replace it for us. We`d also had them check our a/c, which stopped working, and they said they suspected a leak- they could put some dye in the freon and run the car for a while to figure out where that leak was. In all the total would be around $250; we were happy since we were worried the cost would be much higher, expecting it to be closer to $600 or more. So we authorized the repairs. When we went back to pick up the car, the receptionist said, ""They also said you need a new water pump soon, and you`ll have to replace the compressor."" When asked if it was critical to the operation of the car, we were told no, it was just something that would need to be done eventually. We didn`t know why they would want to recharge the freon to find the leak if we were going to need a new compressor anyway..? We took the keys to start up the car, and it still rattled. The shop was closing (as it was after noon by this point) so we decided to drive the car back home, see if there were any issues, and call them back a few days later since we`d have to have the dye in the freon checked. Thursday night, my husband got home from work, and the car was now making a clicking noise in addition to the rattle. We were worried something was going to break, so Friday morning (the day we were due to drive out to Pensacola for an event) my husband took it back to Aamco, as they said they`d look at it for free. While demonstrating to my husband that it was the water pump making the noise, one of the mechanics took off the serpentine belt and it snapped. The mechanic told my husband something about how, if he hadn`t taken the belt off, it would`ve lasted another six months, and now they were going to have to charge us for the new belt and labor to put it on for a total of $140. My husband tried to argue with them to remove, or at least reduce, labor costs, since apparently the mechanic wasn`t even supposed to have pulled the belt off in the first place while trying to diagnose the problem. The receptionist told my husband that ""it was already on the invoice"" and that she ""couldn`t remove it"" and that we were going to have to pay the full amount. After the belt had been replaced, the clicking noise was gone, so we decided to drive to Pensacola for the event. Five miles from our hotel, steam started to come out from under the hood. Someone at the gas station confirmed it for us: the water pump had gone bad. We had to get the car towed to the hotel, and have it repaired in the morning. I`d say the thing that is the most outrageous from this whole ordeal is that it was the water pump making the noise from the very beginning. They didn`t tell us about this in their first call to us after our initial diagnostic, so we had no idea. After that, we were told it would need to be replaced ""eventually,"" not ""immediately."" It seems like Aamco tried to replace everything but the problem part, in order to squeeze as much money out of us as possible. We`d spent nearly $400 on work that didn`t need to be done! Thankfully our car broke down where we were able to get it repaired by a real, honest mechanic that knew what he was doing.

crssafox / 11/15/2011