Automotive Service Garage

I Ignored the poor reviews due a quick need for a headlight repair. After a few hours and money wasted, I’m reminded that places like this is why Unilocal exists. Heed the many Unilocaler’s warnings and save your money and time.
I asked for the headlight repair and guy was very confident that they had excellent technicians to look at the wiring harness. I told the guy that if they could repair the light, I’d also be interested in a safety inspection. Got a call from the guy an hour later telling me the car failed safety inspection because, you guessed it, the headlights. When I inquired about the purpose of doing the inspection before fixing the problem, he gave me some excuse about the inspector being able to fix the problem if it was simple.
Guy told me that he’d need to have a tech at $ 120/​hr look for the issue in the cabling and he was not sure how long it would take. Although I was a bit irked at this point, I really needed the headlights working for that evening. But rather than give a blank $ 120*X check, I told him I’d be wiling to authorized in 2 hour increments. Apparently this was not worth their time because he called me after 20 mins to come pick up my car. Of course, they still wanted to get paid.
I know there are not many auto shops in old town and rent is expensive but there has to be a better way to make money…

This place was only used out of convenience. The service is slow, pretty sure I was way overcharged, and they’re not friendly at all. Use another service if you can.

First let me say that my family has been going to ASG for three decades. They’re on the pricey side, but I know they won’t quote me unnecessary work — and they’ll tell me when it might be time to call it quits on a car with a lot of problems.
Since I’ve been living in Texas and West Virginia for the last eight years or so, it’d been a while since I’d been by; but Dennis Whitehead was the first person I called when I first moved to Texas and wanted confirmation that my Austin mechanic was an honest dealer.
My vehicle (’97 Toyota Camry, 118,000 miles) overheated while driving from West Virginia to see my folks in Alexandria. This happened on a Saturday, when ASG wasn’t open, so I took it first to a competitor around the corner.
The competitor used a hydrocarbon (CO) test and said there were hydrocarbons in the coolant, indicating a blown head gasket — and quoted me around $ 5,000 (including radiator, upper/​lower hoses, spark plugs, timing belt, thermostat, the works). The timing belt threw up a red flag for me, because I replaced it 22,000 miles ago; so, skipping a lot of the details, I took the car to ASG for a second opinion and took a rental car back to West Virginia.
Bill called me on Monday to tell me they had taken an extra careful look and were certain the head gasket was fine. He quoted me $ 1,025 out the door, including a new radiator and upper and lower hoses.
(Later, after hearing more from the competitor, I learned a bit more about the specific test used. Apparently ASG uses something like an emissions tester to look for hydrocarbons other than carbon monoxide. The mechanic who worked on my car, who has worked for both ASG and the competitor, has found this test to be more accurate and produce fewer false positives.)
Out of appreciation for the careful work ASG had done, I asked Bill to quote me replacement knock sensors (a broken knock sensor had caused my check engine light to turn on, which is why it took so long for me to notice my car overheating). He called me back a bit later and said they’d found a minor oil leak while looking at the sensors — and though it didn’t need to be fixed urgently, he recommended doing this whenever I chose to do the knock sensors, because it’d save money. He also said it would save about two hours labor ($ 250) if they replaced the knock sensors at the same time they fixed the radiator issues.
A shady mechanic might have blown the oil leak, or the knock sensors, out of proportion. Bill was straightforward with me. So I said, «You know what? Go ahead and fix all of that, too, and while you’re at it, can you fix my door handle, too?» I ordered an oil change as well. All of it was done by Tuesday afternoon.
Just to be clear, I live in West Virginia, where mechanics charge significantly less. I could have taken my car back to Morgantown to get the knock sensor and oil leak work done, but instead I trusted ASG. I knew, after my experience with the competitor, that I couldn’t handle the possibility of someone being less than honest with me, or even making a mistake; so I paid the extra money for ASG.
What’s more is that I think I’d do it again. I wasted probably eight hours dealing with the competitor. If every new mechanic I visit has the potential of costing me eight hours, none of them are worth it – when I can just take the car to Automotive Services Garage, where I know they’ll do a good job. In other words, next time I have work that needs to be done, I’ll drive the car three hours to ASG and three hours back just to make sure it’s done properly. That’s how awesome these guys are.

Just to clarify, this is a review for the mechanic side (Automotive Service Garage). Body work/​paint is done by Olde Towne Auto Body. If, say, you have an accident and need body work done, you’ll take your car to Olde Towne Auto Body, and Automotive Service Garage will do the mechanical aspects of your repairs.
For starters, this garage doesn’t schedule appointments. They open at 7:30AM, and it’s first come, first serve. They also don’t keep cars there overnight (except for non-​drivable vehicles), so if they aren’t able to get to your car, you’ll have to pick it up and return the next day at 7:30. It’s a wonky system, but I guess it works for them.
I took my car here twice – once after an accident and once for an oil change/​general maintenance. For the accident, both Automotive Service Garage and Olde Towne Auto Body worked on my car. When I got my car back, I noticed that the alignment still felt a bit off, so I had to take it back about a week or so later. The guys were skeptical, but agreed to take a look. It turned out that they hadn’t done the alignment correctly, and it was definitely off. They agreed to fix it at no additional charge, since it was their error and insurance had already covered everything, but it was kind of odd that they didn’t notice the issue before they gave the car back to me.
I returned when my car needed a «check-​up» (oil change, check brakes, etc). They had a seasonal discount – 10% off «all parts» according to the flyer – so I went with the special. My car needed a few extra things (transmission flush, among others), and they quoted me a price, and I told them to go ahead. When it was time to pick up the car, the bill they gave me was literally four times the amount they’d quoted me beforehand. They also hadn’t taken off 10% for parts because, according to them, «all parts» on the flyer meant only a handful of parts. They agreed to give me a discount on the parts because of the misunderstanding, but the total was still quite a bit more than seemed reasonable. I also don’t think it’s very good practice to quote a price and then charge 4x that amount for the exact services agreed upon beforehand.
All in all, going to Automotive Service Garage is like going to your dealer. They do a decent job, but you should expect to pay more. Also, if they give you a laundry list of things that «need» to get done, don’t be afraid to pick and choose the most important ones (i.e. repairs to make the car safe) as opposed to everything they recommend.

Okay, I didn’t realize that there were 2 sides to Automotive Service Garage until recently. This view is ONLY for the Body shop side. Dave and Pat are awesome, respectful and honest.
Unfortunately, as many times as I’ve serviced my car on the other side, the customer service is not there. plus I just paid $ 69 for an oil change. Lexus service center quoted the same amount. That just seems a little ridiculous.

We took my wife’s vehicle here to have some insurance work completed following a car accident (not her fault :)) and they did an outstanding job. They were very friendly and the quality of their work was excellent. Naturally when my vehicle needed work (major transmission repair) I took it to them for a quote. I knew it was going to be expensive but was shocked at how expensive the quote was ($ 3500.00). Through Unilocal I found another reputable garage (Auto Stop:
) and was quoted a price that was $ 1250.00 cheaper (I’ll post a review once they complete the work). Bottom line: If an insurance company is going to pay for it you can’t go wrong with these guys (they also have a body shop next door:
). Quality of work and friendly service — 5 stars, value — 1 star for 3 stars overall.