Leonard’s Garage & Service Center

Shady Business. I took my car in due to loose ball joints and possible alignment issues (I had just had an alignment done by Leonards just 3 weeks prior). I also needed an oil change. When I came back for the estimate, they quoted me over $ 1,150 in parts & labor NOT including the oil change. Included in the estimate was a control arm, new bushings AND another alignment ! They had not even realized they already did it until I said something. I took my car to Mcspaddens (John Denham helped me out right away) the same day and ended up needing just a ball joint replacement that was SIGNIFICANTLY lower, like almost a grand lower. Definitely shady business to try and replace and fix unnecessary parts and take advantage of your customers.

This place has no concept of customer service! I called today and was immediately asked to hold. I literally walked my dog around the entire city block while on hold and no one ever picked the phone up again. I clocked it at just under 15 mins. Since I live close, I decided to walk in with my phone in hand. One of the managers was just sitting at a desk casually talking to a customer. When I told him that I had been on hold for so long, he pointed to a phone in the garage and said «oh it’s that phone»…no apology for keeping a customer on the line so long. I then proceeded to ask the 2 questions I had, which took him less than 20 seconds to answer. I will never use this place for my car service again!

I’m extremely upset with the lack of communication & proffessionalism with this establishment. I was attempting to have a specific issue (gas tank leak) repaired on my motorcycle. After having them take a look I was told that I needed to replace the entire tank. I asked if they would be able to order one that I found on-​line & they detailed that I would have to order it then bring it in. So after going back to the shop to pick up my motorcycle (that I drove on its own power there) it broke down (while driving) a block from the shop. I called detailing what happened & requested a tow back to the shop (a block away) so that I may order the part & leave it in their shop. Needless to they said no & come to find out the tank wasn’t even put back on properly. I gave them two stars bc they offered me refreshments while waiting however I’d never go there again & if you need car work done I recommend AutoTek off 71 near banister cause I found their actions, responses, and general nature malicious.

Hands down the best independent auto repair shop in Austin. I own a brand new Ford Transit Connect that Ford and Maxwell Ford claimed they could not repair for over a month. I called Jason (practically begging) to see what they could do to get my business truck running. When the truck is down we lose $$ everyday. He was able to get a brand new Ford fuel pump delivered and installed within 4 days. Blam! Leonards went way beyond the call of duty on this one. Thank you so much for getting one of my fleet vehicles up and running. I strongly recommend Leonards.

I had a cross threaded oil filter and they handled it after 2 days for $ 100. I was happy it was done as I had struggled with it for hours. He tells me I have a coolant leak and I told him to go ahead with the test. I had been driving the truck and just checked the fluid, but it had seemed a tad low (about three inches below the Cold fill line).
The test said the gasket on the intake manifold is bad and he estimates it will be $ 500 to $ 1,200 to replace the gasket, but would need to call me back with a firm price. I didn’t hear from them that day. The next day I call and ask about the quote and he says he will have to call me back. I finally get a call back and he quotes me $ 4,800 to replace a gasket on my intake manifold. When I asked him why the change from a maximum of $ 1,200, he said he’s «never seen anything like this» and its a lot of labor. You’ve never seen a leaky gasket on a 2001 Ford F-​150? I would definitely get a second opinion.
When I got the truck back the fluid was not a «tad low.» There was no fluid and it would not hold fluid at all. The gasket was now at a catastrophic failure where I had a condition where the fluid was just a tad low before. Maybe the pressure test caused this and it is common? I don’t know. I had to have it towed to a different shop. I don’t know how it happened, but the truck was undriveable.
I had the repair made by Just Jeeps within the range that Leonard’s had initially mentioned. They did a great job and didn’t try to gouge me on the price. $ 1,100. (They don’t do Just Jeeps).

I would imagine the GM or owner heard the other recordings and determined they were at fault, why else would they drop all of the charges. I now realize you used our first conversation out of context to try and get me to pay the 1750. Nice. The GM even laughed at me and said” we got you on tape. When he did finally call to say all the charges were dropped he made it sound like someone was doing me a favor because of my misunderstanding. Unbeknownst to the GM, I call back a little while after and spoke to Toby, who was nice enough to let me know it was his misunderstanding.
NOW, I was told two days prior to today that my van was ready… (when they tried to stick it to me), I understand that the second day I was defending myself and finally got the charges dropped around 3pm. They wait till about close to tell me I can pick up my van. I tell them thanks alot, now I have to pay an additional amount to get it towed after hours. He says no big deal they will leave it there. I ask him to leave it behind the fence so it does not get broke into. He says he will leave it in the bay and I can pick it up in the morning.
Sooooo, today I had to work in the morning, but figured Toby would call to let me know it was sitting out there ready to be picked up… nope. I called at noon and spoke to Jason who told me they were currently reattaching the motor and it wasn’t ready yet. I told him that Toby said they could just put it in the back of the van AND HE SAID it was ready yesterday, no I take that back the day before THAT’s when he said they had it ready. I was LIVID. The thought running thru my head is these guys either never took the motor out like they said, or maybe they are trying to screw something else up on my van for revenge or something (I don’t know, this is the kind of crap that runs thru yer head when you can’t trust no body) I went over there to see if my van was indeed in the bay, it was. I stopped and went in to see whats up. Another Jason told me that they are putting it back together, which again, didn’t make any sense to me.
I GOT MY VAN 2:30 Thank god for HARPER’s Towing
Today 5:40 PM — I’m standing in line at HEB when the GM calls to let me know he did not appreciate me making a scene when I dropped in. I let him know that I recorded the instance to be sure there was no misunderstanding again, and that there was no reason for us to talk anymore. THE END

Great guys! I showed up around 5:30pm…A/C was blowing warm air. It was over 100 degrees outside. They stayed late and fixed it. I can’t thank them enough. I would recommend them for sure!

These guys charged me over $ 900 to tow 1.5 miles and replace a gear shift pin. The next month when I went to open the hood to jump the battery, the latch was broken and the hood couldn’t be opened. These guys were the last ones to open the hood. Paid for a tow to find out its not just a latch and a battery, but a brake light switch under the dash is also broken and the reason why the battery was drained. I’m still paying off the first repair, now adding a grand to it. My car went to Leonard’s with one problem and came out with 2 more. Maybe it’s all a coincidence. But I’ll never go here again.

I have taken my car here exclusively several times over the last few years for oil changes, engine work, and flushes. Here is the good news: They are a bunch of people-​friendly, customer-​oriented guys who really like working on cars. They are open M-​F, 7 – 6 pm and usually always have the chance to get to your car. If they know they cant, they request a drop-​off and work on the next day.
Last summer they recommended and then replaced my rack and pinion system on my Acura, added new tie rods and new front tires, and did an alignment. They did a pretty good job, as I did not detect any issues afterwards. Then, I ran over a nail in the last couple of weeks. I took the car to them to ask if there was a warranty on the tire. There was not.
Discount tire said they could add air, but advised me that the alignment I got was bad, because the front tires were severely worn on the inside of both. I took it back to Leonards and they agreed, inspected the car, re-​did the alignment and replaced both tires, no charge. That’s an honest shop.
Never had any other issue with them, and I recommend their work.

So this place was recommended by the place I take my truck for oil change, tune ups etc. (and that place is GREAT, except for the fact they recommended this place). I called Leonard’s up and they said I could drop in for a FREE estimate (WHAT?! sounded good to me!). I stopped in and spoke w/​Toby, I let him know there’s something wrong w/​my AC. It works perfectly fine, blows nice cold air, as long as I’m driving at a steady pace. My AC stops blowing fresh air as soon as I come to a stop. I waited about an hour and a half for them to check it out. They said the AC fan needs to be replaced and freon evacuation & reloading needs to be done as well. Total estimate for parts, labor, tax= $ 595. While that seemed a bit steep, I was willing to have it done before the scorching, summer heat kicks in. I had just had the freon evacuation & replacement done yesterday elsewhere, and they detected no leaks. So I found it odd that Leonards wanted to do it again. I didn’t mention this, I was holding off. Soooo… I no longer had enough time to have my truck serviced today, so I was planning on calling Leonards back once I checked my work schedule. Toby and the other staff were very friendly, I can’t complain about that. Well, to my suprise, I left the garage and was driving on the highway and guess what?? — my AC is NO LONGER blowing cold air! I thought perhaps it would kick in after a few minutes. Not at all. I drove for 15 minutes and nothing. I called Toby back and explained how this left a sour taste in my mouth, especially since it was my first experience with them. Again, my AC was working FINE when I took it in for the estimate – it only stopped blowing cold air when I was at stop. He apologized and said a compressor fuse probably blew out when the mechanics were checking it. REALLY? I would’ve been a new customer… would’nt you want to make sure everything was at least working the way it was when I came in? Made me think they could’ve fiddled with something else in my AC to ensure I came back or came back quicker — or they were just careless. I don’t know, but one does wonder. The customer service seemed nice and great — but to be honest, I rather deal with shitty staff and have good work done. Hopefully I’ll find a place with good customer service and great work ethics! I wil never come here again!
UPDATE****I added another star because the manager, Jason, called me back and apologized about my experience and was willing to make things right. I appreciate this, not all managers take their time to address issues, but for now I won’t be a customer at this place.

Awesome guys. Walked in looking for a piece of exhaust pipe. Couldn’t find it anywhere, pulling my hair out about to order from Thailand. The guy working the desk got up, walked me to the back, cut a piece of pipe and sent me on my way. If I didn’t fix my own cars, I’d bring em here.

Don’t take your motorcycle here! Don’t take your car here! They’re expensive and slick. They seem very nice but are not! They don’t know enough about motorcycles. They could even adjust my clutch correctly.
After having my motorcycle worked on by Leonard’s I figured I’d give them a chance with my car. I took my car there several times I it was expensive but I wanted a local mechanic I could trust. I had some work done on my transmission. When I came to pick up the car my a/​c wasn’t working. I knew what the problem was because I know something about cars. Leonard’s told me that it was broken when it came in which wasn’t true. I had some words with Jason about this and he accused me of taking advantage of them. HA… A mechanic saying that a customer is taking advantage of them is very funny! Then he banned me from coming back after I though he hung up on me and I sad some words. As if I would ever go back to Leonard’s after they called me a liar and treated me so badly. Don’t go here if you know anything about cars. Don’t go here period.

What do I love? Great service, speedy fixes, and a «thank you» card for my loyalty and patronage in the mail. I get that every single time I go to Leonards. Jason has been helping my family with our car issues for years and years, and I wouldn’t trust anybody’s opinion over his. I even met THE Leonard once, and he was the nicest guy in the world. I love this place and you should, too!

Called these guys up cause i got a nail coming out the sidewall of my rear motorcycle tire and they were the closest. Plugged up the tire and rode over. Employees were nice but their tire prices were outrageous. $ 200 for a Dunlop Sportmax Q2 ¹⁶⁰⁄₆₀ zr17 so I went to Cycle Nation Powersports and got it for $ 150 with tax which is where I normally get my tires changed (too lazy to do it myself). They said they’d work on it at 2:00pm and they called me at 4:00pm with it ready. Picked it up had a joy ride and got to school at 5pm. Shit was expensive but I’d rather have my tires put on correctly and not die so whatevs. If you need your tires changed… this place will work.

Horrible horrible service and poor mechanics! Took my vehicle there, was supposed to be finished within a week, they serviced it incorrectly, realized there was an issue, and THEN decided to go back and read the manual only to find out the engine configuration was different than they originally thought. So then they attempt to go back, start over and fix it, tell me to wait another week, and I am still waiting… over 2 weeks later…
Do NOT trust this business!

Here’s my Leonard’s Garage story. I had been referred to them by a friend who they did right by. He said they were that rare breed: an honest shop that doesn’t overcharge and look for problems that don’t need fixing just to up the bill. Looking into their reviews and reading their mission statement on the website was all happiness and sunshine.
When my little brother somehow broke the driver’s side sun visor on my Hyundai I thought of Leonard’s first thing. Today I took the car in and was met by two very nice guys. The customer service was great, very friendly and very open.
They took a look at my visor, confirmed for sure that it was broken and went to work at quoting me a price. Remember, this is for a sun visor on a Hyundai… They came back with $ 250 for parts and labor.
I was taken aback. Really? I replaced a whole door on my last car for $ 400, how is a sun visor that expensive?
How much was the part? Apparently, $ 120. I did some quick math. How much is the labor, then? $ 108 an hour and they locked in an hour for labor. That’s pretty high and also seems like a stretch for replacing a sun visor.
In their defense they did say if took them half an hour they’d knock off that labor time.
I asked to think about it and did some quick internet searches, finding the exact factory part, brand new, for $ 50 with a google search. I asked about that and was told «Well, yeah. You’ll find everything cheaper online. We mark up our parts in order to make a profit.» Mark it up by 120%?
Again they were nice about it, but it all seemed very extreme and absolutely not in line with their reputation.
It even says on their website that they do a multi-​faceted search on every part to ensure the best price!
So, I go home, call a Hyundai dealership and get a quote from them. The Hyundai dealership quoted me at $ 120 all in, parts, labor and taxes.
That’s the dealership, the ones that are always the «expensive» option. But the guy on the phone suggested that visor replacement was pretty simple and I could probably find a walkthrough online if I wanted to do it myself. He stood to lose out on my business by telling me this, but he volunteered it freely.
Sure enough there were many places to tell me how to remove and replace my visor and in 2 minutes armed only with a flathead screwdriver and a phillips head screwdriver I had the broken visor removed. If I had my replacement part (a brand new still-​in-​the-​plastic original Hyundai visor for my specific make and model off of an ebay autoparts dealer for under $ 50 including shipping) on hand it would have taken me less than 5 minutes to remove and replace this visor… and I know nothing about servicing cars!
So, a $ 50 part and 5 minutes of actual labor was what was needed and this garage, who prides themselves on being cheap and accurate, tried to charge me $ 250 for it.
Seriously disappointed with these guys and when I relayed this story to the friend who recommended them my friend said Leonard’s not only lost any future business with me, but with them, too because they were so embarrassed at how I was treated after they spoke so highly of this garage.
That’s it. Word of warning when dealing with these guys. They claim to be the exception to the rule when it comes to greedy garages, but in my experience they were just like any other garage trying to squeeze every single dime they can out of their customers.

Fair priced, great service and quick. What more can you ask for in an auto repair shop? I completely trust them to do a good job for a very fair price and take care of my car as if I were a part of their own family.
Thank you to Jason and the rest of the crew at Leonard’s on South First.

I rolled in to get a free check up on my Exhaust. I figured it could not hurt since it was free here. I roll in at my appointment time and my car was taken back. I was told they could weld in 2 new cats for my car for like $ 249 each cat, which I thought was a little on the pricey side. Rock Auto has a rear replacement Cat for $ 177 and that’s the whole pipe. The guy there told me if they did my cats and I still had the issue, he would credit me what I already paid toward the price of fixing it, which I thought was pretty good.
I then asked if I could bring him my own parts and pay them for labor only. You would have thought I was asking to visit with the Pope. If I was not a programmer, I would have been a mechanic. I know the shop time to replace a bolt on cat is 1 hour, provided you do not into any issues. I asked how much they would charge me for this. He told me flat out he did not know. I was asking for a «rough estimate». Any mechanic who knows his business would know exactly how long it would take to do one job. He could not give me straight answer.
I left knowing if Honda would not honor the warranty on my cats, I could take it to them. I went over to B&B who told me it would cost $ 329 to weld in a rear cat by itself. I was impressed by B&B. I thought Leonards could have give me a little more idea of costs. If Leonards would have been a bit more upfront with me, I might have offered to leave it with them and have them do the work that day.
Thanks Leonards, I will stick with B&B or the Muffin shop.

I wish I had come to them first.
My a/​c was out, and I had Jiffy Lube refill the freon. It turned out that despite the «extensive leak testing» Jiffy lube performed, my a/​c still leaked. One of the guys there recommended Leonard’s. I did some price checking, and their labor costs were lower than other mechanics for standard repairs. They also promised they would take a look at the a/​c after their repair to make sure everything was working properly.
I came by a week later. They took a look at the a. c, pointed out some other issues, and then gave me a price. I heard Travis wrangling over the price of the replacement over the phone (good thing about small businesses), and know that he looked at multiple wholesalers for the best price. My car has now ascended to beater stage, since the a/​c replacement is higher than the trade in value of the car, but Leonard’s did give the most reasonable and — as far as I can tell — trustworthy estimate.
The stay there is great. They give free wifi and coffee, two things you can’t really find in other places.

I have been taking my car to LEONARD’S since the beginning of this year. My Catalytic converter went out and these guys replaced it for under $ 300 bucks. I have a 2000 HONDA CIVIC EX.
Few days back I had a repair done and they let me walk out without paying a penny out of pocket.
I am very impressed with their service and would recommend them to anyone!