Payless Muffler & Brake

Been going here for about 15 years now. These guys are awesome. They work fast and they always give the best prices.
Ask for Ernesto. He won’t bullshit you and THAT’S all you can really ask for.

Drove past Payless muffler about 7 months ago while going to the gym. After researching on Unilocal,I decided to give them a try. Ernesto gave me a fair price and guaranteed his work. I was pleased with his customer service as well as the work performed which were my brakes. Fast forward to this past weekend. I kept hearing what I thought were my brakes. Since I just bought the brakes 7 months ago, I knew this couldn’t be correct. I brought my car in this morning and Ernesto explained to me that it wasn’t the brakes but something else (that wasn’t based on his work). 15 mins later, I was driving away and at no cost. I would definitely recommend Payless.

They are prompt, courteous and understanding. They fixed my brakes affordably and took me in on a Friday afternoon with no appointment and even though I was their last customer, they took the time to give me a good estimate, options to make the repair affordable and got the job done without any runaround…, did I mention I’m a woman with no car know-​how? These guys are great.

My ten year old BMW x3 was starting to stall a bit in the morning when I turn it on. I tried taking it to Autozone to get a new battery but they don’t charge, sell or install batteries on foreign cars. Anyway the car died after I parked in the Auto Zone lot.
The guys at Auto Zone told me to call Ernesto at Payless Auto Repair. I did and he was very polite and patient.
Had the car towed to his shop and it ended up being that my starter had stopped working. The cost was 450 $ because labor can be intensive on a Bmw. These cars have a small space to work with. It took about 4 hours and the car was ready.
Like everyone else I hate paying for car repairs but I need my car. And I’m not planning on splurging on a new one til the economy gets better.

I went to this place last week to get a brake job and they did a great job! Friendly service and all. I will definetly be going back. The price was right as well. Satisfied customer :)

This place is horrible. I went there to have a fuel pump replaced.
Because I worked and they close at 5, I left it there for a week. When I came back, the engine was violently shaking!!! I asked him what is going on, giving him the benefit of the doubt, he said he would figure it out.
I come back another week (2 weeks so far!) and he tells me the car needs a new fuel injector and spark plugs! I say fine, even though I know NOTHING was wrong with the engine before. Still giving them the benefit of the doubt, he replaces it and it turns out it was NOT the fuel injector or spark plugs. I demanded a refund and got it.
I was going to go get my car today when he calls and tells me the engine is badly damaged and is NO GOOD. NOW IM LIKE WTF!?? Nothing was wrong with my truck before! I refused to have it fixed… but now Im out of money and my precious truck… I have to figure out wtf I will do! I wish I could sue them but I dont have proof!
HORRIBLE PLACE! DO NOT GO THERE!
I WAS TOO TRUSTING!

Not too happy with this shop…
I brought my car in for a diagnosis after my check engine light came on and my car started shaking. After diagnosing my car, they told me it could be a spark plug or a fuel injector. They suggested that I get a tune up so I authorized it and left my car thinking that in a few days it would be back to normal.
I get a phone call two or three days later and the guy tells me that he did a tune up and that one of the cylinders is still misfiring. At this point he recommended that I get the fuel injector replaced. So, I authorized that thinking that it would fix my car (based on what I was told from Payless Muffler & Brake). They said they had a used fuel injector from a car they worked on earlier that day and that they could replace my fuel injector with that one. So, now the waiting game begins.
I get another phone call two days later and the guy tell me again that one of the cylinders is still misfiring. Come on… based on your two suggestions, neither one of them worked and my car is still in the same condition. At this point, I’m tired of the runaround and I just want the car fixed. So, the guy says that he will take my car to another local show to get a better diagnosis to see what the real issue is? So, I agree to that and said that I would wait back to hear what the actual cause of the misfire is.
He calls me back and says that the other shop claims that the «engine hat» needs to be replaced and that the could do it for $ 1,500. WHAT??? What is an engine hat? Turns out that they would need to replace a good portion of the engine for that. so, you guys want to charge me for the tune up that DIDN’T work and also charge me for the fuel injector that DIDN’T solve the problem either? NO WAY… I asked them to remove those charges from my bill as I was not going to pay for something that did not help my issue in the first place. Eventually, he removed those items from my bill and said that I would have to pay $ 30 for the oil change… At this point I was irritated and wanted to take my car else where.
When I got to the shop to pick up my car, it was in fact still in the same condition. I was charged $ 30 and they dropped the diagnostic fee. They suggested that I take my car to a dealership to see if my car was under warranty. And I did just that. My car was still under warranty and the dealership was able to repair my car and it didn’t cost me anything. And the issue was NOT with a engine hat…
These guys just missed the ball on this one.

Found this place by accident after reading some really negative reviews about Car One here on Unilocal.We usually take my truck into Bob’s auto repair, but when Bob told us that he doesn’t do mufflers and we’d have to take it into Car One, we did a search and found that they had some really negative reviews. My husband did more of a search for muffler shops in the area, and these guys gave the best price over the phone and had my muffler in stock!
Brought it in, and they took my truck in right away — although they already had a car on the lift that they were working on. Gave my truck an inspection, and confirmed the price, so I gave him the thumbs up.
Went out in front to wait, figuring that I’ll have a few hours to kill, have had to replace the muffler before, I know how this works! About 5 – 10 minutes later one of the other guys said he’ll get me setup with the paperwork and they already had my muffler off. Sure enough, I look at my truck, and the muffler was just hanging there at that point.
Gets me squared away with payment and receipt, goes out to check on my truck and 5 minutes later, I’m driving away.
Not only were they super quick, but everyone there was extremely friendly and helpful. The price was right and it also came with a one year warranty, which is more then I can say for the other shop that worked on it previously — the muffler held up for several years, but never did have a warranty on the work.
Gave me a good price on my brakes and roters that I’ll need soon — already knew about the roters, but not quite ready to replace them just yet — still has some life left in them! But, I will be back!

I came here after many years of damage done to my car by Lucas Tire further up on N. Western. I had reached my final straw with them and just decided to drive it into the closest auto repair shop by my job. It ended up being a really good experience for me. I left my car with Earnesto to take a look at. Before I left my car he brought me back into the garage to look at what was going on. I know nothing about cars, but I do know that there was some kind of rubber belt twisted around some part of my wheel. It sounded scary while I was driving and looked even scarier when I finally saw what was making the noise. I left my car, and came back a few hours later. So far, everything is working fine. I will not hesitate to return to them for further repairs. Earnesto was polite, professional and quick. He even drove a few blocks with me before I paid to assure that the rattling was taken care of and the weird noises were gone.

This place is great for when I can’t get to my regular mechanics at Car-​X in Berwyn. I’ve had my muffler and my brakes fixed and replaced at this shop, and they guys there are great. The only caveat I have is that one of the mechanics is a little too much on the friendly side, and I’m not one for having my mechanic flirt with me while he’s working on my car. Dude– that’s my car you’re working on, please pay attention to the task at hand! Plus, I’m so not into you!
Said mechanic had me sit in a chair in the actual garage while he worked on the car. Only good thing about this was that he eventually showed me what was wrong with the car (did my car really have this crater in the muffler? No wonder people could hear my car from 10 blocks away!)
However, the owner eventually showed up (he had been on a lunch break) and he wasn’t too happy about seeing me sitting in the garage with the mechanic (me thinks he knows how flirty the mechanic is). He had me come into the actual waiting area (much nicer, with a television, chairs and magazines!), and there was a restroom as well (although I seriously doubt that I would have used it). They take cash and credit cards, which is a definite plus! Once the mechanic gets down to the serious business of fixing your car, you receive your car in pristine condition in a matter of hours-​nothing like the slow deaths you experience at Pep Boys!
The mechanics also don’t do just mufflers and brakes. They also do tune ups, a/​c service, radiator flushes, shocks, springs, struts, c.v. axles, ball joints, tie rods, and more. They are bilingual as well, so there are no problems with dialogue here. And for the female customers, there isn’t that whole «hustle her out of her whole paycheck because she’s a woman so there’s no way she’d know anything about cars» mentality. Just one or two mechanics that do some harmless flirting.
If your regular mechanic isn’t available and you need a dependable one, drive down (or have yourself towed like I did!) to this location.