Tiger Auto Parts and Repair

Terrible Service on a Simple Part that they couldn’t get right
Save Time Go to Any Other Place for Parts
Hector the Owner — Defensive — I have been in Business 50 Years –
Thank God There is NAPA, AutoZone and or Pepboys

I took my older Toyota there when it broke down on me on Elston. They put a new distributor in the car and it started but never ran the same again. On my way to church smoke was coming out of the engine. I was constantly putting fuel injector cleaner in it just so it would not stall on me. I brought it back several times and all it did was cost me more money but never ran the same again. They do not stand behind there work instead they find something else to charge you for. Finally I junked the car I was tired of all the bologna with it and it would cost more to fox it than it was worth. I will never go back there for repairs again. We brought my wifes explorer in there for an oil change and he had over 800 dollars of repairs he wanted to do on it. That was over six months ago and we have not taken it in and it is still running fine. We have since switched to Grand Auto. for our repairs and they do a great job. Tiger is good for maybe buying wax or polish and you do not want to leave the neighborhood. I would not trust them to fix anything since the son left. When he was there the place was pretty decent. Now is there just to take your money.

I had one of my Audi light bulbs go out. I stopped by to Tiger and they gave me the wrong light bulb. When I came back to exchange it I was told that they had a no return policy. The stuff was very rude; however Luis was very helpful. He treated me like a person. If you happen to end up here, please ask for Luis and nobody else.

Do NOT let this motley bunch of rejects touch your vehicle with a ten foot pole. I took a gamble to support a local company with a long history in my neighborhood. After being greeted and treated half-​heartedly by a few chauvinistic receptionists, I got a simple oil change (no other customers, but was told to come back in an HOUR, so I took a long walk). Et voila! My car started leaking oil a week later. I took it elsewhere to be fixed. Want an honest, local mechanic who treats you like a decent human? Go to Augusta & Paulina Auto Repair — Aurelio is your man. And Marvin’s Auto Service on Belmont has never let me down.

Refused to attempt a simple weld for me I was recommended to come here I’m very disappointed

Had a conversation with a clerk who told me the store hours and that they close at 9. I arrive at 8:57 and the lights are off.

I’ve had a wonderful experience at Tiger Auto. I needed help removing some screws and I didn’t have the proper equipment. Frank was very helpful. Service was great. I highly recommend this place.

I wish I would’ve read the reviews for this place before giving it a shot and stuck with Advance, Auto Zone, or O’Reillys, instead. My experience with Cary and Tiger Auto was the absolute worst I’ve ever had with a retailer.
I purchased a starter for my vehicle and went immediately home to install the new unit. One of the mounting tabs on the unit broke right away as I was installing, so I called Cary up and asked if I could get my money back.
He immediately got very defensive, put me on hold, and got back on the line and accused me of installing it improperly. Mind you, I’ve been doing most all of this type of work on my own cars for the past 15 years and have changed several starters before with no problem. The unit I purchased from Tiger was simply of very poor quality and broke easily during installation. He said, «We’ve been doing this for 40 years, and you over torqued it, so it’s your problem.» He did offer to exchange it for another unit that I could pick up the next day, but I told him that I didn’t want to put something of such poor quality back on my car and that I wanted my money back.
He hung up on me, and I had to call him back to try and resolve the situation. Again, he was very rude and condescending. I was hoping for a better result, as they’re local and seemed like good guys when I first stopped in to purchase the part, and I wanted to help out a local small business.
Unfortunately, the reviews were true, so definitely avoid Tiger, if at all possible.

I bought a Honda from these lunatics for $ 300, the problem was it was my car.
Here are some of my favorite quotes from Hector,
I asked when my car would be ready, «how do I know? I got 16 fuckin cars here»
Why did you put parts on a car you can’t fix? «the mechanic didn’t know the car couldn’t be fixed, what is so hard for you to understand»
I said I need my car, «you act like you got a fucking Mercedes or somtin!»
While yelling on the phone, «you wanna start yellin buddy? Not here in my fucking business in front of my customers!»
This is the most dysfunctional pair of delinquents I have ever dealt with. When I dropped off my car one of the owners was berating a customer on the phone, I should have taken this as an omen.
If you need a quart of oil or a «7mm» socket wrench I am sure this is a fine option in the hood. Unfortunately I needed extensive work done to my car.
Over the course of 2 weeks I was told 11 times «I’ll call you right back». I had to hound Hector to get any kind of straight answer. Like a dysfunctional sibling he insisted on rehashing every conversation we had and could never stay on point. He would answer the phone while yelling at workers and other customers.
These guys put parts on my car and then told me the car was not repairable, but I would have to pay for the parts and labor. After a week of negotiations and bitter fighting we finally came to an agreement where I got to pay $ 300 for the privilege of being treated like an asshole and having no improvement done to my vehicle.
Did this come with any kind of apology or humility? Heck no, it came with a phone call at 5 minutes to 5 on Monday telling me to pick my car up, I said that was impossible because I was too far away, and again received more belittling and yelling.
When I picked the car up on Tuesday morning, a gentleman was on the phone with a customer who was not happy with the brake work they had done and was getting an earful from these wonderful service oriented maniacs. He got off the phone abruptly slamming it down and stomping to the back room with out saying anything.
They do not secure your vehicles either, my car was parked on the street bumper into bumper with another car. It did have a club on the steering wheel, but that wasn’t for criminals, it was so the customer can’t retrieve their car while it is being hijacked.

Because I live in the area and needed a good auto shop that wasn’t PepBoys, I hate to write this review. But after all the BS I just went through, I guess I’ll be taking my autos back to PepBoys.
We bring our auto in on Thursday and tell them if they think they can’t get the work done by Sunday afternoon, we’ll bring it back at a later date. We get told it would be done by Friday afternoon. We’re like, awesome!
Friday afternoon rolls around and no call from them saying our car is fixed. No worries — it was a big job and we still have tomorrow.
Saturday rolls around. By 3 pm, we have no call still. We call them. We’re told the garage shuts down at 2 and the car won’t be fixed until Monday afternoon.
Can you tell what the issue is?
We tell them, that won’t work. You need to get your guys back in the garage to get this fixed today or by tomorrow afternoon because we discussed the timing of the issue on Thursday and this needs fixed by Sunday.
Okay they say —
Sunday rolls around. We go pick it up because they say it’s fixed. We get it, drive away and it’s worse than when we brought it in. It won’t turn, it makes a loud squealing noise, etc. etc. We take it back. Now we’re without a work vehicle for a job we need to get to first thing Monday morning.
We find a rental vehicle and let them know they need to pay for the rental because of the timing of the situation and how they handled it.
We get yelled at and told we’re high on crack and how dare we even suggest something like that.
Monday rolls around and it’s still not fixed. In their defense, the part they used was a lemon — in fact, they had 3 lemons. They FINALLY put in a higher quality part and it worked… for a bit.
Had to take it again where we got told to leave and not show our face around there anymore due to them paying for the rental.
We said the auto still wasn’t fixed. We were then made to go home and get our receipt (even though the guy knew who we were) and came back and then we were told that three other things were wrong with the car and they’d have to be all fixed. The car still isn’t up to par and we just spent $ 900.
For being a small business and an auto shop, these guys could really do a great job and keep getting good business.
However, from the reviews I’ve seen, it seems as though they haven’t realized bad press spreads fast and if they continue on this path, their business might not make it for much longer.
As on reviewer pointed out, no one likes getting yelled at especially when you’re paying them for service. I don’t have to get yelled at by a service provider that I’m paying for. If anything, I’m supposed to yell at you for not delivering on what you said you would.
I wouldn’t take my chances here — especially if you’re on a time limit.

Tiger auto parts gets a bad rep and I think it deserves better. I live around the corner and on more than one occasion have turned to Tiger for a little help with my car. Recently I needed a 7 mm socket wrench to take apart my dashboard. The Tiger auto parts guy talked to me on the phone and had it ready. When the socket wrench rang in at thirty dollars he stopped the cashier and went to the sale table for one for $ 5. A year ago the same guy helped me troubleshoot the starter problem that Saturn Ions were just recalled for.

Stopped by here recently to pick up a quart of oil to top my car off. When I pulled in the lot it was full and there was no obvious street parking, so I thought I’d double up in front of the door since getting a quart of oil should not take more than 2 minutes. An employee came out of the garage and began furiously waving his arms and screaming at me to «move, MOVE!» and «park on the street like everyone else!!» Since I for one don’t like being screamed at, I just hopped back in the car and took my business elsewhere «Like everyone else!!» who has a brain and doesn’t appreciate being disrespected.

I read the reviews after I dropped my car off because I was in a bit of a hurry to get my radiator fixed before a long xmas drive. Had I went the other way and read reviews first I most likely would not have gone. But I’m glad I did. I can totally understand where people are coming from, the staff is a little grumpy, but they are definitely knowledgeable and helpful. Not to mention half the price of most of the gouging mechanics around town, and they got me in right away. Cary gave me a free estimate and even informed me of how I could fix the problem myself. I think the owners are just misunderstood, auto mechanic is usually a thankless job until your car blows up in your face, and tempers are almost always high at that point. So give them a little slack, and take it with a grain of salt, or empty your pockets around the corner.

The absolute worst place you could go in the city of chicago for parts or service. The staff is unbelievable rude. They sell cheap ass bogus parts. The parts are so poor that your better off keeping the broken parts on your car than buying anything from these guys. Not only will they sell you a cheap cheap aftermarket part that they have marked up 2,000% but they will insult you while doing it. Horrible stay far far away from this business.

I really hate to write one star reviews for small business, but sometimes I do, because maybe it can help them improve. I called on a weekday at 1pm to order a tow truck. I was told it would be twenty to thirty minutes. Forty five minutes later I called to make sure the truck was still coming. I was told another twenty minutes. Forty minutes later again I called, asking, hey, what gives, is the truck actually coming? This is when the excuses started happening. Oh, the truck, he’s driving slow, or oh, they had an issue with the last car– I was told that the truck was right by me and would pull up to help any minute.
Forty minutes later, when the tow truck still hadn’t shown, I called another towing company that came within fifteen minutes. Like they said they would.
Tiger needs to change the way they do business– maybe they scrape by on customers who have no choice on where to go or don’t know any better, but they could do such better business by doing actual honest work.

My car needed immediate repair. I was so impressed with how quickly they repaired my car and the friendly, knowledgeable staff was an extra bonus. I will definitely be bringing my car there for further repairs.

Tiger Auto gets another 5 stars from me! Although I don’t live near them anymore, I go out of my way to take my car there. Recently, I needed a new battery and alternator — I called them to let them know I was coming in and they were kind enough to send a tow truck to tow my car out of the parking garage it was in at a price that was less than what I had been quoted by another company. Hector and his son, Cary (I’m assuming how he spells it) are wonderful. They always remember me when I come in or call and they always call me before doing anything to my car to double check that I’m cool with it. Something I’ve always been impressed with is that they go out of their way to find a used or less expensive part if it can be substituted without compromising quality. It might not be PC to say, but as a woman who doesn’t know a lot about cars, it can be intimidating to take your car to a mechanic and feel confident that you’re not being overcharged. I have never felt that way at Tiger — I know when I take my car there that I’m dealing with honest, straightforward people who deliver great service at a good price. A couple of months ago my boyfriends car was making a strange sound when you hit the brakes — I took it right over to Tiger — they had a look at it and told me they couldn’t find anything wrong with it, but to come back if it happens again. Of course it didn’t make the noise anymore — typical — but instead of trying to charge me for something they were honest — this is why I trust and love these guys so much.
A few of the other reviews mentioned the «gruff-​ness» behind the counter and the «grumpiness» and «yelling» at employees — I’ve been a customer here since 2004, so going on a decade almost — it’s part of the charm — they all «yell» at each other — it’s a family owned neighborhood auto parts and bodyshop that’s been in business for over 30 years, not the Ritz Carleton (also, sometimes it’s loud because cars are being worked on!). Hector’s not grumpy per se, he’s busy and running a business! I’ve personally witnessed on occasion other customers who were rude or haggling him to the point where even I wanted to say «enough already dude, this is a business they need to make money too you’re already getting a good deal.» His «grumpiness» is nothing personal, just a man who’s seen it all and doesn’t have the time for b.s. Once he knows you a bit, he is exceedingly friendly, jokes around and will give you great restaurant recommendations in the neighborhood! Being in that business in that neighborhood for so long, I am willing to bet he could tell some stories.
As for the reviewer who calls himself «Caustic Critic» and felt the need to name call and hurl childish insults — your comments are ignorant, immature and uncalled for. What you write in your reviews tells the reader that you lack character and integrity — there is a way to write a tactful review if you have had a negative experience and not insult yourself by stooping down to such a low level. That’s what douchebags do.

Place is decent. They have most parts. One of the guys that works there is pretty grumpy, but they’re helpful. I haven’t used any of their repair services. I’d go to a bigger shop as they’ll have better selection and better prices. Not my pick unless in a bind.

If you just want auto parts, and you know what you are looking for, this place isn’t that bad. They have decent prices and I have always been able to get what I wanted. On one occasion I went in for a dome light fuse and the guy just gave me one for free, no questions asked.
That being said, they are usually pretty terrible at customer service and it’s common to go in there and see one of the staff members arguing with a customer. You need to be able to handle ‘gruff-​ness’ behind the counter.
Lastly, when I needed an axle replaced and a new exhaust system I took my Accord to three different shops for quotes. The first two shops quoted me ~$ 450 and Tiger gave me a quote of $ 1,400. After he told me the price he then mentioned that otherwise if I was interested in selling my car he’d like to take it off my hands. Obviously he was trying to pressure me into selling it because he knew the repair was cheap and he could turn the car for a profit. I wouldn’t recommend taking your car there for service.

If you want your vehicle to stay fixed or even get fixed for that matter, this place is definitely NOT for you or your vehicle.
Service is horrible and brought to you with attitude… Judging by the reviews I’ve encountered, unless you’re a woman, you’re pretty much going to get scammed…