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Need help on car repair

M

mt85

Well-Known Member
Mar 24, 2006
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I need to get some gaskets replaced on a car that is off warranty. The local dealer repair costs are ridiculous.

I'd like to find a less expensive option. Does anyone know of a lower cost, reliable auto service business in the Des Moines/Ames/Central Iowa area?
 
Tuffy in Ames ripped me off big time back in 2000 - that's one to steer clear of if you're not able to cut through the BS.
 
I just got my car worked on at Denny's Automotive in Ames. They did a good job of not screwing me over since my regular mechanic is in CR, and I already knew what was wrong, so I compared with him and it was pretty close.
 
clones_jer said:
Tuffy in Ames ripped me off big time back in 2000 - that's one to steer clear of if you're not able to cut through the BS.
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I've heard similar reports about Tuffy's in West Des Moines. A friend took her car in for minor service work and was told all sorts of other things needed to be fixed or replaced. Some of the explanations were pretty far-fetched and she said no. That's when lots of things that had worked fine prior to her visit stopped working. After several angry conversations with Tuffy, she eventually had a mechanic friend fix everything. :frown3qg:
 
Are you talking about intake manifold gaskets? Take it from someone that tried to save money by finding a cheap place to do it, it's worth the extra money to take it to a dealer that is certified for that kind of repair. My Grand AM had the intake gaskets go bad, I took it to a "ma and pa" place that did it much cheaper than the dealer then 2 years later the work they did went to crap and I had to have it done all over again and this time I just took it to a dealer that has certified GM mechanics that knew what they were doing. There are some repairs that the ma and pa places are good for but a major repair like manifold repair I'd do your homework on the place before you go the cheap route.
 
I have a friend who works at En-tire Car Care in Ames. I have them do all my work and they do pretty well. I think they usually compare favorably with most places cost-wise.
 
Tuffy in Ames ripped me off too. I have not been back to a Tuffy's since.

Firestone in Des Moines is great. They have the cheapest prices (believe me, I do a lot of comparison shopping) while still doing quality work. The one I go to is located by Merle Hay Mall on Douglas Ave.
 
I'll echo the others here...Do not go to Tuffys! I had a friend who brought his car in and they told him a bunch of things were wrong...one being a hose replacement. He agreed to have them fix a couple of the "critical" items...one being the hose. They charged him over $500 to replace this hose.

Later, he was at an O'Reillys and just asked a sales person about this same hose out of curiousity. The sales guy told him the hose was $70 and could be replaced by anyone in 15 minutes. My friend actually wrote 2 or 3 letters to the Better Business Bureau...

They are absolute crooks there. And if you are a girl, they will really screw you over.
 
What are shop rates? Dealership's are probably around $75. Local private is probably closer to $50. Good mechanics can be found in both. Parts of equal quality are frequently less at a private, but not necessarily.

In my neighborhood I find the privates to be much more honorable than the local dealership.
 
En-tire is generally a good place to go. Very reasonable prices and good quality of work.

I'm surprised nobody has ripped on HabHab yet. They have to be, without a doubt, the worst in town. They are like vultures driving up and down 35 looking for stranded motorists. My car died back in like 2002 on 35 and Habhab came to the rescue. Since they were already there to tow my car I agreed to let them out of convenience. After getting my car up and starting the trip back to ames. The driver conveniently "missed" the exit for us to turn around and come back to Ames. I believe he said something like, "whoops, guess we missed that exit" ...and yes, they charged me for the mileage.

Then they proceeded to run a diagnostic on my car without asking and tried to charge me $80 for it.

I have NEVER encountered a more dishonest business in my life. Stay away from them. :frown3qg:
 
I'd "recommend" Butch's, but I don't know the guys who work there anymore. I used to have a lot of friends that worked there, but they all graduated. They did quality work, and didn't screw me, but that may have just been because they knew me. I haven't really ever heard anything bad about them though, so take that as you will.
 
I would suggest staying away from Firestone. I knew I was going to need new front brakes soon so I had them take a look. They said I needed new brakes on all 4 wheels (and I'd better get it done within 2 weeks as it was dangerous to drive) and that I needed new rotors. The total bill was around $800. To compare, I took the care to a small shop in Ankeny and he said the rotors were just fine, the rear brakes were also fine, and the front brakes were worn down to about 15-20% so I had just those replaced for slightly over $100.
 
Cyclone62 said:
I'd "recommend" Butch's, but I don't know the guys who work there anymore. I used to have a lot of friends that worked there, but they all graduated. They did quality work, and didn't screw me, but that may have just been because they knew me. I haven't really ever heard anything bad about them though, so take that as you will.
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Butch's is 1 place in Ames I'd be careful about because I've heard some horror stories from there from several people. The 1 time I had a window fixed there they didn't put the right tension on the crank when they put the new window in and I had to take it back again because it came off the tracks rolled down in the middle of the winter. My ex-girlfriend had her SUV towed by them because she parked in a spot on campus she was not supposed to. When she went to pick it up the tailgate had a dent and her back window that was open some was stuck because of it and got rained on that night on top of it. The tow report said there was no damage when they towed it but they claimed they did not cause the damage despite not writing it on the tow report and refused to pay for the body repair. The repair costs was not worth it to take them to small claims over which is what they probably knew when they refused to pay for the damage they most likely caused when they towed it.
 
I've gone to Automotive Engineering in Clive (just off Swanson Blvd). They charge (at least at the time) $60 per hour for labor. They were more than fair to me. They don't do a lot of advertise and rely a lot on repeat business.
 
cycloneworld said:
I've gone to Automotive Engineering in Clive (just off Swanson Blvd). They charge (at least at the time) $60 per hour for labor. They were more than fair to me. They don't do a lot of advertise and rely a lot on repeat business.
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$60/hr? That's cheap labor! :rolleyes5cz:
 
kralon20 said:
Ron's Auto Repair is a good place. Just off Lincoln Way. Good prices, honest.
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I would echo this one. Sometimes it takes forever to get in, but they do a good job for a reasonable price, and once they couldn't do what I needed and recommended a few other places that would be respectable.

Now the one place I would NEVER go would be Car-X. We took our painted up ISU van there to have it checked out on a Friday afternoon. There was a football game the next day, and while we were there they called and left a message that it would be x amount to fix it and to call them back. We got back from the game (it was an afternoon game) and called them and they were already closed for the day. On Sunday we tried again but they were closed all day. Finally on Monday we called and they had called in a tow truck and had our van towed because we "hadn't gotten back to them". We (me and the other 3 guys that went in on the tailgating van) went in and reemed the manager, whose name was Fredrick. One of the guys I was with called him Fred and he spazzed out screaming "It's FRED-RICK!!!". So the guy's twin goes, "Hey Fredrick, you ever go to ISU football games?". Fredrick said that he sometimes made it to a game, so my buddy says, "Well next time you're there, take a walk through the tailgating section and look for the old ISU tailgating van that says 'Car-X SUCKS!!!' written across the side of it in big black letters!" At which point we all walked out. Two days later I got a call from our dean of students who said that Fredrick had called him concerned that we were going to slander his business. The Dean agreed with us that if it was true it wouldn't be slanderous. Sorry this was drawn out but Car-X still burns me. Our second idea was to light the van on fire and drive it through the big Car-X plate glass window :angry6wn:
 
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I'll echo the En-Tire positive feedback. I always went there while I was in Ames and "Tyler" is a good guy. Oh yeah, Car-X sucks!!!
 
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