Brake repair service near Palos Verdes Estates, CA

You should know a few things about Pep Boys right off the bat. First, they charge about the same as many dealer mechanics. So, you should basically just take the car to the dealer or an upmarket independent who has more reason to care about your car. In addition, you will wait an awful lot for service with such a markup. Again, if one pays a premium, one expects a certain amount of service. The last thing you should know is that they seem to lack an enforced policy with regard to their work. If you walk in, you are just dealing with Mike, and if Mike does not feel like giving you a refund, that is that. My story is that I took my Buick in to have it checked out since I was going to drive it across country. They charged me $485 for a belt and two radiator hoses. This is somewhat of a premium price and I will discuss that is just a minute. I got my car and drove it for a few days (it was repaired on 6/5/2014). The radiator then blew out in Jackson Hole Wyoming (on 6/13/2014). This is pretty far from where I live and it really created a lot of problems for me. The fluid it leaked was green. It turns out that they put regular pro-line coolant and not Dex-Cool as the manufacturer recommends. This is documented in the receipt and I saw it with my own eyes. Did this cause my blow out? It’s hard to say, but if a surgeon leaves a surgical sponge in the patient and they get sepsis, it’s likely they will blame the surgeon. When I brought my receipts and material to Mike Zdralek the service manager, his opinion was that I needed to prove it was their fault. The funny thing was I was extremely polite and was trying not to point any fingers. Even a simple apology would have been nice. Now I’m out $485 for the repairs which had absolutely no effect in preventing what they were intended to do. I brought the car in to prevent a radiator blow out, and they did the job wrong and it blew out … in the middle of nowhere. The extra repair cost me $471 (plus $200 to have the part driven in from Idaho Falls). So I’m out over a thousand dollars now with nothing to show for it. The interesting thing to note is that a whole new radiator at a standard mechanic costs the same as two hoses and a belt from Pep Boys. This gives you an idea of the markup they charge on work. In the future, I will not bring any business to Pep Boys. I hope that the %20 margin they made was worth it. That’s the last they will see of me and the last dollar I will spend with their store.

General auto repair.

The work was completed quickly and had no problems.

I went to Walter and his shop which is called Select Auto Tech in Burbank CA. I got my engine rebuilt and he did a super job. Very happy with this mechanic.

It was my first time going to The Great American Auto Center in Burbank and the reason I chose this Auto Center was because of so many good reviews I saw about Mr. John the owner of this Auto Center. I had a few deep scratches on my Honda Accord. John greeted me with a friendly smile and answered and explained to me in plain English how he would repair these scratches. John looked courteous and honest, and right off the bat he said to me that he will fix my car scratches at no cost to me because I'm a retired person, and I was amazed when I heard that. While I was waiting in his auto center, he spend about an hour repairing the deep scratches and touch up paints and the work he did looked great. I tipped him some but he didn't wanna accept the tip from me either. Mr. John is amazing and nicest guy in this type of business I've ever met. He's very professional and knows his work. I would definitely recommend John to anyone needing work done on their cars. From now on I'm his customer and he's my friend. Thank you John, Roobik V.

The staff was friendly and performed the alignment check quickly. I was concerned about possible frame damage on a used car that I was considering purchasing and they directly addressed my concern about that issue instead of simply telling me the car was aligned well. While waiting outside, they got a chair for me to sit in, so that was nice, too. Chris Morris

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