Honolulu, HI
My 10-year old car's engine suddenly died on the freeway in morning rush hour. Coasted over to the road shoulder. Engine cranked over but no start. Called AAA for a tow; their nearest recommended repair shop was Lex Brodie, so I had AAA tow me there. I left the car there and they had me sign a Waiver of Written Estimate and said they'd call me back the next day. At home, I read the Waiver and saw that it said I agree to pay for the repair charges. (How can I agree when I don't even know what's wrong or how much it'll cost me?) I called Lex Brodie first thing next morning and told them to call me first with repair estimate before doing any repair. Later, they called and said the distributor was bad and repairs would cost $1,500(!) I knew parts and labor to replace a distributor isn't that high. I asked if their $145 diagnostic fee would be credited if I went ahead with the repair and they said no (really?), so I declined the repair and told them I'd have AAA tow the car to my house. I met the AAA tow driver at Lex Brodie, paid the diagnostic fee, and got a copy of the written repair estimate. Shockingly, in addition to the distributor replacement ($85 labor + $552 parts = $637), the repair estimate included "recommended" new fuel filter, new spark plug wire set, six new spark plugs at $24.95 EACH ($149 for 6 spark plugs for a 10-year old car - really?) $25 for some kind of fuel additive, and all associated labor (none of which I asked for or was necessary to get the car running), in all, OVER $800 IN "RECOMMENDED" extra charges that weren't absolutely needed to get the car back up and running. I'm keeping the written estimate as evidence of their scam. Anyway, I called a mobile auto mechanic who came to my house, and showed him the Lex estimate. Mobile guy had me crank the starter and he said sounded like no compression in the cylinders. He removed the spark plug for the #1 cylinder, hooked up his compression gauge, had me crank the engine, and got no compression reading, meaning that the TIMING BELT was broken. Mobile guy said the broken timing belt is why the distributor wasn't working; he shook his head and said any competent mechanic would have done the simple compression check to verify the reason why the distributor wasn't working, He said that per the written estimate, Lex would have replaced the distributor, and then find out that the timing belt was the problem, and then added another $900 for timing belt replacement to the already inflated repair estimate just to get my car running. NEVER AGAIN, LEX BRODIE. If Lex reads this review, I'd like to see them explain their repair estimate and their computer/manual diagnostic procedures. You guys are for the kind of people who have absolutely no idea about car repair and are likely to just go ahead with whatever you guys recommend.