I have heard good things about them so when my car was dying on me I decided to bring it here...They are friendly and cordial and diagnosed my problem, which I appreciate. However, my quote for a fuel filter and fuel pump was $1300 for a ford focus (including diagnostics). Looking only at the cost of parts--$27.05 for the fuel filter and $671.37 for the pump. I explained that I have changed fuel filters in my work's vehicles and that I felt comfortable doing that for now until I could save up for the pump. I was discouraged from doing this and told that my car needs a special part to change the fuel filter. This isn't true. I understand it's a business and you need to sell yourself, but that was a black and white lie and was a huge red flag for me.
I explained that I simply do not have the money for the fuel pump right now and needed the weekend to make a plan. I went home, found the same exact fuel pump directly from the OEM for $311. I went to pick up my car today (the pump isn't totally dead yet, just very close) and I was told to put gas in it. This was confusing because I had been told a detailed story on Friday on the phone, and multiple times in person, about how they drove my car to the gas station, put $15 of gas in it, and then how the car barely made it back to the shop before dying. On Friday I paid for the diagnosis, and was told multiple times about the $15 in gas they had already put in, and so I gladly paid for that as well. Now this morning the story was that I needed to put gas in it right away because they had *intended* to put that $15 gas but it "just didn't work out", so they gave me my $15 back. Just strange. I mentioned that I found the pump for $311, expecting them to say "Hey, great! Bring it in, since it's the same part, we can replace it for you and you've saved some money" (this is pretty much what the dealer told me when I called them for a quote). Instead I was told "Well I can't sell it to you for $500 (the dealer's price) because I need to make money off of it." I said, laughing, "Yeah, that would have been almost $400, that's a good amount to make from it!" "It costs $700 to open the door each morning." Keep in mind, this is in regards to just ONE part, not the entire quote. I've worked in a variety of fields and have always been happy to save a customer money. This reaction confirmed what my gut had been telling me.
I'm planning on attempting the replacement myself. My game plan was that I would try it (been researching all weekend, and I have the equipment to lift the car, bring down the tank, etc) and at the first sign of things not going well, bring it back to them and have them do it, but be happy that I still saved myself some money on the part. Not only did they not seem interested in having me as a customer (I guess if each part is marked up 115% they don't need me) but all the little lies added up and made me feel very unsure about trusting you guys. Again, you are all super friendly and I appreciate that, but you also went on a big rant about ethics with me on Friday about how important it is to you to feel good about the parts you put into the cars that you work on, etc etc and that honestly was another red flag for me because at that point I hadn't questioned your prices or the quote, had only asked for the quote and explained that I don't have that money right now so I need to figure out what I'm going to do.
Long story short, I appreciate the diagnosis, I appreciate your friendly personalities, but I also appreciate being raised to ALWAYS do your own research. My money is very important to me and I need to trust the businesses that I give it to.