Person/Company:

AUTO SMART

Location:

5751 W Central Ave, Wichita, KS 67212

When:

January 12^th, 2019

Reason for Visit:

Radiator and Battery

My Rating:

★

What I Liked:

To be completely fair, I will say that I appreciate the location and the cleanliness. I also like the fancy-old cars they had on the property.

What I Didn’t Like:

My girlfriend was on her way to work when her car started acting up. She did the responsible thing by pulling over and calling roadside assistance. A tow truck eventually came, pick her and her car up, and then dropped her car off at Auto Smart.

A diagnostic was performed, and a repair for the radiator and battery was priced at well over $600. When I finally got involved and discovered what they were going to charge, I made it clear that a high price for such a minor repair was silly. (Parts alone would only cost me $140, and I could make the repairs myself in about 30 minutes.)

It seems to me that once the guy discovered that a male was involved, things began to change. In fact, the guy told me that he would take the coolant flush off the quote, saving us almost two hundred dollars. But here’s the kicker: you don’t need a coolant flush if you’re replacing the radiator because the coolant is being replaced anyway. I believe he was trying to take advantage of my girlfriend in her “seemingly” desperate situation.

Of course, this upset me. I told him that we would likely be going somewhere else, and I asked him what we owed for the diagnostic service. He said $129.00. The kicker here is that I could literally go almost anywhere in this city and get a solid diag for $75 to $99. I made this clear and told him I didn’t like his markups and that we would come by to pick up the vehicle within minutes.

When we arrived to pick up the vehicle, we were pleasantly surprised that the bill for the diag had drastically reduced to $75. It was a pleasant surprise indeed… until we got home. I wanted to take a look under the hood myself, and when I attempted to open the hood, I discovered that the latch was suddenly disengaged, and we couldn’t open the hood.  Of course, we were not notified of the malfunction; we were gifted with discovery.

Coincidence?

My Recommendation:

AVOID – especially if you’re a female and/or don’t know much about cars.