Honest-1 Auto Care — Local services in Cottage Grove

I was sent a review request by Honest 1 a couple of weeks ago. I decided whenever I got my car back from the dealership I would write a fair review. A review not out of anger, but just my experience. Just to mention when I did complete the review that would have been posted directly to their website. Honest 1 took it down and called asking to talk to me about the review. The fact that now I am aware that all of their reviews are either fake or filtered let's me understand the type of business this is. On June 1st or 2nd I brought my car to the muffler shop down the road from Honest 1. The mechanic informed me he was unwilling to fix the rear suspension on my Chrysler 300c. He stated I had two bad camber links on each side of my rear suspension. He said, the problem is the bolt connected to each link was so close to the frame he would have to drop the suspension to repair them. He apologized for not being able to make the repair because it was to time consuming for him. I immediately took my car over to Honest 1 to see, if they could repair it. I asked could they give me a ball park figure on how much it would cost. The guy working the desk told me around $500.00. He wanted to do an inspection on it first. I left my car with Honest 1. The next morning the attendant called me and told me in order to fix the camber link it would cost $1,900. I was reluctant to pay that much, but I needed my car fixed. He stated also the rear axle needed to be dropped in order to fix it and it's going to take 5 days to get the parts in. About a little over a week goes by. I'm noticing my vehicle hasn't moved from the same spot that I left it. I go in and ask the attendant for an update on my vehicle. He looked surprised to see me. He then says the part hasn't come in. I am going to call and track it. He's says as soon as it gets here I will start on your car. I leave the shop the attendant was not on the phone when I left. I get into the car I'm driving. Drive to the exit of the parking lot and the attendant calls me to tell me he tracked the part and it was on the truck. There is no way he made that call and tracked those parts in two minutes. Fast forward a day later. Honest 1 called me and told me they have good news and bad news. The good news is I don't owe them any money. The bad news is the parts they received was the wrong part. The parts I need is recalled and on back order for 6 months. So there is no way to fix my vehicle. The attendant then calls back and says he can put a aftermarket part on my car and it would be cheaper. The price then will be $1,700 instead of the $1,900. I called the dealership in Roseville the next day. I gave them my VIN # and asked it they stocked the parts for my car. They replied yes, we have them in stock. I asked for the price of the parts and labor. The dealership said , the parts were about $167.00 a piece and $200.00 a side to replace. I made an appointment right then, because my car seem to be an after thought. I went to Honest 1 to pick-up my car. I told the guy the dealership has the parts to my car and they aren't discontinued. The attendant wanted to call the dealership himself to verify my claim. The dealership basically told the attendant they have the parts to my vehicle and nothing that they know of is discontinued. They asked what were they charging. I told them and they scoffed at the idea the dealership would not fix it for the price noted. Honest 1 also charged me $115.00 inspection fee. I dropped my car off at the dealership. They called me and and said, your camber links are fine. The links that are bad are the tension links. They said, they didn't have them on hand. It would take three days to get them. A week later my car was fixed. The repair cost was $1,057.00. The dealership is notorious for their pricing. For the work to be half of what DisHonest 1 charged is insane. DisHonest 1 has some ethical problems. I could never bring myself to using them again. I'm sharing my story in case you decide to use them. This is what you could...

I recently had my car in for a bad fuel injector. I was leaving for vacation so I didn’t have time to work on it myself and wanted to come back to a running winter ride in case we got snow while we were away. I dropped it off and I quickly got a call confirming what was wrong with the car. Bad injector to be replaced with gasket kit, spark plugs, and oil change since the fuel most likely seeped past the rings into the oil below. Cool, I said go ahead. I was told there was an oil leak and they would go through and add dye to the system to see where it was coming from. I said go ahead. He said alright we will get to cleaning it and let you know what we find. I got a call back later the next day when the parts arrived to fix it and they said they were almost finished and wanted to see if I wanted to clean the carbon build up from the valves and I declined. I figured I may get around to it when I have time when we get back from vacation since I knew the car had high mileage already. No problem. I went to pick it up and I paid the tab and got my keys. Right away I noticed a check engine light and figured it would go away when I would drive it later that day on my way to work. I got it home and finished up my day before work and when I got out to my car I plugged in my code reader and found 5-6 new codes and was confused. Then I noticed the fuel smell. I went under the hood to find fuel around the intake and puddled on the drive way. WTH? I checked my work report they sent me and saw it said I deferred the oil leak test and cleaning? No I didn’t. That’s fine. They didn’t charge me, I don’t care . But my take away is the lack of care to test drive the car to make sure the symptoms are gone. The check engine light was on right when I left the shop. When I dropped the car off there was a different warning light (EPC light) on but no check engine light. How don’t you notice that? Now I called back and let them know I have fuel everywhere and am instructed to call a 1800 number on the work order and I can have it towed in and be reimbursed later. I said no thanks and called AAA to come and drop it off because now I have to take a Lyft to work. I got a call saying it was a different o ring than what they had worked on inside the intake which they weren’t going to charge me for. Well no duh. It should have been caught before and added to the bill, in my eyes… all of the injectors have to be aligned and reattached to the head with the intake upon reassembly, o rings could be snagged and damaged upon reassembly. Human error happens. I get that. It just started to snowball and inconvenience the customer when it could have been caught. Also of the 4 spark plugs they replaced, one of them was less than an hour old as anyone could tell but I was still charged $499 for 10 minutes of labor to swap four spark plugs which are easily accessible and like I said one of them was brand spanking new. I have never seen anything like that in my life. Lack of attention and follow up. The work has a warranty but other then me going back for that I wouldn’t think twice about not returning here. It is upsetting to not feel like you can not be taken care of in...

Ok so I went to Honest 1 because I had my truck at another shop for a suspension inspection and I was told I needed rear shocks . I had shocks installed and still had an issue . Honest 1 told me my New shocks we're we'r and on upside.down and then put some grease in my left front ball joint . Only upon my asking did they tell me my front shocks we're pretty worn and the originals and that they should be replaced soon. I pd $47 for less than 10 minutes . I trusted that they actually inspected my suspension thoroughly since that is what I pd for . Well NOPE !!!! . After contacting the original shop they told me that my gas shocks could be installed upside right or upside down which was also incorrect. so I went to a third shop and paid for a 3rd time for a thorough suspension inspection. Upon my third inspection I was told yes my shocks were installed upside down but they weren't shot they were perfectly fine so they were installed correctly at the third shop. Then they did an actual thorough suspension inspection and I have worn out tie rod ends and need to replace both ball joints and yes I need new front shocks. they even showed me where are my tire on the front passenger side is leaning when I turn the wheel. so I don't know what I paid for because I literally could have crawled under my truck and known what they told me and I paid for a full suspenssion inspection and not to mention I was very clear that I needed to pull a cargo trailer with this truck and they still didn't do any more then look at the two issues that I had said I was concerned about when I originally made the appointment why did I pay for a full suspension inspection and and them only look at the shocks and the ball joint rather than actually doing a full inspection on my truck. I would have given them a 4* because the guy was kinda rude when I first got there and wanted me.to name the first shop I took my truck to and I told him I do not trash talk . I can leave a review just like I am doing now when I am unhappy with my service . But after having to have a 3rd inspection and being told I needed to replace several items that Honest 1 didn't inspect , I am very...