Honest Engine Auto Repair — Local services in Henniker

I'm not sure what's become of this establishment but I have been a loyal customer since 2013, I have brought my vehicles to no other place since returning to the area after my military service. I was scheduled to be seen Tuesday morning for a drop off, I showed up and was told there was no loaner available and they'll "call me". I then proceeded to leave them a lengthy message on Facebook, attempting to purchase tires through honest engine. Not hearing back Honest Engine via the phone nor Facebook I then called them at 4:18PM and let them know I had messaged them on Facebook regarding tires, and also to see if I would be bringing my truck in for its services and inspection. I was told to come Wed 5/8 at 4PM, I arrived once again no loaner as promised so I opted to wait. There was no mention of the tires I asked about for my Jeep on top of it all by the way! Over an hour later I am informed my truck has failed inspection due to the driver and passenger side window tint, which A is from the factory, and B has PASSED every inspection AT HONEST ENGINE from 2013 to 2018; now all of a sudden after the precedent has been set, they tell me it fails. The lady in the office then tells me they are going to pass it after I informed her of that fact. I am outside then waiting for my truck, and the tech says he cannot put a sticker on the vehicle because I had forgotten my registration in my other vehicle(or so I thought), the new 2019 stickers are on mind you, and they refused me citing the inspection machine needed the bar code on the registration for the vin number( something i highly doubt but okay I accept the premise). The kicker being the registration was in the upper glove box, my truck has two glove boxes the tech must have missed it. Anyways I get home to a text from Honest Engine at 5:59pm stating "Hi Kevin- I made a mistake in saying your truck has passed NH state inspection. I spoke without checking with the tech( a lie she spoke to the tech multiple times throughout this encounter) he said the front side windows do not pass inspection. There was a misunderstanding. It wasn't run through the NH system. Sorry about the misunderstanding. If you come back at some point I will happily refund the state inspection fee of 37- thank you." In an attempt to cover their tracks, after they had already stated otherwise. They texted that to my phone mind you, AFTER I paid for the inspection in which they said I passed. I will NEVER bring another vehicle to this place again, I have spent well over 10 grand at this place throughout the years and I was always comfortable bringing my vehicles here. I'm not sure what happened when the older lady retired, but the way things are running now I'd be looking to make a name change-- Honest is a word with much greater meaning than being exhibited by this establishment in 2019. It's a damn shame too,...

UPDATE; I just pulled out my receipts from the $700 they charged me to change a rear bumper and install step sides in a period of four day. I matched the receipts from Danny’s Automotive. I just had them remove and install front bumper which included installing two LED fog lights. Got my truck back the same day for a price $500 less. Couple months back I had my brakes done all the way around replaced everything. $525 cheaper than, ripoff replaced my rear bumper. And again I got my car back the same day. Almost forgot, I also did my state Inspection at Danny's as well. Changing a bumper, new brakes, rotors everything, state inspection. Ended up being $5.36 over what not honest engine charged me for installing a bumper. You would have to be insane to have any work done there.

I also looked a their BBB rating, out of all the complaints, only one made a complaint with the BBB, well now two. Complaining about something and not doing anything to change it. Just means your a part of a problem. Not doing anything just allows them to continue to do shawty work and rip people off.

I’ll start with the only positive the mechanic I dealt with was outstanding. Customer service is the worst I’ve seen in a long time. Misleading, Uninformed, Poor time management. Extremely overpriced. She stated that they would need my truck for a couple of days to install a rear bumper and install sidesteps. I called on the second day, she informed me they hadn’t even touched it yet. On the third day again I called stated my front bumper looked great, but the bad to cut the bolts cause they were seized. I had broke the bolts loose prior. The replacement bumper was to heavy for me to replace on my own that’s why I brought it their. So she didn’t know what bumper was replaced. Then mislead me about the work that was actually done. So at this point all that needed to be done was mount the stepsides, bolt on no welding. Also said she’ll have to see if anyone would work the weekend to finish. 4 days and still no truck, somehow trying to make feel impressed, or feel sorry. The mechanic I dealt with told me he worked late to finish it. Finally called that it was done, again trying to impress me with the work that was done. I was charged $700 I asked for an itemized printout. 7 hours of hazard pay was the only thing on the bill. 7 hour to replace a bumper 4 bolts, installed step sides 6 bolts. On and replaced front grill 4 pinch tabs. 7 hours I was charged, the mechanic told me it took him 3 hours. So 4 days they had my truck, and she wanted it through the weekend. She was not knowledgeable on the work that was being done. Said work needed to be done that didn’t, it had already been done by me prior. Being charged for 7 hours of work when the mechanic that did the work said it took 3. With this one experience I wouldn’t even drive...

Wish I would have read reviews outside of their website. My daughter drove her car from Washington State to Henniker , NH to have for school. Before we left we had our personal mechanic tidy up things so she was prepared for the journey. Before we arrived we started having some issues with the gears not shifting and also the check engine light came one. My daughter contact OUR mechanic (back in WA) and they worked it out that it seems like the solenoid was failing. He told us to go to an AutoZone to get the check engine code. No one would do it because of COVID (we were still out of state). SO before we arrived in Henniker, I searched out a regular mechanic (as ours told us to do) in the same town where she is going to school hoping they would give us the codes. Also making it easier for her to get back to campus if she had to leave the car. Was hoping to fine a good mechanic that could just talk to our mechanic and find a place where she could get her car fixed when needed, including regular maintenance. Website review said great reliable service. I am giving them 1 star because they did wait for her to come in after hours. However, she was charged $100 for the machine to read the codes (not sure if that is high but we knew we would have to pay something) and when we asked for the codes (by my daughter and me multiple times) all they would tell us that it was a transmission code. No actual code numbers, just that it was the transmission codes. My daughter was also informed by them that it seems that her transmission must have been flushed (wasn't), there was a burn smell coming from it (was none) and that the transmission was completely out (definitely not). We just needed the codes to verify to our mechanic, and so he could talk with the local mechanic that we would bring the vehicle into to get repaired

SO ... She was charged $100 for code reading/inspection, they DID NOT give her any of the codes, and told her she need to replace the transmission at around $2000. They WOULD NOT answer the phone from our mechanic when he tried multiple times to call (while we were there). Our mechanic finally told us to get out of there, that something was not right. Found an AutoZone in Concord that would read the codes for us. The code came up Solenoid error just as we expected.

Just so you know she got the solenoid fixed for around $200 and the car is back to working like it normally does. Not so "honest" in my opinion who tried to scam over $2000 from a college student who is on a limited budget and far...