Smog Time — Local services in Irvine

SHADY CAR SHOP!!! TERRIBLE SERVICE!! EXTREMELY RUDE!!! DO NOT GO HERE!!!

I hate leaving one star reviews but they don’t even deserve a one star. Didn’t catch his name but the main old guy up front was so rude from the get go. My car passed smog but the next day, I noticed my AC went out completely. I have a 2016 Mercedes which has less than 50,000 miles on it. Called them to see if they can fix it and he blew up on me. He says they have nothing to do with air conditioning and don’t touch anything ac related and just started screaming at me saying they didn’t do anything. He said I need to maintain my car and get my oil changed and service done to my car and they just do smog checks (just got done 2 months ago 🙄). Wait what? Why was he getting so defensive when I wasn’t even calling to blame him? First of all, i take my car in for every service and take my car in to the dealer for all my oil changes. I have never been treated so poorly like that especially from a shop. I get it, I’m a girl in my 30s so I know I’m prone to getting taken advantage of by car shops. But to be treated in this manner was beyond me. I hate dealing with car mechanics because I always feel a little vulnerable since I don’t know much about cars which is why I usually take it to the dealer but man, that guy is terrible!!!! The AC thing could be a coincidence.. will take it to the dealership...

I am a single woman in my 30s. They were seemingly nice my first time here. I unfortunately did not pass the smog but they told me if I fixed the issue within 90 days I could come back for a free retest. They let me know I needed a new catalytic converter and quoted me almost $1900 for them to replace it. My mechanic did it for $1350. Before coming back to smog time, my mechanic confirmed that my car would pass. When I brought it back in, Smog Time gave me a hard time ..telling me that my mechanic put in the wrong catalytic converter. They were checking numbers and saying loudly to each other "it's the wrong one" with flashlights looking into my engine. I reassured them that my mechanic is thorough and wouldn't do that but they continued making a fuss. After 20 min I called my mechanic and asked him and he said he absolutely put the right one in. Once Smog Time heard me on the phone they changed their attitude and showed me a thumbs up that everything was good.

Overall, Smog Time did everything up to standards but made me feel suspicious and lied to. I had to really advocate for myself and felt that they were trying to take advantage of me. It was a...

Sorry for the 1 stop and review, it’s not my style, but I doubt I’ll be using them again.

I was a little behind on my registration and recently had my check engine light go off so I tried for the smog (testing with the maintenance light or check engine light on will auto fail). Came in her with a coupon only to realize the yelp check in offer was a better deal. In and out in 15 minutes. It’s a bare bones operation with 3 tech’s and 1 front office person, 4 chairs, mags and a tiny office. It can’t even be considered a reception area, just a waiting area.

When I say bare bones so is the garage, no posters, no decorations, basically looks like a pop up shop in a way. Front desk is friendly, but tech’s are not.

Service is 1st come 1st serve, even though they take reservations it’s usually not busy. The key is to get in here and get out, once your waiting in line it loses the value. They have other locations. Test Only.

For $20 they’ll do your registration there instead of sending it in and waiting, even though their reporting is electronic, it’s not like the DMV suddenly releases registration unless both...