THE MECHANIC — Local services in Nashville-Davidson

I had a coolant leak in my vehicle, so I called the shop and spoke to Steve. He was friendly, professional and knowledgeable. He said they will visually inspect for a leak, if they don't visually see one, they can hook it up to pressure test to find it. I pull into the shop, spoke to Steve and decided to wait for them to look at it, Steve was amazing and got me in pretty quickly. Jay, the technician/mechanic who inspected my car for a leak, was rude and condescending throughout the interaction. He kept smirking after I answered a question about the vehicle(Shop Owner; check the security footage). He assured me SEVERAL times it had no leak at all. I was relieved to hear there was no coolant leak for I had a long daily commute for work and needed to know if there was an issue. Steve checked me out, I was charged for coolant and for the mechanic's time. After I paid Steve, he handed me my keys and said to please bring it back if I have any issues.

As I'm walking back to my car from the shop and look under the car I see a CLEARLY visible coolant leak dripping onto the ground. I walk back in and ask if Steve had a moment for me to show him the leak. He was surprised himself. Steve brings Jay back out, we show him the leak, his rude response was "give me your keys". I hand him my keys, he pulls the car around back. Steve assures me he'll take another look at it. Approx 15 minutes later Steve comes out and tells me Jay said it's leaking from the radiator drain release. I said okay, and thanked Steve. He tells me they're pulling my car around front. I walk outside waiting for my car, Jay is driving it up. I ask him about the leak and how it was missed. He immediately gets extremely defensive and talks about liabilities and how he can be at fault if my oil(not coolant) is low. I ask how was it missed. He had no answer and was again condescending and smug with his tone and body language. I said it's ridiculous that a mechanic could miss something so evident and didn't find it with the pressure test either, which he assured me he did. He says "then go inside and complain to them, they're much higher up on the food chain than me", I replied, "I will". He storms away pouting. I walk back inside and told Steve that he's been amazing throughout my experience, but his technician's inability to visually see something so evident and a terrible attitude ontop of it, is why I won't be returning. As I was telling Steve this, another customer spoke up and agreed with me on how Jay acted so unprofessionally.

It was a complete waste of...

My check engine light came on, and being clueless about cars, I initially took my car to Pepboys to have them check it out, thinking that they were the experts and trustworthy. I paid the $108 engine diagnostics fee (it's $120 with a 10% discount coupon), and after waiting for about 4 hrs at Pepboys, I was told I needed all 4 spark plugs replaced, and the purge valve replaced for another $800. My car has only done 20,500 miles in the past 7 years, and I was not prepared to fork out close to $1,000 to get it repaired. Since it was getting late and it was my only car, I asked Pepboys if I could bring it back tomorrow, and they initially said it was best to leave it at the shop, giving me the impression that it was not safe to drive with check engine light on. I received no report, other than a quote for more additional work. I asked if it had another 50 miles, which would at least get me to another shop in the area for a 2nd opinion, and fortunately I was able to get my car to The Mechanic, just down the road from Pepboys. Cameron was very friendly and helpful (despite the phones ringing off the hook), and as they were extremely busy and being close to end of work day, he asked if I could come back the next day. I asked the same question of him that I asked Pepboys, which was if I could safely do a few more miles. He rightly advised that to answer that, he would need to run a computer diagnostics, which he did for free knowing that I already paid Pepboys, and gave me a comprehensive report that showed it was a gas leak, which impacts only my gas efficiency, and nothing major in the engine - I did not need spark plugs replaced, and I could safely drive the car. He explained to find the leak, he would perform a smoke test, and I was ready to do that the next day. I researched the error codes online, and found that the common cause was the gas gasket, which I noticed I did not screw on tightly during a previous fill-up. I tightened it, but the check engine light stayed on, so the smoke test sounded prudent. I was actually 5 minutes away from the shop the next day when I realized I had left my wallet at home, and called to reschedule for the following day. On my way there the following day, the check engine light itself turned off by itself, and I no longer needed the smoke test. I have found The Mechanic to be honest and trustworthy, and I know now who to turn to the next time I have car troubles. Much thanks to Cameron and his crew for giving me...

Their technician THREATENED to drain the gear oil out of my transmission and leave it like so for me to pick up. Now let me explain. This is not about the work and knowledge these guys have. They are great at what they do but i have had a horrible incident with them this morning. Ben is supposedly on vacation in mexico right now so i was not able to deal with him as i did when i brought my vehiclle back after having a clutch installed by them. It was brought back because it was acting funny and ben told me it just needed adjustment or there was a bubble in the lines and needed bleeding. So i drop it off under the impression that whatever they are going to do is going to be warrantied on the clutch. Drop off wednesday morning no word til i call Saturday morning. Yea its ready thats going to be 98 dollars for transmission service. I was NEVER called in regards to changing my gear oil in order to make my clutch work properly. NEVER notified about cost as i believe they are just doing adjustments to clutch. So when i hear that i owe this, i question it. I am a young adult living on my own, paycheck to paycheck in Nashville who just spent $1148 to have a new clutch installed. I do believe they did what they needed to do in order for my clutch to work properly BUT i never gave them authorization to do this work either over the phone nor a signature on an invoice. Again i am unable to afford this right now as i thought this was going to be warranty work. So this sparked a heated exchange of words and he said well if your not going to pay for it we can put your old gear oil back in. I told him that makes no sense unless you kept my old gear oil seperate from all the other oil you recycle. He didnt like that so he THREATENED to drain my gear oil and i could pick it up like so! It got very unprofessional very quick. They did not want to accept that fact that they messed up by not calling me and saying hey we need to change the gear oil and give me a quote. If they wouldve done so i would have declined as i cannot afford this right now. I picked up my vehicle everything good i didnt have to pay but it was not a very pleasant morning. I hope they learned their lesson that not everyone has money to just hand out. I work in a very busy tire shop touching 40 vehicles a day. When something comes up that they didn't come in for, they are contacted immediately as...