Family Automotive — Local services in Town of Catskill

Honest. Fair. Considerate. I drive 45 minutes to Leeds after hearing similar experiences my many sisters and father.

In my experience, such attributes may often be difficult to come by, but the family has been raving about it, so when I had the chance to see for myself, off I went.

I should point out, as I am a small business consultant in technology with a wee bit of a critical eye, I know that fundamentally auto mechanics are one of those industries that bears similarities to the booming technology market: insofar as everyone is an *expert" but at the end of the day consumers have to trust whom they do business with, since it can be so easy to say half truths or use tactics to "pad" the invoice.

So, with that in mind, off u sent. With this situation I had called Ralph (owner) and explained my issue. Right off the bat, the fact that he 5oom the time to listen instead of the usual. "whatta ya need, I dunno come down" .

After I made it down there, Ralph greeted me at the door and immediately came out to take a look.

My issue was small, but I counted three areas where he could have easily overcharged me or just said sure to what I wanted to do.

Instead he gave me the options, the costs, and his opinion.

I don't write reviews usually. But then again, once you find a good mechanic...

Kudos to Ralph and Family Automotive (formerly Father...

Exceptional and Honest Service! Thank you Ralph! I was heading to my daughter wedding upstate on 08/15/2020 and my car started smoking and liquid was all over the engine. We had the car towed to Family Automotive in Leeds, NY on the advised of Gallagher’s towing. The service provided by Ralph V. was exceptionally. He checked my car thoroughly, cleaned all the fluids, check the level, ran it for hours and test drive it and did not find any problem. He advised that the problem did not occur and is probably excess fluids that released due to pressure build up. Now, it is time for the bill, we were expecting a huge bill and he said $70.20. I could not believe it. He is an extremely honest guy; he could have overcharged us since we were two hours from home but he didn’t. We were able to drive the car home, with no incident. Thanks again Ralph, may God continue to bless you and your family and stay safe! Barbara & Lenny M....

We were about 4 miles away from Leeds on 23 when our alternator seized, the fan belt ground itself off, all kinds of warning lights and sounds were flashing and Family Automotive was the closest place open. What good luck for us! We just made it to the shop, it was 1pm on a Saturday and Ralph ever so kindly squeezed us onto his schedule for that day, replaced the alternator and the fan belt and had us back on the road home by 5:30pm. Our regular mechanic would never have done that job so quickly! Even better, we still got to do what we came to do in the area because right next to the shop is a U-haul rental place so if you need a vehicle in a pinch you can pick up a U-haul for the day. This place felt like a magical center of good fortune. But it is really just a family-run business with...