Hong’s Auto Center Body Shop & Tire Center

I went in for an oil change and was told my car required a «special oil filter» which was 26 dollars alone. My car is 10 years old and I get oil changes regularly. I have never been told this by anyone. Mr. Hong was also rude and has poor customer service skills. There was also a clanging noise coming from under the hood I asked to be checked. The gentleman who performed the oil change told me it was my engine and would need to be replaced. Upon 2^nd opinion from another mechanic at another shop, I was informed it was the alternator that needed to be replaced. Once this was replaced, I had no additional problems. This gentleman was nice, but if I’d followed his suggestion, I would have incurred a greater expense than that of the cost of an alternator. More than anything, I’m disappointed in Mr. Hong’s attitude and poor customer service, not to mention attempting to overcharge me for an oil filter, as a trusted associate recommended his shop to me. I went it expecting treatment and service nothing like what I received.

Summary: This place is terrible. The people are incompetent. The owner is a liar.
Details: I took my fiancé’s car to the shop 3 weeks ago. There were several things we had him do to the car: change oil, replace radiator hose, replace coolant/​flush radiator, etc. Since the weather has been getting colder, I decided to check the coolant to see what the freezing point was. I found that the coolant was already rusty again even though they had just flushed and replaced it. I also found that the freezing points was roughly 10oF, which isn’t that good. It should be around –40oF.
After discovering this, I was a little annoyed but I called Hong and he said to bring it in and he would fix it for free. I even asked him twice if I would have to pay anything to get it fixed and he said «no».
Today, I drove up the shop and was about to give him the key when he told me it would cost at least $ 60 to fix it. I reminded him of our phone call yesterday and he said that I «must have misunderstood.» After discussing this for 10 min we yelled at each other and I left.
Also, he didn’t know what an antifreeze/​coolant tester was (It tests the freezing point of your coolant). This is a very bad sign. Maybe a random person doesn’t need to know anything about this but a mechanic certainly does.
I just hope they didn’t mess up the other repairs that they performed.

Hong was recommended by a neighbor who always knows the best deals in town.
Hong is a character. .. Jerry Seinfield would love him. Hong says little, puts on his red gloves and evaluates your damage. Have no idea why he uses red gloves but we joke with our friend about them.
Hong doesn’t need a great personality (as some other reviewers who haven’t used him complain) because he is the cheapest price in town and his quality is excellent. He will throw in repair of little dents for $ 60 when he is doing a more major repair.
We have been to Classic Collision in Marietta and Hong. Both are great.
Classic Collision details your car plus does an excellent job of repair. You feel like you have a better than new car. However, these little extra touches cost more.
Hong is less frills and cheaper. If your car’s interior is dirty, you will see a beautiful exterior repair and an unchanged dirty interior. If you are paying out of pocket for the repair, you can pay for your own detail plus have money left over with Hong.
Our cars are luxury vehicles and we recommend both repair shops

The review below is pretty much spot on. I met the owner of the place and the first thing I noticed about him was the computer head-​set he had strapped on over his baseball cap; it gave him the look of someone who worked at the drive-​through of a fast-​food restaurant. There’s no greetings or hellos when you walk in. He’ll most likely be watching the golf channel and surfing the internet looking at pictures of glamor models. When you ask him for a estimate, get ready to battle. For someone you just met, it’s hard to believe he can be as hostile as he is.
The real surprise is the price. I shopped around at a couple of different body shops and his estimate wasn’t one of the cheaper ones. In fact, it was the 2^nd highest estimate I got from the 6 shops I visited. To put this in perspective, 5 of the 6 shops printed out estimates using the exact same body shop computer software and their the invoices looked identical; only Hong’s had the highest price. The only other store with a higher price was the dealer affiliated body shop I went to. But they seemed about 1000% more trust-​worthy than this back-​yard ding factory.

Best Prices in the area. My car broke down in Marietta, over the weekend and AAA recommended Hongs as one of the shops. The tow driver kept insisting to take me to another shop. I later did a price compare found out that the other shops prices were 40% higher than Hongs. Go figure…

This guy (the owner) must do awesome work — because he has absolutely no customer service skills at all.
Went in to get in estimate on some minor body damage (someone damaged my parked car) and I met with the owner. He was rude, abrupt and just plain olé odd.
While in the waiting room — I asked another customer if this was typical behavior. And he chuckled and responded, «Yes. But his prices were so cheap that he just sucked it up and ignored his attitude.»
A co-​worker recommended him — but my take on this type of attitude BEFORE you’ve even touched my car — is that if I have even a minor problem with the quality of your work — you’re not going to be willing to acknowledge or even address it.

I don’t live anywhere near Hong’s Body Shop. I was referred there after an accident down at the airport. With four cars (seems like I’m always wrecking one of them), a good body shop is essential.
Hong’s staff knows there stuff. Not the constant turn-​over you get other places. Pricing is all by the book (you can get it on the internet), so price shopping on body repair is useless – except the dealers will upscope all the time and Hong doesn’t try to do more than what you want or what is needed. I brought my favorite car in (towed in) after it was smashed by a tree and he didn’t try to get me to spend megabucks to fix and old car that insurance isn’t going to give me more than $ 6k as totaled. Pragmatically he said «its totaled» (before the adjuster even saw it). And then he said that I should get a newer car since finding the parts is just going to get more and more difficult.
If I want him to spend all my hard earned cash on a car that has had a good life, he will, but he starts from common sense.
The service side: I haven’t used that part of it. After I painted my 1986 convertible 9 years ago, it was like a new car. It looked great. It was worth doing since I knew I’d drive it another decade.
He isn’t aligned with any insurance company. I have Allstate, and tried Sterling in Decatur. Wasn’t happy with the results. It was mediocre. Oh, and if you want Maaco quality and price, well then go to Maaco. Also it is on the CCT #10 line which run to Arts Center and MARTA. Otherwise have a buddy or Enterprise pick you up. Eleven years of being a loyal customer – and actually I’m not that bad a driver – just unlucky sometimes – and counting.