Mountain View Auto & Truck

Buyer beware. Electrical repairs to my car were outsourced to Bobby here, and while Bobby seems to be a nice guy, the repairs did not seem to be done properly, required many visits, cost a lot of money, and in the end was not completed correctly. Here is the timeline:
5÷29÷2013−5÷30÷2013: At some point, Independence Car service down the street sent my car over here to get diagnosed for a short somewhere in the radiator fan system. I got charged 3 hours of labor, and the car that was returned, along with a bundle of wires that had obviously melted by the short in the system. I started to leave the lot and realized that the AC was not working. I bring it back and show it to Independence, and it had the following issues:
Cooling fan relay makes a loud buzzing noise, overheats, and if plugged in, disables the AC. If the cooling fan relay is removed, the cooling fan does not work, and the AC is permanently on and always cold.
I showed it to them, and they said to take it to Bobby to take a look at it, as it was clearly not correctly repaired. He looked at it and said to bring it back on Friday
5÷31÷2013: Bring the car back, left it there all day. Get a call later in the afternoon saying that the fan control module was burned out, and needed to be replaced. Unfortunately he was not able to get the part as it was late in the day, so I should bring it back on Monday when he can work on it.
6÷3÷2013: Bring the car back in, left it there all day. Got charged one hour labor + part. Car when returned exhibited the same issue. Bobby said that he needs to put it up on the lift to be able to further diagnose the issue. Asked to bring it back on Wednesday.
6÷5÷2013: Bring the car back in, left it there all day. Bobby said that he needs another day to lift the dashboard to find another possible short. Left car overnight.
6÷6÷2013: Get a call back saying the car is fine, and that he had run it for an hour without any issue. Got charged for two hours of labor, and the cost of recharging the A/​C (as it apparently was empty, and needed a new valve). I go back to pick up the car, and start to leave the lot. Then realize the AC is not working, and I bring it back in. Exhibits the exact same problem. I then spend two hours waiting around and watching Bobby disassemble the fuse box, diagnosing that the fuse box is bad, and he would find a new one, let me know tomorrow, and to bring it back in.
6÷7÷2013−6÷10÷2013: no call back from Bobby, found another mechanic
6÷11÷2013 — 6÷14÷2013: Other mechanic takes car, diagnoses problems — finds that the following is true:
+ Engine computer may have been damaged by the shorts, replacing that fixed the buzzing issue and the cooling fan system.
+ AC system was shorted, and the thermostat was bypassed by someone, replaced the climate control on dash and thermostat, removing bypass.
+ (the kicker): He had to look in the initial wire repair area done by Bobby, found not only that the wires had started to melt again, but also had another short near that area. And he found a short under the dashboard.
+ Got charged *LESS* than what Bobby charged me in total.
Car repaired, cost twice as much as it should’ve. I should have just taken it to the other mechanic in the first place.

I’ve taken my bf’s car there to repair twice now and both times everything was done perfectly! They are honest, cut to the chase, and don’t try to tell you to fix other things while you’re there like other shops do. And the reason I like a mom and pop stores is because they care, unlike those big corporations. They call right away when the car is done, unlike those big places they wait until it is convenient for them then they call you to pick up your car. Some people might think getting car fixed is expensive and why there are different opinions from other shops is because some just wants to do a quick temporary fix so next time when something gets broken again you have to spend even MORE money on it. So I rather spend a little extra now to get it ALL fixed.
I would definitely recommend them to my family and friends, and if i drove an American car i would bring it to them too!

I drove my car to the shop because it could not pass the smog test so I told the mechanics about the problem, asked them to troubleshoot and give me an idea about what to do next. After the checking, I was told that there was an engine problem. The next thing to try was to change the oil in the engine and replace it with a thicker one. I asked the mechanics to drive my car to a smog check station. My car did not pass the smog test so the mechanics told me that I had to rebuild my car’s engine. The mechanics then told me that the work would have cost around $ 3500, a quantity of money I didn’t really have and I didn’t want to spend (especially for an engine that my main mechanic in another city considered in excellent conditions). I asked one of the mechanics if there was a problem with the exhaust system and he told me that it was fine. I drove my car back home and though for a while. I eventually called three mechanics. Two of them told me the was an engine problem and the last one simply said that I should have changed the catalytic converter. I followed his advice and my car passed the smog check without any problem and by a good margin. The guys at Mountain View Auto & Truck are nice but they do not really instill confidence. The shop is very small and not conveniently located. Beside, they would have taken $ 3500. I fixed my problem elsewhere for $ 250.