Crescent City Automotive

What I love about this place is that they will never charge you for ANYTHING you don’t need. Perfectly honest and have twice charged me nothing for diagnostics that resulted in no repair. Thank you Crescent City Automotive for your honesty and lack of greed.

Horrible experience. Won’t ever go back. Paid for repair they never performed. Not only did they never make the repair, they continued to «stand by» their work even after being confronted about it.

Didn’t get the greatest service in person. Opted for another location to receive my business. Perhaps under stress or under staffed-can’t speak to every experience one might have here, but personally decided to go elsewhere.

What great guys! My car had been making an awful sound for a couple months and no one knew what it was. By recommendation, I decided to swing past one Thursday afternoon. I left my car around 1 and the guys said they would give me a call. They worked hard to make sure they heard what sound I was talking about especially since my car decided not to make it when the mechanic was driving it. They kept me informed and once they discovered the problem they called me with a price and told me to be back by 4:30 to pick it up. The price was great (of course closer to free is always best lol) and to be able to drop off a car at 1 and pick it up only a couple hours later is amazing! I was so excited and going to tell all my friends about the guys at Crescent City Automotive! Friendly, professional and exceptional work. It’s hard to find honest mechanics and I am excited after just moving to Nola that I have some I can trust.

Crescent City Automotive is my new neighborhood mechanic. I’ve been there twice in the 9 mos. for an oil change. Service is prompt, Kevin is super friendly and it’s not a bare-​bones oil change — he checks fluid levels and tire pressure which is great.

In case anyone was reading my review and thought, «well, hey, that’s not fair, just give it a few weeks to get ‘broken in’ and it’ll be fine». Well, it isn’t. Every time I turn left I get a sound that makes me think the akle is going to snap. I see an expensive repair in my future…

Kevin + co at Crescent City, motto: «Nothing that a bit of dishonesty and rudeness can’t fix.»
Brief facts: called yesterday about getting my AC fixed today. Spoke Kevin: bring it in early, we’ll do it in the morning. Brought it in early, dropped it off, spoke Kevin: what’s your number? We’ll have it done this morning. Went for breakfast. Went for coffee. Waited around five and a half hours. Finally walked back over to shop, stuck my head in the door. Spoke Kevin: (dismissing) not even in the door yet, see you in a while. Spoke me: ok, look, I needed it done this morning, can I just have my keys back, please? Spoke Kevin as he handed them back: oh, look (taunting) yours was the next in line.
I understand fixing cars is an uncertain business. Sometimes you have to say «hey, that thing I promised you I could do by this time I can’t swing, sorry.» Two things that seem to escape Kevin and co: (a) you do actually need to say it at some point, and (b) when you say it, don’t be an asshat about it. A call takes thirty seconds. Not being a douche to your customers takes even less time.
I could have stuck around and waited for it to get fixed. But screw ‘em. If surly and entitled is your thing, this is your dream spot. Otherwise, don’t bother.

If only all mechanics were like this. Granted, I’m happy because my car problem was an easy fix, but the staff here are incredibly fair and helpful.
I’d driven down to Nola from Chicago and my headlights went out en route. While I explained the symptoms to a mechanic, he popped a clip back into place, fixing one headlight. No charge, he said. That’s the kind of situation where a crooked mechanic could easily pull the wool over your eyes, but no such thing here.
They replaced the other headlight (which needed a new bulb) in half an hour while I had coffee at the French bakery across the street. And this service from an out-​of-​town walk-​in on what looked like a reasonably busy day. Much appreciated.
Charged me about $ 50 for parts and labor, which is very reasonable given that headlights go for $ 20 – 40.
Check ‘em out!

So everyone, this place stole my mini-​van (lovingly named «the pickle ship). No lie, here is the story:
It was the old family van, handed down to me finally. I tried to keep her in the French Qtr but she kept on getting ticketed and towed so we eventually moved her to mid-​city. That’s when she died. With about 190,000 miles on her, and no a/​c, we knew she was a goner. Upon a recommendation, I had her towed to this place. They informed me it was the starter and would cost me at least $ 500 to fix. After much deliberation I decided it wasn’t worth it and asked the owner, Kevin, if I could leave it where he parked it, on Valence St., for a bit until I might be able to sell it. It was parked legally, he said it was fine where it was.
I took pictures and put it up on Craigslist but no takers. After about two and a half weeks, I went to get something out of it, and see about donating it, but it was gone. I sat in Kevin’s office for a while, waiting to ask him for an explanation while he loudly berated his dry cleaner, to his face, in front of everyone. I think he might have meant to be funny but we all mostly felt awkward. Then he proceeded to bark out orders to his young son, who he was trying to train, who clearly had no interest or clue whatsoever. Finally he got to me and when I asked about my van he said he tried to call me when the police came in, that he had left a message but now it was «out of his hands and the city had it.»
I vigorously searched a lot of towing places, and called even more. The city definitely did NOT have it. And I definitely did not have any message on my phone. Finally I just gave up. 3 months later my parents, the original owners of the van, got a phone call from an unknown towing place that said they had the van. They in turn called me and gave me the information. When I called this towing company located in someplace like Harvey, LA, I got all the information I needed. The employee gave me a description of what was left in the van and I just told him to keep the damn thing.
He kindly requested that I please bring the title and keys by Kevin at Crescent City Automotive at my earliest convenience.
I have since reported the old pickle ship «stolen» but didn’t attempt to put up too much more of a fight, or press charges, as the old van just needs to rest in peace where no one can mess with her. So here is my one argument, my last small but powerful effort to make it known that this guy is not only a jerk socially, but also quite sneaky and underhanded.

I’ll admit, it has been a few months since I was here (before I started Unilocaling) but I still remember their service. It seems like looking for straight car help once your dealer warranty is up is next to impossible, but Crescent City Automotive stands out as a shining beacon in a market that has a reputation of milking money from ignorant customers.
I was having problems keeping my engine up and could tell I was loosing HP, but when I took it to Pep Boys, they wanted to do a whole assortment of work on the car for an obscene amount of money, and call me slow, but I’m pretty sure my brakes have nothing to do with my engine dying at a stop.
A friend recommended Frank at Crescent City Auto and it was so painless. No one wants to have to take a car in, but at least It wasn’t to terrible here. I got a call in three days after dropping it off saying that I could have it in a day for a few hundred less than what pep boys was telling me I needed.
The service was excellent and while my poor Geo Tracker later died or unrelated causes (on Good Friday nonetheless, but I ended up on a train home from Alabama on Easter without any hope of a miraculous resurrection) I plan on taking in any future rides to Crescent City Automotive.

I have only used Crescent City Automotive once, but it was for an issue that I was worried would cost me big $$$.
Crescent City only charged me for what needed to be done, and it appeared to be a fair price… only $ 30!
I plan to use them again soon for our regular oil changes as they claim they can get us in and out quickly.
The only downside is that they are open Monday-​Thursday, but that is a small inconvenice if they do a good job for a decent price.

We’ve used Crescent City several times over the years and have always been treated very fairly.
We recommended them to a friend who ended up having a disupute with them with a missed diagnosis. The owner at Crescent City very fairly settled it to my friend’s satisfaction.
They treat their customers like they want them back.

Since someone just asked, this is the shop that we use for basic repairs on our truck. We’ve used them off and on for a number of years depending on the problem with the vehicle & which car it was. The staff is knowledgeable and friendly to work with. Although really, automotive stuff falls within my partner’s purview as he is a carguy.