The Car Czar

Don’t trust this place because they have a reality TV show. They are a rip off, and when you ARENT satisfied their customer service goes down the garbage until they just blatantly avoid you.

I would highly recommend this place to anyone having car problems. I am a college student who has a 2013 Dodge Dart. I bought it brand new and I am the only person who has driven this car so I would not have to worry about problems. My car completely shut down on me in the middle of the night while I was at the grocery store. I have had nothing but issues getting my car towed to places for me to still be at square one. Not one are they looking at my car as a courtesy but they also took care of me and gave me a ride home. I have never been around so much caring people. The gentleman’s name is Doug.
For being a college student and working I’m sure you can imagine how tight things are and truly how much this is appreciated

Our car broke down and we had it towed to Car Czar. We had it there before because they did a show at my wife’s work and we were happy with their work. So we brought it to them again. Carol is the Service Manager and she was awesome. They ended up not getting the part on time cuz Chrysler sent the wrong part so I had to wait an extra day so they took 10% off the labor cost which allowed me to rent a car for the day. She always called to keep me updated on the car. The price was fair and they did a great job and they were very friendly. Whenever I need work done they will be the first to call.

The Car Czar has always taken care of me. Everyone that I have had help me has seemed straight forward and honest. I have come back three separate times because I trust the work they do and their prices seem reasonable. I will continue to take my car here because I trust their ability and honesty.

Just skip your self some trouble, and don’t go here. Showed up because I had some check engine light codes, and had a hard time starting my car before arriving. Doug himself also greeted me and came out and popped the Hood. He ran a test on my alternator and battery, everything was good. No charge. He got the codes from my dashboard and they were the same codes I knew of. He cleaned my battery and did a really nice job, it had some very noticeable, corrosion. Besides that, everything else was Nothing but stressful from this place. Based on the codes, I got an estimate for work to be done. After that, Doug came in the front door and immediately says he knows what’s wrong with its starting problems. I was kinda confused because it just wasnt starting that day, not any other time. But I said okay, and he stated that my ignition starter switch was failing. So I received my estimate which was around $ 340, and said thank you. He said my car was on and running for me. When I went out to my car he had my key that is strictly for opening my doors only, in the ignition. (One is for my doors, one is for the actual ignition) I’ve Never ever started my car with this key and thought, well yeah there’s my «ignition starter swich problem.» There isn’t one. I don’t even know how my car started with that key, therefore actually possibly creating a ignition starter problem. ANYWAY, I was coming in the next day to get my work done. After checking in, signing papers. The guy at the front desk (by the way who is really rude and almost made me want to leave but I was thinking of my car.) this guy tells me, well let me check this work again. Almost as if he knew it was wrong already, he goes yeah actually this is wrong we were in a hurry and it’s actually going to be around $ 680…yeah.
.WHAT THE? WHAT THE? I LEFT. Save yourself time, money and stress by going somewhere else.

The hubster needed the truck repaired after arriving in CA. Car Czar was recommended so he dropped it off for an estimate. The guy was nice enough and did not charge for the evaluation ~ but WOW the repair is high! He decided to have a second opinion before moving forward.
If we had to say something negative about Car Czar it would be their lot is incredibly small and very difficult to get in and out of.

Note: This happened on 12/​19/​2014 — Wrote this review on 3÷7÷2015 from notes I had taken.
I had a fan belt go out on my Porsche Carrera S. ended up with a dead battery and the motor quit on a bridge over the American River. It was a miserable raining day and I was blocking traffic. People were honking and flipping me off. OOHHHHH SHIIIT … I get out and push the car over to the slow lane. of course blocking it. I called for a tow truck. they all were super busy because of all the accidents. I waited for hours. Finally 2 tow trucks arrive and a Sacramento cop. I jumped into the tow truck that was hoisting my car. I find out that this jerk off was NOT the tow truck I called but the one the cops use. SHHHHHHHHHITTTT! Anyway. this SOB was going to tow my car to the impound yard … I bribed the MF and he dropped my car at the Car Czar. The old gal there is a real bitch. I thought I was in real dire straits and I was going to get shafted in the rear end. but they did the job at a fair price. took a couple of days though.

Thjis is a long review so get a good cup of coffee before you start reading.
Before ever using anyone these days, I always check Unilocal. I love watching The Car Czar on TV but was surprised to see the poor reviews on the site.
I was however in need of a second opinion and the CC did those for free.
When I arrived for my appointment I was surprised that Doug himself helped me out. Now if you have never watched the CC your first impressin of him could be overwhelming as he can come across as very intimidating. I found myself being interrupted as I tried to explain my issues. I wa chastized for stating that I suspected warped rotors and offered a job when I mentioned that I had spent several years in the industry and had a fairly good understanding of cars. What I did not get to explain was that I was coming to an expert because my knowledge was limited. When I was asked where I had worked, I received a sarcastic chuckle.
I asked to have the engine light diagnosed and told them what the code was for and to check the brakes. I had the rear brakes replaced in November and was having issues and after taking the car back to theoriginal repairing establishment I was told that the previous mechanic had been fired for improperly diagnosing vehicles and that all four of my rotors where warped and should have been previousl replaced and now needed front brakes. They had also noted a whole list of other things that thier fired mechanic had missed. Hence the reason for a second opinion. As for the engine light issue, it had been an ongoing problem as I had fixed the code notatins several times yet it continued to reoccur.
What I did not provide Doug was the long list of issues that the previous vendor had provided. I wanted to see what the CC would come back with.
I received a call about two hours after dropping it off stating that they had read the code and needed to now do the diagnostic to figure out the issue. The diagnostic was $ 125. I agreed to go ahead with that but was a little confused wondering when my free diagnostic would kick in. I assumed that the $ 125 diagnositc fee would go towards any needed repairs. They called back again with the final diagnostic and the total cost would be $ 366 which included the $ 125 and the cost of repairs. Before I could ask about the diagnostic fee he went into the list of things they found wrong with the vehicle. Thier list caught about 50% of the items from the other shop but and included additional items that the other shop had missed. When he was done I told him what the other shop had found and asked them to go back and double check for those items. They did and found them to not be bad. A that point I had forgotten about the fee and was just happy for the repairs and the ability to get the car smogged. One of the recommended repairs was to replace the front struts. The previous shop had told me that my tires had cupping wear from the bad tie rod ends. In my 10 years of selling tires, I was taught that cupping was due to bad shocks yet the other shop stated my tshocks where fine. Now Doug has mentioned numerous times that shops will try to sell shocks and not to fall for it as shocks rarely need replacing so I figured if the CC was telling me I needed struts then I must need struts an and the previous tire wear did confirm my suspicions.
The car was ready on time and I was provided with very detailed printed proposals for the work that I still needed to have done. The last shop gave me a chicken scratch estimated estimate. I did not feel presssured to buy the other services. I do now have documentation that the other shop performed a brake job and turned rotors to the point that they were put bac kon my car in an illegal condition and can now go backto get a refund based on the Car Czars findings.
Overall I am on the fence about my experience. The diagnostic really was not free. I can plug a reader into my computer and figure out what the code says and do it in about 5 minutes. I guess that was the free part. The fact that the diagnostic cost was not put towards the cost of the repairs is a bit puzzling as I thought that was industry pratice or at least it was in the «Olden Days» when I worked in the industry. I do feel though that Mr. Car Czar himelf should work on his approach. Dont come off as so intimidating, especially towards women. Some of us do know our stuff and do know what we are talking about. No matter what the technology or how advanced cars have become there will always be the basics of mechanics and most of those don’t really ever change. And by the way, I diagnosed my rotor issued based upon one of your segments one Sunday on brakes. So if you are going to provide advice on tv, you had better expect that your viewers and customers are going to be listening and take that to heart when they come to see you. Dont intimidate them just because they are not as much of an expert as you are. Embrace that they are listening to you. Kudos to Carol.

Yes I went there the other day, my brake lights was staying on, got a quote for 125.00 to fix, then I asked how much labor is ?? 125.00 per hour !!! I declined the service… Went to my other mechanic said it was a rubber spacer for 2.00 said he could not charge me for labor for some thing that took less than 2 minutes to do !!! So I saved 123.00 by going to my mechanic and he was shocked when I showed him they were charging 125.00 for this service, my mechanic just shook his head.

I was very disappointed after taking my car in to get a free diagnostic. This summer my ac stopped working so I took it the Car Czar since he said he had 20 yrs of experience. Ive heard Dog Brauner say the test is less than 5 mins. Well, 6 hrs later I called to chk on my car. I was told by 11 they’ll call me. Took my car in at 9am. Matt said its gonna cost $ 175 to take my car apart to see why the ac isnt working. I declined and picked up my car. With some Google search on the internet with trial and errors, all my car needed was a new fuse. I hear Doug say on TV a lot that its not the fuse. Thank God it was for me this time.

Great deals. Great customer service. Overall happy with the work that was done on my Mazda. Runs just like new. ^_^

**I HAVE NOT HAD MY CAR DIAGNOSED OR REPAIRED YET** This review is solely based on the fact that their website says «No appointments needed, free diagnostics» yet when I show up without an appointment and say «I was looking to see if someone could tell me what needs to be done to fix my car» they say «oh we can’t look at it until monday (and it’s friday) and pulls out a schedule and want to book me for next week. That is the opposite of what you advertise… If you say «No appointments» for a free diagnostic then that’s what I expect. I do not know if I will show up to my appointment.

Let me start by saying, after watching the car zar on tv for years my father was very excited to take his truck into the shop here.
My fathers truck is new. In BRAND NEW condition. Not one thing wrong with it, not one sound, nothing.
After he took his truck in for a tune up and oil change, THEY FORGOT TO REPLACE THE OIL. So my father trusting the work didn’t look until the motor starting making a horrible sound. EMPTY!!! Lol wonder who could have been so busy to have forgot to replace the oil. Hmmmm.
So they agreed to take it back in and take a look. They THEN over flowed his tranny fluid and blew the seals on the tranny!!! Now they won’t replace the seals. Fine. RIP OFF OLD PEOPLE!!! You are getting a bad review now!
i hope no one goes here!!!
You charged my father SO much for this work least you could have done is refund his money!!! It’s not like DOUG is hurting for funds lol
DON’T GO HERE!!! They will damage your vehicle and then not fix what they messed up!

They are liars. Lying about free diagnostic and giving $ 900 quote while I fixed my car for $ 120 from another mechanic.

My lady and I have been looking for a used car to buy and took one we like in for a pre-​buy inspection. What they found was several issues, some of which were a big deal. Car Czar informed us the tire tread was too low and illegal to sell in California. The whole underside was painted heavily, even the tires. The engine moved back and forth enough to apply pressure to the hose and hit itself against the frame when driving. The car was listed as $ 5,700 and ended up being a lemon!
Doug was awesome to work with and extremely helpful. We were even offered a free inspection next time we bring in a car. We will definitely return with more business.

In reference to my review of 3÷18÷13: I still think I got ripped off. There were two choices; they could have rebuilt the distributor which would have been labor intensive and parts cheap or what they probably ended up doing which was replacing the distributor with a completely rebuilt distributor which at most, took them 20 minutes of labor to do. So I figure what they did is charge me $ 250 for the rebuilt distrib and then charged $ 300 for the labor they would have done if they had rebuilt the distributor themselves. The cost for replacing a 96 honda distributor should probably been around $ 350, they gave me a discount from their original price of $ 550; so I ended up overpaying about $ 100.
I not surprised to find so many other people are getting ripped off at the Car Czar. I’m never going back.

I thought the Car Czar was sopossed to keep people from being ripped off, I remember watching Doug, Pop into little mom and pop shops and expose them for ripping off customers.
Flash forward to 2014: I take my little brothers car because it’s leaking an «unkown fluid» It started off as a thermostat housing leaking. They quickly dignosed the leak and replaced the gasket. No problem.
2 weeks later I’m leaking another unkown fluid, I take it back to the car czar and they tell me that the rear main seal on the car is leaking, after a little haggling they agreed to stop the leak for $ 650, they performed the fix and put eveything back together. When we went to leave the shift linkage was all screwed up and reverse was drive… back on the rack the car went. and it was fixed free of charge…
Now 3 days later I go out to the garage and suprise it’s leaking again!!! we make another appt and this time I’m told that the back of the valve cover gasket is leaking and the intake manifold gasket, the oil is running down the back of the motor and it ls making it look like the rear main seal is leaking… This time, to fix the problem it’s $ 950…
My problem is, according to the service writer the place it’s leaking is very common to be mis digonosed as rear main leaking and that it will continue to leak until it’s fixed… I just paid these guys to fix a leak and they fixed something that didn’t need fixing, granted the car does have
miles on it but I paid to stop the leak, and it wasn’t like I paid $ 60 to fix it but I paid $ 650 to fix this leak… and now I’m being told that The car is leaking from somewhere else…
This is a case something the car czar would have busted 10 – 15 years ago and now is practicing the same type of scam… They didn’t offer to refund me for fixing something that didn’t need to be fixed, they didn’t offer me a deal on the new gaskets… This place is a scam and I pray someone actually reads this… how dare you rip off people around christmas.
Disgruntled customer
Eddie Cook

This was a very big let down for us. We loved the Car Czar show but after this experience I don’t think we will ever go back to his shop. My husband knows cars and has been working on vehicles for years. Prior to him bringing the truck in the shop he checked the computer to see what codes would pop up. He looked up all the info and figured out the issue was the O2 Sensors. He changed the one he could reach but the others were out of his reach and also with him being disabled now hard for him to work on.
So when he dropped the truck off the employee behind the desk mention something about the throttle Sensor may need to be changed. That sensor has nothing to do with what the issue is. It is also a pricey part. The guy said that they do not do any Smog repairs. Clearly they fix cars and smog them. All we wanted was the check engine light to go off which means fixing the problems right?! So my husband was pretty much not happy with being treated like he is clueless about cars and needs other things that the truck does not need.
My husband had to go back and forth to tell let them know that he knows that it is an issue with either the o2 Sensors or the wires to them, he knows about cars, and his code reader works just fine so he knows it is not just popping up random codes. I mean we just bought the thing last month! After all said and done they changed the sensors that were needed to be changed and it was not cheap either!
I have a few minor problems that needs to be taken care of on my car but I think I will look for more reliable shop! I should have checked Unilocal first instead of following the hype.
I highly recommend if you go to this place that you get a second opinion and quote first!

I’m very surprised by the «bad» reviews of this place. My husband and I first started taking our cars to the Car Czar when he had some problems with his Chrysler Sebring and they have also serviced my Honda Accord.
Once with the Sebring the timing belt snapped and caused many other problems. We had it towed there and even though it took much longer than expected since they were busy and parts needed to be ordered, but it still got fixed and at a very reasonable price. They actually gave an extra discount because it took so long.
With my Accord, I just needed a big service/​maintenance check up since it’s 11 years old. They did THE WORKS at a very reasonable price, once again, and explained all work that was done. Seriously my Accord feels just like when I bought it off the lot! They guy told us we could drive it to New York if we wanted after the service it got. LOL
I will say, they know their imported cars a little better than American. And ALWAYS call ahead and try to get an appointment. They are very popular and are usually very busy.

Decided to try this shop because it’s close to home & with Doug being on TV and all, figured if it didn’t work out I could always «Call Curtis» & raise hell if I wanted to. I’m actually really surprised by some of the less than positive reviews I’ve read here. Of course, my daddy taught me how to work on my own car & I’m savvy when it comes to mechanics, so I typically know what I need & know how to ask for it without standing there like an idiot trying to replicate noises in the waiting room. (Thanks, Dad!)
Called at 4:30 on a Thursday & set an appointment for first thing in the morning. Got there at 8:30 & met Dion (sp?). Explained my problem, gave my info & got picked up for work. By 10 a.m. Dion called & we had a brief but meaningful conversation about the diagnosis and the cost of repair, which I found to be fair & reasonable & gave the green light. By 2:15, Dion called & my truck was ready. Picked it up & drove away & immediately knew the work was done to my satisfaction & that I would be writing this review & recommending this shop to friends in the future.
Fair & reasonable.
Cost effective.
Responsive.
Friendly service.
That is all.