R & H Garage

R&H seems to have disappeared some months ago. There’s a new auto repair business in the same space: EMX Garage. Scanwest Autosport will fill the void for Seattle Saab owners looking for an honest, friendly place to have their Scandinavian ride serviced.

They rebuilt my engine on my 2008 STi, and did an open source tune when done. Part of the rebuild was to rebuild the turbo as well. In general, they were friendly people.
Took a lot longer than they quoted. When done, the turbo made weird noises and the boost was inconsistent. They tuned it for hours but basically threw up their hands saying they had no idea what was wrong. Said they inspected the turbo and it was fine.
Finally pulled the turbo myself and it was totally trashed. Put a new turbo on and the car was like new.
Wrote them and told them their rebuilt turbo was total junk and was the problem all along. No response back.
Also, as part of the rebuild, they used different pistons than they quoted, and they scratched the paint on my fender pretty badly.

knowledgeable? Probably.
Customer service: zzzzzzzz…
So I had my 60k done on my forester a couple months ago. I mentioned to them at the same time I needed an oil change. Picked up my car and assuming everything had been done. Noticed as I was driving off, my oil change sticker was still there. Double checked my paper work, and no note of one being done. Called and checked to see if it was done, and it wasn’t. Would have thought they were smart enough to look, and possibly suggest an oil change. More $$$ in their pocket, I guess not. Wasted my time later that day, to get an oil change.
Called on 3 different occasions to setup an appt for my brakes to be serviced, and they said they would call me back with a quote. NEVER called back, on any of the 3 occasions.
Probably won’t be going to these guys again.

I had a boost leak in my WRX and I knew that R&H were getting big in the Subaru community so I took it in for a leak test. I was expected to be told where the leak is coming from and then I would take care of it. Well they found it and fixed it on the spot over about 40 minutes. I was also expecting at least an hour of labor charge, but was only charged the actual time spent. Finally, James spent time showing me exactly what the issue was and telling me how I could fix it myself if it happens again. He also showed me a few projects in their shop and gave advice for some upgrades I’m considering. Nice shop and great guys!

Solid and knowledgeable folks at R&H (Kito Autosport). Their diagnostic service was prompt and thorough on my 100k+ miles Subaru.
Though I’ve opted to not go to them for further work as their pricing is a tad high. They are still «A-​Ok,» to Unilocal’s rating which is what they are.
An example of pricing as the parts they use are marked up at around 2.5x, and a tad more labor than other shops in the greater area. Of course, location has to do with this I’m sure. If I drive 30 miles out of the city, I can get a much lower price and I’m sure very comparable service. So it’s up to you to choose convenience or cost savings…

I’m writing this review separate of the listing under the «Saab Specialist R&H» because they are trying to do a lot more than just Saabs now. R&H recently acquired Kito Auto Sport (or merged, whatevers). Kito has brought over his AWD dyno and lifts into the former storage space. Soon they will be more than just a mechanic shop and will be doing tuning and other performance work. While the equipment is being moved over expect things to take a little bit longer as they get settled in. Fortunately expect the same techs that were at KAS to be here.
If you do own a Saab, however, this has been their specialty for a few decades now. Expect this family run business to be able to diagnose and understand all the joys and pains of owning a Saab. The shop is filled to the brim with spare bits. It’s eerily close to an episode of Hoarders, if you ask me.