Denny’s Automotive Center

Great little 6 bay local repair shop. The guys are fast and inexpensive with a keen eye for ways to save you money. The free shuttle service quick and friendly. OK the waiting area is a little creepy and I do not recommend the free coffee!

If I was allowed to not give a «star», I would. This place is an absolute disaster, and if you read nothing else in this review: do not go! You will save yourself money, frustration, and your car in the long run!
Over a year ago I brought in our car for a check engine light… for the next 14 months I had numerous (expensive) repairs… and the light would pop back on. Each time they would «clear» the error code, and tell me it was nothing to worry about. I was told one of the parts they put into my car would trip this code, but it was okay. Stupidly — I believed them.
We took our car to second shop for an oil change, and asked if he would check out the check engine code. He told us that we had to get a part replaced — the same part that had been replaced 9 months earlier at Denny’s. I was surprised and told him we had just had it replaced, and told him what Denny’s had told us about it tripping the code. We were told that not only did this part look old, rusted, and clogged, but it also looked original to the car… which is *probably* not a sign that this part had ever been replaced (and which cost us well over $ 500).
Staff at Denny’s insisted that the other mechanic’s shop was trying to «back-​stab him»… but it was that mechanic who told us to talk to Denny’s and give them a chance to make things right. This mechanic passed over a job that would have cost us $ 700… the very same mechanic that Denny’s told us was «back stabbing» them.
After a couple of calls later and a serious threat to take Denny’s Automotive to small claims court, they agreed to replace the piece for no charge.
One month after that piece was replaced– the real damage began. The piece they put in was not meant for our car, as a result the check engine light AGAIN came on… we found out that there were multiple problems that occurred after the check engine light came on for that same part that had been replaced; however — our experience with the check engine light made us think that it was a matter of taking it in for that single problem — not the cascade of problems that followed… an oil leak had happened which caused the oil to become dangerously low, the catalytic converter needed to again be replaced, a problem with the coolant led to problems with the radiator, and a couple other minor fixes… with diagnostics and labor the grand total came to… just over $ 1400!
The connecting thread with all of these repairs is that they probably would have been caught long before — but being told over and over and over by Denny’s that the check engine light was nothing to worry about — led us to think there was «nothing to worry about».
I completely feel like they worked to gain our trust; treated me very nicely, and smiled the whole time they were taking advantage of my good faith, and wallet.
I can say I learned a valuable, and expensive lesson here. Some of it was our fault for not going somewhere else sooner; it would have saved so many headaches, stress and frustration… the bottom line was that on numerous occasions Denny’s Automotive had every chance to do the right thing, and chose again and again not to. I certainly hope someone else is able to learn from our experience.