I had a flat about a week ago. Dropped by this location and they fixed me up super fast! Cost was about $12, which I thought was very fair. Kudos!

went in with a coupon for a tire rotation and oil change.. I'm new to this side of town, and don't have a favorite oil change/tire place yet.. they said it'd take an hour.. whatever, walked down the street for a sandwich.. which was fantastic.

I ate.. went to Office Depot.. Michael's.. Pep Boys.. finally they called me to tell me they were done checking out the car (??? no wonder my oil change took over an hour).. They wanted to install a new master cylinder, replace u-joints, flush and replace every fluid in the car.. I kept saying "no" as he rattled down the list.. the whole time thinking this was just the price I was paying for using a coupon. The cost for all their recommended services would have been more than $1,100..

Then the zinger.. which was the cheapest item on his list, but annoyed me the most.. he said the oil cap was stripped..
"You mean the little plastic cap on top of the engine?"
-- 'Yes, it's stripped and needs to be replaced. It's $10'
"Actually, I'm at PepBoys across the street, they're $5 here.. should I pick one up?"
-- 'No, our guys can get it.. it's $10'
"Hm, no thanks.. please put the old one back on"

I picked up my car.. popped the hood.. nothing wrong with the oil cap.
I'm sure some of the recommended services might help my beater with $200k miles live a little longer.. but the hard sell is really annoying. Definitely will not return.. even with a coupon.

I still take my car out to Ed Little Auto Service in Culver City.. one of the most honest and reliable mechanic shops I've come across.. that's the type of loyal customer I am.. and these guys blew it with the hard sell.

I had a bad experience there before but since they had usually been reasonable I let it slide. This time I had the previous bad experience validated. When you go in, be ready for a hustle, they will try to make a $25 oil change turn into a $250 job. Be ready for it. I paid for a tire rotation and noticed the next day while putting gas in the car that the front right wheel was in the same position as before. What else did they charge me for and not do? It's too bad because it's in a convenient location but now I'm going to have to look for another garage. For a few bucks they screwed themselves out of thousands in legitimate work. Hope it was worth it.

The guy there kept asking me to have this work done and that work done when I just wanted tires.
Felt like he was making up things to fix in order to charge more...
I guess thats what mechanics do

The work, from what I can see, seems good.

But the overall service was spotty. They were an hour and fifteen late. They said they were going to try to get it early because I was waiting nearby, but by the time I got back the guy behind the desk had forgotten me. I was on time. Then they didn't warn me it was going to be another hour. (This let me discover how uncomfortable the waiting area chairs are.)

While I was waiting, I heard a lot of other people come in. The folks behind the desk were definitely into upselling. Beware of that. They tried to sell me on a radiator flush, which just shouldn't be necessary a month after I got a new radiator.

To their credit, they knocked a bit off the bill because they were late. (And they gave me a light-up pen -- lucky me.) But how come there was so much give in the bill to begin with? I get the feeling I was overcharged.