My experience with Gary was quite awhile ago, probably 15 years or so. He was very nice when I took my car in, even somewhat charming. I did notice he spoke quite unpleasantly to his worker, who looked miserable, and throughout my dealings for that repair was the only one doing any work. I always feel indicators like that speak to a person's general integrity, so although for that repair, I felt a little overcharged, not too much, and the work seemed OK, I did come back for another issue. This time, I called and he said if I came in the next 20 min. he would take a quick look for free before he left. It was very clear about the no-charge part. A diagnosis at that time was $60, and included in the price of the repair if he did the work. So we ran over to his shop, he looked under the hood for about 2 minutes, said let's go for a spin, he drove around equivalent of 2-3 blocks, was very rough with the car, jamming it into gear, etc., and went back to his shop. That was approximately 7 min. Then he spent another 5-10 chatting about his property in Veneta, his house, his dog, etc.; all things about himself. We said ok, thanks and left. There was no real conclusion about the car's problem. I was surprised to get a bill from him for $80.00 in the mail the next week, for diagnosis. I called and reminded him that he's said no charge for that quick look. I got very aggressive and said he would never say that, etc., and made threats if we didn't pay him. I said sorry, if he'd be OK with $20, which seemed more than fair to me, we could both let it go. That was definitely no OK with him. I didn't pay, and got threatening phone calls and a couple letters for more than a year. He's just not a nice person to deal with. I called a few times over the years for a quote on a specific repair out of curiosity and he was always $1-200 more than anyone else. I've also talked to a number of people who had bad experiences with him or knew people who did. Some of this was from other mechanics and parts people. So don't go to Gary.
Gary's Independent Subaru Reviews
My experience with Gary was quite awhile ago, probably 15 years or so. He was very nice when I took my car in, even somewhat charming. I did notice he spoke quite unpleasantly to his worker, who looked miserable, and throughout my dealings for that repair was the only one doing any work. I always feel indicators like that speak to a person's general integrity, so although for that repair, I felt a little overcharged, not too much, and the work seemed OK, I did come back for another issue. This time, I called and he said if I came in the next 20 min. he would take a quick look for free before he left. It was very clear about the no-charge part. A diagnosis at that time was $60, and included in the price of the repair if he did the work. So we ran over to his shop, he looked under the hood for about 2 minutes, said let's go for a spin, he drove around equivalent of 2-3 blocks, was very rough with the car, jamming it into gear, etc., and went back to his shop. That was approximately 7 min. Then he spent another 5-10 chatting about his property in Veneta, his house, his dog, etc.; all things about himself. We said ok, thanks and left. There was no real conclusion about the car's problem. I was surprised to get a bill from him for $80.00 in the mail the next week, for diagnosis. I called and reminded him that he's said no charge for that quick look. I got very aggressive and said he would never say that, etc., and made threats if we didn't pay him. I said sorry, if he'd be OK with $20, which seemed more than fair to me, we could both let it go. That was definitely no OK with him. I didn't pay, and got threatening phone calls and a couple letters for more than a year. He's just not a nice person to deal with. I called a few times over the years for a quote on a specific repair out of curiosity and he was always $1-200 more than anyone else. I've also talked to a number of people who had bad experiences with him or knew people who did. Some of this was from other mechanics and parts people. So don't go to Gary.