South Main Auto Service

Called ahead to discuss options for repair and general price for replacing an exhaust manifold. Spoke with Terry who was very personable on the phone and knowledgeable about the repair, options (replace or sometimes weld) and the price was reasonable compared to two other shops.
Stated I was traveling in to Blacksburg for the day and could I make an appointment — all done, all good.
I show up today, they don’t have the parts but suggested an upsell of a brake clean and inspect. I agree because the back brakes hadn’t been checked out in a few years and ask to have a slow leak in a tire checked. Brian provided an estimate of $ 180, which I haggle on a little, but agree.
Dropped car off at 7am and at 3:30 get call brake inspect turned up bad news: my back brakes need to be machined, one side was worn out completely and the bolts need to be replaced and that the fluid needs to be drained and replaced and the brakes retested. Oh btw the tire leak was a bad valve stem which was replaced — later I find out this would be $ 26!
At 5:30 all is done and the bill is $ 290.
That is one expensive brake job and the original problem still isn’t fixed. Disappointed in this transaction, the day-​long upsell and the day lost on the exhaust problem. I actually think the work was done correctly but the business side of this spoiled the experience.

Had my daughters car inspected there. They failed it cause the headlights had the film on it and wanted to charge me $ 70 to remove it.
Took it over to Firestone in Christiansburg and they said film on the headlights is NOT part of inspection.
Went to the auto store and bought some headlight cleaner for$ 15.00.
This is not the first time they made up prices with me. Will never return!
Firestone in Cburg is great. friendly and does the work right.

I went in because my check engine light was on. I was told they had to run a «diagnostics test» that cost $ 80 to check what was wrong with my car. The check engine light scanner only costs $ 20 on amazon so I would recommend buying that than going to these scammers who overcharge on EVERYTHING.
Also, the reviews on
are fake and is a ploy to bring in more customers to rip off. This company is a shame to a wonderful Blacksburg community.

After writing a review on Unilocal,and emailing them about what happened I was contacted and told that there was a miscommunication on their part. They refunded me $ 25, which brings the price to the original estimate I got over the phone. See original review below:

Ever noticed that auto shops have the weirdest things playing on tv when youre there? Here it always seems to be soap operas … anyways.
Big clean shop, but seems in recent years that they’ve lost some of their best technicians. I’m willing to pay a little more for better service, but as they’ve lost some of these people the quality seems to be going down a bit. And every time they call to tell me the car is ready, they seem to add a lot of «you need this, this is going bad, don’t forget that this is falling off» comments, along with an estimated total to fix.
I’ve started using them for things like annual inspections, and not much else.