United Auto Repair

The AAA mechanic who helped me get road worthy one late January night recommended this spot, not by name but location, for a tire fix. Nothing else around in Bed-​Stuy was open. He said this shop was open 24 hours. Throbbing FLAT FIX neon signs above the shop made this clear when I arrived.
I arrived around 9:30pm on what was a busy night. I waited behind two other cars for 15 minutes with no way to judge how long they’d take before heading to nearby Alice’s Arbor to get dinner, get out of the cold, and kill time, hoping the wait would subside.
It didn’t. But when I went back I was jacked up in 5 minutes. Other cars then lined up behind me.
«Everybody coming in tonight,» staff said. Like the AAA guy said and science assures: rubber contracting in the low temperature sharply inflates the number of flats. Little holes in the tires become larger ones. Spaces in the seals between tire and wheel can open up and introduce slow leaks.
I was leaking in the back in addition to having been nailed in the front. The front nail was removed and plugged. That was fixed up in minutes, but the rear was not. In the middle of the effort to do so, it was abandoned. «It’s hard and it’s cold and there are other people,» the guy who was working on my car said. «Come back tomorrow.»
5 stars for sure for a $ 10 tire fix at 11pm on a 12 degree night, but I have to dock a point for being sent away with only half my problems sorted, even though I kind of understand why.