Foreign Auto Excellence

If the Unilocal system would allow me to give this foreign auto repair shop 10 stars, I would do so! However, Unilocal currently only allows a maximum of 5 stars, and so, at least for now, 5 stars will have to do!
A few years ago, I managed, through a series of mishaps, to blow the engine on my older Toyota Corolla, which by that time had somewhat over 150,000 miles on it. I tend to purchase cars (usually Toyotas) new, and then try to use them till they literally die, which has usually been at 200k miles or higher. In the case of this particular Toyota Corolla, its engine had a well-​known factory defect peculiar to its year (and a couple of nearby years) of engine manufacture that caused it to burn ever-​increasing amounts of oil from about the 50k mile mark onward, and this meant that I needed to be extremely vigiliant in checking the engine oil level on an almost daily basis, due to the ever-​increasing rate of oil burning. Well, over the years, after the car’s engine had passed the 110k mile mark, I made a mistake a few times and forgot to check the engine oil level before driving, and ended up driving the car with essentially no oil in the engine; this happend not once, but several times! For some odd reason (teehee!!!) this eventually caused the engine to blow up, well, more accurately, it caused some of the moving metal parts of the engine to sieze up!
So, I eventually ended up with a Toyoto Corolla with somewhat over 150k miles on it, a mere baby in terms of Toyota Corolla lifespans, but with a blown engine. I was not ready to give up, since, to me, 150k miles is not a whole lot of miles for a foreign car such as a Toyota. So, I decided to have a rebuilt engine installed in the car, and I started to do some very serious research, both online and in «real life» (you know, like talking to living humans and getting their opinions, etc.), regarding the best foreign auto service shop in the Frederick MD area to choose for doing this rather major piece of work. In the end, after all of my research was complete, I had only one candidate repair shop on my list that had met all of my rather stringent criteria, and this was a shop on Tilco Drive called Foreign Auto Excellence.
So, I called the shop and introduced myself, and explained the problems that my Corolla had suffered, and asked Alan for a quote for replacing the blown engine in my old Toyota Corolla with a high-​quality rebuilt engine. I also, within a day or two of calling, dropped by the shop in person so that I could meet Alan and his staff, and s that I could get a first-​hand sense of the place. Well, I was very impressed with what I saw of the shop, and I was very impressed with Alan and his crew, and in short order Alan gave me a great, and extremely reasonable, pirce quote. And so, a week or two later, on the appointed day, I had my car towed to the shop for the engine swap-​out.
We had agreed in advance that I would leave the car with them for about two weeks (I was in no rush) to allow them time to do the job right, and they replaced the engine and had the car ready well within that agreed time frame. As they worked on the car, Alan and his crew also noticed a few other long-​standing problems with the car that I had been blissfully ignoring for years, including the fact that the heating/​AC fan had, for the previous two years made a lot of noise when it was running, and did not run at full speed. With my permission to «investigate and repair as needed», they investigated and discovered some dead mice, and the remains of a mouse nest, in the fan housing, and so they cleaned out the housng and replaced the fan blade assembly.
During the car’s 2-​week stay with them, and with my encouragement to «look for anything else that might need a bity of fixing» they also found about six other problems with the car of which I had been aware but had been blissfully neglecting over the past four years, and, with my happily-​granted permission, they repaired all of those problems as well. The amount that they charged for all of this happily-​authorized extra work was negligible, and, in the case of each «extra» repair (i.e., the additional repairs that were above and beyond engine replacement), was well within the telephone estimates that they had given me for each extra item.
BTW, the quality of the rebuilt engine that they installed in my Corolla, and the quality of their work in installing it, was excellent! I say that in hindsight, a few years down the road from the time that the engine was replaced! They did great work!
This an an amazing family-​owned business that delivers only the very highest levels of service and customer satisfaction, and they are also excellent at communication, at meeting deadlines, and at making very reasonable and accurate estimates. And their prices are very reasonable! I will always return to this shop, and only to this shop, for all future maintenance work on my Toyota Corolla!

We were vacationing and stopped in Frederick to visit friends. We discovered an oil leak in our BMW X5 and after a frustrating visit to a BMW dealer who fixed nothing but took my money, Alan was recommended by a friend. He immediately found the problem to be a stripped drain plug, ordered the new pan and plug and had them installed the same day so we could resume our trip right on schedule. Awesome service, honest and I can’t recommend them highly enough. If you need honest and capable auto repair, Foreign Auto Excellence, Inc. is the best around!

The best place to take your Subaru… This is an honest family owned company, and they are very easy to work with. I ended up here after several referrals and I will never go anywhere else.

These guys are fantastic. Always great service, super reasonable. We always take our Subaru here. Best mechanics we have worked with. Honest, easy going, and good quality repairs.

I can’t recommend FAE enough. After moving here from Hagerstown, I wanted to find a local shop to do the post-​warranty work on my 2006 Subaru. Unilocal led me to the folks at FAE, and I couldn’t be happier with their work and prices. They’re honest people who don’t try to do unnecessary work and charge you extra money. Trustworthy mechanics are sometimes hard to come by, but FAE definitely fits that bill.

Now that my 2005 Subaru Outback with 115K miles on it is needing a bit more TLC, I’ve been using FAE to take care of everything other than simple, lunch-​hour oil changes. They’ve done a phenomenal job to date on both major and minor repairs and maintenance!
Off the top of my head the work that I’ve had done here includes: front and rear brakes, timing belt, water pump, tires, rear wheel bearings, control arm bushings, and lots of other little stuff.
They’ll both tell you and show you what’s wrong, give an accurate estimate to fix it properly, offer alternatives and workarounds if you want to postpone the fix, etc. Their estimates are on the bottom end of what
suggests can be expected for this area and final costs have consistently (so far) come in below their own estimate.
It is a busy shop, for sure, and it’s always best to schedule an appointment. But on the few occasions where that wasn’t possible for me they still got the job done within 24 hours.
I love my Subaru, and having a place like this to take care of it is just icing on the cake. At this point I can’t imagine going anywhere else… :-)

Alan, Nancy and the folks at FAE are as nice and honest as the day is long. I’ve been going to them for years (through 2 Subarus and 1 Acura). I teld to keep my cars for a long time. They’ll eplain what’s needed, give you an estimate (not a wild guess) and call if if they find something unexpected that will add to the bill. And, FAE will fix you up with a loaner while your wheels are in the shop (reliable but not the lastest model). When Subaru #1 hit 240k Alan said it was time to consider a new car. What mechanic does that? Don’t hesitate to call FAE… they’ll take good care of you.

Having been taken in by several disreputable mechanics in my younger years, I tend to be rather cynical and hard to please when it comes to having my car repaired. And it is this same hard-​to-​impress attitude that has prompted me to recommend Foreign Auto Excellence (FAE), in Frederick. These folks are the best!
I needed a bunch of work done to the engine and cooling system of my Honda Civic and the first quote I received (from another mechanic) was «Probably somewhere around $ 1800.» I then had the car towed to FAE on my brother-in-law’s recommendation and owner Alan and his team were polite, communicative and very thorough in their summary of the work needed and the cost. To make a long story short, I got all the repairs that were needed, none of the bill-​padding work that wasn’t necessary, and the bill was $ 400 less than the first mechanic’s «estimate.»
In the future, I will be taking my Honda exclusively to FAE. They are very honest and their prices are more than fair. One word of caution: their stellar reputation makes FAE a very busy garage, so repairs may take a couple of days longer than other shops.