Vodie’s Alignment & Brakes

This alignment company went the extra mile to pick up a needed part without additional charge plus saving me a drive! Service was exceptional and pricing was great compared to other establishments. Highly recommend and will come back for future ordeals. Once again thank you Vodies!

I was sent home with a dangerous alignment that I could have crash my car.
I have been tuning BMWs for 20 years, but I can’t afford an alignment machine, so I am here with my BMW M3 with Ohlins Coilovers. If you are an educated consumer, don’t come here.
You might seem as challenging their knowledge, hence the ego issues. SORRY, no pry bar or breaker bar with alignment. You can damage bushings and preload the suspension.
«Don’t come here without improvement in employee and equipment»
PLEASE READ FURTHER. GRAB A SEAT.
Performing a job without the proper tools is not good. Especially using a pry bar on my expensive Ohlins Road & Track Coilovers Suspension.
If you have a high performance car that requires precise wheel alignment, or 4 wheel alignment. OR if you want good customer service that knows how to navigate thru difficult situations without an ego issue. This is NOT the place for you. However I am sure there’s been plenty of satisfied customers.
Allow me to further qualify with my personal situation at Vodies.
My car is an BMW M3 with Ohlins Road & Track coilovers that I go to the track once in awhile.
Track racing alignment and street alignment does not necessarily equate. Street front alignment tend to Toe-​in slightly to have the front wheels go back to straight forward, but it hinders cornering. So toe degrees at Zero is what I prefer, it wanders a little but it’s better if you want the car to rotate or change direction and also helps with tire wear. You want the rear toe-​in a little bit to get power out of corners easier, but toe-​out in the rear is a big NO NO (Yes I was sent home with major toe-​out), you will fishtail when you are on the gas in the corner.
Conflict:
I am sure the owner is a great guy. My issue is not with him.
The «Alignment Expert» as I call this guy.
Mind you, I know every inch and specs of my car and it has non-​factory suspension.
I share with him how the alignment works on the car after he express the problem of performing the alignment. He abruptly says he has 30 years of experience (Another word, just shut-​up I know what I am doing). 30 years and still a low wage employee? Anyhow, I usually walk when I sense these issues, or I don’t hire people for a job when they try too hard to over compensate. Competency comes through without having to boost yourself. This guy get offended so easily due to lack coherent knowledge & confidence that should carry over to one’s social skills. I know, I catch myself doing this too, in my 20s not in your 40s.
The Climax:
He start adjust the rear toe degrees with a pry bar and having a difficult time. My blood pressure was rising. It must be perfom with an adaptor. You attach it to the adjustment cam then you just turn to get the degrees you need.
After I addressed the pry bar issue, he says you should take your car somewhere else.
Backed my car out with alignment incomplete with dangerous toe-​out in the rear. As stated earlier, with the rear toe-​out on the gas in the corner or highway exit or transition. You have a very good chance of the back end swinging forward hitting concrete barriers or worse.
Conclusion:
I had to speak up and would not leave until my car is drivable, especially fixing the toe-​out issue. The owner had more sense. He had his other guy fix the toe-​out issue so I can drive home. Of course I was not charged. I will be back with my BMW tuner down in Irvine to get this done right. It’s expensive and far. But I accept paying more for quality. No free lunch.
Equipment wise, easy fix. What Vodie need are rear wheel slip plates.
How do you perform a fast and correct 4 wheel alignment without rear slip plates. Without
a rear slip plate, you will get suspension preload every time, then you have to push the car back and forth to get the suspension to rest and get a true reading. When the business is busy,
often time there will be no pushing the car to get the suspension to rest. So when you drive off, your alignment will change.
$ 370.00 that will will pay off in 2 days with increased productivity.
$ 65.00 that will payoff in half an hour.
Words to Vodie,
What happened was very unnecessary. We deal with difficulty all the time, but yelling at your customer and having your customer leave with a dangerous issue is a big business faux pas.
Worse, it is unethical.
Yes that’s me at the track.

Wrong move below Hank.
I am at SBTN TV, come talk to me. We don’t do automotive services. But automotive services review soon. Be ethical, there are learning moments in life. You have just disregard that opportunity but double down instead. Such hubris. This can be entertaining.

I was reading the bad reviews and found it quite funny. The Hank Clemmons that I met at the shop was funny, polite, and extremely helpful. He’s never once disrespectful or rude to me or any of the customers that was there at the time I was there. His guys are super nice as well. One in particular is Bill. There’s another gentleman name Scott too that was extremely sweet. All of Hank’s guys are extremely awesome at what they do including Hank himself. I would never go elsewhere to have my car done. I’ve had my bearings fixed, alignment done, lower idle arm fixed and an oil change there. My car runs great now thanx to Vodie!!! Their price are reasonable and their work are spectacular! I honestly would not recommend anywhere else. Go Vodie!!!

Thanks but no thanks, It is already done. I would have taken it elsewhere if it was not going to get done right away.

Terrible customer service ! I dropped my car at 9am ! They told me that should be done around 12pm and I should be back before 1:30pm since they close at 2pm on Saturday today or I won’t have my car until Monday ! I showed up at 130pm, the car had no been done ! I talked to the owner and he was rude (an ass hole) He told me that I am bitchy and go a head to take the car back if I want!
Don’t know how good they are but with that kind of that attitude and rude, I’m done!
So your call if you want to experience that attitude !
Good luck
Wow ! What a liar !
Yell at the mechanic ??? turn on your camera and review
Talk bad with other customerS (only 1 customer left at that time ! BIG LIAR !! Turn on yr camera and review to see how many customer left at that time !!! Also we spoke in Vietnamese and you understood all story didn’t you ??? A big liar !!!
Good luck with all the future customers !!!

I recently came here thinking I needed an alignment from a recent towing out of mud. I though the tow guy may have done some damage when he pulled me out. I think the owner is who helped me, but instead of taking my money and charging me for an alignment he gave my truck a quick inspection (for free) and let me know it’s probably just the caked on mud inside my wheels. Sure enough, after taking it through a pressure washer, the vibrating went away.
Honesty in a mechanic now a days are far and few. Any other place would have likely taken my money and fixed what didn’t need to be fixed. If you’re are looking for an honest place, you have found it. Thanks!

Great customer service and top quality work. Hard to find places that know how to work on older vehicles, 1960’s and earlier, but they know their stuff!

I have a 1995 Oldsmobile, and as you might imagine it is in need of some TLC.
I have brought it into Vodies for the brakes, and Hank worked with me to get the work done, although I am seriously hurting in that department.
No matter what you drive, if you need brakes, alignment or any of the work to keep you safe on the road, I recommend Vodies 100%.

Brought my new 2016 Tacoma to several alignment shops (including a toyota dealership) after I did some suspension work…
All of them told me «the machine doesn’t have the right specs for the new 2016 yet» so we cant do it
Went to Vodie’s the day before thanksgiving. He did it the old fashion way (bubble guage and elbow grease) and got me in and out in no time!
He gets it done quick and right, with no excuse on technology not being «up to date»

Nothing but the best at this place. It was recommended to me by an older guy who said his family and him had been coming here their whole lives. Had been screwed on alignments in the past, but now I know there’s only one place to go if you want quality service. Especially considering the great price!

Brought in 2015 my Silverado crew cab. I’ve been driving all around town from tire place to tire place, dealer to dealer trying to get my alignment done. But no tire shop can fit my truck on their machines. And no dealership will touch my truck due to my level kit.
Decent little alignment shop. Hank hooked me up with a good price, workers were chill and friendly. Only took about 30 min to do the service. Would go back.
I can see how hank comes off as aggressive in the other bad reviews. But they are a good shop. I would recommend them.
Thanks guys.
My only complain would be their hours. Hard to make it own there with my work schedule getting off at 4 when they close at 3 weekdays. And only open Saturday’s. But that’s more my problem than theirs. Would be nice if they were open till 5 or 6 week days tho, to let people like me who work till 4 make it in during the week.

Lowered car friendly. Most shops wont accept my car cuz its too low. Profesional work and the good thing is they know how to handle lowered cars. You can see your car while they are working on it. Not like other shops. Pretty decent price also. Manager is friendly. 70+years in business

I bought a 2004 Volvo wagon on salvaged title for my mother. It was too good of a deal to pass up. I am under the gun to dial in this car for my mom before her school teaching job starts up again and I needed to put new tires on immediately among other things.
After rebuilding the front suspension myself in my garage to fix the wandering I took it in for alignment. Thinking that all the issues with the car were up front. Little did I realize many problems with the rear suspension. After being notified of the camber of drivers rear was a whole degree off, I definitely noticed the obvious deformity and the almost bald tire on the inside of that tire due to camber being WAY off. There is no adjustment for camber on Volvo wagons in the rear, so something was bent from something most likely related to salvaged title. I like to do all of my own mechanical work so I weighed my options… buy used upper/​lower control arms and associated bushings and hardware and install at home… which kept me still stumped because I wasn’t sure if that would completely fix the problem!
So anyways, took the car to hank and pretty much begged for a solution and explained the situation. Him and his crew did what other shops can’t and/​or are unwilling to take on. They tweaked and bent what they needed to with, I’m guessing hydraulic tools and come alongs to get my moms car to track straight and not wear tires! Actually they got the car so close to factory specs I was absolutely floored! The rear driver side rim you could see was riding on the inside of the tire so severe that after it was pointed out it was very obvious to see with the naked eye. This is where 65 years operating the same business in a family really comes into play. Nobody around offers this amount of talent for the reasonable cost which is priceless in my opinion. This is the place to go for regular alignments and more challenging alignments like mine which require frame straightening. The knowledge of old technology and new equipment in their arsenal, really came into play with my repair.
Thanks Hank, you guys really saved me a lot of headache! You have a customer for life now.

This is my first time at Vodie’s and I am very pleased with the work they have done on my car. Something with my left rear tire was wrong so I brought it in to check it out and they knew what the problem was right away! He gave me a good and reasonable price and even checked out some of the other problems as a service. Everyone is friendly and they have really good customer service. I will definitely return if I have other problems with my car!

First i got my nissan truck aliment it was good aline then i bring my chevy van for them to do but they was too busy, i when there another day and still they busy, then i try again but still no go, so the 4 time on saturday i finally got in and they change the tie rod and aline my tire so it would not wear out on one side, all is good i was there watching them and they did a good job, he would tell me bring it in at 7am, now who get up at 7am and bring car in? anyway thing to remember is bring cash with you, you will get a discount with cash. The wait is worth it i have other car will go there again but not on busy day.

If you go over to vodies for a alignment He will give you the best price he can. and all his work its quality. and very friendly and he has pretty good guys that work for him. i took my truck over there and had work done on it. and I am happy with the work that they do. I will recommend friends and family to him.

I am a fleet manager for a hiway construction company and and my wife has a small limousine company.
Vodys does all my fleet work and our limo and our own cars.
I like the quality work and fair prices at Vodys. We have about 30 trucks that we take to vodys, some over 300,000 miles. vodys keeps us on the road safely and great prices.
We moved to Irvine and tried other local shops and found it is worth our time to return to Vodys. I feel comfortable that Hank never upsells me and the work recommended is justified.
They also take care of my motorhome as well.
I forgot to mention I have been going here over 10 years.

Hank will not get another penny out of us.
I run a lighting and electrical business and I have brought several of my work trucks here over the past couple years for alignment and front end suspension work until now Vodies will not be getting anymore of my business. About 6 months ago we put 1500 dollars into the front suspension on a work truck and then about 4 months later we starting to have bouncing around. Well this is called death wobble and its a very serious situation so we brought it back to hank 4 or 5 times for them to keep checking it and billing us for it telling us there is nothing wrong with the sunspension. the 5^th time hank tells me the front rotors are warped and that is causing the death wobble sounded a little bogus for me so I left vodies and had the truck taken to one of our mechanics that does all our routine maintenance and had him check the rotors and the mechanic called me and told me they are completely true and there is nothing wrong with the rotors but both upper ball joints are bad which is causing the shaking and that the previously shop only replaced 1 ball joint out of the 4. So I called hank and he told me to bring it back and he would check the ball joints. I had my mechanic take care of the ball joints and I drove it back to hank and I told him he should do the alignment at no charge being we have had the truck there 5 different times and he billed us for 3 of them telling us there was nothing wrong and Hank then told me he cant do it today because he has money to make. I then tell him well we have money to make also and having it there 5 times to be told there is nothing wrong he were losing money. So what does Hank tell me to go somewhere else and that I will not find anywhere that can do an alignment like them. Im sorry but this is really bad customer service and you would think he would at least take care of us after going there 5 times.
I don’t recommend taking anything to this guy all he cares about is money. Im really surprised about the good comments on this Unilocal page.

Came in with my mom with very high expectations and wasn’t disappointed one bit. Hank Clemmons, the owner, is such an awesome person! He was very straightforward through the whole process, and even recommended to fix my right wheel and pull it back for free. They were very thorough and even took my car out after aligning it to make sure all was done well. The great things about Vodie’s are all true! Definitely worth a try, and I’ll be back!

Want it done right the first time? Vodie’s is the place to go. Had an alignment issue with my Tacoma so first took it to a close alignment shop in HB. They didn’t fix it. Heck they didn’t even test drive it. My dad recommended Vodie’s, and he’s practically a mechanic. Very nice people and fair prices. I will be back no doubt about it. Can you guess what I’m going to write on the first shops Unilocal page? :)
Update ⁵⁄₁₄
Came here for another alignment on a new truck that I recently upgraded the suspension on. They noticed my axle boot ripped open by me not making sure the sway bar was connected properly to the spindle. They called for a price check and went the extra mile by reconnecting my sway bar with a bolt and nut they had in stock. Outstanding service. ’till next time!