French’s Foreign Car Service & Sales

Mr. French went above and beyond the average. He loves his work and it shows. I had neglected some basic services for a while, and was very happy with the price and quality of what he did. He explained what he was doing and why, and did not try to upsell me on extra services. I will go back as long as I have my 10-​year-​old Saab.

I was returning home from a business trip trying to make it home in time for a family birthday party on a Saturday with an ignition that didn’t want to work properly. On my drive in I fortunately contacted French’s and was able to drop my car off for repair. Not only did they stay after business hours for my arrival but made sure I had transportation to retrieve my rental car. In a world where customer service seems to be on the decline, I could not have been more impressed with their care for not only my car but recognizing the impact it had on my life while not having it.

Any Saab owner knows they have specific needs, and since they’re not manufactured anymore, it’s hard to find someone who knows what they’re doing with them. I cannot say enough nice things about French’s. An ice storm set off my alarm about 6 weeks ago, and after three attempts to silence it I finally got it to stop. Several days later the car wouldn’t start; key wouldn’t even turn in the ignition. There began all the problems. I took it somewhere close by in Richardson, to a place that Auto Zone had recommended. They (apparently) tried everything from changing the ignition switch, to messing with the CIM, to checking the relay to the starter, and so on. They jumpstarted the car multiple times (which you’re not supposed to do with Saabs). Long story only marginally shorter, this place kept my car for almost SIX WEEKS with NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT. Every time I called, I got the runaround or some BS story about what they were trying next; and then when I would ask for the guy who was «fixing it», he conveniently wasn’t there. When I left messages, no one ever called back. I asked to have my car ready nearly a week ago I could take it somewhere that could fix it. They said it would be ready by Thursday. Then Friday. Then Saturday. None of those happened.
Yesterday, I finally went down, took my hostage car back and had it towed to French’s in Irving. Within fifteen minutes of arriving, no joke, Tom got it to start, and said «I just cleared the codes and it starts fine». He said he wanted to keep it overnight at least and make sure no other codes came up, and double check to see if there was anything else that needed attention. They called today, told me exactly what was going on, and that it was up to me whether I should do it; because the car ran fine but there were things that would maybe go bad later. I said «do whatever you need to do as preventive medicine, my car is now at the only competent Saab mechanic in the whole area.» I expected to hear from them maybe a day or two later. Within 3 hours? «Your car’s ready». I went and picked it up and drove it home. Six weeks at A1 with nothing; just over 24 hours at French’s and it’s good as new. And I did not walk out of there with an empty wallet either. I will never take it anywhere else, and I also appreciate the honesty, candor and unbelievable knowledge that guy possesses. When you pull into a parking lot and see nothing but Saabs, you can be pretty sure the guy knows what the hell he’s doing.

HONEST and knows what they are doing, They will even show you under your hood and educate if you don’t mind learning about your car

Fantastic work at an astonishing low price. Never in my life have I been quoted a price over the phone for a part and than the mechanic having the integrity to offer me the part for 400 less than quoted days before. I suppose the volatility in part cost fluctuates highly with SAAB, but French’s did the work on my vehicle for a fraction of what I was anticipating and even gave me a break on the labor costs. To top it off, the owner came and picked me up from the rental car place during rush hour traffic. Will come back for all future SAAB repairs!

Very helpful group. My 2005 Saab would not recognize my key and would not start. I do not have a spare key. The 1^st place I called in Fort Worth told me that it would be $ 850 to repair since they had to replace the key and the computer. I had found this place without using Unilocal.After getting the price, I decided to check their reviews on Unilocal.They did not have any reviews. I did a search on Unilocal and found French’s which had great reviews. I talked to Tom French asked him how much it would cost to do the same work. He said that he might not have to replace anything. Over the phone, he told me how to «zero out» the computer and see if it would recognize the key on reboot. I tried it and it WORKED. I went from $ 850 to ZERO to get my car started and running. Guess where I got my spare key??? This place is super!

I have to add my two cents: Tom French is great. I recently had a complex issue with my car and Tom completed the work efficiently and competently.
If you have a Saab in DFW, make sure your mechanic has a proprietary Saab diagnostic tool. Tom is the only one I know of that does. Very knowledgeable about these cars. Highly recommended.

I can’t say enough good things about my experience with this business. As a female, you always worry that auto reapair shops are going to see you as an easy mark an take advantage. Not so here! They accurately diagnosed my problem, found used parts to save money, explained the repair, showed me my worn out parts, did a major repair very fast, and were beyond pleasant. As I was leaving town on business, Charlotte had a taxi waiting at the shop to take me to the airport when I dropped my car off (!!!) and provided a $ 25 taxi voucher as a courtesy. They allowed me to leave my car on their lot a couple of extra days while I was traveling and kept me notified via email as to the status of my repairs. Tom fixed a couple of extra things I didn’t even know about (burnt out license plate bulb, for one) that could have gotten me pulled over, and didn’t charge extra. I needed an emissions test to register my car — they referred me to a good place for that and provided detailed directions. I HOPE I don’t need to go back for awhile, but as my car is quite old (and much beloved) I am sure I will see them again sooner or later and won’t go anywhere else.

When we bought our Saab it had a problem where the heater wouldn’t shut off, and replacement of the heater box was the recommend repair (There’s a long story about how we got ripped off… but I won’t digress). This was going to cost $$$$. Almost as much as we paid for the car. Mr. French worked with us, and was able to rig up a switch to bypass the heater valve for a great price. He spent many hours of his own time figuring out how to do this for us. We now we have A/​C in our car thanks to French’s.