McCarthy Tire and Automotive Centers

We took our van here to get the «check engine» light looked at. Unfortunately, there is a fee attached — $ 49 if I recall. I really don’t mind paying a fee for service, because they are working, after all. But hooking up a vehicle to a computer of some sort and printing out a report isn’t that hard — after all, there are shops in the relative vicinity that will do it for free (Meineke is one such beast). I’m sure they then hope you will bring it in to have the work done there, but there is no guarantee — they realize it’s just easier at that point.
This is where it gets odd. We dropped the vehicle off, because we had also schedule an inspection, and this is when things go off the rails. They essentially have the vehicle all day. It’s been on the books for a couple of days in advance. And then they tell us we have to come back another day to complete the inspection because they have run out of inspection stickers — the virtual kind — and the government office is closed because it’s a holiday and they can’t order more. Uh, what?
You presumably knew this is a part of your business, that you had at least one such inspection coming up (that would be us) and that the government would be closed, and you didn’t order more? So now we need to come back again? Just a little odd.
There just seems to be a disconnect.
They also offer miles — you know, like frequent flier miles — for work done. That’s actually kind of interesting. But they don’t put it on there permanently. It’s in some sort of note on your account. So each time you go in, you have to remind them to do it, even though they can presumably see it. Again, just one of those little things that makes life more difficult than it needs to be.
All that said, the staff is really nice, the process is just a bit challenging.

Had my car fixed here recently. They did an alignment to figure out if that would solve the problem and did not charge anything for it when it turned out that didn’t work. They had no problem with me finding a replacement part more cheaply elsewhere and charged a fair price for the labor.
Appointments aren’t usually necessary, and wait times are very reasonable. Service is great and very friendly and courteous. I saw police cars being serviced in the shop while I was there, which I assume to be another indicator that they’re a good, honest place to have your car fixed.