Rayco Auto Service

Don’t go here! They kept telling my husband to go home because the inspection was going to take hours. The first time They told him to come back in 2 hours. 40 mins later they Called him to come back. He took an über back for them to basically tell him to go back home for another couple of hours. He takes an über back and literally they call again 40 mins later! And on top of that they tried to tell him to go home again! Wtf? We already spent 30 $ in über rides on top of that we spent almost 200 $ for their services. You guys need to get it together. We spent money that we shouldn’t have had to spend. My husband had no intention of going home, he was going to wait but they insisted he go home because it was going to take hours. smh.

This is the final review. I had my car brakes checked and changed in Rayco auto last year. The mechanician told me that the front brakes were fine and the rear ones need to be changed. I paid over $ 400 for the rear brakes. Later, I went to another auto shop for the oil change, and the owner told me the front brakes were completely worn out and that was the source of the noise from my car. I had to pay another $ 400 for the front brakes. After this, the noise was gone.
Here is the the problem: I asked Rayco Auto to check where the noise was from and they simply removed a piece of metal which was supposed to protect the power-​steering system; the noise problem was NOT solved because it was created by the worn out front brakes, and my car started to leak soon after they removed the metal!!! Because of Rayco auto, I drove my car without front brakes for several month, and I had to spend over $ 800 to replace brakes separately, and my power-​steering system started to leak and i had to spend a lot money to fix it.
Please be careful before you drive your car to Rayco auto.

Rayco replaced a ruptured brake line on my Honda and in just one day. Additionally, I would say they’re honest – after they found the damaged brake line I asked if we should replace all lines preventatively. «No», they answered.

They haven’t made that much money off keeping my 1990 Toyota Camry in excellent repair, so it can’t be my deep pockets. They are just honest and hardworking and go the extra mile. Rayco makes me feel like Dorothy in OZ; I just click my heels and say there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home. In fact, I live right next door to Rayco and they make me feel like family. I always wanted to be Chinese, anyway…

Horrible customer service on the phone. They act as if they are doing you a favor by just picking up the phone and talking to you. Best to find a company that is actually polite to their potential customers.

I have a honda 2000 with 260k and these guys really know how to take care of my car and give me a lot of useful information. I’ve taken it here for the last few years and couldn’t be happier. They want you to be safe — they’re not into making a fortune off of you. Instead they provide useful feedback instead of pushing their services on you. They’ve saved me money by fixing smaller things in the beginning they know down the road could turn into larger problems. It’s family owned and they’re great !

I can’t say enough positive things about Rayco! The bearing on my drive shaft broke while I was driving and they were able to fix it — and fix it fast and cheap! I had my car towed to the shop after closing and it was ready by 2 the next day. During that time they also fixed my breaks and gave me an oil change!
The breaks on my ML500 have squeaked for about 6 years and I’ve tried to have them fixed 3 times with no luck. When I picked up my benz today — no squeaks!
Thanks, Rayco, for your responsiveness, professionalism, quality and price!

Was about to go to Rayco to get an MD inspection. I called ahead to see if I needed an appointment. The person handling the phones at this place was apparently not capable of politely answering my question that day. The lady I spoke with was… able to convey the information… that I could come in without an appointment, but she sounded so HOSTILE in tone and word choice during our brief conversation that, even though my question was answered and I had a reasonable expectation that Rayco could competently perform the inspection, I changed my mind and went to Beltway Car Care instead. She was not just terse, *customer service person having a bad day* hostile. From the moment she picked up the phone, you’d think I killed her dog or something.

I was new to the area when my engine light came on. I decided to go to Rayco after reading the high reviews here. Plus, I had seen how full their lot always seems to be so I thought they must offer great service.
When I explained to the woman at the front desk what the issue was, she insisted that it must be the 02 sensors because it is the culprit for most cars. Now I had read forums after forums where people with the same make and model as my car said the issue was the mass air flow sensor and wires needed to be cleaned, which was also one of the codes that come up for the engine light. I pointed this out to her and even showed her some printouts of what I had read online. But she was convinced that it was the 02 sensor despite that her conclusion was based on all makes and models, and despite my asking them to replace the mass air flow filter instead, or at least, look at it first, before changing out the 02 sensors. So I agreed, thinking she must know more.
When I went to pick up the car, the light came back on within 5 minutes. When I returned to the shop, she said, oh, the mechanics must not have tightened the cap enough. really?! What cap? And what kind of mechanic doesn’t know to tighten the cap? how about, the problem wasn’t the 02 sensor? They tightened the cap and the wires, and off I go again. This time, the light came back on a day later, so yet again, I returned to the shop. When I returned, instead of looking at the MAF, they decided to replace another sensor, again costing me more money. By the way, they also refused to use the cheaper parts from Pep Boys or other places and would only use manufacturers’ parts, costing me more money. Of course, neither of their sensor replacements worked. I went to another mechanic and explained to him my situation. He looked at the MAF as requested and confirmed the wires were dirty. And he fixed the problem. Now, why couldn’t Rayco just honor my request to even LOOK at the MAF when I asked them to?
During the course of the engine light drama, I had also had asked them to change the oil and asked for synthetic, which is supposed to be good for 5000 miles instead of the 3000. When I picked up my car, the sticker said to return for service in 3K miles. When I asked the same woman at the front desk about it, she said, oh, the mechanic must have made a mistake in what he wrote down but she assured me that they used synthetic. Conveniently enough, one of the mechanics was walking through the lobby and she turned to him and asked, «You used the synthetic for her car, right?» Of course he said yes. That’s peachy. The only problem is, he didn’t see my car, which was parked outside!
This place is dishonest. They discarded my suggestions and went through two sensor replacements needlessly, and probably knowingly. And they probably lied about the oil change too. I don’t know understand the high reviews.

I was very impressed with the service, speed and honest of the owner. Yes the Owner still runs the shop and takes responsibility for the work. I could have gone next door to a «Big Box» repair place but chose the family run place anyway. They did the bare minimum to repair the issue without going over. I was very happy with the service

So at first this place seemed a little difficult to work with — the woman wasn’t sure if she could get me in for a state inspection on a Saturday (necessary because of my Monday to Friday job), she asked me to leave my car for the day (not an option) and said that it would be at least an hour and a half before they could get it in and then another 45 minutes. I explained that I really needed to get it to a tag and title shop (hint, you don’t need to go to the DMV to register your car in the state of Maryland) and she said she would see what she could do.
I left my car at about 8:15am with the hopes that it would be done by noon and wouldn’t you know, she called me at 9am and said it was ready. No extra charges, no extra work needed, didn’t try to rip me off, just a straight inspection for $ 75 (pretty average for the area). I didn’t stay in their waiting room (Caribou is about a 15 minute walk away) but the waiting room isn’t too shabby if you are going to stay.
Overall, pretty good. But, I don’t like it when people seemingly go out of their way to make life more difficult when in reality, it was actually a very simple process.

BACKGROUND: I recently brought my car from my home state and needed to get my plates changed over. Rayco happens to be located right across the street from where I live now. And lo and behold, they offer state inspections! This was great because when it comes to my car and doing any sort of mechanic like things, I get incredibly lazy.
SERVICE: (1^st visit) They open at 7am so that’s a plus. I can drop my car off and continue to work. I took it in for my inspection at 7am and the front desk girl (I’m assuming she’s the daughter) told me it would be ready that afternoon. She actually called me around 10am and said my car was ready for pick up and it passed inspection. There was nothing else I had to do and it was such a relief! I picked it up, paid and was home in less than 5 mins. The BEST mechanic experience EVER! lol
(2^nd visit) With my positive experience, I decided to go in again once I received my plates to have them put on. Where I’m from, we don’t have to put plates in the front so most cars don’t come with that attachment. One of my tail lights was also out, so I figured I could get both done in one fail swoop. On one of my «work from home» days, I stopped by in the afternoon. When I walked in, the daughter and her mother were sitting behind the counter talking. I approached… the daughter looked at me, and turned back around to continue her conversation in their native tongue. I figured it would be rude of ME to interrupt so I waited… and waited… and waited. lol I finally said «Excuse me… I have a question.» The daughter reluctantly turned back toward me and asked how she could help (in perfect English mind you). (She could’ve helped me by asking that 5 minutes ago but I digress…) I finally told her what I needed, she turned towards the mother, said something to her in their native tongue, and then the mother came up to the counter. The mother then asked me «How can I help you?» I was stunned because I JUST went through everything that I needed… in ENGLISH lol
I said, «I just told her everything that I needed done.» She said, «Tell me what you need again.» I told her, «You know what? Nevermind» lol I don’t know what their deal was that day but I was completely over it.
I’ve only been there twice, hence the 3 stars. If Unilocal gave halves, they would only get a 2.5 from me.

Rayco, Rayco, Rayco… tsk, tsk, tsk… oh how you have managed to disappoint. A few months ago, the driver’s side car seat of my SUV broke. Unfortunately for me, this occured in a position that made pedals hard to reach and happened while on an out-​of-​town trip. Not to be outdone by my much taller now-husband’s offer to drive, I put a pillow and blanket behind my back and under my rear then drove the several hours home with suprising success.
The next business day, I raced to Rayco with the request to return my seat to its previous glory. A call came later on indicating not spectacular news: not only would the seat’s motor contraption take ~$ 400 – 600 to fix but finding the part will also be a challenge since the manufacturer no longer produced the block mechanism. Promising to phone junk yards on my behalf, I waited and waited for Rayco to call back. In another day plus, I followed up and was told that their attempts to reach someone at a junk yard were unsuccessful and that I should claim my vehicle right away (Rayco’s lot is small so the store managers are always eager for customers to get vehicles out pronto). Although I was supposed to be charged something like ~$ 50 for the inspection and removal of my carseat to determine if something was stuck in the tracks that kept the seat from moving up, the lovely said husband from paragraph 1 convinced the manager to not charge until work began and we found the part.
Well, not having to drive to work put off our search for the part, but a few weeks later, the part was located used online and bought at a third of the quoted price. My new family is into some serious car tinkering on the side, so I cutenessed my way into getting the car seat’s motor replaced for a handful of smiles and the copious use of the words pretty please. The brave team of husband and brother-​in-​law reportedly spent 15 minutes fixing the seat – 13.5 of which was to drive to the garage and set up the radio to an entertaining station… and 1.5 minutes of which was to plug in the silly little wire that came loose. Ta-​da!
Although this tale has had a happy ending at an inexpensive cost, a very important question remains: are the mechanics at Rayco (a) incompetent in that no one could figure out a loose wire in the malfunctioning of my seat – even if they, supposedly, took out the seat entirely, or (b) greedy in wanting to charge me hundreds of dollars for a moment’s worth of work? Ugggh… either prospect is absolutely disgusting. Not wanting to find out the answer to this question next time that my car ails, looks like I am in the search of a new repair shop.

Really solid service. I took my car (Toyota Prius) around 9am and the repairs were done by 2pm, even with a part needing to be ordered. I appreciated that the woman at the front desk was so honest about what repairs I actually needed and what, in their opinion, I could skip. She definitely wasn’t trying to just make a buck off me. They ended up finding another problem while doing the initial repair and she called me and gave me the labor and part cost very quickly and then it was finished just a few hours later.
My boyfriend dropped his car off when we picked mine up and we had similar service. His was ready early the next morning and they were very upfront about what repairs were needed, how much things would cost, etc. I did not feel like we were being talked into unnecessary repairs and that the management and mechanics were honest with us. I’d definitely recommend Rayco and would go back if something was wrong again.

Honestly some of the other reviews affirm some of my own doubts about this place. I have been to this place twice for oil change. The first time i came because of the decent Unilocal reviews. But, each time I always feel like something was a bit off, like they wanted to charge me for unnecessary services because I seem like a naïve person.
They tried to sell me the damn $ 200 Transmission fluid flush at 4,000 miles after I bought the used car. This is after my father who was a mechanic had fixed everything, updated parts, changed the fluids, before he drove it cross country from Kansas to DC for me.
I also was told by the Lube Center reps in Laurel that previous people who change my oil or Rayco did something off with my oil filter or change. But, I don’t recall the exact details
I also feel like my car has not run as smoothly after the oil change than at other places. Maybe, its The Lube Center or my overall distrust of mechanics and places with the like, but I still can’t shake this feeling that I am being duped.
I will update if things change!

I was not impressed with this place at all. I agree with the other reviews saying that the office people were rude — I felt this was very true.
I paid for the Maryland Inspection on my car, after being told that a diagnostic on my AC (which wasn’t working) would be $ 65. The MD inspection was $ 75, and I was told that, if I got my repairs done at Rayco, I wouldn’t need to pay to reinspect. This all seemed reasonable, and I needed to have the inspection done, so I did.
I failed (as I expected… there is quite a bit wrong with my car) and asked for a quote on repairs. After all, I wanted to save my $ 75. The lady behind the counter somewhat coldly told me that they didn’t have time to give me a quote, but they would call me with one.
3 weeks later, guess what? No quote! So I could go back and pay ANOTHER $ 75 (since I have to get the repairs done in 30 days) or go somewhere else. I feel a little bit like they intentionally waited this long, to get another $ 75. After all, how hard can it be to give me at least a rough estimate on things like a CV joint? Pepboys did it in 20 minutes.

I’m sad to say, I had a really bad experience here. To start from the beginning: I hate auto shops. Let’s face it — I know nothing about cars and so I’m forced to trust my mechanics, and to hope that they are being honest. I went to Rayco just as the DC June humidity was setting in — the A/​C in my car was blowing very hot air, and I was eager to have it fixed before the worst of the summer heat set in.
I dropped my car off at 8:30 AM and was told they would call me to let me know what was up. By 2PM I had heard nothing so I called them, and they told me my car had been ready by 9 AM (why they didn’t call, I’m not sure).
When I showed up at Rayco, they told me my car needed a new compressor, condenser, and heater, and that the parts alone were $ 800+ (this didn’t include labor) and that they didn’t have the parts, and wouldn’t be able to get them for at least two weeks. They told me they had done a search online and discovered these were some very hard to get parts. This all seemed a little odd to me (Two weeks for parts?! I’m not driving, let’s say, a 1973 Mercedes! I drive a pretty popular car that I see on the road all the time.)
So I decided to drive my car up to NJ, to my parents’ trusty and beloved garage. I found out that I had a small part in the A/​C that needed to be replaced and that the car needed coolant. Total cost: $ 250. And now my A/​C is working really well.
When I asked my parents’ mechanic about the condenser and compressor just to confirm that both were in working order, he said both were working very well. In fact, he was surprised to hear me mention these things so he checked it out again and reassured me that none of these parts needed replacement.
So either the folks at Rayco are deeply incompetent or deeply committed to ripping customers off. I’d be willing to assume the first — incompetency — which is bad enough, except for one other thing my mechanic told me: someone had removed the thermostat from the a/​c system. My NJ mechanic tells me that thermostats don’t just fall out, that it would have to actually be removed, and probably by a mechanic, and my NJ mechanic seemed to think that was very fishy. This makes me think that the folks at Rayco are probably a bit sketchy, and I definitely would encourage my fellow Unilocalers to take their cars elsewhere.

Wow! This place is great. I read the reviews before going in and I must say, they deserve the high ratings they get. Dropped my car off with no appointment at 930am, had it back by 330. Service for front brake pads and machine rotors… under $ 230.
I will be back again and again!

Great for oil changes.
BAD if you want clear communication on repairs.
I went in to get a new alternator belt and stablizer links replaced per Rayco’s recommendation when I had my oil change in February. They quoted me prices for the parts and labor, then a mechanic showed me the condition of the parts that needed to be replaced which is great to understand what exactly is happening with your car. The two front stabilizer links looked loose so I agreed to have them replaced. However, he pointed out that the alternator belt looked «fine» and that it did NOT have to be replaced.
What does he do? Replaces the alternator belt without telling me and then charges me for it.
It was my impression that quotes for repairs were made to inform your *decision* as to whether to actually get repairs done. The staff are very friendly and well-​intentioned, but it appears that some of the mechanics English is not very good which leads to expensive misunderstandings.
So, be VERY CAREFUL about documenting the work that will be done and what it costs with the front of the house before you allow them to say «Go» to the mechanics in the back.

Three cheers for independent businesses!!!
My A/​C was on the fritz again. I had it serviced almost a year ago and now all I get from it is a slightly cool breeze. I decided to take my car to Rayco because it is right down the road — about 1 ½ miles. I’ve passed this placed many, many times. While talking to my mailman (he knows everything about the neighborhood and the people) he spoke highly of this place, mainly b/​c of the owner. He told me they were fair and honest.
I dropped my car off around 8:30am and they called me about ½ hour later to tell me what was wrong. At 10:00am I got another call and my car was ready!
My A/​C is back in gear, yay! I’m only $ 100 poorer, but at least my drive to Michigan will be cool and breezy.