Chandler & Son’s Automotive

I have relied on Chandler & Son’s for two years now. I have dealt with many local car service centers from formal dealerships to crusty mom-​and-​pop-​owned locales, and every time I need to ensure accuracy and integrity on the part of those other places, I find Chandler & Son’s to be my counter-​check. They are ASE-​Certified (meaning everyone, not just one guy on vacation the week you bring your car in for repair). There is not much in amenities, but the quality of character makes this repair shop stand out. If I’m in a time-​crunch, Nate makes it happen. If I need a hand with something, Mike steps it up. The only challenge here is the cigarette smoke. I have not experienced bad attitude or condescension at Chandler & Son’s and my questions and shrewdness are humored with good spirit. It is always pleasant obtaining help from this place, and the conversations are fascinating.

We have an older GMC Envoy that we were sure we were either going to have to put a lot of work (and money) into or sell. We were referred to Chandler & Son’s by a few acquaintances. We took it in and they were honest about that work that needed to be done. We decided to have it done and they stayed exactly to their quote (even when they realized they needed another part!). Our truck is running perfectly again and better yet, out 16 year old will get a few years of use out of it! Thank you again. We’ve already been back to get another car inspected and it was done in no time. I will be back again!

I have finally had the chance to leave this message for anyone wanting to use Chandler and sons… only thing I can say about some of these negative reviews is the old adage «you can’t please everyone» and its even harder in this business because sometimes truth hurts when it comes to repair costs and that is what you will get with Chandler and Sons… the truth. They will not BS you and will do good work. If anything they went out of their way to try and make price of repairs lower. I only hope I can find an honest repair shop in my new state as I had with Chandler and Sons.

Mr. Chandler, clearly I made a mistake quoting the cost of the bulbs but could you explain why an estimate of repairs for the amount of $ 1279 and a repair order in the amount of $ 1274 was provided to my daughter? Why does
show a 43% customer satisfaction rating for your business? Why do other Unilocal reviewers give your business low ratings? Why did a former co-​worker have a similar experience as my daughter?

No good customer service and they are liars. They will tell you that a part needs to be replaced and fix even it is not. And if you are a person who trust and let them do the work then they will charge you without doing anything on it because there is nothing wrong with your car. One example I just had an inspection and they rejected it because they say the brakes need to be replaced. I know the brakes are less than a year old and I use the car all the time and know there is no problem with the brakes so they fail me for the inspection thinking my wife would just say yes replace it just to pass the inspection. But i took the car and had the inspection in Koons Toyota a reputable dealer and service. They said there is nothing wrong with brakes and wipers which chandler and sons noted for rejection. Then so I passed the inspection at Koons Toyota.

I have been a customer of chandlers for years. Not ONE time do I feel I have been take advantage of. In two specific cases, they have even talked me OUT of work that I thought needed to be done. These are honest people and I would recommend them. I came to know this business who took his car here after visiting another shop. Other shop wanted to charge for work that chandlers said wasn’t needed. Ant the work he had done, was less than the other shop quoted.

They regularly service my vehicle. When my car’s air conditioning went out, they serviced it. Completely quickly and I have had no problems with that since. I am taking my car there today because of a vibration when braking. I anticipate another good experience.

CAVEAT EMPTOR!!!
A while back, I started to hear the brakes squeal on my Altima, so I swung by here to get an idea of how much I’d be looking to spend on a brake job (I have a car service shop that I regularly go to, but I had just noticed the noise as I was pulling into the 7 – 11 next door). I gave the guy behind the service counter the make, model, and year of my car and, without even looking at my car, he quoted me $ 700-​$ 800!!! My jaw dropped and I started laughing. I said, «Excuse me?» and he stated that the price included all four rotors, pads, and labor. I told him I think I only needed front pads and that’s it. After telling me that I should have the rotors done when the pads are replaced (bullsh*t), the price dropped to just over $ 200 for the front brakes. I then asked what if I brought in pads that I purchased & the price came down to $ 144.
Long story short: I went to my guy (which I should’ve done in the first place), with pads that I’d purchased at Pep Boys, and got them put on for $ 55. I loathed to even give this place one star, but I had to put something there in order to write this review.

I am not sure about these guys either. One the one hand they did do a fabulous job on my 1974 Cadillac Eldorado, which is now running better than it ever has in the almost 10 years I have owned it on the other hand:
— the price turned out to be more than 5 times their initial estimate
— they bit off more than they could chew
— they were not too proactive in calling me up in telling me what went wrong
— the price estimate went up 3 or 4 times in the week or 10 days they had my car
— when the price was at 2.5 times the original estimate and I was panicking they said:
” well, if you don’t want us to do the work, remember the engine is out of your car now, it’s not driveable, so you’ll have to arrange a tow truck to come and get it“
At the time I was just happy to get my car back and to have it running better — but when i tell this story to friends they all tell me I got ripped off. They did do a lot of work, the did need to take the engine out, and they were correcting some crappy work that had been done years ago by someone else — but the whole experience was pretty dreadful.
That’s one of — no — the only — painful part of owning an old car — if you can’t fixc it yourself you have to find somewhere you can really trust — almost 6 years in DC now and I still have not found that place.

I got my safety and emissions inspection done here. They did not even check the tire pressure. When I got the car back, the tire pressure warning light was on and my tire blew while driving to work later that day. I was considering taking them to court for negligence but when I spoke with the owner of the shop, he went on a rant a told me that he’s been to court five times and never lost a case against a customer.
Would definitely not recommend anyone to go here. Also they came up with all sorts issues for my car before they would pass the safety inspection. I will never go back there and would not recommend anyone else to do so either.

My wife and I have been going to this place for several years now and are very happy with them. They’re honest, funny, follow through with what they say, always seem to get you in even last minute and are reasonably priced.
Something very important to me… I’ve never had anything they’ve done go bad and nothing has ever «coincidentally’ gone wrong with my car shortly after bringing it in for work (unfortunately, many of you reading this know exactly what I’m talking about).
Note: You’ll see a lot of RV’s parked out front because they specialize in RV’s, but that’s only one part of their business — they’re good with pretty much any make car (aside from the exotics).