Allen’s Automotive Service

Allen is excellent. Found a short in my car that stumped the dealer.
Kudos, CT

He is still the best!

Allen has been servicing our cars since 2000. Volvo, Audi, Nissan and Ford. He trip checks everything usually at no charge and usually while you wait. He is knowledgeable as a mechanic and worth his weight in gold as a person. Honest, honest, honest. Quick story: we were a bit nervous road tripping our old Volvo with 170,000 miles from Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon and on to Santa Fe, but Allen had been servicing the car and said it was fine for such an adventure. On a lonely stretch in the mountains the Check Engine light came on. Uh-​oh. Allen had given me his cell phone and I called him. He said, «You’re at a high altitude and the oxygen sensor is kicking in from the thin air. It’s fine. Those Volvos are sensitive like that. The light will go off when you head back down.» He was exactly right. Quicker story: when my wife lost her job and was hospitalized without health insurance, Allen did a major repair and said, «Don’t worry. Pay me when you can.» Took us six months but Allen never said anything other than thanking me for being his customer.

I brought my car here when my engine threw a rod on the freeway. The tow truck driver warned me that Allen was not the type of mechanic who could deal with something like a thrown rod, but my roommate was friends with him and assured me he could do it. It was held for several weeks. My insurance company paid the cost with a $ 1000 deductible.
First, Allen said he convinced the insurance company the oil pan flipped due to an accident (as opposed to negligence from the driver) and that secured my insurance coverage.
*The insurance company sent out two investigators who verified it was due to a rock throwing the oil pan off the road and not driver negligence.
Then, Allen accused my insurance company of underpaying him.
*I called the insurance company and they told me they paid him the standard rate, in fact, a little higher than average.
Allen was obsessed with getting me to believe he was doing me a favor by fixing my car, when I was paying him for a service. I am not sure if it is because I am a woman, and we are supposed to fawn over dirty men who are paid to provide a service (and do it poorly at that), or what …
He rebuilt my engine. Six weeks later it fell apart. The new mechanic said it was because something was internally broken inside the motor. We suspect Allen bought a used engine that was faulty, and collected the difference from what my insurance company paid him for a real engine, and what he paid for a bad engine. I am not saying he wanted to put a bad engine in my car, I am saying he didn’t care.
I called Allen asking for a warranty on the engine (which he had promised earlier) and he shouted at me about it until he hung up.
It took 4 weeks, but my insurance company paid for the rebuilt engine with the new mechanic. Allen is just bad.