On the 19th of August I took my Ford Territory to Pakenham Automatics and outlined the problem to…read morethe mechanic that the car would jump out of gear and the electrics on the speedo cluster would shut down the speedo. He said they will do a diagnostic check and let me know. The diagnostic check by the Auto Electrician could not find the problem so the manager advised me to purchase a replacement automatic transmission. I did this they installed it took 11 days and finally the manager rang on 30th August to say it was all done and when I asked if it is working okay now, he said yes, they tested it, and the problem was solved. He said, by the way, can you pay the several thousand-dollar bill over the phone now please. I was reluctant without a test drive, and the manager wasn't there when I went to pick the car up. I paid him as he said the auto trans problem was fixed. As soon as I took it out on the road, bang, the new transmission developed exactly the same problem. The manager wasn't there when I went to pick the car up. After leaving this Mexican thief and back home in Adelaide, I finally found an auto transmission/electrician that knew what he was doing. The problem all along was faulty ignition coils and spark plugs causing feedback through the ECM. The Pakenham Automatics manager has lied to everyone about my vehicle saying it arrived on the back of a truck etc he has lied to my solicitor and I am suing him for over $3400 for negligence, lies and incompetence.

From the owner: Automatics Service & Repairs To All Transmissions.read more

Ford had identified a problem with the solenoids and were recommending a complete transmission…read morereplacement for $9k. That's a cost higher than they would give me in trade in value so I came to JL Automatic Transmissions for a second opinion. He gave me two options; replace transmission for $6k or replace solenoids and recondition torque converter for $2.5k. My husband didn't get a good feeling about him so we got a third opinion and that company quoted me $3.5k for the solenoids and torque converter work. I came back to JL Auto based on price. What a mistake. He waited until my transmission was on his workshop floor to push the starting price out to $4.5k and then tell me the torque converter was shot and whilst his subbie would attempt to recondition it if he couldn't and I needed a new one it was a further $2.5k. So all up my costs might push out from the initial $2.5k to more than $6k - more than the cost of a whole new transmission. My mistake was not insisting on a written quote, but when you meet this guy you will understand. The torque converter isn't such an issue. I accept that risk was on me, but we certainly had a open and honest discussion about the increase in the starting price for no apparent reason. However, when I challenged the $4.5k his response was that I should speak to my husband! Yep, in 2023 that was an actual comment. At the time I was angry, now I think it's funny. Bless him..... The next day, following discussions with various men in my life (!), in order to resolve the situation I asked what the firmed up cost of a new transmission would be. John told me to call Ford and get the price myself. When I noted that I wasn't comfortable to do that because the price they would give me and the price they give him would be different he started yelling about not dropping his price and putting my car on a tow truck to send it back to me and hung up on me. So, in summary; this guy is all the cliches of a dodgy mechanic. Dishonourable, misogynistic and unreasonable. Clearly this is going to cost waaaay more than the initial price, but lets see just how much.....to be continued!

Stay away from this place! Took our car in for a "major service" a few weeks ago. When I called up…read moreand asked how much it would cost for a major service they first asked me for some details about the car, then said it would cost between $280 - $300. So I booked it in. When I dropped off the car in the morning there was a young guy working there alone. I told him that I also had a punctured tyre in the boot that I wanted fixed up. The punctured tyre was from the rear-left of the car, and a spare tyre was in its place at the time. He wrote this down and said he would tell the mechanic. He also said the car would be ready on the same day and that they'd give me a call once it's ready so that I can pick it up. It gets to 30mins before they close, and I still haven't heard anything back from them so I decided to give them a call. They tell me that the car's ready to be picked up (so why didn't they call me?). When I show up to get the car they tried to give me a bill of over $500. Obviously I was not impressed considering this was over $200 more than what I was originally told and when I questioned it the mechanic looked again at my bill and said "Oh hang on, we charged you too much labour." So they brought it down to about $450. I asked them why it was so much more expensive then what I was originally told and they said it was because they had to replace the spark plugs with an "expensive type" due to the model of my car. The spark plugs were just under $30 each for 4 of them, so that added just under $120 to the bill. The car's just a standard sedan, why did it need such expensive spark plugs? Not to mention the car hasn't even done 100,000 km yet. Unfortunately I didn't know anything about spark plugs at the time and I'm only now starting to find some answers on the net and realise just how much I was ripped off! Now about the punctured tyre. They didn't even touch the tyre that was in the boot (which was the one I asked to be fixed), but instead they "fixed" the spare tyre that I had on the rear-left of the car. I had been driving on this spare for over 2 months without any issues or air leaking so what exactly did they "fix"? I managed to get this taken off the bill. So that brought it down by about $30. The mechanic also tried to blame the young staff member that I left the car with in the morning by saying "Oh he doesn't really work here." ??? Um.. ok? So who the heck was he and why was he here?! So in the end I paid about $150 more than I was originally told. Otherwise I would have paid about another $100 on top of that. About a week after this, I noticed a light on the dash coming on when I use the brakes. So checked under the hood and found all the brake fluid had spilled all over the engine bay because the lid was not put on properly. Today I rang them up to ask about this and they said they don't change the brake fluid unless it needs it. Same with the coolant, and other fluids, so they didn't change any of that on my car. So what exactly is the point of a "major service"? All I got done was the oil, wipers and filters changed. Oh and the spark plugs just to throw the price up by $130. That's apparently a "major service".

From the owner: All major or minor mechanical repairs on cars to light trucks. Log book servicing, transmissions…read morebrakes, clutch, exhaust & RWC.