This used to be George Beall Automotive. George probably retired because he was a bitter old man with whom few wanted to deal. That being said, he was a GREAT mechanic who serviced my vintage Firebird on more than one occasion.
The new guy looks to be a Persian Armenian guy who took over this shop. The reason it's clean, as others point out, is because the shop is NEW, and just started out. Things get dirtier as time goes bye. My best mechs didn't have clean shops. Whatever though.
I took my old beater van to this place, just to feel out the mech. I always feel out mechs LONG before it's time to potentially take my car there.
I've had my old van for 20 years, and I know everything about the engine. I don't have time or shop space to work on it at this time though, otherwise I'd do most of the work myself. I've done a head gasket replacement on this van before, so I know my way around its engine.
That being said, it's time to have a valve adjustment done on it. Every about 60K miles I need to have the valves adjusted because they tick ever so slightly. The average driver wouldn't notice or care.
I've had the valves adjusted at my usual shop in Tarzana several times. The mechanic retired recently and I've been looking for a new shop. My guy in Tarzana didn't ever BS me. He told me a valve adjustment takes him about 2-2.5 hours and he charges me labor only.
To feel out this mech, I only told him that the engine was making a ticking sound. I played the ignorant game with him. He didn't even approach my car. He said, and I quote: "bro, you don't know what's wrong with this car" (yes, I DO, bro), "so you don't wanna spend $2-3 thousand to fix it". Shocking. Who said I don't know what's wrong with it, and where on EARTH did you come up with the 2-3 thousand dollar number?
I didn't want to start a debate with the guy. It was clear to me he didn't want to work on my old beat-up van. This van has needed a headgasket, valve jobs every 60K miles or so, and only fluids and filters its entire life. The notion of paying 2-3 thousand didn't even cross my mind, and I don't know why he thought of making that statement to me.
I nodded my head and left the shop.
I've taken several of my own and my family's cars to varoius mechanics in the area over the years. Sometimes I have to deal with mechanics ONLY because my ignorant family members have a pre-existing 'relationship' (translation: they randomly took their car to some guy before and that guy made them feel good about leaving their car with him, so they insist on taking their car there again) with. I take the car to the mech, usually knowing ahead of time what the problem is, so that my ignorant (about cars and motors) family members don't get ripped off by the mech. So I know when a mechanic is dishonest.
I would never take my car to Epiq automotive. Generally speaking I wouldn't take my car to a young mechanic, either. You just don't trust a guy who tells you 'you don't want to spend 2-3K to fix it' when he doesn't even know what's wrong with it, and when he hasn't even looked under the hood. Yes, not only do I NOT want to spend 2-3K to do a valve adjustment on my old van, but if any legit repair bill on this car exceeded about $700, I'd sell the van to the junkyard.
Don't let a mechanic tell you anything about your car's problem, or even how much you do or don't want to spend fixing it, without first looking at it. If he hasn't even peeked under the hood, don't let him start talking to you about this and that. read more