I took my 1993 4Runner to Greg's the other day because I wanted to sell it to a buddy and make sure it is in good condition. I already knew about worn front wheel bearings causing that unmistakable metallic grinding noise when going faster than 5 mph. The price of 92$ for a general inspection seemed to be pretty steep, but from the list the guy at the counter showed me I figured they would do a thorough job. Being a bit of a grease monkey myself I didn't really want them to fix anything straight away but was merely looking for an expert opinion, mostly because I am not that familiar with the particulars of a big Toyota truck. The list of items to repair I received the next morning was long, all together more than $2500. Going through the items one by one I got a little suspicious. First of all they claimed that I would need a new power steering pump for 620$ and that would be causing the noises I heard. They also diagnosed the loose wheel bearings but obviously didn't consider those to be a big problem, they didn't even show up on the suggested list of repairs. After pointing out the fact that I am well capable of distinguishing between the squealing noise of a power steering pump and metal grinding on metal the guy at the counter told me that their best Toyota expert had taken a look at the car and was sure about the diagnosis. If they'd taken the car just around the block I am sure they'd revise that statement. And if they had checked the power steering fluid reservoir or its return hose they'd probably not recommended the expensive pump replacement but rather reattached the lose hose and refilled the fluid, which fixed the problem within 5 minutes and for less than 5 bucks. Interestingly none of the fluids where checked, neither was the car taken on a test drive, as indicated on the work order sheet. The completely empty cooling fluid obviously didn't cause any concern. Next on the list was a missing fan shroud, which was estimated at 175$. I just bought the part at Autoparts Warehouse for 50$ and was able to install it within 3 minutes, all it took was removing the main cooling hose and 4 sheet metal screws. The next item, a leaking transfer case output seal spreading grease. Guess, what? The power steering reservoir with the lose hose is right on top of the transfer case, and all I could find was power steering oil spilled all over the case. After all this crap I decided to take the car to an independent mechanic, this time checking the online reviews beforehand; something I should have done with Greg's Auto. The guy, No.1 Japanese Auto Repair in Greenwood, fixed the broken wheel bearings for under 300$ and also took a look a the idler arm, which Greg's diagnosed as being loose (330$). Apparently there's minimal slack in the bushing, nothing that needs costly repair. The last item on the list was a break service. According to Greg's, my front pads where down to 3 mm and the back shoes down to 4. I order replacement pads online and had too realize during replacement that there where at least 12 mm of breaks left in the front, and about one cm in the back. So even the suggested break service (495$!!!) was complete bogus. I guess there are two possible explanations here: Either the guys at Greg's did a terrible job during the inspection, in which case the 95$ are a joke, or they deliberately suggested costly but totally unnecessary repairs. Either way, I would never ever take my car back there again. Instead I can only recommend No.1 Japanese Auto repair. The guy is very reliable, fast and competent. He will only repair what needs repairing and not try to screw you. As a matter of fact, the cost for the wheel bearings repair turned out to be less than what he initially estimated, and that is something that has never happened to me before with any other car mechanic. And stay away from Greg's, unless you want to spend a lot of money for nothing. read more

This is for Greg's on Stewart St in Seattle: On September 10, 2010 I took my car in for an inspection for a road trip. The transmission was removed so the rear crank seal could be replaced. At the same time they put in a new oil pan gasket (forget the fact that they had recently replaced the oil pan gasket just five months earlier). They also did a CV boot replacement -- almost $1200 for the total job. After 3000 miles into my road trip I took the car in to have the oil changed. The people at the oil change place said that there were possible engine oil leak(s) and transmission fluid leak(s). So I'm thinking, "this is in the same area where Greg's just finished working. Something ain't right." Two days after the oil change I'm back in Seattle, call Greg's and was told to bring the car for an inspection. I drop the car off at 9:45 a.m. and hang around downtown. At 1:30 p.m. I have not had a call from the service manager so I walk to the shop. The first thing I notice is that the car is exactly where I parked it this morning. So I hang around in the area, keeping an eye on the car. An hour later I get a call saying that the car has been checked and all is well. I asked the service manager if the car had been put on the rack and was told that it had. When I got my key I was not handed any paperwork to show that an inspection was conducted, just told to bring it back in a week for a follow up inspection. Bottom line -- they said they did an inspection and that was a lie. Never take my car back there again. I have spent almost $4500 at Greg's since April of 2010 and feel like I was taken for a ride. Use this shop at your own peril read more

I do not often find myself writing about a business for any reason, good or bad. But I really must share this experience to help save you money! I brought my Nissan Maxima to them for a intermittent no start condition. The car would start after cranking for 2 - 5 seconds cold, but start right up when warm. It would also refuse to crank at all sometimes. This led me to believe I had two problems. One with the starter or battery and one with something related to fuel. I got the car to start after taking a day off to handle getting it repaired. I drove the 20+ miles to the Lynwood shop where a very friendly staff eagerly listened as I described the conditions. I also asked them to pressure check the cooling system and change the oil as I had noticed the coolant reservoir was low and it was due for an oil change. About an hour after dropping off the car I got a call from Bruce. He said the starter and battery were both bad. I asked him how they had tested both and he said the battery was load tested and while not dead was also not producing enough cranking amps. The starter simply "failed to start the car any longer. He claims it would not start in the shop any longer. I asked if he had checked for voltage at the solenoid. Uh... no the solenoid "is integral to the starter" implying there was no way to change the solenoid without changing the whole starter. ( I wonder then why you can buy only the solenoid ?) This was my first warning that something was amiss here. Yes I know that it is often better to change the whole starter because you have to take the whole unit out to repair it and labor will likely be more than the savings on changing the less expensive solenoid but I would rather have him not tell me that the solenoid is "integral" to the starter which is misleading at best. I then asked him to try starting the car by shorting across the solenoid so we could see what the problem really was. He said he would call back later and let me know. He never did. I called back four hours later to find nothing had still been done. Quite frankly there is also a start inhibit relay that could have been bad but remained untested at this point. No mention of this in our conversation as this would be a cheap fix. Simply plug in a new $20.00 relay and the problem might go away. Instead he told me that a new starter and battery would run (hold on to your wallet here) $630! Are you kidding me? I thought this was a bit expensive so I called the dealership and asked how much to replace a starter and battery. Now you might think that the dealership would be the most expensive place to get anything done, alas it is no longer true. They beat Greg's price by almost $80.00 dollars. Congratulations Greg's you are now the most expensive place you can take a car to get it repaired. I then called two other repair shops that both came in over $200.00 dollars less than Greg's. Last but not least they never changed the oil like I asked, never did the pressure check and failed to call me back in a timely manner so I completely wasted a day off. I finally had to tell him to just push the car out of the shop and I would come get it. Funny thing happened when I got there. The car that wouldn't start for him all day simply cranked over a while and started! In the end I went to the parts store and bought the starter and battery and start inhibit relay. I hired a neighbor friend who is a mechanic to come over and change the stuff out. I paid him $100.00 for the job which took him less than an hour! (he couldn't believe i was willing to pay so much!) I got a battery that is way over capacity, a new starter(not rebuilt) and a new relay all for $230.00 +installation for $100.00 which put me at about half of the cost at Greg's. If they had just been reasonable on their cost I would have happily paid around what the other shops were asking, but 630 bucks? No seriously he really thought someone would pay that much to change the starter and battery! Please read all the complaints here and simply take your business elsewhere! If they can fix your car it will be overpriced. You can do better elsewhere just take the time to find a good shop. I finally did by asking my friends at work. They recommended Superior Auto in Ballard. I checked their yelp and was pleased to find them rated highly, unlike Greg's. The only language Greg's speaks is bankers language which simply put is open your wallet and empty it out! read more

I have a 1999 Nissan Altima that has been a reliable, efficient daily driver and it's been maintained extremely well with about 150K miles on the engine. I'm picky about who works on my car. My car was idling rough and the problem was getting progressibvely worse. I reduced the list of potential problems to a bad intake manifold gasket seal (most likely) or a fuel injector problem (rare). I took care of all the other work to eliminate the other probable causes. I brought the car to Greg's because it was within easy walking distance of my office in downtown Seattle. From the beginnnig, Forrest the service writer was very helpful and polite - but also a no-nonsense kind of guy. He quoted me a price of around $650 for the job, which seems reasonable given the complexity and the labor quote was 5 hours (I was planning on 6-8 hours if I had to do it myself because you have to take the top of the engine off along with accessories). This was about $250 less than what the Nissan dealer quoted. I authorized the work. Got the car back a day later - exactly when promised. Total price was right at $670+tax, but I authorized a couple of additional parts that were worth replacing while they were doing the work. My car now runs smoother than when I bought it with 70K miles on it. Kudos to Forrest and his team at Greg's - I will be back again! They even helped get me track down a guy who could do a full engine swap on an old Ford truck I am restoring. The only thing I'd like to see different is how the diagnostic fee/offer works. In this case I was lucky as I had diagnosed the problem myself, but if not I would have been out $700 had they proceeded with the repair and not ultimately corrected the root problem. But what if I truly needed the diagnostic work done? I'm a strong advocate of waiving diagnostic fees if the shop you are visiting does the actual repair work. If you decide not to give the work to that shop, then you compenssate them for the time by paying the diagnostic fee). I encourage Greg's to figure out a way to spell out diagnostic fees up front - and then include that service in the repair cost since most repairs take far less time than the labor estimates provided for quote purposes. Shops that operate this way get 5 stars from me, and it's a great way to help customers manage the cost of a repair and feel like they are geting great service. No worries - I now know to ask about a diagnostic fee when I revist Greg's in the future. read more

I had my battery replaced here and received a reasonable price and was told my radiator would need to be replaced soon. I was told that this would cost me around $350. When I called back to make an appointment though, I was told it would cost $750. I did not take my car back and went instead to Cmarr Automotive where I paid $300 for parts and labor. I am angry that Greg's attempted to massively overcharge me and disappointed to find the people I spoke with from Greg's to be dishonest. read more

Poor customer service from Service Manager Martin. Dropped my car off today for a simple alignment. Was told work would be completed no problem by 4pm. I left the car for the entire day while at work. Was told I would get a call when service was complete. Did not hear anything so thought they just forgot. Went to pick up the car at 5pm, it was just put on the rack, was told it was going to be another 20 minutest. That was not going to work. I told Martin it would have been nice to get a phone call letting me know about the delay. He said I could take the car and come back another day. When I reminded Martin of his no problem done by 4pm remarks, he says they got tied up with another car, which I said "that is not my problem and does not explain why you did not call letting me know it would be delayed". He then said he did not like my attitude, and that he was giving me two choices to wait till there done or he could give the car back and make another appointment for another day. I told him I am not coming back and I cannot wait another 20 minutes. The car was then taken off the rack and I was given my car back without an apology and the worst customer service I have received in a long time. Not sure if Martin was having an off day, but I will never be back to Greg's Japanese Auto and be sure to tell anyone looking for a mechanic about my bad experience. read more

This place is a scam! I needed a 45K service for my car so I called around for price quotes. I ended up going to Greg's because: 1. it's close to where I live, 2. I've had a power steering flush done there before, and 3. their price quote was reasonable. Though, I should have taken some caution when the quote for the same service was $80 higher the 2nd time I called. I mentioned it to the 2nd guy and he said he would honor the 1st quote I was given by the 1st guy. Anyway, I took my car in, and, of course, a couple hours later I was called and informed that my car needed a whole bunch of other services. I called my dealership, which is inconveniently located in the suburbs (otherwise I would have gone there), and inquired about how often I needed these three services. I was told that 2 of the 3 weren't necessary until 60K. And, the 3rd, a power-steering flush was variable, depending on my driving habits. I looked at my maintenance records and realized that I had one done 1 year and 2 months ago and had driven only 8K since. And, guess who did it? Greg's Japanese Auto! So I called them up to express my disappointment (aka yell at them) and they simply said, they "will delete the recommended power-steering flush" from my file." And, folks, that's how my power-steering magically became clean again. By the way, I eventually took it in to my dealership, and everything looked ok to them; none of the services that Greg's Japanese Auto told me I should do was necessary. read more