DO NOT LET YOUR DAUGHTER BRING HER CAR HERE
I am a mechanic and our daughter goes to University here, so we needed someone to take care of our old 328is. I noticed some tranny fluid in the driveway, so had her take it to Horton's where they had serviced her VW earlier. They topped it off and told me they could not find a leak. My daughter then a month or two later told me about some symptoms that are classic of low transmission fluid, like the engine revving but no power to the wheels...so had her take it in again and again check for leaks and check the fluid level. Again, they said it was fine and charged us (of course) for their time. They told us the level was fine, and mysteriously the issue went away for a while.
2 more months later, and now the tranny won't shift into gear, have it towed to Horton's, they again say the fluid is at a normal level and no sign of a problem. Must be my daughter. Then they remove it from the lift and it won't shift into gear. I called them and told them what I wanted them to do and what to look for, having come to the conclusion that they just don't know, and being an experienced transmission specialist (on other types of equip), so they basically do a transmission service at this point and change the filter and look for signs of issues. Very oddly they again state that the transmission fluid level was correct. But of course when they refill it the problem again goes away. No leaks, they say. My daughter has been driving it for a month again with no more issues.
My daughter comes home and parks the car in our driveway, and we now have a puddle of transmission oil about the width of the car that permanently screwed up our new concrete driveway, after spending over $600 on 3 attempts to find a leak, we are now going to find a competent mechanic shop to take it to, and will never come here again. Each time we took it to Horton's they acted like our daughter was just a stupid little girl and that we probably shouldn't trust her telling us how it was acting, with no apology for their attitude when they took it off the lift and it would not shift into gear. (they had offered all kinds of alternatives like maybe she didn't have the key in the ignition ?) Really really bad mechanic shop, they are either
1) incompetent and don't know what a leak looks like (you always look for the clean, wet spot as flowing oil will clean the area it is flowing from)
or
2) dishonest- if the fluid level has been fine each time they looked, then where the heck is all this oil going and what is replacing it? If being replace with engine oil would they not have seen the color change when they just dumped the oil and removed the pan? Maybe they didn't even do what I asked them to do if that's the case?
Oddly the problem goes away for a short time each time it goes in their shop? Perhaps they are covering for the first time they were dishonest with us about 'not needing any oil', and all they did each time was top it off and charge us a ridiculous amount for doing so. Either way,we still have the same problem and I could have bought a good used transmission by now.
Personally I think it's at least a little bit of both, and will be contacting my credit card company as to the charges from the last visit read more