Whitedog Auto

I was very impressed that although they were fully booked they made time for my vehicle given that I had never been to them and was very new to Iowa City. I found Whitedog on Angie's List with very high reviews and now I see firsthand why.

.

We go there a lot. They specialize in foreign cars, Subaru and such. I feel a little better about them than some dealers I've been to and a lot better than places like Jiffy Lube. They are more thorough. My experience with Jiffy Lube is that they are always telling you that something else needs to be done. They are always trying to upsell or trying to replace something. Whitedog, generally when they tell me that I need to do something or look at something, I can believe them. They don't try and hard sell, they just do a competent job. As far as pricing, they aren't the guy down the street that will do something for $50, but they are still less than what a dealer is so for the confidence and the work they do I think it is worth the money. I have always been happy with the quality of work, I've never had issues. I've taken cars there off and on for 3 or 4 years. For the most part they have things done when they say they are going to. They are not in the sales mode, they are in the fix your car mode, so I would say they are very professional.

They accepted the job, checked the possible contributing factors, swapped some ignition coils between cylinders, did a road test, told us to drive the car until a check engine came back, then bring the car again. We did, they looked, but car had not recorded any errors and in any case, had been behaving well. For now, I guess whatever they did helped in addition to providing some peace of mind.

Whitedog always provides excellent service. They aren't the cheapest in town, but they do good work and are honest.

They only repair what needs to be repaired. As a woman sometimes people want to fix things that don't need to be fixed. Once they gave me a part that didn't work very well and they worked on it free of charge until it was repaired and they replaced the part.

I bring my Volvo to these guys because they know the cars best out of anyone in Iowa City. They knew that the emergency brake issue is common for this model and generally doesn't cause problems--so they did what they could to make it a little better, and held off on doing the whole job since they knew (1) it was expensive and (2) it isn't strictly necessary for this model. Left the choice up to me, and didn't put me under ANY pressure to make a repair that's not strictly necessary, which I love. Also on this trip, they noted that an oil hose (pressurized) was starting to seep a little bit. With this one they made it clear that they didn't think it was worth changing out yet, but told me it should be replaced in another 3000 miles or 3 months. Now I'd thought about bringing the car in to the local quick-lube for this change, but am glad I didn't. If quick-lube guys had even noticed that hose starting to seep, would they have pressured me into getting it changed now? Probably. Would I have been comfortable with a quick-lube technician doing the job correctly on an import? No. Would I have ended up bringing it to Whitedog anyway? Yes. Better just to bring it to them in the first place them, even with a $40 oil change. And expense is my one hangup with Whitedog. Then again, though I wish Whitedog didn't charge so much (I think they were at $88/hr. for labor on this visit), but in this case at least, you get what you pay for. These are the most reliable, most expert, most honest mechanics I've ever brought my car to. I think that's how it works with mechanics... If you bring it to the $35/hr guys, they're going to feel the need to squeeze as much work out of every job--and chances are they're not going to do top-notch work. You bring it to an $88/hr place, they can just pay attention to what the car really needs... Your only worry is whether they really ARE top-notch mechanics. At Whitedog, they are. I've been taking my 13-year-old car to them for over a year, and I'd feel comfortable driving it across the country tomorrow (well, I'd get that hose replaced first before a long trip!). In my opinion, if you live near Iowa City and have a Volvo, Subaru, or Saab, these are the people to take the car to... Provided of course you have the money.