UNIVERSITY MOTORS

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I was very pleased with them. I think that they do a good job and they are very professional.

I bought my certified pre owned Honda from University Motors in 2009. They did all the maintenence except for a few things that i did myself with parts bought from them. My main problem with them is that when my car was at 100k they recommended a tune up for approximately $750. part of the tune up was new spark plugs and that would cost $300. I decided to do the plugs myself and they did the rest. A year later when I was out of the country and my wife took the car in they told her that it needed new plugs even though i told the service tech that I would do them and I bought the plugs from their parts dept. She was unable to contact me due to the time difference and so she agreed to do all they recommended. I didn't notice they had done the plugs until recently when i was organizing the glove box and read the service sheet. University motors should have noted in their files that the plugs had been done by the customer and the mechanic should have noticed that the plugs he was replacing looked awful new (approx 15K miles on them) and asked some questions instead of milking the customer, so in my opinion they failed on two counts. When i noticed the problem i approched Tracy Hubbard during my next oil change and he regretted the problem and looked through his files and said it was hard to fix a problem that occured a year before. I asked him to see what he could do and get back to me. He never did and my wife called several weeks later to follow up and that call was not returned. It seems that he was hoping we would go away quietly. If he had offered even a free oil change i would be writing a different review but it seems they are more talk than action.
On a seperate service visit i was also advised my brakes pads were almost gone so i bought pads myself and went home to change them and whoever inspected them was very wrong about their life as they were only half gone, I got 25,000 more miles out of them so if they do your brakes I would recommend that they show you how worn they really are and you will probably save some money.

Easiest buying of a car I have had in 10 years, great place, no pressure, attentive, no pushing to buy.

Went very well. They have fully trained mechanics on hand. They do small repairs to engine rebuilds.

Tim runs a good shop and the group is responsive to the needs of the customers. We have not had problems with our Honda and so have not brought it in there, but they were quick to respond when we have had questions.

The service was fast: I was in and out in an hour, I had no further problems.

Just fine from start to finish. I called on Friday for a Saturday appt and got one easily. I love their Saturday hours. I was there on time and they were ready on time.
I have used this service department for over 6 years and I have never been disappointed. The service is always timely and complete, they don't try to push-sell extra services and their explanations are complete. The work is always done right. Best of all, the personnel are always courteous and welcoming. I would hate to take my Honda anywhere else.

The first part of the story is above.
When University Motors told me that the problem was a leaking head gasket after all, they said they would credit me the $325 for the unnecessary fan and thermostat, and that they would "only" charge $1370 to repair the leaking head gasket. I said "no". I was told that the manager would call me the next day. I thought that meant he would make things right for me. I decided to take a vacation day and make another trip to Missoula so I could speak to him in person. He would not budge on the $1370 I was quoted the day before to fix the head gasket, so I still said, "no". Later that day I checked at the private Honda place. They said they could fix the leaking head gasket for $770. So, University Motors wasn't trying to compensate me at all. They could have offered to do it for $770 and still made a profit. Their goal was really to squeeze more money out of me.
The manager said he could give me a good trade in value on my daughter's car to compensate me. The salesman said, "We're going to do right by you". Yesterday I saw one of the cars in their ad on Craigslist. The best price we were quoted for it with trade-in of my daughter's car was no different than price listed without trade in. They weren't compensating me, they were trying to sell their car, no different than if I hadn't gone through their fiasco.
My complaints:
--University Motors badly misdiagnosed something I came to them for a second opinion about, yet a tire place got it right. Was it an honest mistake (incompetent mechanic) or an attempt to get me to have more repairs done there?
--They emphatically stated that the Honda my daughter brought to them "has a great engine", and that I should get a list of things done on the car, and it would be in great shape. They tried to get me to commit to have it done there while the car was in their shop.
--I trusted their assessment, but had the list of things done elsewhere. It cost me $1500 including the $325 University Motors charged for the thermostat/fan repair.
--University Motors claimed to be compensating me by offering to fix the head gasket for $1370 including a $325 discount which was the cost of the fan and thermostat work. In fact, a local private Honda place could fix the head gasket for $770. University Motors was clearly trying to make more money from the situation.
--I made three totally unnecessary round trips from Whitehall to Missoula because of this, and my daughter and I were both very stressed by it.
--We thought we had a "great little car" after all the repairs. Instead we completely wasted $1500, and lots of time because of University Motors. We had a temporary car that we don't have anymore because we were led to believe that the car was in great shape after the recommended repairs. I sold the other car right before my daughter's started overheating again.
--University Motors made no attempt to make this right. Instead they tried to make more money off of the situation.
--I can't help but wonder if my daughter and I appeared to be naive women they could take advantage of.

I would highly recommend University Motors and will definitely go back. I purchased a used VW that was sold as is/no warranty, We had nothing but problems with it from just a couple days after the purchase. University Motors tried to find the problem and couldn't as well as several others repair shops. We tried everything we could think of but could not keep the car running. They took the car back and got me in to a different much nicer vehicle for next to nothing. Most car dealers I know won't stand behind their products like that when it is sold with no warranty. Toby Hubbard and the crew stood behind their product and took care of me very well. I will definitely go back when it is time for another vehicle. Thanks University Motors

They are excellent. I wouldn't take my cars anywhere else. They have excellent customer service.