K C Automotive

I keep having all 5 of my cars over the years to have the safety inspection and oil changes routinely done by KC automotive and they have kept them going, by suggesting appropriate repairs with honest evaluation and no up-sell when car troubles occur and they have helped me run a few of my 15+ year old cars as reliable as ever and end up replacing the cars because of deteriorating plastic interior pieces instead of car reliability.

They do a good job with auto inspections. I will recommend them and use them, again.

Generally impressed, but there were concerns. Pricing moved around as work progressed. I feel the work was somewhat overpriced. Car developed issues immediately upon leaving lot, which indicated the car was not test driven, even though mechanic claimed it was. The new problem was not associated with the work done, it is a new issue. I might use these folks again, but would get competitive bids to check their pricing.

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They were able to diagnose it, corrected it quickly and efficiently. It turned out that the battery was bad. I was surprised that they got to it as fast as they did. I didn't compare prices because, I couldn't drive my car. I drove in and they fixed it. There isn't appointments.

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We have 7 cars and they take care of all of them.

Brought it in without an appointment, out within an hour. Didn't try to upsell.

They are always excellent. They are very honest. They will let you know what needs to be fixed but also give you an idea of what doesn’t need to be fixed now but maybe coming down the road. And if you think something is wrong, they are very good about not necessarily replacing stuff, they’ll let you know that they’re actually good. I went there thinking my brakes were bad and they said, no, they are fine. They’re still at about 60% and the reason you’re hearing the squeaking is you used some non-OEM brakes. So, they weren’t just going to replace the brakes because I thought we should, they were very good about it. I think the price is reasonable.

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The tech spent several days trying to determine the cause of the problem. They then provided a quote to repair. I paid for the troubleshooting and took the vehicle back to the company that had installed a rebuilt motor several years ago to get them to do the work under warranty.
Both KC and John were very fair and did what was requested.

I have been bringing my cars to KC for the past twenty years (or however long it has been since KC took over the place). Even after we moved from Burke over to the Centreville area in 1999 we have continued to bring our cars back to KC for work because you cannot put a price tag on the value of a truly honest, reputable, skilled garage. Name one place you could bring a vehicle to, ask them to run a 60,000 mile check, and have them come back and say, and quot;We couldn't find anything wrong, though you might need a front brake job in another six months or so.and quot; You walk into a Merchant Tire or NTB and ask them for that same inspection and they will come back with $1500 or $2000 of unnecessary work every time. In fact, you go to any of these big-name places for just an oil change and they will come back at you with their and quot;courtesy inspectionand quot; and a hard sell to do $1200 of work you didn't ask for and don't need because there's nothing wrong with the car.
With two teenage children that drive in the house, both my wife and I working, and therefore three cars needed to keep the household running, I cannot tell you what a relief it is to not have to worry about bringing cars over to KC for work and getting scammed. We probably need to bring our cars over for work a total of a dozen or so times a year. That's twelve times a a year I do not have to have my blood pressure raised from arguing with an unscrupulous service manager who thinks every customer just fell off the turnip truck yesterday. How do you dollarize the value of THAT?
I have lost count of the number of times they could have ripped me off but instead did not. I have lost count of the number of times they have discussed cheaper options to work around a problem with an older vehicle that still did not compromise safety or quality. They have even passed on work that they did not feel qualified to do. Example - about eight years back we decided to drop a new tranny into our 2002 Odyssey rather than condemn the vehicle. KC was giving us a second opinion and confirmed the tranny was shot, BTW. Instead of attempting the work themselves, they sent us to a reputable shop over by Merrifield who turned it around in under a week for just about $2000. We kept that Odyssey another six years and got our money's worth on the repair - far cheaper than buying a new car. We trusted KC's recommendation that it was a worthwhile investment to put in a new transmission and they were right, even though they got nothing out of the deal.
As far as quality of service, I don't believe they have ever screwed anything up in any way, shape, or form. All the work is done quickly, and when they tell you the vehicle will be ready by 300P, or 500P, or whenever, it always is. Sometimes sooner. I cannot say enough good things about this business. This is one of a handful of car repair shops I have ever heard of that is honest. Like I said before - you cannot put a price tag on that.

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did a nice job!

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