Hawley’s Bear Alignment Service

Friendly, good, fair estimate and truck returned as promised!

Went back and forth with them over price before I took my car in. Should have just walked away.
They initially were overcharging me for parts by about 200%. They compromised on some of the services (tranny flush) but we couldn’t agree on a fair price for spark plug replacement (they wanted over $ 400…)
I can only assume they performed the services they claimed to do – there’s no real way of checking a radiator and tranny flush. But what I can tell they DID do will be hard for you to believe. But it happened.
After I picked up my car, it was four quarts low on oil. This is in a like-​new car that has never leaked a drip of oil before or since. Four quarts low. As in, I went to check the oil, and there wasn’t enough oil in the block to give me a reading.
Luckily, my engine holds 7 quarts, which is probably the only thing that saved me. Do I believe that Hawley’s Bear intentionally, spitefully drained that oil out of my engine? You bet your ass.
Caveat emptor.

Let me first say that I really want to love this place — its right near my home, the guys are nice and seemingly honest, and they do a lot of work on Jeeps. But man, they make it hard!
The first time i took it to them for a very minor but important repair. They took the car on a Thursday night, and I heard nothing from them until Saturday around noon, when i called to find out what was happening. They then told me that they werent going to be able to get to it until Monday. Ok, I did drop it off with no appointment and they probably were busy. But dudes, maybe a phone call so I know what’s going on and can find another location if i really need the car?
Still, I decided to give them a second chance — I took my car in for an oil leak. I should have known that something was amiss when the guy gave me the estimate with somebody else’s info on it (uh, dude. that’s not my car. not the same model, not the same license plate). then they got my number wrong and couldnt reach me (uh, did i stutter?). when i finally called them, they first quoted me $ 600. I said that seemed rather high, and he hung up and called me back a few minutes later with a final estimate of $ 350. Done! I said — go ahead and fix it! … except that when i went to pick it up, the bill was for $ 600 — they apparently hadnt charged me for labor! can you say AWK-​WARD!!! They admitted their mistake and asked if i could maybe split the labor (uh, no). After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, they gave me the estimated price and i told them i’d come back to make it up to them. but really, if i wanted to feel that awkward, i would just look at pictures from seventh grade or something.
Sorry, Bear 4×4. I tried to love you. I really did.

This place ain’t cheap. But they’re HONEST, and they do good, QUALITY work. What a nice change from your everyday con artist mechanic.
I have had a weird noise coming from my car for YEARS. I know it was the differential. Every mechanic I took it to charged me a few hundred bucks and told me my car was just loud. Finally I took it to Jeff at Hawleys. His philosophy is «the pain of poor quality work lingers long after the joy of a cheap fix,» or something like that.
He told me it was going to be expensive, because after years of sh! tty work the differential was shot and needed to be replaced. He worked hard to find me salvage parts to save me some cash, and he did a great job. For the first time in years my car runs great.
Like I said, its not cheap, but I’d rather pay a big chunk of change to have it done right once than to keep paying a bunch f nimrods to do nothing.