A Hodge Auto Repair

Do not be taken advantage of by this ‘mechanic’. My family was in the middle of a 14 hour road trip vacation when we heard a strange noise coming from our car. When my husband stopped at a rest stop to see if he could visually see something, and couldn’t, we googled nearest mechanics and A Hodge was it. With 2 small children under the age of 3, apparently we were prime targets to these people. We were taken care of promptly by John. Within 20 minutes we were told the car needed a new engine and was unsafe to drive. Would you load your family into a car you were just told was unsafe to drive? We trusted their word and decided that since the vehicle would not be worth putting a new engine in, we would turn it over to the mechanic for ‘salvage’. We verbally agreed the car would be worth $ 225 and our ‘bill’ for the service was $ 82.50. We offered to pay that at that time but were told once we returned to Chicago after our week vacation, and mailed the Title, they would send us $ 150. Strange that they expected the Title to be handed over before any money was exchanged. They were very quick to empty our car, load us into a cab, which shuttled us to a rental car company so we could rent a car to continue our 14 hour drive. (John was very nice to help arrange all of that.) After we settled and had more time to collect our thoughts, we felt that $ 225 (or $ 150) was such little money, we would like to look into donation of the car to Vehicles for Veterans (
). They would come pick up the vehicle (working or not) and tow it appropriately– we chose the Veterans because we have utmost respect for our service members and my husband works for the VA hospital. When we called A Hodge to discuss this with them, we were told we would need to speak to the owner Alan and ‘he would not be happy because he was planning on giving the car to his son’ (so much for being told it was unusable). When my husband spoke Alan 2 days later, he was called every name in the book including a «deadbeat» for leaving his car there and accused of ‘not being a man’ for paying the bill. It was referred to as ‘their vehicle’ (though we still have the title); told we owe them $ 500 for keeping the vehicle ($ 35/​day for keeping it there); and refusing to let the car off their property. No paperwork was signed. Nothing was agreed upon in writing, on either end. How absolutely ridiculous. They should be ashamed of themselves. Not only were we prime targets to be taken advantage of– a young family in the middle of summer vacation, 6 hours from home; but we want to DONATE our vehicle to VETERANS of the United States of America. Shame on you, Alan and A Hodge ‘mechanic shop’. All for considering an alternate course of action to help someone in need. Shame on you.

Alan is the best. An honest mechanic, like a good doctor, is something to hang onto once you find them. I’m glad I found this place when I did. The service is great, they are kinda busy so getting something in the same day you call probably isn’t always going to happen but that just speaks to how popular they are. The fees are reasonable and I believe they have a payment option or at least they used to. I remember seeing a sign on the door the last time I was there.