Meineke Car Care Center

Dadeland Chrysler Jeep on US 1 in South Miami Is the biggest rip off repair center I’ve been to in my whole life. Wow I never thought I would experience something that should be on a 60 minutes News show about deceitful dealerships. I give them –10 stars but the ratings won’t allow it. I went in for a recall clutch pin on my jeep. While there I asked if they could look at my muffler system for leaks. They said yes but if we find something it would be $ 90. Said it would take 4 – 5 hrs. About and hour later a mechanic came and said he’d have to replace my whole system and replace my catalytic converter (which is a little over a year old). Had me walk back to show me but I couldn’t see under the jeep as it wasn’t jacked up. He pointed under the door and just stood there. I asked for an estimate. 5 mins later a tie guy takes into his office and shows me a $ 1130 estimate. I thanked him and in 5 mins my jeep was ready and I was out $ 90 and left. I will never go there again and recommend the BBB look into this type operation. Two days later I went to Meneke Car Care Center at 1855 W Flagler Street in Miami. I was greeted by the awesome owner, Mr Tony Saladrigas, who immediately took my jeep into a bay jacked it up and showed me a crack that he could easily fix. Said my catalytic converter was good and had nothing to do with the crack. I paid $ 137 and the jeep hasn’t run that good for years. Tony is trustworthy, honest and cares about his customer service and quality of workmanship like your family. I’m glad Dadeland Dodge showed me their true ways of deceitful business practices or I never would have found Tony’s phenomenal business. My Jeep is a collectors item and it deserves the best quality best value care. I’ve found that place at Meneke Car Care Center. Tony and his Team is AWESOME and I would give him +10 stars but the stars don’t go that high. Keep doing what you do Tony. It can be tough these days to find a gem that is truly honest and has retained that high level of quality customer care. Thanks for all you do and see ya soon when the Jeep needs some care.

Very cordial, but perhaps this is because it’s hard to be mean to people when they pay — at a minimum — twice the market rate for services here. I was leery — I read a previous review about the owner calling a NAPA parts store across the street, charging the customer a hefty markup, passing the purchased parts off as «their own» and claiming that difference in price was a «brand» issue (but failing to mention this «brand»).
An excerpt from that review (from «Kolja»):
### Across the street from the Meineke location is a NAPA parts store. Out of curiosity, I went there because I wanted to compare prices on the parts I had just been quoted.
Before I could ask my question to the clerk, he received a call that I overheard. He was asked for rear brake parts for a 2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible, he took the order, printed it out and handed it to a female employee with the words: «Get this and take it over to Tony». Obviously, this was Tony S. from the Meineke franchise purchasing the parts for my car. There was no other Chrsyler at the Meineke shop at the time. Then it was my turn and I asked for the price for rear rotors for my car and was quoted $ 22 each.
As you can imagine, I was curious why Meineke would sell me NAPA parts with a markup to more than 100% and went back across the street to speak to Tony S. At first, I did not tell him that I overheard his phone order at NAPA and just asked why the rotors were double the price from the store across the street. He replied that he was using a different brand and could only guarantee good workmanship and superior quality using these parts. I asked which brand he was using and he said that it was «our own», meaning Meinekes’.
I then asked if I could get the rotors from NAPA and have him install them for the quoted $ 95 in labor cost. He said that he couldn’t do that as this would not be professional and that he couldn’t guarantee his work that way. During that conversation he was already getting agitated and told me that he had no need to explain to me how he was running his business. I said that he was right but if he wanted me as a returning customer it would be better if he did as I couldn’t follow the logic of his argument.
I then confronted him with the call I had overheard and told him that I believed that he was buying the parts at NAPA himself and selling them to me at a markup of more than 100%. I also told him that he had been lying to my face, speaking about quality standards, professionalism and superior service when he knew that it wasn’t true.
Tony S. then got very angry, his fingers trembling, and told me to get out of his office. He said that I was the «most annoying person he had ever met»,###
Woah! That review was scary. But, in an attempt to be rational and objective, I tried to give the store the benefit of the doubt, since there were other, positive reviews here.
Bad decision for me. I just learned that my service here (an oil change) should have cost only half what I paid, even in the worst case scenario of needing extra quarts of oil. I will never visit this place again, and hope that the owner heartily reaps the ripoffs he’s doled out to others.
Customer service was excellent, but again, when people walk into your establishment and are unknowingly paying what YOU know to be anywhere from two to a hundred times more than is reasonable, then, how could you *not* be nice? The people in these Unilocal reviews who sing praises for this Meineke — especially people from parts of the country other than Miami — are probably accustomed to a higher cost of living and are wooed by «lower» prices here. They don’t realize that they’re still being ripped off.
Also, if the owner is not recommending services for your vehicle, chances are it’s not because you don’t need them and he cares that much — it’s because he either lacks the staff or time to do the service. It appears that they don’t have much staff here. They’d rather charge outrageous markups to a few clients and lose on «upsell» services. I also suspect that prices for services vary, based on how business is going that week. They didn’t look busy the day I went, and this was in the early afternoon.
Best thing I did for myself was price check with a larger provider (this time, I used Tire Kingdom). A larger provider can give an idea of what the going rate in the automotive industry is for the services you need.
You lose a lot with a small «Mom and Pop» provider like this one who has to buy his parts from across the street on an as-​needed basis (and pass those charges on to you). And a larger provider can honestly assess what your car needs and offer to do the services, rather than tell you you don’t need them just because they can’t do them that day. (You can always note the services and compare prices elsewhere, if what they’re offering is too expensive,)

Excellent experiences here twice now. Punctual opening time, great communication, and did not try to get me to have things done that were not needed. Everything is clean and organized in the shop, and the manager is very professional. Work was done efficiently and as far as I can tell, done well!

Great experience! Tony was great, and didn’t try to push me into getting services that I didn’t need. I even asked that he check a few things, and he told me that they were fine and didn’t need to be serviced. Most other places would’ve jumped at the opportunity to take my money. The labor was a bit pricey, but this is Miami.

Every time in the past that I’ve done to jiffy line whether in New York or up in Delray I always walked out with a $ 190 bill.
No clue. I would get sold and sold and if I didn’t change my wipers my car would crash, my brakes were loose, my car needed tornado sauce to fly.
I checked into this minekie going for the $ 19.99 deal. They showed me and explained that my car needed synthetic oil. I quickly hopped online (paranoid!!) and the price they gave me $ 60 made sense.
They took my car, the guys were so nice. Didn’t talk much. Time flew by, 15 minutes later it was done.
Nobody tried to up sell me and show me machines about how broken my 2010 vehicle was.
Great experience. See you in October!

Came here for an oil change on a Saturday morning and was in and out in 30 minutes. Luckily this location wasn’t busy in the slightest and I was greeted and taken care of as soon as I walked in. They did have a couple cars ahead of me but serviced my care briskly none the less.

Pretty negative experience. The worst part is the manager (Tony) has a great con-​man schtick. You don’t realize it at first and he comes across real nice and helpful. I was told that it would be about an hour to repair my A/​C for a reasonable price. That, no joke, turned into about 5h. Then as they were fixing the A/​C the manager came back several times to add on various random costs. One of which included refilling my freon for $ 120 (I checked at Walmart and a can of freon with the tube to connect it costs around $ 18-​seriously). I was so tired of the wait and still kind of trusted his schtick so I okayed it-​completely ignoring that dring the diagnostic the day before his mechanic told me the freon level was fine and would not need replacing. Then when the car comes off the rack, guess what? A/​C NOT WORKING. I asked him what was going on and he said it had been working when it was on the rack. They took it back in (another hour passes) and it comes off the rack working however this manager tries to tell me randomly some other fan is causing the A/​C to not work (which he was unable to surmise over the past 5h of working on my car). He had me come into garage and first shows me the fan was not spinning. I pointed to the fact that the wires coming out of the fan were clearly unplugged. Then he changes his story and says he needed to keep it unplugged or the A/​C would shut off again. He said I absolutely needed to replace the fan and he’d charge me another $ 250. I said no thanks. Leave it all as is and I’m getting the hell out of here. All told a wasted day, an extra $ 120 spent, and now I need to go to another mechanic to see if there was any actual issue with this fan. This place does business b/​c they have longer hours than other mechanics and you end up going if you need service ASAP. But I am telling you whatever the prob is, just wait until another (honest) auto shop is open. Do not go here.

I’ve had many good experiences here. The best review that I can give I that several times I’ve gone in with a list of things I wanted checked and serviced and many times, upon pick up, the owner has told me that certain services weren’t necessary or due yet.
Any other mechanic would have taken the opportunity to perform the unnecessary services and repairs and probably recommended a few more to boot to churn business.
They know their cars and I feel comfortable with their recommendations.

Mine was an extremely negative experience and I am very upset about the bad business practice, lack of professionalism and utter disregard for the customer at this Meineke location and the general manager Mr. Tony S.
I returned to the Meineke location because I needed an oil change again. I also asked to check my rear brakes due to grooves in the rear driver’s side brake disc. I was told to leave the car (2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible) and come back after a while to discuss the needed repairs. When I came back Tony S. presented me with an estimate that came to about $ 270 for the Preferred Oil Change Service, new rear pads and rotors and labor. The rotors were quoted at $ 46 each. Tony S. explained the estimate, I signed it and was told to come back 45 minutes later to pick up the car.
Across the street from the Meineke location is a NAPA parts store. Out of curiosity, I went there because I wanted to compare prices on the parts I had just been quoted.
Before I could ask my question to the clerk, he received a call that I overheard. He was asked for rear brake parts for a 2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible, he took the order, printed it out and handed it to a female employee with the words: «Get this and take it over to Tony». Obviously, this was Tony S. from the Meineke franchise purchasing the parts for my car. There was no other Chrsyler at the Meineke shop at the time. Then it was my turn and I asked for the price for rear rotors for my car and was quoted $ 22 each.
As you can imagine, I was curious why Meineke would sell me NAPA parts with a markup to more than 100% and went back across the street to speak to Tony S. At first, I did not tell him that I overheard his phone order at NAPA and just asked why the rotors were double the price from the store across the street. He replied that he was using a different brand and could only guarantee good workmanship and superior quality using these parts. I asked which brand he was using and he said that it was «our own», meaning Meinekes’.
I then asked if I could get the rotors from NAPA and have him install them for the quoted $ 95 in labor cost. He said that he couldn’t do that as this would not be professional and that he couldn’t guarantee his work that way. During that conversation he was already getting agitated and told me that he had no need to explain to me how he was running his business. I said that he was right but if he wanted me as a returning customer it would be better if he did as I couldn’t follow the logic of his argument.
I then confronted him with the call I had overheard and told him that I believed that he was buying the parts at NAPA himself and selling them to me at a markup of more than 100%. I also told him that he had been lying to my face, speaking about quality standards, professionalism and superior service when he knew that it wasn’t true.
Tony S. then got very angry, his fingers trembling, and told me to get out of his office. He said that I was the «most annoying person he had ever met», that he would do nothing more for me and that he would put together my car as it was (with a bad rear brake disc). I should then leave his premises immediately. I remained calm and only replied that it was strange that he would be the one getting angry when I had been the one being lied to and he had been the one trying to defraud a customer. I then supervised my car being reassembled and left.
One other thing: the Preferred Oil Change Service is supposed to include fluid top-​off. When I took my car to the Meineke location it had no washer fluid and when I got it back, it still had none! I highly doubt that the additional services that make this Oil Change Service «preferred» were performed at all. I was still charged the extra $ 10 over the Basic Oil Change Service. I hope that my experience causes other potential customers to reconsider and take their business elsewhere!