McCoy Harold

This review is of «McCoy’s Auto Repair» or «McCoy’s Tire Service»…whatever he’s calling himself. Let me preface this with the fact that I don’t want to be malicious… this guy probably does mediocre repairs to beat-​up American cars from the 1990s but if you’ve got a car you actually care about or a Japanese/​German car — take it somewhere else for sure… but then again, based on my review some of you with that 1990 Buick Regal will probably reconsider…
I came here in a moment of desperation with my old (unreliable) car. My car was making a bubbling sound and having starting problems (the battery seemed to be dying repeatedly). The diagnosis was that I needed a new thermostat and a new alternator. This surprised me because I was not experiencing any other tell-​tale signs of alternator failure… but I just wanted the problem fixed. Unfortunately, not only did McCoy’s have no idea what they were doing — it took 7 hours to repair and my car was the only one there (I know, because I was initially told it would take a couple of hours and decided to sit there and wait for the repairs to be done).
The lengthy repair time was a result of the fact that they ordered the wrong thermostat from Pep Boys (which also demonstrates the usage of parts of questionable quality)…and even installed it before realizing it — which caused unknown damage to the internals of the cooling system.
The final cost was nearly $ 500.00 dollars… when the initial estimate was almost $ 100.00 dollars less. McCoy apologized about the extra time and overcharge and handed me 25 of his business cards and told me to tell my friends about him and he’d «make it up to me» on my next visit.
After a few weeks, both problems came back… I took the car to a reputable mechanic who informed me that it was highly unlikely the thermostat was actually replaced (which he agreed was definitely the case after I informed him of the part mix up)…he added that McCoy’s left the original retaining bolt in place — which McCoy’s had nearly stripped by over tightening or removing it in a sloppy fashion. So, from this… I can figure that McCoy ordered the wrong part, installed it, pulled it back out, returned it to Pep Boys and then reinstalled the old part but charged me for a new one? And that says nothing of the fact that my alternator was fine — it was a starter solenoid.
Don’t go here… you’d be better off getting your car towed somewhere better or just trying to figure it out yourself.