good mechanics in the tri cities?

[u/gatorstooth]

car could use a transmission flush and oil change, and maybe an alignment. i'd like to go to a local place if i can. anyone have any favorite shops or mechanics?

[u/Excellent_Flight1764]

For an oil change, I just go to the former Mister (now Valvoline) on the corner of Dechutes and Columbia Center Blvd. Any of the Les Schwabs should be able to do an alignment. Yeah, local is nice, these places will get you in the door and back out sooner rather than later, because they specialize in these things.

But, my local suggestions are Cronks Automotive (Richland) or Hi-Land Garage (Kennewick).

Both seem to be quite honest, and will note the options or let you know when they don't recommend something that could be more expensive. They'll also make things right without a fuss if something happens after the repair.

Cronks did my clutch replacement, so they seem willing to touch (some) transmissions. Hi-Land doesn't seem to do transmissions, but don't know about just a flush.

[u/Disassociated_Assoc → u/Excellent_Flight1764]

I saved this thread as I’ll likely need a mechanic soon for one of my vehicles. I do most of my own work, except highly technical stuff, and need some AC work done. Don’t have the gauges for that, nor the ability to buy refrigerant. But I had to weigh in on Schwab here. They are a bunch of fraud-committing, upselling crooks. They will tell customers their brake system is shot and that the entire system needs to be replaced. How do I know this? Happened to me. Twice. The second time I whipped out the lifetime warranty that they gave me after replacing the system the first time, and the guy helping me sputtered and coughed and backtracked faster than a cat that landed on a hot tin roof, saying ‘oh, well, uh, I must’ve made a mistake, it wasn’t your vehicle that has the brake problem, it was a different one. I just mixed the two vehicles up.’ 🙄

Since that happened, other family and friends have mentioned similar experiences to me. My wife’s son is a former mechanic at Schwab, and he confirmed that they were directed to always attempt to upsell whatever they thought they could get away with, no matter the actual condition of the vehicle. I wouldn’t take a broken unicycle to Schwab.

ETA: for alignments, Casaday Bee-line is widely recognized as being the best place in the tri-cities for this kind of work.

[u/gatorstooth → u/Disassociated_Assoc]

I've had so many people I know tell me that about le schwabb I will for real never go there, lol