Waelder Automotive

Today on the drive home to Houston our car engine began causing problems. Leonard and his wife Kristi opened the gates for us and immediately began to work on our car once we voiced we were trying to get home. He had us out of there in an hour and his wife offered drinks and chairs! For a great price and kind people you can’t beat this place!

Leonard is always willing to help and very knowledgeable. While he is often busy and has a backlog, but this is a good thing. A mechanic that doesn't have work is not a good sign.

Does very good mechanic work ,prices are reasonable and the owner is very polite

Very good mechanic and loyal to his customers.outstanding work. Very nice and polite.

One hell of a mechanic, Leonard can repair anything, good prices

Honest mechanic, very fair, great overall service! Highly recommend!

Owner is great

My kids broke down on I-10 on Nov 25, Thanksgiving Day, in my 1992 Volvo 240. I drove 120 miles to rescue them. The car spent the night sitting on the I-10 shoulder and was picked up early the next day by USAA roadside towing and delivered to the gate of Waelder Automotive. I had meant for it to go to the other shop in Waelder, but oh well I must have got it wrong. Mr. Wilson happened to be on the premises even though he was closed for the day after Thanksgiving. I asked him to check it and let me know. He said he would look at it. We drove home. I spent the next week trying to contact him. I phoned the two numbers; no answer and no mailbox set up. I texted; no response. I emailed; no response. I saw that some people have posted negative reviews of this establishment, so the concerns were there. Finally, on Sat Dec 4 the phone rang. Mr. Wilson told me the car was fixed and ready to go. I told him I wished I had heard back from him during the week and also that I prefer to hear the estimate before authorizing the work on my cars, but it was too late to make an issue of this. As for the price, it was probably higher than I would have paid locally, but low enough not to simply surrender the car to him. It included two hours for diagnosis at $95/hr, and it should not have taken that long. But I learned long ago that it does not pay to yell at or accuse auto mechanics. I chalked the extra cost up to my shortsightedness in not replacing the timing belt at the recommended interval. We drove to Waelder, paid the bill and drove it 120 miles home. It ran fine. Based on some things Mr. Wilson said to me, I am confident that he actually did the work.

My advice to travelers is, don't break down outside of Waelder. Keep your vehicle's maintenance up to date, and do not take long trips out of town on a holiday.

I don’t write a lot of reviews online but I feel like this one is necessary because I felt unsafe and was scammed at this establishment and I want to make sure I do my civic duty and warn others. My family and I were driving from San Antonio to Houston when our car overheated. We exited the freeway and called AAA. A tow truck picked us up and since we didn’t know which mechanic shop to go to, the tow truck driver took us to Waelder Automotive. I wish we had asked to go to a AAA approved mechanic. Once we arrived at Waelder automotive, we asked a mechanic (Leonard?) to look at our car. He waited until the tow truck left to look at our car (which, in retrospect, was a red flag). He spent 5 min looking under the hood, he ripped out a belt (we think he cut it himself because it’s a clean cut) and then told us he wouldn’t be able to fix our car unless we waited for parts, which would have to be ordered and would arrive the next day. Since we don’t live anywhere near there, we called AAA to send another tow truck to take us to Houston. An hour into our wait for the new tow truck, a lady (Kristy... the writer of one of the 5 star reviews of this place on google) brought us an invoice for $100. We were shocked! She said “the mechanic has an hourly rate.” If it was $100 for 5min, that would make his hourly rate $1200. They did not disclose that there was a fee for diagnosis before the tow truck left and had we known it would be $100 for 5min of looking with a flashlight and ripping out a belt, we would have left immediately. We were totally scammed. To make matters worse, when the second tow truck arrived, they refused to let us leave the property until we paid them. We called the cops but we didn’t feel safe there anymore so we paid them and left the property instead of waiting for the cops. We spoke to the sheriff later. We have no problem paying people who do work, but these people did no work and did not disclose a fee until an hour later (we waited 90 min for the second tow truck that could do a long haul). We were clearly the victims of a scam but since we were stranded in the middle of nowhere, we did not want to spend an extra minute here. I feel sad because it’s crooks like this that will cause me to distrust mechanics in the future. If you value your life, vehicle, money and safety, do not come here and please go to a AAA approved mechanic. We wish we had known to do that.