Vandever Auto Service

A great place to take your car or truck for repairs!! Steve Vandever is the most honest mechanic around!! He’ll always do you right!!!

Great place. Friendly people, good pricing, and they are honest, which is hard to find! Highly recommend!

Always great service and support. Mike helped me find the part of needed at half the cost.

Really glad I found this place. Fair pricing and quality work!

No issues! Did great job!

Great service. Quick turn around. Great price.

Steve always does top notch work..my family have been loyal customers for years!!

Great work guys!!! I’ll keep coming back!!!

Always honest. Always on time. Always top notch!

Steve does good work!

The employee are racist, I was cussed out, I felt threatened for my life, not only did this behavior happen as he was was going in to work on the company lot, he went in the building and opened a door, were he felt comfortable enough to continue to cuss. Management never said a word. I left this not were I would ever spend my money. Because they may destroy your vehicle.

I brought my car here January 28th, 2022 due to intermittent heating loss. Took my car to Autozone before hand and it was coding for a stuck thermostat valve. I told VD this a few times when I too it there to get repairs in January 2022.

VD was insisting the antifreeze reservoir needed replaced and a hose needed replaced. They never addresses the stuck thermostat valve issue.

I always take my car to Autozone or AdvanceAuto to get the repair/engine codes on a needed repair as you’re less likely to get ripped off if you have a good idea of what the issue is. (Thanks Gary for teaching me this tool).
I had them do the repair they said would fix the issue.

Here I am with the same exact intermittent heating issues again in October 2022 with the same exact stuck thermostat valve code as back in January..
And, my passenger side window will not roll up.

VD says I need a window motor repair.

Two videos both done by certified mechanics did all of the repair step by step start to finish and the entire repair took 15.35 mins from start to finish. No editing done on the video.

The window motor avgs $57 for the part.

This is what I was quoted for the repairs by VD:

Labor window motor $240 (for a repair that literally takes 15-25 minutes max)
Labor the heater control circuit $275

$208.46 heater control circuit
$36 coolant (2 bottles)
$247 window motor part (for a $57 avg cost part price)

Plus a random $34.33 charge on the bottom of the estimate that is completely unexplained.

They don’t break down the labor charge by the hour but I’m going to assume it is $247 per an hour as the window motor repair on my make and model of car literally takes 15.5 minutes being done by two different certified mechanics in two separate videos on YouTube videos completely from start to finish as it is not labor intensive at all and is a simple, non complex repair when it comes to my make/model of car. (2015 Chevy Sonic- verify it). I feel like if an experienced certified mechanic deals with us on a regular basis and he is good at what he does then he should also be able to do it in the same avg time from start to finish step-by-step- they can do this in their sleep.

The other part is $89 avg from reputable parts dealers to fix the intermittent heater issue. My stepdad called auto parts dealers. 30-40 minute repair.

These repair prices are *extremely* absorbent: $1,000 for two very non labor intensive, non complex, not engine intrusive repairs and the part prices are more than a 350 percent markup on them because as the receptionist stated: “they’re much better quality parts than you can get at Autozone”

(Well, I’ve used Autozone parts on my cars for decades and I’ve never, ever bought a bad, defective part. My step dad is a certified mechanic, he has been one for 40 years and he uses Autozone parts for repairs on his own cars.

So, they failed to fix the required repair initially and the labor/parts they did swap out was $147 in January of 2022 (It might have even been $247)(still pretty reasonable for labor and for parts).

I don’t know what the heck happened regarding VD’s labor charges and their part prices between January 2022 and now:

This momma is so not paying these absorbent prices for a window motor repair that is extremely straightforward, non intrusive, uncomplicated, and takes literally 15-25 mins max from start to finish, step by step for two different certified mechanics in two different videos from start to finish w no editing of the videos.

The avg national cost of that same window motor repair at most shops is $200-300 - parts and labor included. (Confirm w Google).

This shop’s labor prices and parts prices is majorly padded & total crookery in my humble opinion.

350% markup on parts and over $225 an hour for labor. I get rounding up hours for a 15-30 minute repair. Standard for auto repair shops.

These prices are extremely unreasonable and they are ridiculously high. These ppl running this shop have lost their damn minds w greed. Do your homework and go elsewhere.

I paid 700 dollars for a rack replacement, asked them to replace the lines which are two lines that cost me a total of 40 bucks at AutoZone and less than 1 hour to replace, when they didn't replace the lines they wanted to charge me 400 MORE dollars to replace those two lines, which made me quite upset. Putting that aside though, I feel as though I got shafted here, I checked the fluid when I replaced the line and it had a yellow tint which seems to me like the system was never flushed properly after replacement. Lastly, I brought my car BACK because the alignment was also off, it veers to the right noticably, and the steering wheel is straight at about 5-10° of rotation, I am very displeased with my visit but I understand they are human, however it did not make me happy when they said the reason could be the "oversized tires" I have on the car. This is a 1999 trans am. The wheels I have are from a 2000 Camaro SS, they are the same platform. These rims and tires are literally engineered for the suspension system in this vehicle. Once again I am extremely displeased as a mechanic I find it appalling when a situation like this occours, and although I will be calm I have notified the shops I've worked at and anyone that I work on of what I experienced in the hope of allowing shops I'm associated with to not receive complaints.