Searles Auto Repair

Category:	Car Repair and Maintenance
Address:	517 Kelvin Rd, Victoria, BC V8Z 1C4, Canada
Phone:	+1 250-475-2000
Site:	searlesauto.ca
Rating:	4.4
Working:	Closed 7:30AM–5:30PM 7:30AM–5:30PM 7:30AM–5:30PM 7:30AM–5:30PM 8AM–4PM Closed

Location

Photos 46

Reviews 5

Greg Visco

Really disappointed. Took my car in for an inspection a few weeks ago and its never been the same. Vehicle is old, 1988, and they didnt take any care in trying to assess problems. In fact, it feels like they made efforts to make any problem they found worse. Car feels like it has aged years from when I dropped it off to when I picked it up. I had expected this vehicle to last maybe another year, heck maybe two... I will be lucky to get the summer out of it at this point. And I paid for that?! No way I could have known until after I drove it away. I had hoped things would settle down, but it creaks at the back like the suspension was overworked and rattles in the front during idle 10x worse that it did when I brought it in. They said it had broken motor mounts (plural), which I could feel when driving before I brought it in, but it feels like they broke another one testing how much they could make the engine move - not cool. I guess I should have told them not to try to stress the engine out on a 1988 vehicle... Seems like that would be self explanatory when working on a vehicle of this age. I would not recommend this place to anyone as I dont think they are going to do right by your vehicle, especially if its older. I took the vehicle on a road trip to Washington in April. It was fine. I dont feel like I can take anymore trips on this old girl. She was ruined at the shop... again, very disappointed. The only good thing they did was tighten the brakes, and they are working great, except they tightened the ebrake so much I can barely apply it now. Not surprisingly the ebrake wasnt applied when I picked it up, but they didnt mention anything or seem to care. Will not be taking this or any other vehicle into this shop. UPDATE: "We happened to notice the broken engine mounts and poor brake pedal during our initial road test." My invoice says "Major Engine Movement" and I was told over the phone my engine was moving a large amount. This could NOT have been assessed during a road test and I am really unhappy with being lied to... again. Can you rate a business 0 stars? Seriously...

Jay Khan

I can entirely see why many people would really like Searles, and in different circumstances we would be among them. However they dropped the ball with our car and it ended up costing us a lot of money. To shorten a long story, we took our Mazda 3 in for a general service and several parts replacements. We received a comprehensive inspection report from Searles, and a bill for 1350 CAD. All fine. We were informed that the car was in good general shape and running well. Unfortunately, three weeks later we had to submit the car for what we hoped would be a standard out-of-province inspection (the car was originally from ON), and having dealt so recently with Searls we returned the car to them to do it. A couple of hours after dropping the car off I received a call from them, informing me the car was a write-off. It turns out the were holes in the chassis and multiple other reasons to fail it. When I went in to speak to the the mechanic about it, I asked him why non of these issues had been mentioned to me the first time they had inspected the car. He shrugged and said, we dont like to tell customers their car is a hunk of junk. Surely, as qualified professional mechanics, its exactly that which they are supposed to do? Your mechanic should be honest and open with all customers to allow them to make informed decisions about whether or not to spend more money on their cars or not. To add insult to injury, he then charged me for the inspection (120). When added to the 1350 we had just paid for a car they were telling me was a worthless pile of scrap, it felt like a huge waste of money. I hope in future they will endeavour to put the hard truths to the customer where necessary, rather than wasting everybodys time and money.

John Dawson

Our BC out of province vehicle inspection led me to Searles Auto Repair in Victoria. We just moved here from Alberta and I was not looking forward to the inspection in the least. When moving into Alberta I was scammed and ripped off getting it done there a couple of years back. I Googled local repair shops, landed on Searles Auto Repair and their reviews were outstanding. They booked me within 2 days and I dealt with Blake. I had a good idea in mind of what the cost should be going in and there were no surprises ... Blake called me after initial scans and preliminary check. He called again with final estimated costs and at the end of the day came in under his quoted amount. It was interesting that the first thing catching my attention was that the windows in the building were spotless. The shop and grounds were pristine. Clean shop = clean work on my truck. Read between the lines on the negative reviews ... these guys are top shelf. Trustworthy, honest and certainly not out to gouge (lol!) They could have really split hairs on my inspection and simply made me bring all required items legally up to provincial standard and pass. I had a slight irritating rattle in the front end and have taken to 2 different shops who could not find or fix it. Blake fixed it .. smooth as silk now. I would never consider going anywhere else. Prices are fair, quality of work is excellent, and above all, Searles are professional, honest and trustworthy.

Christian Sealey

I have been a customer of Searles automotive for many years and for good reason. Over the past 2 weeks they proved, once again, why that is. My recently purchased used vehicle sustained a major engine failure. I was bracing for a very costly fix and had no recourse through the dealership I purchased from. Thanks to Searles skilled mechanics and attention to detail they noticed that my engine had some recent repairs done and that what needed to be fixed could perhaps still be under an existing warranty. They took the time to find out where the vehicle was previously serviced and to speak to that shops service manager. In the end my engine failure was in fact still under warranty! From beginning to end they towed my vehicle, gave me a loaner, kept me fully informed every day of progress and fixed my vehicle at no expense to me because of an existing warranty that they took the time to find out about. I would never consider taking my vehicle to any other shop. Truly skilled, honest and highly trained mechanics are a rarity; luckily Searles has them. Thank you to every member of the Searles team!

Aisha Coghlan

I called Searless this morning because my husband was stranded on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck and we needed to know where to tow the vehicle to. I spoke with the women on the phone telling her my husband was stranded and needed to get to work and asked if they had a courtesy car avaible. She said yes they did and for him to call her. I gave my husband the number and he called 30 seconds later and was told they didnt have a courtesy car.... If they are dishonest right from the start I cant even imagine what would have happened had we brought our vehicle there. So glad we went with another shop. I Googled the garage afterwards and found that many many people have found them to be dishonest. I will avoid this garage in future!!