Essex Automotive Services

I have been putting off writing this review for a few months, because typically I don't like badmouthing people, but this place absolutely deserves every inch of what I'm about to say. I brought my car in because it was running and idling rough, and I thought it might just need a new sparkplug due to a cylinder misfiring. What they ended up telling me was that they bore scoped the cylinder, and it had scoring inside of it, which I was told meant that the entire engine needed to be replaced. Naturally this blew me away, and I stood there for about 15 to 20 minutes discussing my options with the guy who gave me this news. He told me they'd do it for about $7,000. I paid about $10,000 for my car (a used Corolla), so I was not about to spend that much to keep it alive. The next part of this story came when I visited the Toyota dealership in Burlington, where I got a second opinion on what was wrong with the car. They did a spark test and found out it was a bad coil, which is a very cheap fix. I got it done for under $300, which for a dealership is still reasonable, especially compared to the aforementioned $7,000 for a new engine. But that's not all about my visit to Essex Automotive- I asked them to replace the spark plugs anyway, change the oil, and replace a belt that has been squealing on and off - they charged me over $500 for this. So not only was I completely lied to about what was wrong with my car, they also robbed me of $500 while they were at it. I was devastated with the news that my engine needed to be replaced, and had to deal with the car running quite badly for a couple weeks before I went and got the second opinion. Thank goodness I did, because it was entirely possible that I could have ended up a victim of this place's dishonest business. I don't know if the other reviewers here were treated differently than I was, or if they got a different mechanic than I did, but please, if you bothered to read this entire review, do not give these thieving liars your business. Take your car anywhere else. If they did it to me they've done it to others and will do it again. Thanks for reading and good luck with whatever work your car needs. -Devin