Georgetown & Round Rock Auto Repair

I'm a new-aged mamby pamby man who knows more about cooking a risotto than I do about fixing my car. I'm also the miserly driver of a 10 year-old Honda with 140,000 hard-fought miles on the odometer. As my old friend the green reliamobile rolls toward its inevitable twilight, stuff starts happening. These old cars go with a whimper, not with a bang. Batteries crust up and die. Power windows suddenly cease to function. Starters, alternators, and flux capacitors give up the ghost. Oh, pernicious fate, I just want to get to and from work. That's where the sometimes trusty mechanic comes in. They sit in their corrugated steel lair and wait for you to appear, reeking of desperation and flush with extraneous cash. You need your transportation, and they need to extract as much of your hard-earned cash as possible. And it certainly was hard-earned...How many hours of spreadsheet building, droning through inane conference calls, and butting heads with obstinate coworkers did you endure just to have some little plastic gee-gaw replaced on your ailing sled? They've got you right where they want you, and, provided that their shockingly high price quote doesn't strike you stone cold dead of a heart attack on the spot, they will get your money. Enter the good mechanic. A good mechanic sees you quickly and treats you fairly. Issues are diagnosed correctly and priced reasonably well. In fact, the repairs often cost less than anticipated. Nobody likes have to ante up for car maintenance, but these guys make the process reasonable, tolerable, and fair. J and C Automotive is one of the good guys. If you can't do it yourself (and I can't), then everyone needs a good mechanic. And when you do find that mechanic, you need to hang on tightly and thank your lucky stars for your good fortune. That's what I'm doing now that I've found MY mechanic. I've had a few annoying issues fixed on my Honda so far. J and C handled everything fantastically, and the bill at the end was extremely palatable. These guys know their business, and they made me feel valued as a customer (and not a walking wallet to be drained). And so, as my aging Accord slouches toward the great scrap heap in the sky, I am comforted to know that I've got a good mechanic to shepherd us through the challenges to come. I get my car fixed and J and C automotive, and you should too.

A virtue to look for when finding a good garage to take your vehicle to is credibility, honesty and transparency. I think one would find all three at the Automotive Specialist starting with when you drive by or walk to the lobby, you can see all their repair bays through and through. And that is important because personally I take comfort in knowing that they have nothing to hide there. I had been struggling with finding a good mechanic for my older model Miata and these kind folks have a Miata master technician who knows those machines inside out. They are also very good about giving you a ride back to work (within reasonable distance) and picking you up when your car is ready. I give them five stars and two thumbs up!

I can't believe I haven't written a review before now - but I haven't and it's long overdue. I've been a customer for 3 years now, and I will NEVER go anywhere else. These guys are professional, courteous, friendly, funny, fast, honest, and thorough. They explain everything patiently and then give me an array of choices & the cost of each, and they explain the outcome I can expect from each choice. They take your car in, diagnose the problem, and then call you to let you make the choice based on outcome and price. If they find anything different while working and the repair/price needs or should change, they call you and get your ok before proceeding. When you pick up your car, they even give you a heads up of what else they saw while fixing the current problem so you have an idea of what necessary repairs or maintenance may be coming up down the road (sorry for the pun!). And to polish off the extraordinary service, they offer fast and courteous shuttle service. It just doesn't get any better than this guys!

When I needed to get routine maintenance done on my car post warranty I started asking around for a reliable place to get the work done. Even my friends who usually do most of their own work recommended these guys. Please note I am not a car buff by any means. I can barely change my own gas. lol Though I do keep up with stuff so I at least can talk about it and know what needs to get done. I just can't do it myself. I have used these guys a few times and have always been very happy with them. Not only did they happily shuttle me back and forth to North Austin when I it was going to be an all day or overnight job but each time they fixed it faster then they thought it would take and the final cost was actually LESS than the initial quote. I am moving out of state soon and will be sad I won't have these guys near by next time my car needs work.

Are you afraid of taking your car to the shop because you feel like they are going to try and take you for all you have? Don't be afraid of JC Automotive Specialists. I ordered some tires off of tirerack.com and had them installed here. The pro-tip I can give you is to be sure you just drop off your car and come back later. I stuck around and was there about 3 hours. The employees are friendly. The waiting area is clean. The free coffee is amazingly good. The best part was that when you interact with the employees they aren't dead inside like alot of other places. I haven't had any other services here so I'll have to post another review if that time comes.

Auto repair shops are always some of the worst places anybody wants to have to go to: they always seem to have a reputation of milking you for every penny you have although it would seem to me that these types of places need to be as honest as possible to stay in business as long as possible. I was referred to JC Automotive from a friend who has reviewed them on here before so when it finally came time to get my "Service Engine Soon" light check out, I knew that this was the only place I wanted to go to. They have a first-come, first served way of doing things so there's no appointments. They open at 7:30 every morning though (and according to Facebook will no longer be open on Saturdays) so you can drop your car off in the morning and use their "shuttle" service to take you to work. I ended up not taking my vehicle in until noon, and the work that needed to be done required that my vehicle be left over night. I wasn't too happy about that, but it was my fault for going so late in the day in the first place. They offer a $48 diagnostic which I think is pretty much cheaper than anybody else. Dan Pedroza was the "service writer" I worked with, and he explained all the work that needed to be done in detail. I didn't really need all that much explanation since I had already done some troubleshooting on my own, had ruled out 2-3 causes for the Service Engine Soon light to be on and knew that the only cause left would be complicated and costly. However, Dan's explanation of the problem was very helpful. My vehicle was ready the next day, and I was on my way. So far, so good, and I can already tell that the car is running much better than it has in a long time!

I had some belts that were starting to squeal on a 2001 Toyota Camry. It turns out it was also time for a timing belt/water pump/seals and gaskets. It was time, so I had them do it all and they had it all done in one day for a reasonable price. So far so good. I have been supporting 4 used vehicles for a couple of years now and I have tried several auto shops. Automotive Specialist is the best shop I have found in Round Rock.

OK, did my first review on this place about a year ago; time for an update. These guys STILL ROCK!! Every time I go here, service, attitude, pricing, and work are superb. I'd drive for hours to take my car here (assuming I could actually drive for hours when repairs were needed...) Everything I said the first time still stands. They're professionall, totally honest, super helpful, as fast as I'd want anyone to be. Not for the first time, the actual cost of work performed was less than the estimate (in this instance, estimate of $80-100, actual $63 and change.) This is a superb outfit, hands-down, from the folks doing the work, to the service writers, to the outstanding shuttle driver. Top marks.

There's not another shop in town I'd bother recommending. I know my way around under the hood of a car, but when there's something I can't fix or don't want to fix, this is the only place I bother taking any of my cars. I know the guys will accurately diagnose the problem, fix it properly, and they'll charge me a reasonable price for it. That's pretty hard to find in any shop. The story that really sold me was when I sent my mother down to their shop several years ago. She was in from way out of town, and was having some problems with her car that I couldn't figure out. Plus, it was intermittent, so that made it even more difficult to diagnose. I told her to go down to JC Auto and to tell them that I sent her down there -- thinking that they at least know who I am, so they'll treat her a little better than some out of town stranger who just rolled in off the street. Not that I doubted them to treat her right regardless, but this is my *mom*, I've got to look out for her. Of course, she doesn't do that. She just rolls in and says she's having problems and doesn't know the first thing about cars and she's scared about driving it home. All the things you're *not* supposed to do! So, they put her car on a lift and accurately diagnose the problem. They then tell her that they don't have the part in stock, and can't fix the car today, but there's no reason she can't drive it home safely and what to expect from the car if she does. They also give her part numbers and complete workup of what's wrong and how much it should cost so she can take that to her mechanic at home and know that she's getting a fair deal. Then they took her car down off the lift and didn't even charge her a diagnostic fee before sending her on her way. This was someone they really could have taken advantage of with seemingly no repercussions and it never crossed their mind to treat her any differently than their best customers. I'm sold, and there's not another shop in town I'd recommend or use.

I wish I could give -50 stars to counter all the reviews planted by employees. If you have a half a brain, it should be pretty obvious to you that most, if not all, of these 5 star reviews are fake. First of all, this is just a little garage that nobody's ever heard of, yet they have 5x as many reviews as national chains? Think about it. Second, just take your car there and see for yourself. This place is a catastrophe, to a point of being cliché. Bad diagnosis, ignorant employees that don't care about anything, mechanics that lie about everything, sky high prices. And that was just for me to get an ESTIMATE. For whatever reason, if you should decide to take your car to this "business," PLEASE, make sure to get a LINE ITEM quote on paper, so you can see why their prices are nearly double, compared to everywhere else. Then ask them why they have a 30%+ markup over dealership prices on their parts. Ask them what those little $48 and $125 charges here and there are for. Ask them what the "extra fees" section means. Then go somewhere else and get it done for half the price in half the time.