Gary's Independent Subaru Service Gary's Subaru Repair I agree, was a Ripoff for me too. Eugene Oregon

My experience with Gary was quite awhile ago, probably 15 years or so.  He was very nice when I took my car in, even somewhat charming.  I did notice he spoke quite unpleasantly to his worker, who looked miserable, and throughout my dealings for that repair was the only one doing any work.  I  always feel indicators like that speak to a person's general integrity, so although for that repair, I felt a little overcharged, not too much, and the work seemed OK, I did come back for another issue.  This time, I called and he said if I came in the next 20 min. he would take a quick look for free before he left.  It was very clear about the no-charge part.   A diagnosis at that time was $60, and included in the price of the repair if he did the work.  So we ran over to his shop, he looked under the hood for about 2 minutes, said let's go for a spin, he drove around equivalent of 2-3 blocks, was very rough with the car, jamming it into gear, etc., and went back to his shop.  That was approximately 7 min.  Then he spent another 5-10 chatting about his property in Veneta, his house, his dog, etc.; all things about himself.   We said ok, thanks and left.   There was no real conclusion about the car's problem.  I was surprised to get a bill from him for $80.00 in the mail the next week, for diagnosis.  I called and reminded him that he's said no charge for that quick look.  I got very aggressive and said he would never say that, etc., and made threats if we didn't pay him.  I said sorry, if he'd be OK with $20, which seemed more than fair to me, we could both let it go.  That was definitely no OK with him.  I didn't pay, and got threatening phone calls and a couple letters for more than a year.  He's just not a nice person to deal with.  I called a few times over the years for a quote on a specific repair out of curiosity and he was always $1-200 more than anyone else.  I've also talked to a number of people who had bad experiences with him or knew people who did.  Some of this was from other mechanics and parts people.  So don't go to Gary.