I brought my car to Foreign Autohaus to correct an oil leak and a reddish brown fluid leak. Foreign Autohaus inspected my car and itemized a number of repairs that would be needed to correct the oil leak and reddish brown fluid leak. Foreign Autohaus charged me $125.54 to repair the oil leak and $355.70 to repair the reddish brown fluid leak which they attributed to a Power Steering Line leak.
Days after they returned the car to me I noticed the same oil and reddish brown fluid on my garage floor underneath the car. The same area where my car had been leaking before Foreign Autohaus worked on it. I called Foreign Autohaus to tell them about the leaks and they asked me to bring the car in.
After keeping the car for an entire day, Foreign Autohaus told me I’d have to pay them another $870 to fix the oil leak and $529.64 to correct the reddish brown fluid leak that they now were calling a ""transmission cooler line leak"" (both jobs totaling $1,402.65). When I challenged this new cost, and reminded them I had already paid them for to fix these two problems they said “these leaks are hard to find and fix.” I told them this was unacceptable and I again asked them to fix oil leak and a reddish brown fluid leak under their warranty.. They refused.
At this point I decided to get a second opinion from another repair shop. The second shop inspected my car and found the oil leak was due to a faulty Oil Filter Stand Gasket ( a $5.76 part), and the reddish brown fluid leak that Foreign Autohaus had failed to fix was still emanating from the Power Steering Lines. Upon further inspection, the second shop found some troubling things. The Power Steering lines worked on by Foreign Autohaus were installed incorrectly, one line was missing a gasket and the other had the WRONG gasket, a green A/C gasket, in the place of what should have been a proper Power Steering line gasket. Once proper gaskets were installed in the power steering lines and Oil Filter Stand the leaks stopped. My car is now free from oil and power steering leaks. My total cost to do both jobs was $421.47. Foreign Autohaus was paid $481.24 and did not stop the leaks, and, they requested another $1,402.65 to do more unnecessary work. At best their actions were disingenuous, more likely, fraudulent.
A few days after the second shop fixed my car, I brought it back to Foreign Autohaus to have them finish a window repair that I’d previously paid for. When I picked up my car I spoke to “Nico” about my concerns regarding the oil and power steering leaks and the money I had paid them. I asked for a refund of the $355.70 for the power steering leak they charged me for but did not fix. I did not ask for reimbursement of the money paid to fix the oil leak in an attempt to compromise in the hopes that they would agree. Nico told me he would talk to his supervisor and call me. After a few hours with no call from Nico, I called Foreign Autohaus. Nico passed me off to someone named “Cam”, who identified himself as the manager. Cam told me that they would not make any refund to me as I had not brought the car back to them to give them another opportunity to fix it. Clearly, this is not correct; I had brought the car back, left it with them for the entire working day, giving Foreign Autohaus a chance to warranty their work. Which they did not do, instead, they wanted to charge me an additional $1,402.65 in repairs to do the job again.
I have filed a complaint with the Bureau of Automotive Repairs to investigate Foreign Autohaus. Beware of this shop, my experience with them was awful and I’m posting this to protect others from the shabby and fraudulent treatment I received from Foreign Autohaus. They are every car owner's worst nightmare.
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