I rarely take the time to post an online review, but I was so pleased by the great service I received at Allen's Automotive I felt that I should. Some background - I was passing through Memphis en route from Georgia to Colorado with my truckcamper RV when the boost on my turbocharger disappeared. My truck is a 1998 Dodge Ram 2500 with the Cummins Diesel engine. Without the turbocharger you will be way down on power -- with a camper in the bed you cannot proceed and need to get it corrected. I first went to another service shop. They told me that my engine was shot and needed to be rebuilt or replaced to the tune of $10K-$12K. Shellshocked and stranded, I called around to find a shop that could do the work. I happened to call Allen and asked him to find me a replacement engine. It was tough to source one. He called me back at the end of the day and said he was still working on it. At that time he asked about the previous diagnosis -- after a bit of discussion he questioned the diagnosis and asked me to bring my truck to his shop the next morning. I arrived at 9am and Allen went to work with his techs. It turns out my truck doesn't even have the original turbo -- a previous owner had "hot rodded" the truck with a non-standard turbo that didn't even have a wastegate. This caused lots of head scratching but Allen persisted. (I had nowhere to go so I was in his office the whole time.) He researched the turbo and called some turbo expert friends when he hit a roadblock. Anyway he and his staff kept digging and eventually discovered that the intercooler intake pipe had become disconnected, hence no boost. I had to pay for a few hours of diagnostic time but that is a fraction of what this would have cost if I had to replace the engine. And, it also would have been easy for him to just say "you need a new turbo" (to the tune of $2-3K), put in the new turbo, discover the disconnected pipe at that time, and still charge the customer for the unneeded turbo. But I found that Allen doesn't operate that way -- he doesn't "throw parts" at a problem -- he wants to figure out the cause of the problem before he figures out the fix. This is getting too lengthy....Bottom line if you are in the area and need your car repaired I would strongly recommend the staff and owner at Allen's Automotive.
Thank you so much. We work real hard to do the right fix on every vehicle that we are blessed to work on. Sure. would love a 12 k sale but not when it is not needed. Thanks again Richard for you kind words and you trusting us on your vehicle needs. Thanks again Mr. Richard. Allen Oh Mr. Richard, Cutter, TC , Zac and myself want to thank you also for providing lunch for all of us. Very thoughtful of you and thank you so much !!! Allen
- Allen's Automotive Center