ATL Dealer / Shop Recommendations

[Derphound01]

As the title implies, I need recommendations for a competent Ford dealer or specialist in the Atlanta area. Preferably one in the north end of the area (Doraville, Norcross, Sandy Springs, Alpharetta, etc).

My Edge lost its transmission last week in rush hour traffic. It's a company vehicle and it has lived a hard life, so I can't put too much blame on it. I towed it to our office in Doraville for now and need to get the ball rolling on a diagnosis. Towing it back to Tennessee is likely not feasible, but I'll also take suggestions there if there are any.

Any recommendations?

 

[Irv]

"Competent Ford dealer"...I'm fairly convinced that those three words don't belong together.

High-Tech Transmission Service, Doraville, GA
Norcross Transmission Service, Norcross, GA

 

[Derphound01]

There's a few. Not many, but a few.

Appreciate the suggestions. Do you have any experience with them? The Doraville one is two blocks from my office where it is parked.

 

[Irv]

I've used High-Tech in the past for a rebuild, no issues. Norcross was recommended to me before, but I've never used them.

 

[Derphound01]

Duly noted. Any experience with Akins Ford? I've had a few people recommend them.

 

[Irv]

No experience with Akins Ford, although now that you mention them, I have heard some good things about them from someone I knew who was from nearby Winder. That was about 20 years ago though, back when I was complaining to him about how the Team Ford in Marietta (now AutoNation Ford Marietta) suspension techs were too dense to figure out how to adjust the Thunderbird's rear camber.

Also, I do not recommend Hennessy Ford nearby solely because they tried to upsell a bunch of completely unnecessary services with a simple manufacturer recall for a family member's Ford Escape.

 

[Derphound01]

Many thanks. I'll see what our maintenance department wants to do. We try to use the dealer but with 120k on the clock they may want to save some money.

 

[Irv]

No problem, and yeah, since it's a company car, perhaps the selection criteria is a little more relaxed if they prefer using a dealer's service center.

To add to what I said about Hennessy, I can't speak to their work as a service department because replacing a simple bushing under recall is not a meaningful indicator of their quality of work one way or another, but the attempted upsell was a major turnoff and I wouldn't have trusted them with my car.

 

[Derphound01]

I agree wholly. It's one thing to have them say "we found these concerns while we did the courtesy inspection and here's how it could affect your car".

It's another to say "you should do all these things because we say so (and don't want you getting out of here for free)".

When I was daily driving our GLI, I took it for an oil change while I was out of town. The dealer in Florida tried to sell me a fuel system cleaning at 120k miles. The price seemed too good to be true so I asked if it was a full intake removal with walnut blasting. He said it was just a solvent run through the manifold. I asked what they'd charge to walnut blast the valves and was told, "oh you'd have to schedule that weeks out, the oil change techs aren't qualified to do that".

My reply was, "well now I'm not sure they're qualified to change my oil".

 

[Derphound01]

I've used High-Tech in the past for a rebuild, no issues.

Gave them a call and will probably be sending it there this week. Thanks for the recommendation. The guy I spoke with definitely sounded like he knew what he was doing.

 

[Rodeo Joe]

My reply was, "well now I'm not sure they're qualified to change my oil".

What was their response?

Joe

 

[Derphound01]

What was their response?

Joe

By this point the oil change was done, so he just ignored my comment and had the car pulled around.