Samford Garage

The worste Mechanic shop I have ever used. Had timing belt replaced, work took 1 week rather than the 1 day job I was told. work cost 3 x the quoted price and ended up at the same cost as a dealership price and many parts the dealership quoted to replace were not done.Vehicle was returned with engine covers loose ,parts missing and damage to components. Work paid for has now needed to be redone through another mechanic.The company has zero skill, zero care and zero commmunication. I would never use them again, and any one else I know that has used them wouldn't either.One star is generous.

I recently bought a 200 series that had a roadworthy and lots of work supposedly by this garage. This work needs to be re-done and the roadworthy would not pass any other mechanic shop that was honest and reputable.

[update - CX-7 written off] Basically it would’ve been a leak behind the manifold - and the power steering was the fluid pump all along.Long story short, within a year one Mazda CX-7 has cost us ~ $8000 in repairs. Let me preface, of course Mazda CX-7 can be notoriously demanding but as time went on and sunken cost fallacy became apparent, blame is beginning to fall on the mechanic, at least they should’ve identified these problems upon first inspection - at worst they have been causing damage with sub-optimal repairs.Long story.It would’ve been nice around 10 months ago when they charged for the first “full” inspection to pick up all the problems that trickled one after the other over the rest of the year.It started with a regular service and recommended needing new struts. We got gasket and tyres done too, ~$3k with service.Engine light came on shortly after that. They said it was the sensors and didn’t need replacing! Ok cool let’s go with that we thought.The engine was sounding bad and losing oil fast, had to get RACQ to help my wife out. It’s got a leak.Bring it in turns out timing chain was damaging engine, replace timing chain and few ancillary parts. ~$2k. Ask for sensors too to get engine light off, say they take a while to order. Engine error check light cleared. Then came back on after a day…That’s around when THE POWER STEERING CUT OFF ON WINDY ROADS WHILE MY WIFE DROVE MY SON AROUND CORNERS!Bring it in and tell them my wife has anxiety driving the car now, please remedy the problem. They said the o-ring wasn’t replaced properly, said they fixed it free of charge. Next thing that week power steering CUT OUT AGAIN while I drove to work! I tried bleeding it for 10 minutes but it was still cutting out.Wife took it in and they said sorry they must’ve forgotten to bleed it or check the line, TWICE! When wife made clear that was NOT OKAY. She felt they laughed her off.Ok power steering works but now it’s losing oil and doing some tougher sounds. Loses oil, RACQ says leaks. So garaged gets engine mount done ~$1k.After that engine light is STILL on, and now due to the weird idling and engine revs from pick up, RACQ says it’s an exhaust problem. (At this point our suspicions started to become outrage). All within a week from doing engine mount, the exhaust apparently needs re-seating and/or replacing to be told “it must’ve happened on the road since we fixed the engine, wasn’t us” Then they told us they are unable to do the exhaust because it’s beyond their ability.My thoughts? You’ve bled is dry and after flippant inspections after repeated engine fixes within a year, you’ve realised you didn’t actually know how to do exhaust properly and as such you refuse to repair it (even when we were willing to pay $$$), perhaps the wisest advise thus far. The inability to repair the exhaust issue or correctly bleed steering fluid line is consistent with the inability to correctly identify problems before they caused further damage. Whether it’s stoner/inexperienced trade assistance, careless attitudes, unmanageable workloads, or something else, behind the customer service and reassuring smiles are dodgy practices that burnt our savings and almost killed my son and wife TWICE.I will accept an apology and attempt to remedy this experience, otherwise expect a letter of demand with attached professional assessments and complaints to ombudsman.

I appreciate honesty, even if I don’t like to hear what is being said. Unfortunately, these people aren’t honest, and don’t have the guts to speak their truth. I’m well aware they have a high standard, but doesn’t mean they respect their customers. They are more interested in sales then genuine service and advice. I used them several times over the years, even though I was recommended to avoid them… and I really should have listened. Oh well, the benefit of the doubt has now been exhausted.Here’s the kicker. I came in for a RWC. But after I got the RWC, within a week, all sorts of things started to go wrong, and the vehicle became remarkably unsafe to drive. Now I struggle to understand whether they actually inspected it at all. Whether “safety certificate” means anything to them. Go elsewhere.

After spending over $5,000 at Samford Garage to rectify a coolant issue, not once, but twice, the problem is still not fixed and I am left with an undrivable car. This is the worst mechanic I have ever experienced. Do not use them.

My Forester had the clutch changed here with the previous owner. I took the car back to Samford Garage after the previous owner disclosed where the change was done, as the car had clutch shudder within 5000kms of it's installation, when I bought it. Samford Garage weren't much help in trying to rectify the situation, and palmed the job to my usual mechanic as I had gotten their second opinion. Samford Garage said they'd cover it under warranty which wasn't going to pay for labour for my regular mechanic, with no intentions of trying to help and fix it themselves. Turns out Samford Garage installed a cheap clutch, and machined the flywheel, which I've been told is not meant to be done on 2012 Forester's. This caused hotspots on the fly wheel, leading to the clutch shudder. $2200 out of my pocket due to their incompetence. The lack of knowledge and care shown by Samford Garage was quite disappointing. Judging by other reviews, they've not got a great reputation.

Booked vehicle in for a pre purchase inspection and was quoted $150. Received a call to say the vehicle was good to pick up and was a good clean vehicle. Get there and asked a few questions on probable problems we thought including a cracked windscreen, major rust, doors not locking and others they came back and said they must of missed it. NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Then to get a bill for $220 for a job they quoted @ $150 and only did half a job if that.Definitely would not recommend if you want trust.If they had negative stars for a review it would be a negative 5.

I am pleased that many years ago I took the plunge and went for the local guys who compete using something other than cheapest" as their differentiator.Personable

Disappointing service. Had my car booked in for a small job. Had no call throughout the day regarding a quote. I had to phone 8 hours after dropping my car off to follow up. The job hadn’t been done, then when I went to pick it up they basically said they ran out of time. They said it wasn’t dangerous that I didn’t get it fixed and asked if I could just come back another day. I felt very dismissed and that my small job wasn’t important to them.