Ragusa's Auto Repair

Got a headlight bulb replaced from them, which was overcharged at $20, others were charging $10 or $15 in port Washington. The bulb burned out in two weeks. Never going there again. For whatever reason, this place creates work for themselves, and then overcharges. I would not recommend leaving your car at Ragusa's unattended.

a) Part markups are too high -- this is in reference to an American car (Jeep) with parts that are common to at least two different models and very easy and inexpensive to obtain.

b) Labor times are inflated -- as an amateur mechanic I could have performed the same service in less time.

c) They _may_ have damaged my sister's car in the process of servicing it, and then made shoddy repairs to the damaged parts.

Anecdote follows. Take it for what it's worth, my opinion:

My sister drove out to NY from CA to visit, and had her car serviced at Ragusa's while she was in town for a month. She'd had good experience with them in the past, when they were under different ownership.

I do all work on my cars myself, and she owns a very similar Jeep to one of my own. I was appalled at the cost of parts at Ragusa's and the labor billed. As an amateur mechanic, I can do a radiator flush and fill in under 2 hours on a Jeep; they billed for 3.5 hours. A new serpentine belt cost her $85 at Ragusa's. I paid about $35 for a quality belt that has lasted me 60K miles (and still going).

Cost aside, when I looked at her engine compartment immediately after servicing, I noticed that her two headlights and grill were loose. The plastic assembly that holds those parts to the front end was cracked in numerous places. However, there was no damage to her bumper, grill, or headlights (hence not the result of a front-end collision -- she has never had one anyhow).

There was a small, postage-stamp-sized piece of plastic that had been part of the plastic assembly, and it was just sitting on top of the area in front of the radiator cowling. That piece would have fallen out of the engine compartment and been lost had the damage not just occurred -- I was surprised it hadn't slid off on the way home from the mechanic.

When confronted with the damage in the area in which they had just worked (they were working on the radiator which is partially surrounded by the broken assembly), the mechanic refused to admit responsibility, and just zip-tied the components back together.

I know that this review is a bit anecdotal, and of course I can offer no proof that they caused damage, but I do not like the way in which they conduct business, neither in price, value, nor customer service.

They used parts of decent (though not top) quality. Only time will tell if their work is of quality.