AAMCO Transmissions review: beware of quotes

On 10/4/2010 my 2003 Honda Odyssey was in the shop at a Honda dealership. I was told that it needed a new transmission and quoted a price of $4, 500. The van was not worth spending that amount of money so I called the Aamco located at 1904 East FM 1960 Bypass in Humble, TX. I spoke with Jay. He was friendly, courteous, and seemed to be familiar with the Odyssey transmissions. I told Jay the problem I was having and the diagnosis I had received from the Honda Dealership. I asked him what I was looking at in a worse case scenario for a complete rebuild and was told it would be around $2000.

On 10/5/2010 I picked my van up from the Honda dealership and drove it to Aamco. Jay was not there so I spoke with George when I dropped it off. George said that Jay had told him that I was coming in. George called me later in the day and said he needed to remove the transmission. It would cost $475 for diagnosis if I decided not to fix it. Since Jay had told me it would be around $2000 I gave George the authorization to disassemble the transmission. George called me back at about 4:30 and told me it would cost $3600 to rebuild my transmission. I asked George why it was so much more than Jay had told me and he said that it had a different transmission. Jay did not disclose to me that the Odyssey could have more than one transmission and that the price would be different. I told George to hold off and I would call him the next day.

On 10/6/2010 I called George and informed him that I was not happy and felt that I had been dealt with dishonestly. I stated that had I been told the correct cost I would not have allowed them to remove the transmission. George told me that if I picked the van up I owed $475 and the transmission would be disassembled in a box. He said he could do the rebuild for $3242 but could not go any lower than that. George stated that he couldn't discount the labor ($1543.82) and had to make at least 29% profit on the parts.

After doing some research I felt trapped. If I picked the van up I would have to pay $475, have it towed, and pay someone else to rebuild a transmission that they did not disassemble. I also investigated selling the van as-is but discovered that it was worth more with a bad transmission than with the transmission removed. I called George back and told him to go ahead and repair the van for $3242.

On 10/08/10 I picked the van up. George did give me the 3yr/36k mile warranty which I appreciate. However, I would not have done the repair had I known it would cost so much. I feel i was dealt with dishonestly by this Aamco and trapped into paying more once the transmission was removed and I had few other options.