This is a long review but if you're thinking of going to Platt's take the time to read it, it will help you deal with Ed more effectively and may save you some money.
I've had Ed work on my 2 of my cars 4-5 times over 2 years. Overall I think he and his guys are competent mechanics but each time the repairs cost considerably more than the initial estimate, with the most recent time being pretty spectacular:
When the emissions on one of my cars was expiring, Ed offered to run it through his machine for free to let me know if it would pass. He did that and told me it barely passed on hydrocarbons when he did the test. I felt bad that he did this for me as a favor, so I told him to go ahead and do a private emissions test on it for $70, rather me risking the free test at the DMV. I also told him, in front of a couple of his guys, that given the age of the car and the fact that it is rarely used, I could register it as a historical vehicle for $40 and never do emissions on it. So it should have been completely clear to him that I did not want to spend over $70 for this work.
As a sidenote, he also ended up identifying a couple of other things that needed to be fixed on the car such as changing a few belts and a replacing a missing nut which I agreed to pay for, these delayed the process and cost more than I expected as well, but they are beside the point.
Back to the emissions work, Ed did several tests including a smoke test and a compression test to try to get it to pass, despite the fact that when I gave it to him, he told me that it had passed at least once. He did not tell me that these were intense time consuming tests, he did not tell me I was being charged for these. When I called to get an update and asked about the tab, he said he'd add it up later and explicitly did not tell me that hours were being added for this work. I think this was deceitful. Be careful if you have him do work for you, get him to commit to a number of hours for a task or a budget and have him call you the minute it exceeds to try to mitigate this risk.
The most egregious charge however, was that Ed decided to do an oil change on the car despite the fact that I did one a few hundred miles prior. Still, what's the big deal, this is just a mechanic going the extra mile right? He charged me $108 for this oil change because he used racing oil. I have never heard of racing oil, I have never heard of a $108 oil change. There is an oil change price board in the shop, none of those prices approach $108. I asked Ed and he tried unsuccessfully to fold the numbers ($11/quart, 5 quarts, ~$10 oil filter) into $108 but could not. I think Ed tried to reallocate some other costs to this oil change. I think doing the oil change without asking me was wrong, but trying to charge me $108 for it was infuriating.
He did the same exact thing with the spark plugs. On the recommendation of a shop that specializes in these cars, I very recently installed Bosch platinum plugs. Ed took those plugs out, with only 100 miles on them, and replaced them with copper spark plugs that he thought were better for the car. Maybe it's a matter of opinion, so I just asked him to just undo this and put mine back. He did not do this before I picked up the car and billed me for the plugs.
However, I will also say that the shop works longer hours than almost any I have spoken with, Ed is always reachable, he picked up the phone once when I called at 11pm to leave a message that i dropped off the car, and they seem to treat cars with respect, using paper floor mats and he got my car washed once when it was very dirty (as part of a $600 bill so I'm not sure it's chivalry, but it was a nice touch).
Now to the bill, Ed flatly refused to tell me the price over the phone despite the fact that I intended to pay over the phone and pick up the car after they closed. He demanded that I come in person. So I drove an hour each way to the shop and started walking through a bill that appeared to at least 10x what I agreed to pay for the emissions work. When I argued the points above, to his credit, Ed did right by me and reduced the bill to the $70 emission work plus the belts and other unrelated work that he did. However, I think he did this because it was crystal clear that I did not authorize him to do any of the other work he was trying to charge me for. If this wasn't the 4th time I got a very big bill for not very much work, I would have probably bit my lip and paid it though, and I expect that many first time customers would just pay it as well.
The bottom line - be vigilant with the scope of work and tab, this place cannot be cheap. I do think that they do good work, but Ed is a shrewd guy and he will figure out a way to make you pay up. My advice is if getting a good value on your repairs is near the top of your list of priorities, go somewhere or else be on top of the costs as the rack up and scrutinize the bill very carefully at Platt's
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I've had Ed work on my 2 of my cars 4-5 times over 2 years. Overall I think he and his guys are competent mechanics but each time the repairs cost considerably more than the initial estimate, with the most recent time being pretty spectacular:
When the emissions on one of my cars was expiring, Ed offered to run it through his machine for free to let me know if it would pass. He did that and told me it barely passed on hydrocarbons when he did the test. I felt bad that he did this for me as a favor, so I told him to go ahead and do a private emissions test on it for $70, rather me risking the free test at the DMV. I also told him, in front of a couple of his guys, that given the age of the car and the fact that it is rarely used, I could register it as a historical vehicle for $40 and never do emissions on it. So it should have been completely clear to him that I did not want to spend over $70 for this work.
As a sidenote, he also ended up identifying a couple of other things that needed to be fixed on the car such as changing a few belts and a replacing a missing nut which I agreed to pay for, these delayed the process and cost more than I expected as well, but they are beside the point.
Back to the emissions work, Ed did several tests including a smoke test and a compression test to try to get it to pass, despite the fact that when I gave it to him, he told me that it had passed at least once. He did not tell me that these were intense time consuming tests, he did not tell me I was being charged for these. When I called to get an update and asked about the tab, he said he'd add it up later and explicitly did not tell me that hours were being added for this work. I think this was deceitful. Be careful if you have him do work for you, get him to commit to a number of hours for a task or a budget and have him call you the minute it exceeds to try to mitigate this risk.
The most egregious charge however, was that Ed decided to do an oil change on the car despite the fact that I did one a few hundred miles prior. Still, what's the big deal, this is just a mechanic going the extra mile right? He charged me $108 for this oil change because he used racing oil. I have never heard of racing oil, I have never heard of a $108 oil change. There is an oil change price board in the shop, none of those prices approach $108. I asked Ed and he tried unsuccessfully to fold the numbers ($11/quart, 5 quarts, ~$10 oil filter) into $108 but could not. I think Ed tried to reallocate some other costs to this oil change. I think doing the oil change without asking me was wrong, but trying to charge me $108 for it was infuriating.
He did the same exact thing with the spark plugs. On the recommendation of a shop that specializes in these cars, I very recently installed Bosch platinum plugs. Ed took those plugs out, with only 100 miles on them, and replaced them with copper spark plugs that he thought were better for the car. Maybe it's a matter of opinion, so I just asked him to just undo this and put mine back. He did not do this before I picked up the car and billed me for the plugs.
However, I will also say that the shop works longer hours than almost any I have spoken with, Ed is always reachable, he picked up the phone once when I called at 11pm to leave a message that i dropped off the car, and they seem to treat cars with respect, using paper floor mats and he got my car washed once when it was very dirty (as part of a $600 bill so I'm not sure it's chivalry, but it was a nice touch).
Now to the bill, Ed flatly refused to tell me the price over the phone despite the fact that I intended to pay over the phone and pick up the car after they closed. He demanded that I come in person. So I drove an hour each way to the shop and started walking through a bill that appeared to at least 10x what I agreed to pay for the emissions work. When I argued the points above, to his credit, Ed did right by me and reduced the bill to the $70 emission work plus the belts and other unrelated work that he did. However, I think he did this because it was crystal clear that I did not authorize him to do any of the other work he was trying to charge me for. If this wasn't the 4th time I got a very big bill for not very much work, I would have probably bit my lip and paid it though, and I expect that many first time customers would just pay it as well.
The bottom line - be vigilant with the scope of work and tab, this place cannot be cheap. I do think that they do good work, but Ed is a shrewd guy and he will figure out a way to make you pay up. My advice is if getting a good value on your repairs is near the top of your list of priorities, go somewhere or else be on top of the costs as the rack up and scrutinize the bill very carefully at Platt's