Unclaimed
Sterling Hot Rods Reviews
34K
CLAIMED LOSSES
8
TOTAL REVIEWS
3.2K
PAGE VIEWS
Sterling Hot Rods Reviews
New Reviewer
Very poor workmanship and business ethic
Original review updated by user Apr 21, 2022
Very poor workmanship and business ethic. Buyer beware! Nearly $22,000 dollars and a great deal of frustration later, I have a painted 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge. I am very UNHAPPY with my experience with Sterling Hot Rods of Sterling Virginia and HIGHLY recommend anyone...
ID
Cons
- Horrible workmanship
- Terrible customer service after you are committed
- Unreasonably high cost and practice of cost-creep
Loss
$22000
New Reviewer
Be Careful
Be careful at this place. I was initially won over by all the classic cars I saw at the shop, thinking the claims on their website were legit. Now I think all the positive reviews were probably for minors repairs and not big jobs like they advertise. I had a big job and the mechanical side of the shop charged me double the initial estimate. They did lower their labor rate after I mentioned the significant underestimate but they just did additional work I did not request to make up the difference. They also damaged parts of my car and didn't offer to fix their mistakes. And the solutions they offered always required more labor than more simple cost-effective ones. I was looking forward to working with the body side of the shop but ultimately because of my experience with the mechanical side, I will taking my business elsewhere.
ID
Location
Dulles, Virginia
Service
Sterling Hot Rods Car Repair
Pros
- All services are offered
Cons
- Estimates are half
Reason of review
Pricing issue
Preferred solution
Let the company propose a solution
Classic Nightmare
After you have paid them and attempting to get what “should be a warranty repair “ they will charge. Even after merging the new partnership will not honor Sterling Hotrod work. You will waste time and money using this shop.
ID
Location
Washington, District Of Columbia
RUN LIKE ***
Beware.....Run as fast as you can. If I was you I would not use this company for any work. Even if I had bathrooms to clean I would find someone else to do the work. The workers have no idea what they are doing and Tom and Billy truly have no idea how to build or rebuild a car or truck. I have receipts of the work they did and I let another reputable company look at what they did and they looked at me and said "you paid for this?"
1 comment
ID
Location
Reston, Virginia
Reason of review
Bad quality
Loss
$10000
Preferred solution
Price reduction
Save Yourself Some Heartburn
Got a great buy on a pro street style 67 pick-up which had a leaking rear axle seal! I didn’t have the time or space to change the seal and the carb lagged upon heavy acceleration so off to Sterling Hot Rods I went. Tom, the owner, estimated a couple hours labor plus a few parts for the job. They first called to tell me the wheel mounting flange on the axle housing needed welding to address the leak and the shock mount need to be moved. As well the distributor needed replacing to address the lag. I agreed to have the work done. The next call was about the truck needing plugs, wires, new air cleaner, and some tuning to address the lag, I agreed to that. The calls kept coming with the last being about an oil pan leak they found while they were buttoning everything up so I agreed to that as well. Finally the original estimate of a few hours turned out to be a $3600.00 bill. But here’s the part that really ticks me off. After I paid the $$$$, I got the truck home and………… you guessed it…….. the rear axle housing still leaked, the motor still lagged, and the oil pan still dripped! Hope this info saves the next guy some heartburn.
ID
Location
Leesburg, Virginia
Reason of review
Bad quality
Preferred solution
Let the company propose a solution
Sterling Hot Rods - rip off
I would not trust Tom or Matt with any project every again. You be the judge. They will give you a quote just to earn the business. They will begin the work and then offer you an over / under report to show you how your build is going and when its time to pick up your car and pay the bill, it is thousands of dollars above what the estimate was and what change orders were. Total Shock! Matt's answer to me when I questioned the bill was, "You either pay the bill or I will keep your car and then charge you storage until you do". Here is a quote from Tom when I inquired on why we were off target: "I'll have Matt or Billy call you to discuss the details, I'm out of the detail loop on this one." Obviously he doesn't care to be involved in your job. They will turn your project into being their project and charge you for whatever work they do - even if you didn't approve the change order. I should have went to Joel Ross at CedarPark
ID
Location
Sterling, Virginia
Loss
$2000
Use cheap as way to lure you in.
I have owned a lot of cars and it is very tough to find honest people that do good work on them. I thought these guys were different, but of course I guess I was wrong. They use cork gaskets to stop leaks ! WTF! did a bunch of test with no results and charge you as you go, did not fix my problem, turned out I needed a new distributor. A distributor! this is 101 mechanic stuff. would not use them again, would not reccomend, they also take a long time, nice personalities, but money and billing seems to be the plan. charge way too much! outrageous!
3 comments
ID
Location
Washington, District Of Columbia
New Reviewer
Poor Work
We had a good amount work done on my dad's ride. Bad: long, long turnaround time, and we had to take the ride back a more than a couple of times to get things corrected. It took quite a bit of scheduling to get back into to get the shop to make the right fixes. There was a lack of attention to details on much of the work and it looked rushed in several areas. The plus was that they admitted making mistakes, just too busy to give her a through after project review, walk-around, and test drive. The shop seemed overwhelmed with projects and was much cluttered. This might explain the difficulty in paying attention to details and not getting things right the first or second time. Dad tried to get back in for a small job, but they now said that they were on to big projects. Dad had spent every penny and there was nothing left for them to take. His priority dropped. He doesn't know what else to do. Good: pleasant employees who seemed knowledgeable. I forgot to find out if any were ASE certified, but it likely does not apply. Place is overwhelmed with business as are many of the few shops that work on the old ones. They let the floor get filled with work and then may spend an hour or so each day or whenever they can. If ya tell them when you are coming, as Da did, they were seemingly working on his ride, but if you dropped in by surprise, NOT so. I ended up taking it to a shop in Fairfax to finally get things done. Nothing left for them to take.
2 comments
ID
Location
Germantown, Maryland
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Sterling Hot Rods
Where did you take it after Sterling Hot Rods? I have a classic card that really needs work.