Customers Honor Automotive Professionals For Integrity

With their truck in the background, from left, customers Peter and Olivia Hakel, Automotive Professionals co-owner Jordan Durose and Olivia’s parents Russell and Mary Anderson with the 2020 Champion of Guaranteed Quality of Service trophy presented Friday to Durose. Photo by Kirsten Laskey/ladailypost.com

STAFF REPORT:

About a year ago, Automotive Professionals co-owner Jordan Durose serviced Los Alamos resident Olivia Hakel’s 1996 F350 7.3L Diesel Dually pickup.

Durose did such a good job that Olivia, her husband Peter and her parents Russell and Mary Anderson decided to thank him in a unique way and Friday presented him with a special-made trophy that honors him as the “2020 Champion of Guaranteed Quality Service”.

Russell said his family are longtime customers of Automotive Professionals at 99 DP Road. For at least seven years, Automotive Professionals has exclusively worked on Oliva’s pickup truck, he said. Russell said, adding that Oliva uses the truck to support the needs of her horses, which she maintains at a local stable.

About a year ago, when the truck had about 195,000 miles on it, Olivia brought the F350 back to Automotive Professionals for service. During inspection they found that the automatic transmission’s pan gasket had a slight leak, Russell said. After further inspection the shop determined that several of the pan bolts had “stripped-out” their aluminum body housing retaining threads. They accomplished their recommended fix by installing helicoils for the pan attachment bolts. The transmission functioned correctly after the shop’s repair work was completed.

Russell said Olivia drove the F350 from Los Alamos to Albuquerque and back and discovered that the transmission was starting to shift “roughly” so  returned the F350 to Automotive Professionals. Russell said they were surprised to find that the helicoil installation was faulty and that a major transmission oil leak had occurred, which caused the transmission to run extremely low on oil and shift roughly and incorrectly.

Automotive Professionals repaired the faulty helicoil installation, stopped the big leaks; filled the oil back up to correct operational levels and the transmissions began to once again shift properly, Russell said. Then a transmission dash warning light came on and once again the transmission began to shift roughly as apparently a major operational failure had occurred.

The automatic transmission no longer functioned properly and apparently the transmission now needed a major repair for damage possibly caused by the loss of oil and oil pressure.

Russell said Durose ended up removing the automatic transmission, replaced the expensive damaged torque converter and completely serviced the “old” transmission at no charge to Olivia or her family. Russell said he estimates that a charge for such a repair could normally exceed $1,100.

“We believe that most repair shops would have told our family to ‘take a hike,’” Russell said. “After all, the truck was almost 24 years old and had almost 200,000 miles on it.”

Durose said he just did what he would have expected an auto repair business to do for him if he was in Olivia’s shoes.

Durose has co-owned Automotive Professionals for four years. The business was previously owned by Mike Cutler for 20 years. Russell said Cutler worked to keep his business reputation and the quality of work high and Durose has carried on that tradition.

Automotive Professionals can be reached at 505.662.6929.

Search
LOS ALAMOS

ladailypost.com website support locally by OviNuppi Systems