Ok – this is a full review of my experience with Dr Nicks in Milford. It was kind of luck (and I consider it luck) that I found them. I have a mechanic that I use in my area (I am 20 minutes away from Milford) that does my oil changes, brakes, battery, etc. – general basic to moderate repairs. He recognizes that transmissions are way out of their range so he punted after diagnosing the issue was going to be transmission related. He does recommend a transmission mechanic in the area but this was literally the day after the tornadoes hit CT and the area he is located was out of power so I did a google search. I read through many reviews and most had some level of good experiences and not so good experiences except for Dr Nicks – they appeared to have universally consistent good reviews. Free estimates – what the heck – I gave it a shot. I am glad I did in the end. Honestly, I started getting worried in the beginning as they called the first day and said they really could not diagnose properly without taking things apart – the issue is the transfer case to transmission connection. They asked for authorization for 1-2 hours of labor to drain the transfer case and transmission to see if they can see some shavings and determine if it was the transfer case, transmission, or both. I figured that would need to be done by anyone so I authorized the hours. But I could not help but begin to worry about incurring a lot of expense before the repair event itself. A few days later, they came back and said there are shavings in the transmission fluid. Darn! They needed to take both the transfer case and transmission down to see specifically where the issue was. That would take 3 hours of labor – I thought: my god – 5 hours before the potential repair even began? - before I could express that, Nick said since I had already had 2 hours, they would only ask for 1 more and get everything off and make the final diagnosis. This was positive good will considering the situation. Long story short – splines on the transmission drive shaft were shot. They could not get the part itself so the only option was to replace the transmission. My car is old with high mileage so they sourced a used transmission. Not going to lie, the price fully installed was not cheap – and we were starting to get into “is it worth it territory”. I decided to go for the repair – fingers crossed. They called a few days later to tell me the car was done and they even noticed another issue that they repaired with just charging for the part and no labor! That was really cool. After about a week, I can say the car is running great. I have no issues with the work – no issues with Dr Nicks – I can fully recommend them. They treated me like a long-time customer even though I basically walked in off the street. I will come back even though they are a bit of a haul in terms of location – but a trustworthy mechanic is priceless.
Thank You Greg!
- Dr. Nick's Transmission - Milford