Oren's Automotive

My experience with this place was quite a shady one... I had my 2013 Hyundai Elantra up for sale and a very interested buyer wanted me to take my car here for a Pre-Purchase Inspection. He told me he knew the owner there (which I should have taken as a red flag since you are supposed to find a 3rd party mechanic to perform these), but I agreed knowing that there was nothing wrong with my car except for a few scratches on the bumpers. I told the potential buyer that I had never been in an accident. I disclosed that there was an incident where I scraped a curbside coming in too wide into a parking space and that the other scratches on front and back bumper were from people scuffing my car in parking lots. I felt like I had nothing to hide. As soon as I was contacted by one of Oren's mechanics telling me that the car was ready, I received a text from the potential buyer claiming that they after speaking to Oren they no longer wanted to purchase my car. I asked him why and he told me and I quote, "I suggest you take your car in to your own mechanic and have it thoroughly inspected"... I contacted Oren's Automotive and they started giving me the run-around. Claiming that they couldn't tell me what was wrong with my vehicle because I wasn't the one who paid for the inspection. I wasn't about to take this for an answer so I personally went over there and started talking to one of the mechanics. He finally divulged what it was that they discovered. He said, and I quote, "you're car was involved in a major front-end collision and there are a bunch of after-market parts under your hood that were probably replaced due to the accident". My jaw almost hit the floor... I explained that I had never been in any kind of major collisions and that the scrape on the bottom of my bumper was due to me scraping a curb... The "after-market" parts that they referred to were some fasteners and clips that had been replaced under warranty for a completely unrelated issue due to a faulty sensor. They completely sabotaged my sale and made me look like a liar to the potential buyer because now he thought that I had some kind of major accident that I didn't report. I later found another potential buyer who agreed to take my car into Firestone Tires for a Pre-Purchase Inspection which came out great and had no reports of any major front-end collisions or suspicious aftermarket parts under the hood. I ended up selling the car without an issue to the new buyer thanks to Firestone's honest inspection of my car. PLEASE SPEND YOUR MONEY ELSEWHERE. I will never recommend this place to anyone during my time living in Santa Barbara.