The Auto Depot

I bought a 2007 Civic from these guys here at the Auto Depot and they gave me a great warranty on my car. They totally rock! and I will buy my next car from them in the future. I highly recommend these guys. more

I have used Auto Depot for repair work in the past and was pleased. Recently my old fathful Saturn's clutch went out. I decided the time had come to buy a new car, but I didn't want my old friend to just end up in a junk yard. I sold it to Jim for a fair price knowing he will fix it up and sell to someone who will appreciate it like I did. On top of it all, he gives warranties on the cars he sells- unheard of these days! I will visit the next time one of my many children and grandchildren are looking for a reasonably priced ride. more

Let me hope we all have the capacity to forgive when someone makes a mistake. I had a transmission problem with my recently purchased Mercedes. I purchased it without knowing very much about it or the condition. I certainly had a fear that the whole transmission was on the way to failure. After hearing some shocking prices on the repair, I was referrred to Jim. We test drove and I was able to repeat the problem and prove it had the skipping issue. It is well documented on Edmonds and J.D. Powers with many other owners and he pointed that fact out. I knew then he knew exactly what he was doing. When I say (have the capacity to forgive), I have read other reviews and some are woefully harsh. I hope they leave out the emotions and remember that you and your staff are human. True it did take a couple of weeks to repair, but I am confident enough now to drive to Michigan to visit my twin sister in it. When someone says that they are waiting on a part and will call for the status in front of you, that says a lot. I am very happy with my vehicle now that it shifts properly and look forward to your mechanic fixing my sunroof and a couple of other high mileage tuneup issues. The price and repair times were great considering what I have been quoted by your competition. I will come back after my trip to do business again with you! Thanks Jim. more

It was a pleasure working with Jim Ernst on a recent transaction. Jim was extremely honest and fair - a great tribute to when gentlemen only needed to shake hands and you knew they would follow through on any promises. Jim was willing to sit down with me and work out a very good package. I highly recommend that you check in with Jim and his team at Auto Depot! more

I recently purchased a car from The Auto Depot in North Austin and I could not be happier with my purchase and the customer service that I received! Jim was helpful, honest, and beyond fair. What surprised me most was the extras that Jim offered after the I had already agreed to purchase the car. That is of course above and beyond what I expected. I will certainly recommend them for any used car purchase and when the time comes, I will be a returning customer! more

This is all you need to know: Anyone who will lie to and bully a teenager into selling their car to him for next to nothing will lie to you and tell you whatever it takes to get you to buy one of their cars. I don't know what the Chronicle awards people are thinking, but DON'T DRINK THE KOOL AID. This place is full of the worst types. Yelp hasn't been inundated with the business's fake positive reviews, but I agree with the reviewer that notes ALL the City Search positive reviews sound alike. more

Jim Ernst is the most dishonest ""mechanic"" I have ever met. If there was a way to give this 0 stars, trust me: I would. My fiance and I have had the most frustrating and horrible experience getting a car through Jim & Auto Depot. Let me start by saying that my fiance's father paid for the car and it took literally over TWO MONTHS to get a car that was promised to us within 2 weeks. My fiance has called him daily for almost 3 weeks straight, trying to get an explanation, only to get hung up on by the owner Jim who is a complete moron. Jim is incredibly unprofessional and RUDE. He rushes you, interrupts you, answers other phone calls during your call, and hangs up on you constantly. It is a complete nightmare dealing with this unprofessional man. Originally, he told us the car would be ready within 1 week. Then 2 weeks, etc. We repeatedly called, trying to find out the story. First, he blames not working on the car on weather. The ""bad weather"" he's referring to in Austin was when we had two days where it was almost freezing, and was literally for 2-3 days max. Yet after a week he says it was ""bad weather."" He then told us his dumb ass ordered the wrong parts for the vehicle and we will be unable to get the vehicle for another week. When he claimed he ""ordered the wrong parts for the car,"" I completely do not buy this. I bet anything that he is working on other customers cars, and putting us on the back burner since we have already paid. I have heard from tons of other people's reviews that Jim is a douchebag and did this to them to. The car my fiance had through Jim was old, not starting, and was completely unreliable, so we were DEPENDING ON him to get us a working car that we paid for within 1 week, NOT THREE WEEKS. My fiance works full time and couldn't wait for a vehicle. We explained this to Jim, telling him we needed the car as soon as possible, only to be hung up on repeatedly and told ""it will be ready tomorrow afternoon."" After multiple wasted drives all the way to bum effing north Austin, we realize this lying piece of s*** doesn't even have our car. Since we have already paid for the ""new"" car, he put us on the back burner since day one. Also because he took advantage of my fiance's Dad and our time. The worst part about this company and Jim is the ""service."" Jim is incredibly rude, cuts you off when you speak, and answers other phone calls in the middle of your call. I have never in my life dealt with someone so incompetent and rude. He acts like a 5 year old with NO MANNERS, ETIQUETTE, OR HUMAN DECENCY. In addition, he LIES CONSTANTLY - he's FULL OF CRAP and will tell you your car will be ready, and then continually puts it off. DO NOT BRING YOUR CAR IN HERE FOR SERVICE UNLESS YOU WANT YOUR CAR GONE A VERY LONG TIME, or maybe never. IN ADDITION: NEVER, I REPEAT NEVER BUY ANY CARS THROUGH AUTO DEPOT OR JIM - YOU MAY NEVER BE ABLE TO PICK IT UP, and the frustration of dealing with this idiot on the phone is beyond understanding. I cannot express the amount of frustration dealing with him. I strongly feel that it is dishonest and completely unprofessional to promise to deliver the car we already purchased by a specific date, only to be told every single week that the car is not ready. BUT DON'T TRUST JUST ME - READ ALL THE OTHER HUNDREDS OF NEGATIVE REVIEWS ON YELP, CITYSEARCH, AND GOOGLE! There are tons of better places in Austin to buy used vehicles. Unfortunately, we have had a miserable experience with Jim and I will be reviewing him everywhere I can to let people know. I will also take this up with the BBB. According to other reviewers, Jim's service is so inconsistant and terrible, others have filed with the BBB and his business is no longer part of the BBB, they have a F- rating. Another BAD SIGN. more

You can get some good deals here. more

I bought a '96 Honda Civic from the Auto Depot after I liked what I liked what I read about them in the Austin Chronicle. I was impressed by the genuine care & concern the the owner Jim has for his customers. My investment is protected by Jim's ongoing maintenance for my Civic. Without reservation, I highly recommend the Auto Depot for the purchase & maintenance of your next used car. You can't go wrong with Jim! more

I have had the truck that I purchased from Auto Depot since early spring it is the second vehicle I have purchased. I have already put on 15,000 miles and the only thing I have had to do is keep it full of gas and change the oil. I couldn't be happier! Plus it makes those trips to Home Depot so much easier! more

The positive reviews here are potentially fake. How do I know? I was told by the manager, Jim, that if I put up a positive review on citysearch, he'd treat me better. I am not a person who only writes negative reviews. I am not writing this in the heat of anger right after one experience. I dealt for a while with these guys, let the bad stuff go, and then, when more stuff came up, decided I needed to let others know immediately. Don't be fooled by any professional talk and promises they say up front. They WILL fail to come through for you. Check yelp--the people there had similar experiences. They sold me a total dud and even though I had a contract of sorts with them, they kept it months longer, never did the work they'd promised, and I got so frustrated that I finally just took the truck. The one year warranty? Don't trust it. They'll do enough work to get it through a year, then it goes to hell (I'm past the year, and it's happening to me). And they tried to say there was a deductible on all warranties, which I was never told up front. What I was told was this was a good, long-lasting truck, and it's barely made it beyond a year. Jim may be gone (or he was), but the new guy is worse. I could go on and on, but the point is, they lied, lied, lied. Also, women out there, they are the MOST sexist, condescending bunch of losers ever. I was actually asked if my boyfriend allowed me to go there alone (I never talked about any kind of boyfriend), they assumed I cared more about the condition of the upholstery on the seats than of the transmission, and assumed that I didn't know how to back a truck out of a parking lot. That's on top of all the ""honey""s and ""sweethearts"" and other talk like that. They've lost their ability to be accredited by the Better Business Bureau. Run, run fast, away from this place. They honestly should be sued. more

Read all of the negative reviews...those are true! I speak from experience and tell the truth - avoid the headache(s) and look elsewhere!!! I only wish I'd have looked here and Yelp first! Check out the BBB site as well and Good Luck in your car search. I've done my civic duty ~ more

I have done business with Auto Depot for the past 9 years and have been treated well and enjoyed the fastest service I have seen in a body shop in the 40 years I have lived in Austin. First -rate work. I have been so impressed I have bought a vehicle from Jim Ernst for one of my children. It is easy to sit behind the cloak of annonymity and fire shots at hard-working people. I have sent many friends there and have never heard anything but plaudits for the work and price they received. more

After Jim Ernst and his chain-smoking-incompetent mechanic Cliff was done with my car it was gone forever. After two failed attempts in a month to fix my car I didn't have the money for a third try that would likely be another failure. Jim was so rude and disorganized. He never, not once, called me back when he said he would, or when I left him a message. He was the nicest guy until I stopped falling for his BS and tried to hold him accountable to do what he said he would do. Then he acted like a total jerk and tried to put the blame on me. Somehow I prevented him from doing what he said he would do? If only CarMax had given me as much money for it as I paid Jim and Cliff to kill it :( more

Jim is a crook and this place is a joke. They will take your money and then when you try to talk to them you are given the worst treatment ever. Anyone who thinks about doing business with them should stay away. They are about to be shut down.... more

The owner of this Jeep is grossly unfair. We repaired his Jeep, he picked it up, and then for whatever reason the engine blew up. We did not touch the inside of the engine. We knew there was no way in the world we could convince him that we had not caused the damage, so we replaced the engine for free without argument. It took a while because we had to push other work aside but his Jeep is running great at no additional charge.\r \r This man, instead of being grateful that we took care of a motor in an 18 year old car, has tried to defame us. This is not only unfair, but beyond reason. \r \r \r more

I went there to get my engine light checked and it was taken care of by Jim and his technician guy Thank You more

ALL OF THE POSTIVE REVIEWS POSTED HERE ARE BOGUS! Jim Ernst is such a snake he is clearly posting fake reviews to prop his ratings. [He has to. He runs the shadiest business in town!] Look closely, all the positive reviews are posted by people who have only reviewed Auto Depot and no other business. They have no actual photos. THEY’RE FAKE ACCOUNTS SET UP BY JIM! AUTO DEPOT IS THE NIGHTMARE REPAIR SHOP YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED ABOUT!! Learn from my experience. I AM A CAUTIONARY TALE! And you will be also if you take your car to (or buy a car from) Auto Depot. Jim Ernst is a smooth talking snake in the grass. He will be your best friend…and he will take you for a ride—to the cleaners! He frequently asks people to write positive reviews before service is completed (or before what he rigged to go wrong with your car happens) and asks people to fill out an Austin Chronicle Readers Poll ballot before the work is done. His Chronicle awards were what lured me in (and oh Jimbo will tout them) AND IT WAS MY UNDOING! ASK ABOUT HIS BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU RATING!!! Oh what’s that you say? Its an F!! A big stinking “F”! Jim is so worried about it; he actually tried to force me to sign a document stating I would not report him to the Better Business Bureau, or write anything about my experience on Yelp or Citysearch or he would bill me an additional [read: bogus] $3500 labor charge if I did. Can you believe this guy? He actually tried to scare me in signing away my right to free speech! He said “I can’t have you bashing me online.” Well welcome to America Jimmy! YOU CROOK! Jim Ernst asked me to pay a $2800 repair bill before it was completed, because another customer wrote him a bad check. MY JEEP THREW A ROD 3 MILES FROM HIS SHOP AFTER I PICKED IT UP. HE THEN LEFT ME WITHOUT TRANSPORTATION FOR OVER 7 WEEKS!! Every single day it was waiting on parts or some drama among his employees (One stole a car from him, one comes in high all the time, one’s boyfriend is gonna commit suicide---I’m not making this up he volunteers this information). I literally had to walk 6.2 miles round trip from my house for 7 weeks to check up because Jim would never return phone calls or flat out lie to you. So I walked up there every day almost for 7 weeks. All empty promises, lies, and inexcusably rude behavior from Jim. HE HAD MY MONEY AND LET MY CAR ROT FOR WEEKS IN HIS GARAGE WHILE I WAS WITHOUT RELIABLE TRANSPORTARTION. The best part about visiting Auto Depot so often over the two-month ordeal: Petey! What’s Petey you say? Petey is the pitbull they keep chained to a wall all day in the garage. SHAME ON YOU JIM! SHAME ON YOU! more

I have been taking my cars to The Auto Depot for several years now. Jim and his team are the best! They have always been extremely helpful and polite. Every repaired was done quickly and at a price no one else could beat! I couldn't imagine taking my car anywhere else. Thanks guys!!! more

So, I use to work at the Auto Depot, and writing this review gets me nothing, but the sense of knowing someone could read this and turn their backs away. The shop is ridiculous. Jim Ernst cuts illegal checks, he tries to cheat the department of labor and the only hard working employees there, the body shop mechanics, and will positively screw anyone over for a dime. The whole place is a scam. They are all liars, cheaters and most of them, drug addicts. I know at least ten people who still do not have their title! My mother paid for her vehicle in May, and after illegitimate contracts, and almost five months later, she still does not have her title! That's the same story for many of the poor customers at the Auto Depot. Do not go there. The work will not be done on time and Jim WILL try to make deals with you. Also, for a fact, the majority of these positive reviews, are bogus. Do not trust anything from the Auto Depot. more