Karns Automotive Center in
Groton Township (CT)

This place is trash. They charge you for work that isn’t done, they rush through work leaving things unfinished. Don’t recommend this place at all. I went here almost 3 years ago approximately when I was stationed in Connecticut. I took my 2004 Toyota Camry for a Tune up. I wanted the spark and valve cover gaskets replaced. Years later I come to find out that the valve cover bolts were loose this whole time. He said he changed the transmission fluid on 04 Camry and I believe he lied about that too but he still charged me for it. He also replaced a bad motor mount on my car near the radiator but didn’t check to see if the other motor mounts were bad. The radiator job came out fine no issues there. The only reason I’m putting this review up now is because in doing a lot of work on my car years later to only find the little things that he did weren’t good. I think the people that give them good reviews don’t actually check the work that they do under the hood.

Fair an honest location. Hard to find these days. Highly recommend

I have been going to Karns for the past 10 years and realized I’ve never left a review. Karns is the only mechanic I will ever use, Jeff and the employees are so thorough, knowledgeable and informative for whatever is going on mechanically with your car. They explain in detail what is going to be fixed, the problem with it, and always look for the best deals for parts. The front desk lady is also very knowledgeable and explains everything you need to know perfectly. They truly are a business that will help you out when needed!

They took my money and didn't fix my car correctly, in fact they broke multiple parts.

We had the best experience with Karns Automotive! My 19 year old Saab had a sudden coolant leak and the engine was smoking. I thought the life of the car was over. Within a few hours, they diagnosed the issue, found the rare part it needed, fixed it and I was on my way. I couldn't have asked for a more trustworthy, reliable and knowledgable automotive shop! I can't recommend them enough!

I cannot thank the kindness and generosity of the hard workers at Karns Automotive Center enough. We had bought a very used car for my college age son down in Florida, that needed several fixes before we drove down to him. A week before we were (unchangeably) scheduled to depart for a major road trip, the steering wheel started vibrating at high speeds, and an alignment was not the easy answer. Karns spent 3 days diagnosing it. When they fixed one thing, it would correct some of the problem, but not all of the way, so they kept on going. I know they ended up replacing and fixing multiple things, and then they way... WAY, UNDER charged me for it all. I was floored. It brought tears to my eyes. They knew that I had that long road rip ahead of me, and they were all working on trying to figure out all of the problems that were causing the shaking in the wheel (there were like 3 or 4 individual things!). They didn't want to give the car back until it was safe for that long trip. That is the kind of care and quality that I want in an auto mechanic team. They clearly lost profit on the time spent solving the enigma that was my car, but they chose to not give up, and to not punish me for it. They made me feel safe on my trip down to Florida. I would recommend Karns Automotive center every time!!

While vacationing in Connecticut a section of my exhaust system became disconnected. The woman at the office area was outstanding. She went over and above to get my cars exhaust repaired. She prioritized the inspection and repair of my vehicle in order to help my wife and I get back on the road and continue our vacation plans. I wish I remembered her name so I could post it here so her coworkers would know who I am referring too. If we are ever back in the area again I would be sure to drop in to thank her again personally. Thank you ever so much!! Brian & Bonnie Litwin

Very honest, very good prices. They took care of me on short notice when other shops tried to take advantage of my situation. Highly recommended.

Top notch service. Staff are great! Jeff (the owner) always greets my with a smile and a hand shake. Beth is the BEST with scheduling appointments, and greeting customers. Both mechanics take their time on all vehicles being serviced.

Highly recommended by a coworker. My 20 year old SUV needed multiple seals and gaskets. Estimate was right on the money. Great communication with Beth. Very happy that my SUV is purring again! Oh, and they DON'T try to upsell you on "additional" work! Excellent place!

I can't say enough good things about this place. I recently received very poor service from two other local auto shops. I was given very poor service and it was very expensive and they still didn't fix my problem. I brought my car in to Karn's on a Tuesday morning with the idea I would not even be able to afford to fix the problem. Well not only did they fix the problem they went above and beyond to chase down a part and get the car back to me in 24 hours and the price was unbeatable. Thank you,Thank you! You have a customer for life!

BEYOND THE BEST!!!! I just took my 2023 Dodge Challenger there for a full exhaust system and accelerator install..thinking it would be around $800. When I just went and picked it up it was ONLY $300!!!!!!!!!!! HOLY COW THIS PEOPLE ARE BEYOND AMAZING!!!!! Not only does my car purrrrrr like a finely tuned jet engine but it takes off like one too! This is THE BEST PLACE EVER!!!! I will NEVER go anywhere else ever again! VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!! Check my other reviews that have been viewed over 100,000 times and trust me!!! Go to Kerns!!!

By far the best experience I’ve had with automotive services in New London county! I requested a 3” inlet/outlet resonator inline with my current exhaust system. They made an exception of not using customer parts, with a caveat of course, and it was overall great experience. Upon inspection of the welds, it was apparent that the gentlemen that did it had the experience and technical skill to deliver such a great bead! Would 10/10 recommend to anyone looking for a custom exhaust system. Vehicle: 2019 Honda Civic Type R

Solid work from solid, honest people! These folks actually care about their customers and it shows in both the quality of work, and the way you’re treated in the office. I was on a military move from east to west coast in the middle of a heat wave with a ruptured AC hose. Our animals were absolutely dying in the car and could not have made the trip across the rest of the country. I had a very limited time to be in Groton and they understood that. They rush ordered two parts from two separate suppliers to ensure one of them made it in time. When one of the bolts broke off of the condenser during the repair, they could have just pulled a replaced the condenser. That’s not what they did. I saw this man slaving away in the heat, dripping sweat, pulling the bolt out and retapping to avoid having to change out my condenser and potentially tripling the price. They knew what I was doing, where I was going and that they would probably never see them again. They could have easily taken advantage of my situation, but they did exactly the opposite. They made it their mission to to help us, and they were going to make it happen…while balancing a more than full workload of other customers. We were back on the road ahead of our deadline and I can’t thank them enough! This place has a solid reputation for a reason and their people have values that seem to be all but lost in todays auto repair world. I could never recommend them highly enough!

Karns automotive is a trustworthy, fair, wonderful repair garage. Beth greets you, and is so kind, helpful, and amazing! And she does Everything except the actual repairs!!! : ) Jeff is so kind. He is the manager and is the one who took care of my car both times I have come to the shop. My car is very old with tons of miles. Jeff is so knowledgeable, and he is brilliant & creative and helps to do repairs in the most affordable way. It can be very easy to feel taken advantage of at car repair places, but here at Karns automotive in Groton you know you are being taken care of by the best! AND the respect and kindness along with my better running car are things I am incredibly grateful for. : ) Thank you Karns Automotive for being a gem! : )

Less than impressed...took my vehicle there for a brake bleed and adjustment, granted it's more of a project vehicle, but all they did was remove the springs for the e-brake, move the lever over, and then lost the springs. I wanted them to adjust multiple other things, but they said they couldn't and never even called me back to ask what I wanted done, after leaving them a pretty extensive list. Little do they know I was prepared to drop a few thousand to have the things on the list I wanted done, done, and honestly I'm glad I didn't. Now, back to the e-brake springs, they eventually got me my springs back, after many days of me pestering them and when I installed them, I found the lever wasn't ever actually adjusted for the e-brake, it just had the springs removed and the lever moved over. They literally charged me $200 for nothing. This garage used to be good.

Seriously, take your car here. This is the honest car shop that you hope to find in every city that you live in. They replaced my sway bar linkages and cleaned out my drains that were causing water to build up under the spare tire area all for about half of what Firestone quoted me for. They were extremely busy and short-staffed so I had to come back for them to clean out my drains. They ended up doing it for free which was super nice. They are also just generally nice people unlike what you find at some car shops. Just generally happy, not condescending and genuinely open to explaining issues to you. You can rest assured that they are not trying to rip you off which is much more than you can say for most car shops. Will definitely be coming here anytime I need car service.

I've been bringing my car to Jeff for many years. He's very reliable. The only downside is that it's a very busy shop so definitely try to schedule the repair if possible, to avoid waiting a long time to get it back.

Owner is extremely nice and friendly and they do quality work at a fair price and in a timely fashion I have brought almost all my vehicles to him for custom exhaust’s and am always happy when I leave

I've been going to this garage for over 15 years. They are very honest, super helpful and honestly the nicest people. Jeff is a great guy and Beth who runs the desk is really nice. I definitely recommend them. And they always work to give the most fair pricing.

Definitely the best experience with a mechanic I have ever had! I dropped my VW Jetta off with an issue with the turbo. I thought it would be a simple fix due to a boost leak. This was not the case. Instead a rod within the turbo had broke. There are no replacement options currently being sold for the rod and due to the location of the rod the fix is extremely hard. Any other mechanic would have told me that my only option is to have a whole new turbo put in the car which would cost around 2 grand. Not only did these guys spend countless hours trying to find the rod replacement, but also somehow found a way to fix the rod without replacing the turbo. Amazing, they saved me over 1500 dollars! I am not from this area and I have tried many mechanics to work on my Jetta over the years and these guys are definitely the best I have found in New England. Could not recommend more!!

I was told by a different business that my van needed $1000 worth of work. Jeff knew this and could have just done the work and charged me. Nope, my van didn’t need what I thought, my repair cost me under $250.00. I am a small business owner and am so thankful for people and businesses like this! Jeff you have another loyal customer! It’s all about being able to trust and you can trust them!

This was by far THE BEST customer experience I've had since moving to Connecticut! If I could give more stars I would. They're honest in what they do and probably one of the fastest garages I've been too. What would have been a week project at my last garage (in northern VT) they got done in a day and the bill was half of what I was planning on. Gained a loyal customer :)

I brought my Saab in for a performance exhaust and I could not be more pleased with the service I received. It was done the same day and every mechanic that has looked at the car since has been impressed with the quality of the welds. I would recommend their services to anybody. Their price was fair and I will be back next time i need any kind of performance upgrades.

Don't ever go here unless you don't mind not having your car for a full day. Also if they ever work on your car make sure you get a printed warranty stating what exactly is covered and for how long the work you had done is warrantied for. I had work done on my car last November, they replaced a defective part that they had installed in my car and they tried to charge me $90.00 for labor. I laughed and was like no way am I paying $90.00 for a part that they put in that was defective. They agreed that I was right and fixed the problem free of charge as it should've of been in the first place. Low and behold 6 1/2 months later guess what happens? Yep you guessed it, the same part that they replaced goes bad once again. I take my vehicle back to have the problem fixed again. They agreed that the part was defective "again". This time they refused to replace it free of charge even though they know the part is bad. I was given the reasoning of it has been too long since I had the part. Really 6 1/2 months! Bad business.

They put a custom true dual exhaust system on my Jeep, and it sounds fantastic. The price was reasonable; it would have cost about the same to buy a nice catback and have a shop install it. After a few days of driving, a manufacturer defect in the exhaust system caused a check engine light: "catalyst efficiency below threshold bank 2". I took it back to them, they found the issue, and welded it up free of charge (whether it was actually a defect or a bad weld is irrelevant to me; they fixed it for free). I will absolutely give them my return business.

My exhaust job ended up being $80 less than what I was quoted because it didn't take as long as they thought. I've never heard of a place quoting and being authorized $300 and charging $220. Very fair and honest people. They're busy as hell but that's because people come back to them, and it's worth the wait. Best custom exhaust work I've seen.