Fat Tony's Auto LLC

04/07/2026

Good morning everybody in the automotive field I have a major complaint all these Auto Parts stores that are open in our area are supposed to be giving competitive prices to shops and a standard pricing to regular consumers. As of now that is not even close to being the case - between Fisher, Auto Parts, Advanced Auto, Napa, Carquest and AutoZone they are all charging basically the same price for parts to the professional as they do to the consumer I caught three of the five Auto Parts listed doing that. How is a shop going to make any money? We need to come together all the shops have got to come together and have to contact Corprit of each of those Auto Parts stores and tell them this is not fair. How can a Shop legitimately charge for a part that the consumer can get basically for the same price? I know you can mark them up, but if you mark them up too high, then you’re a crook or if you mark them up your normal markup then the consumer says that you are still ripping them off because they can go get those parts at the local stores for less money or same amount as what shop pays. Something has to be done. It was so much better back in the 80s and the 90s. Everything was great until rock Auto and Parts geek came along. I’m not saying they don’t sell quality parts, but everybody seems to defer to their prices. The public has no clue on how hard it is to own your own business and replace certain parts and what we have to go through to change those parts and we install parts that are of quality because if we install a cheap part and it goes south, we are responsible to fix it for free as long as it’s within the warranty. .If we use a quality part, the chances aren’t as great that the part will go south as quickly as the cheaper part and also certain parts carry lifetime warranty certain parts carry one year or two year warranty. I try to give the customer the option I would prefer the lifetime warranty, but that is just me. It shouldn’t have to be that when I call an auto parts store. I have to negotiate with them to get the price down to where it’s feasible for the consumer and for me. I’m only a one man band. I can’t speak for other shops, but I shouldn’t have to spend you know a lot of time on the phone bouncing from Auto Parts store to Auto Parts store making a spreadsheet to see who gives a better price for a better part with a better warranty who has it in stock who doesn’t and when can I get it? This isn’t the way it should be. All shops should have the same discount like in the 80s and in the 90s and consumers have one price and professionals have another price and then the professional can mark it up and make money while not ripping off the customer. But I guess Corprit only cares about profit. They don’t give a crap about the little guy with the repair shop. They don’t care they just want more and more and more money for profit . I would love to know if everybody came together and boycotted them for one week across the country. How quickly would they change their attitude? How much money would they lose? Corprit and Big business don’t understand without us little guys you big guys wouldn’t be around.

03/19/2026

As a shop owner and a mechanic you expect to buy quality tools for the amount of money you’re spending and you need quality tools to run a shop efficiently. I used to run a robin air 134 ac machine never had a problem with it. Had it for  six years not one issue. Snapon comes out with there polar tech two machines in one 134 A and 1234YF refrigerant. The price that machine when it came out was about $24,000 by the time it was all set and done. I think I paid just about 20 because they gave me a good trade-in value on my old machine. I’ve owned this new dual Freon AC machine for about 3 years if I have 30 hours on it, it’s a lot. Since I’ve gotten this machine It has been nothing but breaking down when I use it. First the filters went bad prematurely that was about a couple hundred dollars then I didn’t use the machine for another three or four months and I powered it up and it said my air sensor was no good or was about the time out. It said to hit enter to continue to do AC work so I hit enter and it says sorry the air sensor timed out and locked me out . I called Snapon tech and I gave him you know the serial number of the machine and they said we’re sorry, but the machine is out of warranty and the part is about $500 plus a few hundred to install it. I flipped out. I was not told to this when the machine was sold to me. I was not told that this was a timed piece that it goes by time whether the machine is sitting idle or being used there’s a timer timing down or winding down on that sensor and there is no way to stop it it’s a chemical reaction. I was told once it hits air it’s activated. My Dealer opted to put one in for nothing so he gave me one very nice guy. I appreciate all that he did but right after that like about two months after that, the vacuum pump went bad. It wasn’t pulling enough vacuum and I know that there’s a paragraph in the manual that states if you live at a very high elevation that will affect how much that vacuum pump can suck down, but I’m not that high of an elevation where I am is just under 1600 feet and the tech seemed the that the actual pump is NG. Of course being out of warranty they hit me with a $1000 estimate and he told me he would talk to his boss so he did and he came back a week later and put a brand new one in for nothing oh and while he was there, he had to replace the inlet hose from the virgin tank of 134 because the internal collapsed. That was another problem that I had since day one I could not take raw Freon from the back of the machine where it was supposed to come in from, I had to go in from the front and recycle it. So let’s fast forward to yesterday a gentlemen comes in with a Nissan has got an ac issue. Went to a couple of shops and was not happy they could not get his air-conditioning to work properly. They cut some wires. They move some things around so we had to sort that all out the owner who also was a mechanic did most of that but then he has a heart condition and he is now disabled so I looked at it and I wanted to put the machine on it and evacuate it to see how much Freon is in there because my initial static pressure readings when I hooked it up to the Snapon machine seemed quite low so I powered the machine up. I go through the warm-ups and then it comes up with that same stupid saying air sensor is about to time out. So now I’m locked out again and the price is still the same approximately close to $500 with a part and you know label it to put it in. They charge like I think a road a service call to the shop is like 250 or 260 or something like that so we’re talking almost $1000 again when you’re done waiting to hear from my snap on dealer I’ll put it in to save money. But I’m making this point perfectly clear I will NEVER EVER EVER buy a piece of Snapon branded electronic equipment again. THEY MAY MAKE THE BEST HAND TOOLS OUT THERE. THEY’RE THE MOST EXPENSIVE HAND TOOLS OUT THERE. THEY ARE ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT IS NOT ALL THAT IT’S CRACKED UP TO BE THAT THAT’S JUST MY OPINION, BUT WHEN YOU SPEND MORE DOWNTIME THAN YOU SPEND ACTUALLY WORKING IN THE SHOP HOW CAN YOU MAKE ANY MONEY ESPECIALLY WHEN YOUR BY YOURSELF.

03/09/2026

Fat Tony’s will be opening late today due to the fact that my blood pressure has not dropped below 170/120 and it was higher than those numbers last night and I feel like p**p. I have to run to the doctor or to the hospital depending on what the doctor says. I’m sorry for any inconvenience that I may have caused.

03/08/2026

Here at Fat Tonys we did a custom Brake job on this 89 Miata - this is one of the first four or 500 that came off of the assembly line it has been here for a while (due to the weather and it has summer tires on and I could not road test it due to the snow) we did a lot of work to it and I thought it would be nice if I just gave it a quick wax job for him. I’m not a detailer by any stretch of the means . Here at Fat Tony’s auto we try to do something nice for everybody no matter how big the job is or how small the job is.

12/05/2025

02 sensor wire chewed up by a rodent

12/03/2025

I am VERY disappointed in the way PennDOT plows Torrey road . I don’t understand how a state that is in the snow belt cannot do any better plowing and salting the roads up here , whoever heard of waiting for the storm to end to go out and Plow that has got to be the biggest bunch of BS I’ve ever heard of.The truck takes more abuse when they’re pushing a much heavier load of snow . I used to plow snow on Long Island for a municipality for 20 years. I never once had a complaint from a homeowner or a business when I was plowing the main streets and I just had a regular 3500 pick up with a 10 foot plow on it and a 2 yard sander on the back, never one complaint . My streets looked unbelievable. We were called out after about an inch and a half or more of snow , and we stayed out until it was 100% done no matter how long it took, and the roads look perfect. These roads are deplorable , when I first moved up here I spoke to a young woman around here who handles building permits and what not and I explained to her I wanted the contract to Plow Torrey Road. But the young woman told me that my road is a state road and gets plowed by the state. My equipment is not antiquated crap. It’s funny when I moved up here. My real estate agent told me that I had to take care of the piece of the road that’s in front of my property and I’m just about down the plain asphalt and the road is as wide as the road not let’s plow it and leave about a foot and a half or more on each side of the asphalt road plow the damn thing right to the edge. That’s what you’re getting paid to do. I do a much much better job with a small BOSS V plow on a side-by- side.  I can guarantee  I can do a much better job and faster than these people. Where’s our tax dollars going? I could tell you it’s not going to snow removal. 

12/02/2025

Fat Tony‘s Auto will be opening up late tomorrow morning. Please do not come over if you had an appointment please call before you come. I plowed the driveway but the driveway is a sheet of ice. I should have salt on it before 10 AM if anybody’s gonna show up, please do it at least 11 o’clock in the morning on or unless I put a post up saying that all clear come on over I don’t need anybody sliding down the driveway into a vehicle like I did. Stay safe. Fat Tony. 

11/03/2025

Dual exhaust on a 1968, International Scout

11/01/2025

Fat Tony‘s rant of the day.

11/01/2025

08/23/2025

Fat Tony‘s auto will be closed August 23 and will reopen on September 2. Have a safe holiday. If you need to reach me, I’ll be monitoring my answering machine at the shop. If it is an emergency, you can reach me on my cell 631-433-3696. 

07/02/2025

Hi, I have a problem. I need to know why towing companies advertise 24 seven emergency towing and you call them and you get their answering service and then they relay the message to the tow truck driver who’s on call he calls you back you go through a dialogue with them and at the end of it he says I can’t do it tonight. I’ll do it tomorrow. Why bother being on call why bother advertising 24 seven emergency long distance and local towing and you don’t do it. I can totally understand if you’re on another call or you’re actually going to another call that’s fine but to blatantly tell me or that you can’t do it tonight. You will do it in the morning you can’t do it tonight . Then Why do you advertise 24 seven emergency local and long-distance towing available Why? Could it be because you’re waiting for a bigger dollar tow or you waiting for a police call? I don’t understand . I would like to know how the people that own tow truck companies would feel if it was their wife or daughter was stuck and they did not have access to a tow truck and they called a 24 seven towing company a few of them too not just one and spoke to the driver who was on call and told him about their situation and the driver said I’ll get the car in the morning . I would bet you that the husband or boyfriend or father of that person would be pretty upset. It’s not right. Again, I’m not saying if the tow truck company has a call they’re on or going to that is totally 100% acceptable but for them to say no because they don’t want to tow it or because they can’t be bothered with it that’s a poor business attitude . That is my opinion . And if that’s how tow truck companies are operating these days then I guess it’s time I go out and buy a brand new truck and tow my own customers or people who are stuck .  because I would not leave anybody stranded. I’m not saying that I would drive to Harlem, but 42 miles away and it’s all easy driving. I would do it . I called the tow truck companies between 730 and 8 o’clock this evening and it was still daylight out.