What do you guys want to see from your tuning/race/service shop.. read more

[GMGBMW]

Just wondering what do you want to see from your the shop you deal with?
Or what would you ideal shop have , ( please be realistic)
What do you like about the place you are going to now.. What dont you like? ( no need to list any specifics just looking for some feedback )


Thanks


Fabryce..

[Vader13]

Qualified Mechanics
Good price on parts
Affordable labor
Good choice of aftermarket parts
Guaranteed work
Hot babes
Free Coffee

[M3RACER]

A shop that does not try to screw you over. Alot of people when they feel they have or may have been screwed over will not complain, they simply pay. But they will never return and will never recommend that shop to anyone.

The shop I use for alignments has treated me well. He gave me a quote which I thought was fair for an alignment and fender rolling. After the work was completed he said since it took him less time than what he orginally thought, he only charged me for the hours he actually worked on the car. He could have easily stayed with his origanl quote and for that single reason I love those guys. I recommend that shop everyone I speak to about shops and I also tell them about the shops who have screwed me over.

[Evil 330ci]

The mechanics themselves interact with you more than their service manger.

[Blackwidow]

Some good ideas.

I think a lot of times at shops, stuff just goes wrong sometimes, people are human, they make errors, its how the shop deals with it durring these, hardest times, it critical.

If a shop messed up and compensated me for it, I'll be there agian.

[method829]

i have a tendency to want to know who is working on my car.. so an easy going staff is always a good thing. also I dont like waiting for parts to be shipped always a good thing to have a large inventory

[GMGBMW]

thanks...........
got dope we need more clients like you... how are things my brother........??????

soon baby ,......soon!!!!!!!!!

[Vader13]

Originally Posted by GMGBMW

thanks...........
got dope we need more clients like you... how are things my brother........??????

soon baby ,......soon!!!!!!!!!

You don't need guys with BNZ's we never have problems..lol

It's good dawg, I will try to pop in and find ya at the Bentley Bling Lot..

[onE]

Originally Posted by GMGBMW

thanks...........
got dope we need more clients like you... how are things my brother........??????

soon baby ,......soon!!!!!!!!!

O you will be seeing me soon... after i get back form basic for the army. In about 4 months, I will stop in with my car and say.... putt a s50/trany/dif/RMS FI..... O yes U will see me.

[Eric]

Originally Posted by M3RACER

A shop that does not try to screw you over.

[DJDrHart]

A shop with like an f350 diesel and a small trailer so they can pick up your car or drop it off.

[Impulsed7]

1. A shop that hires qualified technicians who know what their doing, not just friends of the owner
2. No B.S. about waiting on parts, if the mechanic doesnt show up for a few days just let me know.
3. Competitive pricing. nuff said bout that.
4. Actual Alignment, no toe and go's.
5. A wide range of aftermarket parts, not just one company.
6. a place that would hire me and pay me lots of money...

[MPD47]

Mech's who know what they are talking about and are willing to work with you on "alternative" ways of doing things. Rather than just slapping parts on and saying "You're good to go!" or telling you "We cant do this".

[OldSkoolBmw]

I know this is long but... I'm in the engine rebuild business (no longer in the engine repair/service business) and I know what you guys are saying but also you need to see the liability side of the business.. as well as the inventory side.. If your in a race/speed shop.. odds are most parts are specialized so it would be pointless to stock them as each part is usually custom in some way.. it would also cost out the ass... no one really stocks a mugen rear sway bar for your 94 accord or a set of camber plates for your e36... when it comes to service... sometimes it might take 3-4 guesses for us to solve your problem.. if you don't want to pay for our guesses then don't bring it in.. our time costs money.. if you don't want to pay for it then figure it out yourself.. odds are if it's an ellusive problem for us... then it would have been one for you.. Do NOT buy parts off the internet and ask us to install them... that's like a slap in the face to a shop.. if you do.. don't ask us to warranty any of our work... it's not my fault that I installed a (insert cheap generic wholesale part you bought on ebay) and it didn't work... Few items we ran into being in business.. ex.. msd boxes are horrible.. people sell broken ones all the time on ebay as like new, runs fine condition.. then we spend 2 hours install and 4 hours chasing misfire/no fire problems... then the customer doesn't want to pay us for that time and on top he thinks we broke his msd and his car isn't running.... Second ex.. 240sx's and sr20det swaps.. don't do them!! customer brings an engine in that he swears has 30-50k miles on it and runs fine.. (oh yeah cause every jap car that came with one of these just wandered into a junkyard at the prime of it's life.. and it's a 5-6 year old engine.. people must not drive in japan.. or it's sat for years outside somewhere *very bad* ) so we perform the swap put the engine in.. hook everything up and splice in the harness.. start the engine up and it has a rod knock.. ok.. seller of engine blames us.. we blame seller of engine as we put in new oil and made sure it had good oil pressure.. ok so who's paying to get this engine back out let alone the original install of the bad engine?? or for the rebuild? final ex.. customer brought in a NOS timming belt for a m20 engine because he won it for $10 on ebay.. we warned him about a new-old timming belt and the reprocussions of it breaking.. he told us to go ahead.. after installing it.. 4 months later it broke.. and he calls up with a "I'm in texas and my engine just craped out.. when are you sending a tow truck and where do I pick up my rental?" um we're not onstar.. and you didn't get a warranty.. so take the money you saved and get a pair of nikes cause you're gonna be walking....alot... all sorts of stuff.. some cams on OHC setups (like bmw, vw, honda, nissan etc) have so much lift that the head needs to come off and the pistons need larger valve reliefs.. if a customer brings in a set of cams to install... who's job is it to make sure that this part won't screw up the engine? If I've got to spend 3 hours figuring out if you're gonna need more valve spring pressure to go with this higher lift and longer duration... or if we gotta pull the head to properly check valve to piston clearance.. then the job is gonna cost 2-3x as more.. but if we don't check the piston to valve clearance or he over revs it with not enough spring pressure and mangles all the valves... then when lawyers get involved it's our fault because we touched it last and we took his money... also customers want alot of implied warranty.. He brought this in for a tensioner upgrade 3 months ago.. and now it's making a ticking/clicking/taping noise... do you mind looking at it? (aka will you fix it for free) this is a sucker job.. basically it's the "you touched it last so I'm certain it was something you did.. now fix my car" job... this is a classic time killer... just because we fixed one part on your engine.. we are not responsible for the whole unit and we won't be that nice local repair shop anymore if we charge you $120 + one valve cover gasket for finding out that a valve adjustment was due.. note.. we also might have 10 jobs in the shop right now.. and I know you think yours clicking tapping engine is important.. but so do 10 other people and we might not have time for it now so calling 4 times a day to check on the status of your car is not wise... as for a shop with a trailer and a tow vehicle... I thought that was a great idea until I looked at the legal side.. once we load it onto our trailer your auto insurance does not work and we must insure it.. so heaven forbid some idiot rear ends a trailer on it with your civic si on it.. well it's our job to fix all of the stuff.. including any custom work done by you.. body kits.. trick titanium exhausts.. anything... so while that would be cool.. it would be more cost effective to just call a wrecker to go get it... if the customer wants to eat that cost then it's fine.... as for setting up a car with zero toe.. shops that do that are looking for legal trouble... ambulance chaisers always ask if you had any work done to your car in the past 90 days... setting up a car to be more frisky is good for the customer.. but bad when he rear ends a car or spins out on an off ramp at 80mph because it didn't "behave like it should","turn correctly" etc.. or atleast that's what he'll say when he's faced with taking responsiblity for $200k worth of doctors bills and legal trouble... also there's no such thing as "no warranty" if we're in possession of the customers car.. aka if a hunk of the shuttle hits your car while I'm working on it.. then it's my job to fix whatever was dammaged... or a more realistic secnario.. someone doordings your car while it's sitting in the parking lot waiting to go into the garage area.. folks dealing with all this costs money.. and while there are nice people who just want their car fixed at a resonable price with little wait... all comes back to the simple phrase... good, fast, cheap... pick two.. Honestly the main reason alot of speed/service shops espically in FL are going out of business.. is dealing with this associated warranty and legal issues.. it's just a killer on these new cars and judges don't want to hear it.. they don't want to know why when I installed a 20g turbo on a customers eclipse and the engine blew up 2 days later... he doesn't want to hear about the "strength" of the 4g63 or how the customer turned it up to 24lbs of boost because someone on sedsm.com had the same setup... I have no control over his boost level.. but a judge thinks I owe him a new engine... and ontop of it.. this engine needs some sort of warranty that's agreeable between the two parties.. so a +$800 job turns into a -$4000 job.. the exposure isn't worth it.. I can't tell people enough who want to go into the speed shop/tunning/race car/service shop business... DON'T!! a much better business is the race engine.. high end engine builder business.. when you personally have control over every item in that engine... then you can warranty your work with confidence because you arn't patching a customers existing mess but building something new.. much easier to deal with..



and whatever you do... never own a rolling chassis dyno as a tunning device.. only allow pulls with customer doing his own tunning outside between runs as you are responsible for the car if it blows up while x customer is seeing if he can get 450Hp with that 100shot of nos on a boosted civic etc..

[PortalBMW]

You guys want sound advise. Don't ever think the PR of your company will carry it to its prosperity. Look at RMS. They seems to have done okay over the years dispite. Offer good prices in addition to good service. Good prices will initiate your cliets and your good service will keep them coming back.