UPDATE:
MY ENGINE STOPPED WORKING WITHIN 24 hours of…read morepicking up the car... wasn't driving it hard and it dumped oil on the ground and seems seized. The car was working fine and healthy (by their own PPI) before I sent it in.
I am sending it back on Monday..lets see if they take any responsibility. Wayne, the owner assured me that if it's their fault they'll fix it. I am actively trying to move on from the shop. Once I am through this experience I will update this review to reflect the whole experience.
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AVOID THIS PLACE AT ALL COSTS.
Please learn from my experience. Especially if you are a newer Porsche owner.
I bought my first 996.2 in June and brought it here for the PPI upon the owner's suggestion. He usually goes to S Car Go, but had heard good things about Gabe the mechanic here.
Looking back, that's when red flags with Brian started to show up. He promised multiple times to send me the PPI write-up within 24 hours, but he sent it 4 days later. Red Flag #1.
I actually had to drive over and talk to the mechanic (Gabe, who I love and is awesome!). Gabe advised me to buy the car, so I did. I then contacted Brian about the following things:
1) RMS/IMS/Clutch/Sway bar install
2) Convertible smart top module install
3) Shift knob install/sticky window seals.
I stressed that I wanted to build a relationship with the shop, as I plan to buy a few more P cars and want one place to have them serviced. I asked Brian when I could drop off the car, as I originally wanted it done by my birthday, July 18th. Brian agreed to fit me in the week after. Then ended up pushing it to the week of August 1st. (Red Flag #2).
In that email, he promised to give it the "best attention we can offer". He noted they were busy. I'll post pics below.
So I drop the car off, and afterward realize the vent foam problem is annoying. I go over to discuss it verbally with Brian and send over the eBay part and a video walkthrough. Brian tells me he will have Gabe look at the video to see if he can do it. (Find out later, her never had Gabe watch the video, months later). Red flag #3. However, he verbally agreed to do this for me.
After that, I'm going over every Friday, and my car is never actually worked on. I ask the mechanics what's happening, and they tell me Brian keeps pulling people off my car for newer cars. By this time, they (the mechanics and I are friends) are also a bit frustrated that they can't work on my car. So I headed into the front to sit with Brian and see things from his POV (2 sides to every story).
Brian constantly talks about having more work than they can handle and how he's got a small crew.
For 4+ weeks, I go over every Friday and realize my car isn't being completed because Brian pulls people off to do other jobs. I thought this was normal until I started talking to other shops. It's not.
So I finally snapped and emailed Brian, saying it's been months and my car shouldn't take almost 2 months to complete.
He responded back, and I quote
" A large job like this takes time, especially as we are a small crew and
still have other clients and deadlines. To say a job like this doesn't
take 2 months can be true; however, again we are a small team that still have promises and other projects to keep progressing on. I think moving forward you may need to find a shop that can give you the extra care and attention you need on your other upcoming projects."
Remember what he said about giving my car the best attention? This really pissed me off to receive after waiting for over a month.
Turns out, talking to other shops, this job should take no more than 3 weeks tops (including the blend doors).
After receiving this email, Brian went back on his word about the blend doors and seals because "we aren't doing any work that's not on the estimate". We had verbally agreed to the blend doors; I had talked to the mechanics about doing it, and I was going to probably pay an extra 2-3k to the shop no problem.
So I'm sitting here on 9/25 hearing that the car is partially incomplete and that it's "all done and ready to pick up." I dropped the car off 8/4. So, over a month later, it still isn't done.
The most frustrating part is being told that they are flexible verbally and then not having this work done once I asked them to finish up my car.
If I was having things fabricated, or specific custom work done, I'd understand. I am not. This is typical maintenance, and all stacked, so while the trans is out, the rest of the stuff could be done. I have emails where I asked for the seals to be fixed (again, Brian verbally said yes, and they didn't do it).
