From 1988 until he shifted from fixing German imports to rebuilding parts for single-engine piston aircraft, I used Matt Kurke of Holiday Imports to work on my Porsche 911 and two Mercedes W124s. Matt was, and is a perfectionist and an avid pilot. His hobby was restoring aircraft, including a Cessna L-19 Bird Dog that won best military restoration at Oshkosh one year. Regrettably, he had trouble finding and keeping mechanics who cared as much about doing things right as he did. His move to rebuilding aircraft parts was the right move for him. When he closed his auto repair business, he not only referred his customers to the newly opened F1-Imports, but spent perhaps a year there as a consultant while his new business took off. I followed him to F1-Imports.
F1 followed the mechanics bible for estimating the time needed to make repairs as rigorously as Matt did. As a customer of a shop repairing imports and exotics, you don't want to pay mechanics to learn on the job. At the same time, you want to reward them for knowing how to do the job more efficiently than the average mechanics. Pricing by the book accomplishes both. F1 imports charged more per hour than Matt in part because their business plan included working on more expensive exotics. Early on I strayed away in rebuilding the air-conditioning system of a W124 sedan, which is a huge job, and, I thought, overkill for F1. Instead of F1, I choose a German-import specialist in Bonita. He completely botched the job. I returned to F1 to fix the problems he created.
Over the years, F1's business has grown. My remaining W124, reputedly the most durable Mercedes ever built, is now almost a classic. Because I am here year round, I would have F1 service it over the summer. These days, F! is busy even over the summers, which means the lead times for getting in are often long. When a bearing on my water pump failed, I went to another local mechanic who could get me in earlier. He installed the pump but used vise grips rather than a special tool to reattach the fan. This led to a problem with the fan. F1 installed a new fan. When that failed within few weeks, they found the underlying problem that the other firm had created by using the wrong tool. Without me saying a thing, they took responsibility for not finding the underlying problem earlier and offered to replace the fan for free. THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT THEIR HOURLY RATES MAY BE HIGH COMPARED TO THEIR LOCAL COMPETITION, BUT YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. read more