I had an incredibly good experience with them for a 2000 Saab 9-3... their Saab mechanic at the Dayton store is as good as they get. He knew exactly what to do, did it perfectly, and didn't do anything that wasn't necessary. Couldn't be better.
But I had a *very* expensive Mini repair, new clutch and power steering leak fix. The clutch was slipping again in under 5000 miles, a worst case scenario because it is far enough that they don't know if I abused it or not, but I know I didn't. And the power steering leak is still leaking. The fact that they didn't get what should be a "do it in your sleep" repair right the first time makes me not want to go back and have them take it completely apart just to tell me they won't warranty it. And like I said, they have no way of knowing I wasn't out autocrossing the thing or that I didn't hand it to some idiot 16 year old who never drove a stick. So I don't really blame them for not volunteering to just redo it, but they can't blame me for not going back either, given *I* know the thing was not driven hard.
I have a newer Saab also now, and I might take it back to them if they still have that same Saab guy working there. But I'm looking elsewhere to get the mini done right this time.
(Update!)
I'm leaving the above review unchanged, but adding stars. :)
Since that original review, I got the time to take the mini apart myself to diagnose the issue. Before this, we were at an impasse. I was worried about giving them the car to see what was wrong because I then had no way of verifying what they said was true if they indicated the problem wasn't their fault, and my previous experiences with other shops have made it very difficult to trust. But they can't do anything to find the problem and make things right if I don't give them the car, which I didn't, and they have to trust me that I wasn't out drag racing the thing or teaching my kid to drive and murdering a clutch in cold blood.
So I took the car apart (I have the skills and experience, just not always the time) and found the problem (a clutch slave cylinder was mounted on the wrong side of a mounting boss, which consumed most of the available clutch travel, which means it works fine when installed but as the clutch starts to wear it slips soon because the clutch never actually completely disengages). I took just the picture and the slave cylinder in to talk to the owner about "now what do we do?".
I couldn't have been more pleased and more pleasantly surprised. Rick (the owner) immediately accepted full responsibility for the mistake, and wanted to send a tow truck over to my garage the next day to pick up the car so they can make it right. Ricky (the manager) walked into the room half way through the conversation (without hearing what I said was wrong yet), looked at the picture, and said "that was mounted wrong, it should be on the other side". They offered more than I asked for to try and make things right, which based on my previous dealings with, well, nearly every other shop I have ever dealt with, was a wonderful change.
This was now two years after the original repair (the car more or less sat for a year while I was deciding what to do with it). All I walked in with was a $29 beat up part that for all they knew could have been bought on ebay, a picture of an incorrectly mounted slave cylinder, and a claim that the part and the picture was related to a mistake they made two years ago. It would have been staggeringly easy, and tempting, and probably even reasonable for them to say "we are really sorry, but because you didn't bring it here for us to make right, we can't help you". But they didn't. They are bending over backwards to make things right.
I have tried to be as fair as I could be with them, and they have reciprocated by doing everything reasonable (and offering a few things that were above and beyond reasonable) to try and make things right. So I am back to "highly recommend". Their costs are below or on par or below what a dealer will charge, their expertise is at least as good as a dealer, and they have demonstrated that they will stand behind their work.
Modern cars are staggering complex (take this from a guy with an engineering degree that builds robots for fun). Mistakes *will* happen no matter how careful you are or no matter where you go. So your first concern should be if a shop is capable of doing the job right, but an almost equal second concern should be if they will do the right thing when they make a mistake (because everyone does eventually). Foreign Exchange, in my experience, will. read more