I was very happy to finally targeted my 2nd MINI after selling my first one back in 2009. The car was located in Bend Oregon and I looked around for local resource to do a PPI and found German Master Tech. The following is my personal experience. Definitely a big regret choosing this shop to do pre purchase inspection. I was hoping I do not have to write a review as I thought the owner Tim Morris would work things out but no, he decides to debate and keep the $300 he thinks he deserves. Long story short, I had a PPI done on a used car and was hoping GMT can point out all the flaws so that I can better make the decision. Upon receiving the report, it looks like most of the maintenance stuff are due plus power steering pump is leaking. Ok no biggie. I went ahead and ask for a quote and they quoted a ridiculous amount. For your information this is a MINI Cooper, he quoted $164 to change spark plugs (really? the parts are $28 total); $580 on front brakes (again.. really?); $43 on Air filter (again it's a 2 min job and the part costs $9) and not to mention the rest of the stuff are ridiculous as well. The funny thing is, they misdiagnose the power steering pump and quoted me $951 to do the job, I am glad I didn't. Turns out the power steering pump and fan are totally fine and there was no leak. I confirmed it after buying the car and had local mechanic lifted the car and photographed it. Try to send to Tim Morris but again he doesn't want to see those and thinks he has no responsibility for this. Another misdiagnosis is the water pump. It has severe leak going on for a long time with all the marks and stain everywhere. Tim Morris insists that it was not there during the inspection and it must have happened during my drive home. Again I told him i photographed it and it is no where like a new fresh leak and again he doesn't even want to see the photos. Not to mention, besides those things, they also did not report my air bag light, sqeaky door...etc. What is the point of pre purchase inspection if general things/ major issues like those are not pointed out? I believe they did not do a thorough and honest job. And the worst thing is that all these crappy work costs me $300+ and a bad purchase on a car with more repair than I expected. What pisses me the most is when Tim Morris tells me that I choose to buy this car and since it is a used car sitting in a dealer lot it is expected to have many problems. Really?! Now that I paid $300+ to you for an inspection not only you didn't point out the major flaws but now you blame me for choosing the wrong car? If you had pointed out those major issues with honesty I wouldn't have driven 14 hours to make this purchase. I even asked the service advisor on the phone before making my trip up asking whether the car is in good purchase condition and he told me yes. I will not recommend anyone to this shop for any kind of service. I have done more research in depth today and they have the same problem with many others out there. If you just type the shop name and Tim Morris, you can find quite a few posts and reviews regarding their work. Just a piece of advice: you should listen to your customer instead for trying to back your points by debating/ twisting facts. When I said I have photos evidence, you should ask for it and verify with me and see what the problem is not ignoring and debating your way out.
Yeah... I most generally do a quick internet search on any company I consider doing business with..... looking at reviews and such..... I also use the court system to search for public records on civil cases... This is probably my best information tool.... The old idiom "Buyer Beware" and "A fool and his money are soon parted"..... Combine the two for a new idiom.... "Need some parts? Find a fool and use his money" Sorry you went through this.... Hopefully things will turn around for you with your MINI...
I am very sorry to hear this about a shop I have been doing business with for years. This is unlike any experience I have ever had and I have not heard from anyone having this kind of bad experience either. I can't offer any rebuttal for your experience, but I can say with all confidence that they will continue to get my business. Sorry your visit to Bend couldn't have had a better outcome.
Bummer, sorry you picked the wrong guy for PPI, lesson learned. What bothers me is when people pick apart mechanics pricing. You can not compare DIY cost to having a professional shop do work. If you could find a shop to sell and install an air filter for 9 bucks, I wouldn't use them. Not saying his prices were good but you can't expect a professional to do work at what it would cost you.
I agree. As the manager of a small computer repair shop I get that kind of complaint all the time. The difference is that if you're coming to me for help, you're paying for not just the part (that I have to buy and get shipped), but my time, my rent, my salary, and most of all, my expertise. If you could have done the job yourself, you shouldn't have come to me. And yes, big companies that make millions of dollars can easily afford to sell things for less than us little guys that don't. No surprise there. We don't get to buy in bulk, or have our own brands or warehouses full of stuff ready to ship to 100 different branches. Sorry, slightly unrelated rant, but that bugged me when I read the OP as well.
Zapski next time my confuser needs new rings or a walnut blasting I'll look you up. I like doing business with the little local guys.
please read again. you misunderstand what I said. I never said $9 to change the air filter/cabin filter. I said $9 is the cost of filter. Normally mechanics charge $70~$100 per hour. For those who have done the air filter change or know how to do it will know it takes maximum 5 min to do it. And that is just an example for one of the items he charge. Why didn't you comment on the spark plug or brake pads pricing?
It costs rent for the building, it costs to get the filter shipped, it costs to pay the mechanic's salary, it costs to pay insurance, it costs to keep the lights on, it costs to have water for the bathroom. $40 seems a rational price to pay an expert in a small shop to do a cheap repair. Could it be cheaper? Sure. But consider that the price of that filter is $9 to the shop, plus probably another $7 to have it shipped to that shop. So the filter is already $16. Now add a 25% markup on the original $9 to cover the time it cost to order the part, and to make a reasonable profit and it's $18.75. Now pay a technician $20 an hour $5 to move the car in, pop your hood and swap the filter (I'm assuming 10 minutes work for math's sake and to include the check-in time) and you're at $23.75 Now that's assuming that you're paying a reasonably salaried person to do that, not a master mechanic or a newbie. It also doesn't account for how long it took someone to check in your car into the garage, or the check out time, or the cost of the overhead of running the shop. Most of those latter charges get tacked on above the hourly rates that are paid to the technician (hence the $70-$100 per hour). So while the Tech gets $5 from the company to install that filter on their behalf, the company will tack on another hypothetical $7~10 to that to cover the overhead. So now it's at $28.75 ~ $38.75 to reasonably expect to pay an expert for a $9 air filter swap. There's a lot of other factors that can drive that price up as well, especially for a small place. Now a big place like Jiffy Lube is going to pay the techs less, and is going to buy the filters in bulk so shipping will cost less as will the per-part cost. So if you're paying $28.75 to Jiffy Lube, that means that more of what you're paying is profit to the company. Small shops make less profit than big ones, and do less volume, so to offset their income loss they often charge more. I'm not saying that that the shop you went to might have been overpriced. I'm saying that it's a delicate balance for us little guys.
You always pay for what you get...you don't always get what you pay for. I always like to pay the guy that does the work, a.k.a. family shops. I don't like dealing with big corporations. For small shops, SERVICE and standing behind their work are qualities I look for...not necessarily price. Very cheap work is rarely good and good work is rarely cheap.
I like family shops as well. But i think most of you guys are getting the wrong message out of this thread lol. I paid $340 up front to do a pre-purchase inspection, is that cheap? no. I trusted the shop because of the yelp reviews plus I had no other better choices as I am not familiar with the area. A pre-purchase inspection for exotics at exotic dealership cost around $250~$300. I am paying $340 for the work therefore I believe it must be some good work, but again it proves me wrong. Expensive work isn't always good and I am glad I didn't let them do the rest of the work.
Time for a bit of comic relief: I was in mom and pop retail for 25 years. One young fellow placed a special order for an 80+ dollar item. My margin on it was about 25%. I called him to report it's arrival and as he walked away with his new toy and I closed the cash register he turned and with a smile told me I'd just made 80 bucks. Ignorance is thriving beyond all estimates.
As for apparently missing some items, I wonder if the dealer that had it had done some serious steam cleaning of the engine and the coolant and power steering "leaks" were cleaned up and only showed up after an extended drive?
I don't think any MINI dealer in USA will help you do engine steam cleaning. They usually try to spot as many things as possible so that they can charge you to get if fixed. I brought it in internally because I wanted them to replace my front control arm bushings. It sounds like you know Tim Morris personally. I am pretty sure he will have his own side of the story when you meet with him. Anyways, I wish the car wasn't in Bend, OR, otherwise I would have brought it to an official MINI dealer for a better and cheaper PPI.
What I was saying is that the person/dealer who was selling the car may have steam cleaned the engine bay......who was selling the car?
no. I have some photos from dealer on the engine bay, it doesn't seem like it's been cleaned at all. this is not a pre-owned certified MINI, it's from a private dealership.