My review of my exp with DC.

[93LowBody]

Hey, i just traded my truck for a 240sx.

The deal started off fine went to look at the car, needed a few things done. It was agreed upon that they would fix the things needed and then we would trade. All was good.

Till when I was supposed to pick the car up a week later it was not finished, No big deal there was a unexpected problem with stripped valve cover bolts, and was the week before christmas.

It was then said that the car would be done the week they got back Which was Jan 4th, Well the car didnt get done and needless to say it was delayed again.

So it was set that it would be done today the 18 and i would pick it up after work. I arived around 4:45 today to find that the car was not done, they still hadnt put the tires on that i had purchaced. They were waiting on a bay to open up and it would be done then, 2hrs give or take later the car was finally done, everything seemed good when i heard it run.

Ian and John had to leave for some reason so i couldnt test drive it before they had to go, Didnt bother me any i trusted them when they said it drove good.

That was till I pulled out onto the road and felt lots of extra not right vibrations(not sure of whats causing), then when i hit the brakes to stop at the light the Steering wheel shook like ive never felt before, The brake rotors are badly warped.

I said to myself ok not a great big deal I planed on doing a 5speed swap anyway so if the vibes happen to be in the driveline they will get taken care of, and as for the breaks well ill just have to deal with it.

The car drove ok all the way home. Other then an odd smell, which i was unsure of till i got home and was looking the car over when the Hose which they were supposed to replace burst and shot the coolant all over the front of the car. Im not sure this hose ever got replaced.

Along with a few other things i found looking the car over.

So all in all i will not be doing and shopping with DC.

The cons of this deal:
Needs brakes
Hose broke(which was "replaced")
Water in wheel well(was supposed to be dryed)
Broken bolts on intake mani
Only way to get good Info is to go to shop.

Pros:
has a cd player.

Im just overall dissapointed i was told that the car had been driven around some and noone complained about how it drove. And tomarrow ive gotta go back over half the shit they did and fix it right.

As of right now i feel like it the short end of the Stick, my truck runs drives A/c works everything, only has a tranny problem but is still drivable and will get the job done. I got a car that made it 20miles then blew a radiator hose, needs brakes, has lots of vibes, ac doesnt work.

Here are some pics of the problems

The hose broke at the clamp.

Coolant everywere.

Broken bolt one

Broken bolt 2

Water that came out of the Hatch carpet after just a few min hanging.


Im not a shop basher or anything but this is really just un accecptable.
I really dont expect much from this but it should be known.

[93LowBody]

I just looked up the front brake parts and im looking $80 plus tax just for the brakes, and if i cant get the parts by monday im gonna have to find a ride to work. fun stuff.

[SpottedMango]

Let me chime in, as stated before, NOTHING gets deleted in the DC forum.

I am complete against the fact that majority of people now a days only tell half the story.

We had a contract written up and the contract included the following:

• Swapping out defective water pump
• Replace leaky valve cover gasket
• Replace a coolant hose that had a minor leak
• Replace passenger side rear leaking tire
• Add coolant to the cooling system
• Change oil

There might be one or two things that I may have missed.

The vehicle was inspected by you in person and you had the understanding that the vehicle NEVER drove properly and had it's share of problems. The problems were FULLY disclosed to you and we promised to fix certain things that we knew were wrong with the vehicle (listed above).

I will completely take responsibility and apologize for the fact that it took longer then expected to get the car fixed. I will also add that, even though I take responsibility for the delay, we also went beyond what was promised on the contract. We took the initiative to replace the intake manifold gaskets, tap the stripped bolts from the previous owner, mounted and balanced tires, sold brand new tires to you at $40 each, etc.

I disclosed that the car had been sitting close to a year, etc.........I believe I was very upfront about the trade.

Your complaints: My response

Needs brakes: was not mentioned in our contact, nor did we even know about it.

Hose broke(which was "replaced"): there's more then one coolant hose, you knew that the car sat for a long period of time and according to you, you do all your own work. If that's the case, it's not hard to understand that other hoses could have dry rotted. The weakest link was fixed, causing the next weakest link to act up.

Water in wheel well(was supposed to be dryed): this was done, but it did rain pretty much all day yesterday, you also knew there was a leak, causing the water to collect.

Broken bolts on intake mani: most likely from the previous owner that stripped the valve cover bolts. Again, you had looked over the car and this wasn't an issue.

Only way to get good Info is to go to shop: you NEVER once came to the shop, you were in constant contact with my brother via IM.


The fact of the matter is that you are bring up these problems when none of them were ever mentioned and or did we promise to address. I can completely understand if I made a promise or made you believe otherwise, but I, nor my brother did that.

[Griffin400]

'I disclosed that the car had been sitting close to a year, etc.........I believe I was very upfront about the trade.'

Quoted what my brother said.....and thats all i have to say. I did what was said between us and MORE!

[93LowBody]

Originally Posted by SpottedMango

Let me chime in, as stated before, NOTHING gets deleted in the DC forum.

I am complete against the fact that majority of people now a days only tell half the story.

We had a contract written up and the contract included the following:

• Swapping out defective water pump
• Replace leaky valve cover gasket
• Replace a coolant hose that had a minor leak
• Replace passenger side rear leaking tire
• Add coolant to the cooling system
• Change oil

There might be one or two things that I may have missed.

The vehicle was inspected by you in person and you had the understanding that the vehicle NEVER drove properly and had it's share of problems. The problems were FULLY disclosed to you and we promised to fix certain things that we knew were wrong with the vehicle (listed above).

I will completely take responsibility and apologize for the fact that it took longer then expected to get the car fixed. I will also add that, even though I take responsibility for the delay, we also went beyond what was promised on the contract. We took the initiative to replace the intake manifold gaskets, tap the stripped bolts from the previous owner, mounted and balanced tires, sold brand new tires to you at $40 each, etc.

I disclosed that the car had been sitting close to a year, etc.........I believe I was very upfront about the trade.

Your complaints: My response

Needs brakes: was not mentioned in our contact, nor did we even know about it.

Hose broke(which was "replaced"): there's more then one coolant hose, you knew that the car sat for a long period of time and according to you, you do all your own work. If that's the case, it's not hard to understand that other hoses could have dry rotted. The weakest link was fixed, causing the next weakest link to act up.

Water in wheel well(was supposed to be dryed): this was done, but it did rain pretty much all day yesterday, you also knew there was a leak, causing the water to collect.

Broken bolts on intake mani: most likely from the previous owner that stripped the valve cover bolts. Again, you had looked over the car and this wasn't an issue.

Only way to get good Info is to go to shop: you NEVER once came to the shop, you were in constant contact with my brother via IM.


The fact of the matter is that you are bring up these problems when none of them were ever mentioned and or did we promise to address. I can completely understand if I made a promise or made you believe otherwise, but I, nor my brother did that.

First off i did state that you guys fixed them. The valve cover was done right, so was the water pump.

John had stated before he left that it had been drive around some.

I didnt say you knew about the brakes but if someone was driveing it they would have felt them. But once again as you said was not mentioned, i have no problem dealing with them.

The hose that broke is the HOSE you guys REPLACED. thats why im not happy about it.

If you guys did dry it out then im sorry for that, i will just say that it was pretty wet for a few days of rain.

Broken bolts on the intake mani i did not see prior so onceagain my problem.

Constant contact is an overstatment, John is not readly available to contact. I had also came to the shop an extra time when the first delay happend. When you do get in contact with John he will answer your questions.

The manifold gaskets were required to replace the hose.
The stripped bolts were once again required to do the valve cover gasket correctly. Which i offerd to fix.

The tires you offered i did not ask for that, I should add that as a big pro of the deal.



It is true the only problem that was orginally descussed was the coolant hose

Like i said i dont expect anything from this just felt it should be out there.

In the end it comes down to buyer beware with used cars. In the end it comes back to me.

[manifoldmike]

sounds like a lot of the stuff you needed fixed hardly cost anything. way to start bashing on the internet and not letting us deal with problems first.

[Jeff L.]

Guys this is my view on the matter I'm not clear on the situation at your show at the moment but from seeing the difficulty my little brother on this matter, but IMHO from reading what you say is "the type of work we do at DC". http://www.tamparacing.com/forums/dr...-concepts.html I was personally disappointed the car was extremely dirty inside and out, work that was supposedly done failing in under 25 miles of your shop, safety of the vehicle was never checked prior to it leaving your shop, and the difficulty with which people are able to get in contact with your shop.

Pros:
-The work I saw was that didn't fail where very good.
- Very good deals on tires.

Cons:
-Very hard to get in contact with.
-Replaced parts fail (manufacturing flaw or otherwise).
-No safety or vehicle inspection before it left your shop.
-Very sloppy job compared to the care you take in your other projects.

Guys you claim to do very good work. The pictures you post back that information. Yet the work I saw was decent but the things you guys over looked such as the broken bolts, warped rotors, and the major delays. This all from seeing my little brothers encounter with you. Leads me into believing that the care and attention to detail in your show is very low. Needless to say I will not be using you for any of my purchasing needs.

[SpottedMango]

I am still somewhat lost with this whole deal. We never made a promise that we would fix everything, or did we? From what both of your post states, we did address everything we promised, just that there were other problems that you are unhappy about.

How did you verify that the failed coolant hose was the one we changed out? And did this coolant hose burst or was it installed incorrectly (hard to install incorrectly)?

We did take the vehicle for a short drive and while that happened, we mainly paid attention to the problems in which we promised that we'd address. Brake warpage isn't a safety issue, it becomes more of a pain in butt then anything else.

Here are my thoughts to your concerns:

Pros:
-The work I saw was that didn't fail where very good: so, you are talking in regards to the failed coolant hose. If you were to go to Walmart and just so happened to pick up a batch of bad apples, does this make Walmart negligent and irresponsible? Will you also come online and file a complaint or would you take it up with them? We didn't use a used hose, if the hose failed prematurely, I apologize for the manufacture defect and I would offer to fix it for you. Besides the the coolant hose, according to you, everything else was 'very good'.

- Very good deals on tires: I didn't have to make this deal, but I thought it would be a nice gesture.

Cons:
-Very hard to get in contact with: you can see this on several levels. The vehicle was really traded as a deal between Andrew and my brother. If my brother can't be contacted, we have set business hours where you could have called and spoken to anyone. I just remember that from time to time, you would IM John and ask questions about 5 speed swaps, pricing and info for parts. I believe that can be classified as being 'in contact'. In short, if you were not able to get a hold John during the day time, that's because he's at work. But when you hit him up in AIM at night, I would still consider that as being in contact. And in the event all that fails, you could have simply called the shop and asked someone to see what's going on.

-Replaced parts fail (manufacturing flaw or otherwise): one part failed, the coolant hose. We used new hoses and if it failed, we would have not been able to detect that. The only way that we would have known about this is if it failed while we were test driving and or if it showed signs of problems.

-No safety or vehicle inspection before it left your shop: besides the coolant hose and the vibrating caused from the brakes, what safety issues are you implying? The trade entailed specific line items that we needed to address, you both acknowledged that all problems were addressed, what more did we have to do?

-Very sloppy job compared to the care you take in your other projects: but this is what you said, "The work I saw was that didn't fail where very good". So because a hose failed, that you know we changed out, it makes the job sloppy?

I think this should address any concerns in your mind. I think it's so very unnecessary for this type of thread to exist, when the problems mentioned don't have ANY bearing on our quality of work or ethics.

If you care to, answer these questions for me:

• Did we notify you that it's taking longer then expected because of other problems we found that we are addressing free of charge?
• Did all the items listed in the contract get addressed?
• Did we go beyond what was promised on the contract?
• If we did do more then you expected, did you get charged for any of the work?
• Did John / Ian disclose the full condition of the vehicle when you first saw the car (to the best of their knowledge)?
• Did you expect John / DC to fix EVERYTHING that was not up to par, or did either of us promise that we would?
• You were expressly told that the car never ran since it's arrival at DC, when we did get it running, it was running very poorly. You were also aware that the car sat for almost a year without any attention. This is a true statement, correct?

[93LowBody]

Originally Posted by SpottedMango

I am still somewhat lost with this whole deal. We never made a promise that we would fix everything, or did we? From what both of your post states, we did address everything we promised, just that there were other problems that you are unhappy about. You did adress all the problems agreed on but for one of your repairs to break right after the trip home.

How did you verify that the failed coolant hose was the one we changed out? And did this coolant hose burst or was it installed incorrectly (hard to install incorrectly)? Im gonna have to say that it burst from an over tightened clamp havent had it apart yet.

We did take the vehicle for a short drive and while that happened, we mainly paid attention to the problems in which we promised that we'd address. Brake warpage isn't a safety issue, it becomes more of a pain in butt then anything else. I never stated it was a saftey issue(my brother did) I just feel if the car was drive it needs to be Noted.

Here are my thoughts to your concerns:

Pros:
-The work I saw was that didn't fail where very good: so, you are talking in regards to the failed coolant hose. If you were to go to Walmart and just so happened to pick up a batch of bad apples, does this make Walmart negligent and irresponsible? Will you also come online and file a complaint or would you take it up with them? We didn't use a used hose, if the hose failed prematurely, I apologize for the manufacture defect and I would offer to fix it for you. Besides the the coolant hose, according to you, everything else was 'very good'.

Walmart is actually responsible for the bad apples. wether you guys back your work at all is a diffrent story.

- Very good deals on tires: I didn't have to make this deal, but I thought it would be a nice gesture. once again i added that was a big pro in my previous post and have thanked you plenty of times.

Cons:
-Very hard to get in contact with: you can see this on several levels. The vehicle was really traded as a deal between Andrew and my brother. If my brother can't be contacted, we have set business hours where you could have called and spoken to anyone. I just remember that from time to time, you would IM John and ask questions about 5 speed swaps, pricing and info for parts. I believe that can be classified as being 'in contact'. In short, if you were not able to get a hold John during the day time, that's because he's at work. But when you hit him up in AIM at night, I would still consider that as being in contact. And in the event all that fails, you could have simply called the shop and asked someone to see what's going on.

-Replaced parts fail (manufacturing flaw or otherwise): one part failed, the coolant hose. We used new hoses and if it failed, we would have not been able to detect that. The only way that we would have known about this is if it failed while we were test driving and or if it showed signs of problems.

-No safety or vehicle inspection before it left your shop: besides the coolant hose and the vibrating caused from the brakes, what safety issues are you implying? The trade entailed specific line items that we needed to address, you both acknowledged that all problems were addressed, what more did we have to do?

There are alot of extra vids not from the brakes. once again i did not state they were a saftey issue, But if i did not know what it was it could has caused a problem.

-Very sloppy job compared to the care you take in your other projects: but this is what you said, "The work I saw was that didn't fail where very good". So because a hose failed, that you know we changed out, it makes the job sloppy?

The work in general seems sloppy bolts missing and broken, Which may well have been from the Prievous owner, But when the Fan shroud his hitting the fan(thanks for the fan also) because a bolt from it is missing it would have been nice to put once back.

I think this should address any concerns in your mind. I think it's so very unnecessary for this type of thread to exist, when the problems mentioned don't have ANY bearing on our quality of work or ethics.

If you care to, answer these questions for me:

• Did we notify you that it's taking longer then expected because of other problems we found that we are addressing free of charge? yes I never said you didnt.
• Did all the items listed in the contract get addressed? yes
• Did we go beyond what was promised on the contract? I feel other then the tires you did what was required to meet the contract.
• If we did do more then you expected, did you get charged for any of the work? No but all the work over and above the original agreement was required to make the agreement. Stripped valve cover bolts had to be fixed to fix the valve cover gasket. Intake manifold gaskets had to be replaced when you replace the coolant hose, which is the one that broke and appears to have broke from over tighting of the clamp.
• Did John / Ian disclose the full condition of the vehicle when you first saw the car (to the best of their knowledge)? yes, but when you tell me your techs have been driving it they would have noticed the brakes and could have atleast told me.
• Did you expect John / DC to fix EVERYTHING that was not up to par, or did either of us promise that we would? no
• You were expressly told that the car never ran since it's arrival at DC, when we did get it running, it was running very poorly. You were also aware that the car sat for almost a year without any attention. This is a true statement, correct? yes

:/ :/

[manifoldmike]

Originally Posted by Jeff L.

Guys this is my view on the matter I'm not clear on the situation at your show at the moment but from seeing the difficulty my little brother on this matter, but IMHO from reading what you say is "the type of work we do at DC". http://www.tamparacing.com/forums/dr...-concepts.html I was personally disappointed the car was extremely dirty inside and out, work that was supposedly done failing in under 25 miles of your shop, safety of the vehicle was never checked prior to it leaving your shop, and the difficulty with which people are able to get in contact with your shop.

Pros:
-The work I saw was that didn't fail where very good.
- Very good deals on tires.

Cons:
-Very hard to get in contact with.
-Replaced parts fail (manufacturing flaw or otherwise).
-No safety or vehicle inspection before it left your shop.
-Very sloppy job compared to the care you take in your other projects.

Guys you claim to do very good work. The pictures you post back that information. Yet the work I saw was decent but the things you guys over looked such as the broken bolts, warped rotors, and the major delays. This all from seeing my little brothers encounter with you. Leads me into believing that the care and attention to detail in your show is very low. Needless to say I will not be using you for any of my purchasing needs.

yeah, because every time i go to anyother shop, they make sure to look at every inch of the car.

what most people don't understand is that we get paid to do a job. if there is somthing up and above that we don't get authorized to do, we are most likely not going to do it. in the business world, you loose money doing things for free.

if its a hazard and its somthing as easy as a nut or a bolt to change or fix, we'll do it no problem. if in the thread above your refering to the crap paint job, we are not going to paint a car for free because it doesn't reflect our work, or do a whole interior for that matter.

if by chance we did miss somthing, our bad. give us a chance to fix it before you start flaming on the internet.

both you and your other buddy on hear are acting like 15 year old's.

IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM, LET US TRY TO FIX IT BEFORE YOU GET UPSET!

[Griffin400]

Lets see what i did for you that was more than we talked about.....

-Replaced dry rotted vaccum lines

-Gave you and installed the clutch fan

-Replaced a broken knock sensor

-Replaced your headlight that was out

-Replaced wiper blades

-Gave you the headunit and speakers in the car, when we discussed if you left your headunit in truck i would leave the headunit in the 240 but you took yours out!

-Replaced the passenger seat and the lower part of the rear seat (i would have replaced the driver side if i had one)

-Took the interior apart to take out the carpet to pressure wash it to try and get all the stains out, then called you and told you what i did.

^^^^when i said to you i would just clean the interior up alittle^^^^


If you had any problems with the car that you were not to happy about all you had to do was tell me and i know you know that i would have taken care of it.

Comes down to it that this was a pointless thread.

If i didnt care i wouldnt have done what i did.

Next time just tell someone your not happy about something to there face and not behind a computer.

You know where the shop is and know where to find me.



OH on a side note me and my friend John the mechanic that worked on the 240, took it out on a test drive and beat the SH*T out of the car and nothing happened. No coolant leak etc...

Reason why we did this (thanks to Mike for making a good point to me the other day) so that if anything else was to happen we would have caught it before letting the car go.
BETTER TO HAPPEN TO US THAN YOU.