P-car mechanic review website...

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

This looks like it will be good reading.

http://www.rennmech.com/

motion · 01-28-2004, 09:56 AM

I like it! Wonder how to keep the reviews from being "stacked" though?

GrindingGears · 01-28-2004, 10:02 AM

*twiddles thumbs, maniacal smile on his face*

this will be fun...

schlag · 01-29-2004, 07:39 AM

hey, that's my site

I'll keep a close eye on the DB to make sure it's not stacked or "augmented".

Thanks for visiting.

nostatic · nostatic's Garage

ok, who's going to add the MM review?

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

I haven't looked too closely. But don't you need personal experience with a shop to review them? I don't think there are too many Pelicanheads who actually used MM, though plenty have opinions on them. Luckily, I do have personal experience with most of the shops in this area and will write more reviews soon.

pwd72s · 01-29-2004, 10:06 AM

I do believe that participation is the key to this site being successful. So, I added my 2 cents..

schlag · 01-29-2004, 10:14 AM

Thanks again for all the participation and interest.

I look forward to reading the MM reviews. Part of the reason Micah Jones and I created the site was to prevent people from falling into the pitfalls of places like MM. On the other hand, we hope many people will find good shops in there and develop long lasting, positive relationships.

Heaven knows, we've been screwed by Porsche services/mechanics a dozen times between us.

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

Hey Schlag, what about posting reviews anonymously? Is that frowned upon? It seems every P-car-rich area has one or two shops that with huge fans and huge detractors. In fact, I've already seen one glowing review on your site of a shop I know a lot of folks absolutely loathe.

Par911 · 01-29-2004, 12:29 PM

Yeah what Richard said. I have heard from people who tell me just the opposite of what some of the reviews say on your site . It's hard because this is always going be a subjective thing. How about having reviews of shops not to go too, I know of a few that could go in those type of reviews.

schlag · 01-29-2004, 02:09 PM

As hard as it is to imagine sometimes, even a bad business usually isn't bad 100% of the time. For every one guy that is absolutely happy about the quality of his oil change or some other small job, there may be three guys who have had shoddy engine rebuilds.

Both sides should be represented in the database - an average of the scores is represented by a 1 to 5 "crest" display at the top of each mechanics page. (Similar to 1 to 5 stars, like a movie rating.) If a shop is bad, the reviews should eventually reflect that if everyone is honest in their opinions.

Par911, feel free to write negative reviews about shops that you have had negative experiences with. (To do this, just go to that mechanic's page and click "Write a Review" at the top.) Doing so will help make the database as accurate as possible and prevent other people from patronizing the same lousy businesses that ripped you off. I have personally slagged off several mechanics on there that I've had problems with.

There will be times when there are glaringly obvious "stacks" taking place. In those cases I will remove them. If anyone suspects stacking of the database, please notify me and I will look into it. I'm definitely on the prowl for this...

Thanks again!!