TRE & Steve Wong Save the Day

[Thunderbone]

Tuesday Steve Wong was tuning my car on the dyno at HK Motorsports in Van Nuys. We had made a few runs when Steve noticed that something seemed to be off. My '87 Carerra is twin plugged and it appeared that one of the distributors was firing only a few of the plugs. When we started the car only with that distributor it would just sputter and stop. The other distributor seemed fine.

Then the car wouldn't start at all. It was now 5pm. I drove down from Sacramento for the tuning, was on a tight time frame and was getting a little tense.

Steve called TRE, they said they would wait for me. The car got towed there at 6pm. Over the weekend, thieves stealing copper had cut the power and water to TRE when they broke into an adjacent building. The night before they worked 16 hours, until midnight, powered by generators. They pushed the car into the shop and started working on it. They worked until after 8pm on my car and confirmed that the splitter had failed...on the last day of its warranty.

Dave, TRE's owner, bought me dinner while I waited.

The next morning I went down to Fountain Valley to pick up a new splitter. As soon as I got back to TRE they put it in the car. I immediately went back to HK where Steve met me and we started all over at 3:30. It was then I noticed that the tow truck had bashed my muffler and lower valence during the 6 mile tow. I called the company, they came by and said 'we couldn't have done that". Twenty minutes later they came back and took pictures, still maintaining no liability...the battle with AAA begins.

Then the wife called. Whenver she hears the word 'problem' the thinks $$$ and I have to be back in Sacramento tonight to take her to the doctor the next morning or....now I'm really getting tense.

Steve works feverishly as I pace nervously.He had been up until 11pm Tuesday working his 'real job'. I leave at 5:30, get on the 405, which is a parking lot for the next 20 miles, and make it back home to Sacramento at 10:30...the car ran great.

TRE and Steve, who cancelled apppointments with his real job to get me on the road, went out of their way to make a difficult situation bearable. So if you are looking for capable people with character, here are two.

[Paulporsche]

They say, "Two out of three ain't bad" but I'd still keep after AAA.

Did you have any recent pics?

[KevinP73]

TRE is known for going out of their way to help. It's no wonder they are thought of so well.
Are you sure it was the tow company who damaged the muffler/valance. I noticed you drug real hard (front and rear) as you were backing into HK.

[Thunderbone]

KevinP73:
I watched that car back in to HK and nothing touched.I watched it go on to the dyno. I went around to the back of the car when it was strapped on the dyno to make sure that there were not any 'issues' and it was fine. Also, I drove it when it was pushed it out of the shop and heard nothing. I've had that car for 20 years and I know my way around driveways. The mark on the muffler and valence was from impact, not scraping. The bottom of the car bounced off one of the bumps on Oxnard street. The two guys dismissed their liability..in about 15 seconds.. because they said the muffler was not hit. But it was hit. They didn't look close enough.I didn't have the time or inclination to argue with them. Besides, they were all gaga over the cars with blowers and talked to Harry about a car they wanted to bring in.

[Zeke]

Great story (except for the damage). Kudos to Dave B. and staff.

[KevinP73]

Evidently Dave's regular flat bed wasn't available on short notice or something. I've seen AAA do some horrendous things to cars. I have a 356 in the shop where they literally tore the rear bumper OFF the car because they tried to pull it out of a field before replacing the flattened tires. I've never tried to settle a claim against any of their drivers so lets hope your claim goes well.
After all that what numbers did you get from the Dyno?

[Thunderbone]

When I called Classic Car Towing, who, as you know KevinP73, is just up your street, they asked what kind of car it was and when I said 'Porsche' the woman said 'we'll send a flatbed."

So I was a little surprised to see a pick up truck with a pincher like contraption that lifted the car from the front, via the bottom of the car, standing it up in the ultimate wheelie. The bottom of the car was inches from the pavement, which I pointed out to the driver, and he said he would take care of it. He took off. Steve had to pack all his gear, so when we got to TRE the tow truck was waiting for us outside. He backed the car up the driveway--but he lowered the car before he did it so it was not at such an extreme angle. When the Company guys came to look at the damage, they mentioned that he could do this as an explanation for how it could not happen. What they were saying was that, if he hit a bump, he could lower the car so it wouldn't bottom out. So let's see, one hand on the wheel, another on the lift and, if he hits a bump, he immediately drops the car so it doesn't make contact. Well, I guess he was just a second too slow on one of the bumps.

I thought that I could take the car to the AAA where a live. They could take a look at it and it would not be hard to figure things out. But Southern California AAA and Northern California AAA don't seem to work together. Why it is great that AAA will take care of things no matter where you are in the country, keep in mind that if things go bad outside of your 'home' area, problem solving is going to be a long distance ordeal.

[Zeke]

I'd say you sorta have to eat this one. It's a shame, but it's the way things are. You could have insisted on the flatbed, but you let the car go the way you did. I'm sure you're absolutely correct that a bum caught the rear. Easy fix.

[Thunderbone]

If I would insisted I wanted a flatbed, and the car rolled off and was totaled,then would be liable because I chose the method of transport? I don't think any court on the planet would see that as contributory negligence and hold me liable. The company's responsibilty is to deliver a towed vehicle without damging it. The company knew what the car was, the company provided the means to transport the vehicle. The liability follows the provider of the towing vehicle not the owner of the vehicle being towed. Otherwise, there would be a lot of nice cars that somehow just get 'lost' being towed....

[KevinP73]

I don't know if it would make a difference in your case but...... I don't recall your car being "street legal". How could AAA tow it with the back wheels on the ground if it isn't a street legal car? I think I'd make a point of that while your stating your case to them.

[Thunderbone]

KevinP73, I'm confused. I don't remember you walking into HK, or even near my car. If you had, you would have seen that my car has current registration and is 'street legal'. Regardless, when a third party takes contracted possession of property, liability follows that posession. I had a contract with the towing company to deliver my property. They have an obligation to deliver the car without damaging it.

[KevinP73]

No doubt they had an obligation to you to deliver your vehicle without causing any damage. I'm not even trying to argue against that. I'm mearly trying to bolster your case regarding their incompotent service.
I was there when your car came out of the trailer and when Steve W first arrived. I stood right there as you (or someone working for you) backed in thru Harry's shop door in front of the dyno. You had to stop and lay some lumber under the front tires because of clearence issues up front. You may not have noticed just another bystander admiring the car while you were busy taking care of business. I really wasn't looking to see if it had plates on it. It was a serious looking ride and I just assumed it wasn't street legal. My error.

[Thunderbone]

Kevin,
I drove my car down from Northern California (and back)and did not trailer it down. My car looks like a stock '87 Carerra, nothing serious about it.

[KevinP73]

Doh,,,,,,,,,clearly I'm completely mistaken. My apologies.

[Steve W]

The confusion here is that Thunderbone's (Frank Alderete) car that was tuned this week is being confused with a POC race car that was brought in on an enclosed trailer for dyno tuning last week. Frank's car is a plain black 87 Carrera with Fuchs and license plates that was self driven to the dyno shop. The 'serious looking ride' belongs to Mike Monsalve, 2006 POC time trial champion.

Frank's car looks something like this:



Monsalve's trailered POC race car is this:



Regardless, the damage to the valance was caused by the tow truck driver. You had to be there, but if you could watch the poise and read through the thick Russian/Armenian accents of the tow company owners who came by, it was so obvious they were already staging themselves for non responsibility - the excuses were not plausible.

Anyways on a different subject, Frank, I would have your cam timing looked into - they may be advanced, and also check the distributor rotor alignment.

[MOMO3.2]

Frank:

Yes, I echo your praise of Steve Wong. He is the genuine article when it comes to helping out fellow Pelicanites. Thank you again Steve!

Pelican Parts, Steve W, TRE... How lucky are we to be in SoCal!

Mike

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by KevinP73
TRE is known for going out of their way to help. It's no wonder they are thought of so well.

One of the many assets on this board, TRE has a very good reputation and has worked for a long time to get and keep it that way.

Joe