North Hollywood Speedometer....my story

KCinBR · KCinBR's Garage

Back in May of this year I sent my speedo to North Hollywood Speedometer for repair. It had the usual plastic gear failure. Within a day or two of them receiving it they called to tell me it was ready and took my payment over the phone, no problems.

Five months, and almost a thousand miles later the speedo failed again

this time the whole thing went dead, both sppedo and odometer quit. Well... i gave them a call they told me to send it back with a copy of the original invoice.

It arrived at NHS at about noon on friday (cal time).....got a call on the next monday about noon my time, and was told it had been repaired. The cause of the problem was electrical this time, apparently unrelated to the original problem with the gear, I had kinda figured that.

The person that called explaned the repair and asked if I had other electrical problems with the car, which I did not have, and told me of some of the things that may have cause the electrical failure of the speedo.

Them came the hard part for me....."how much is this gonna cost" ....the reply was extremely suprising ..... I was told it would cost "nothing" unless I wanted expedited shipping.

I would expect them to repair the speedo for free if the same part had failed, but to do it for free including shipping it back to me, after something else had failed is just unheard of in todays world.

So.... MY HATS OFF THE NORTH HOLLYWOOD SPEEDOMETER

Great service, they went way beyond what i would expect, Hey, I'm in South Carolina, they are in Southern Cal. if they stuck it to me....what could I do?

Did I say that the quality of there work is excellent also......

pwd72s · 11-02-2010, 05:23 PM

Nice to hear a GOOD story...I always had good service from N. Hollywood.

mepstein · 11-02-2010, 05:37 PM

Probably got them a lot more business with that story and they deserve it. Some companies just "get it".

Joe Bob · Joe Bob's Garage

I've never heard a bad story on them....

Kidasters · Kidasters's Garage

Hartmut and the boys are great. I've had them do several things to several cars. Next on the list - the NHS LED mod.

joetiii · joetiii's Garage

I had an experience where I sent my speedo (mechanical) to them for recalibration. I performed the measurements 3 times. Measured distance vs cable rotation.

Speedo came back 5 mph fast, so I sent it back, this time with with mph readings from the local police radar speed monitor. Came back the second time spot on. I paid shipping four times times. Kinda wish it was only 2x but C'est La Vie.

Hodgey · Hodgey's Garage

I'll be sending my oil pressure, tach and fuel gauge to those guys.....they repaired my speedo and the work was absolutely first class
Neil

79 Euro · 79 Euro's Garage

Good story. I've had positive experiences too. Good customer service. They get it!

MBruns · 11-02-2010, 06:22 PM

I ran a repair shop for over a dozen years and with most german cars there are spedo issues, resto's etc... they were always on time and on the money, Nice to hear the good results are still happening
Mike Bruns JBRacing.com

5String43 · 11-02-2010, 06:52 PM

I've used them several times. Always a very positive experience. Nice to be able to report that in these weird and troubled times.

tonypai · tonypai's Garage

Yup, I have a similar story. Great shop, great service.

In fact, about three hours ago, I sent them my oil temp gauge for repairs.

Les Paul · Les Paul's Garage

JFC I need to send my speedo and clock back to them. They've been sporadically pathetic for 15 years. Since they were restored. Not like anyone else is keeping track though. Good to hear.

skinnerd · skinnerd's Garage

Hollywood redid all my gauges.
Converted to metric (centrigrade, bars, km/hr).
Slick voltmeter in the tach that does not require any additional wiring.
Clock converted to all electric....whisper quiet and always works.

Great service at a fair price.
Super happy with the results.

Zuluracerx · 11-03-2010, 03:02 AM

Yep, they did mine on time and the quality is fantastic! Big fan of NHW Speedo.

azasadny · azasadny's Garage

They treated me very well several years ago, as did Al Reed of Anaheim...

JeremyD · JeremyD's Garage

Hartmut (NH) is great - he listened to me even being pickey about gauge sweeps and starting points (both speedo and tach have the same starting points and the same sweep)

and I liked the look of the early gauges

Reaper930 · 11-03-2010, 05:12 AM

Its funny, I opened up this thread getting ready to defend Hartmut...as I don't think they will ever do a customer wrong or below expectation.

Hartmut helped me out on my demands for my gauges including LED upgrade and a host of other changes and got it right the first time. NHS gets my vote every time.

RatBox · 11-03-2010, 05:28 AM

Isn't that a funny coincidence . Both owners of two of the best Instrument repair shops in the US (N. Hollywood Speedo. & Palo alto Speedo.) , are named Hartmut.

Carrerax · 11-03-2010, 06:07 AM

I was also on the fence about which one to send my gages to. I have heard that both are awesome. with this thread my decision is made. I do have a question though. Why do some people change the mileage to zero? I guess I can see it if it is a full racecar but it still always bothers me. My car is getting a 100% resto with EVERYTHING replaced or restored and Im keeping my mileage at the original 59k. Ok, Rant over.

Has anyone had them do a 10 speedo with the voltmeter?

porschenut · 11-03-2010, 06:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RatBox

Isn't that a funny coincidence . Both owners of two of the best Instrument repair shops in the US (N. Hollywood Speedo. & Palo alto Speedo.) , are named Hartmut.

My understanding is that they are both owned by the same guy - Hartmut. One shop in the north - Palo Alto, and one shop in the south - N. Hollywood. Same company, two branches.