[Grady Clay]

Dave,
I agree. If you find a shop that absolutely won’t let you in the work area, it may be because there has been an accident and insurance claim. Every shop must operate with insurance and if there has just been a claim, I suspect the insurers can be real hard a$$ about it.
Porsche mechanics range the whole gamut, just like us. Some love being in the middle of customer interaction, others would prefer being in a locked room. Just as a shop should respect customer individually, customers should respect mechanic’s. A mechanic must be productive; you don’t want to pay $100/hour for him to BS with you. This is even more important if he is working on someone else’s car.

Randy, I suspect Jim’s PO had an unpleasant experience. Jim, do you know why?

Bill,
E-mail me your experiences. Most of these shops are former employees from ’87 and earlier. Good guys. They learned from me and I from them. They made a good living wrenching, and we all had a good time. No one was ever injured, happy customers, fun cars, and it was good for all. Rennenhaus usually had about 10 employees; I think it got to 16 occasionally. Mostly 911s with a good smattering of 356, 914-6, race cars, and others. There were never any cars other than Porsches (except for the shop VW.)

Paul, thanks, those were fun times.
There is you and rs911t’s engine that are Pelicans. Who else?

Ronin,
Please don’t paint everyone the same color. You just may not be near a good shop. The purpose of an “Ideal Shop” is to not screw anything up, fix the problems, and provide good service, all at an affordable price and in a timely manner. Is the world perfect? NO. There are some incompetents, slackers, and even criminals in the auto business. The same is true for a few customers. The question is; IF you were to take your 911 to a shop or dealer, how would YOU like to see it?

Jim, Ronin, David,
Take, for example, a guy like Kurt V. He lives 100+ miles from the closest Porsche 911 part. He has the inclination, skills, tools, and willingness to ask on this Forum in order to build and keep his 911 in top form. Others feel the need to trailer their 911 from NY to Stoddard or Utah to Andial.
As I said in my first post;
“Most of us DIY for one of two reasons: It saves labor costs or you feel YOU can do what YOU want better than anyone else. Occasionally almost everyone takes their Porsche into a shop for something. The reasons may be specialized skills or tools (alignment, A/C, etc.), you just don’t want to deal with it (new baby, new job, etc.), you have exhausted your diagnostic or mechanical skills (what the he!! Is going on here?), and many more.”
When a shop screws something up they fix it, when you screw something up – you pay. No one is perfect. Did Porsche deliver perfect chain tensioners?


David,
With three Stahlwille “tire irons”, a hand bead breaker (plastic shoe), and some leather pads you can change a tire on a Fuchs with never a scratch. A good tire machine can do it even better with less effort. You are correct; there is no substitute for a good tire balancer.

John,
Right on!
Those are the characteristics of a mechanic that the “Ideal Shop” has working on your 911.



Let’s not bad mouth anyone.
Let’s not promote anyone.

The purpose of this thread is to define the ideal shop or dealer using your experience and imagination.

Best,
Grady