D***bag shop in Boca

In addition to selling the MINI, I have also been trying to sell my wife's Volvo (a 2004 S60 with 105000 miles on the clock). The other day potential purchasers came to look at the car and asked if we would mind bringing it to a local mechanic for a PPI. It is a good car, so we agreed. The place they chose was European Auto Service Centre located at 2740 NW 1st Avenue in Boca Raton.

While the mechanic was honest and gave a very appropriate review of the car, the owner of the establishment was a real ******. He second guessed the mechanic and began to make up his own - seemingly implausible - explanations for some of the mechanic's findings. He made the car, that the mechanic had just described as "nice," sound like it was a death trap.

He then went on to insult the potential buyers, telling them - "well, that is why people pay much, much more for new cars - so that they don't have to deal with the things that AWAYS go wrong with old cars. If you don't want problems, you should just go buy a new car with a warranty."

He finished by telling the buyer that he couldn't really comment on the potential reliability of the car, since he didn't have access to its service history ... and then refused to allow the dealer (who had serviced the car since new) to fax over all of the service records so that he could review them. I guess he was just too busy - despite the fact that his 10 bay shop had two whole cars in for service.

But wait, it wasn't over ... in an apparent bid to bolster his credentials, he breaks into a story about how a customer in Kansas bought a Ferrari 355 in Arizona, but had it sent to him (in Boca???? from Arizona, on it's way to Kansas???) for a PPI. He went on to explain that the first service on a Ferrari costs $60,000 (first service, on a 15 year old car?? $60,000??) He continued to tell this absurd story about how he couldn't determine when or if that 'first' service had ever been done so, he told us about how he had ordered all the gaskets and seals and replaced them -- wait for it -- for only $12,000. He kept going on and on about how much work went into performing this "major" service on a 12 cylinder engine. Of course, he never even mentioned timing belts (or how he found a 355 with 12 cylinders, or why he would pull apart a perfectly good Ferrari engine).

I would recommend avoiding this guy like the plague - not just because he screwed up the sale of the Volvo - but because he is obviously full of ... well let's call it hot air, and clearly knows nothing, particularly about Ferraris.

 

I wish I knew. It wasn't like he was even trying to sell them on performing the repairs. He was just an ass. They were as pissed at him as I was - felt that he was rude and insulting - and were really pissed that he wouldn't look at the service records, even though they were paying him and HE indicated that he needed to see them in order to advise them.

Scottie

P.S. - RP the Volvo is for sale for $6K - would sell it to you for $5K. MINI is still available too. Wish someone would buy them, need the space on the driveway for the new cars - before my neighbors accuse me of running a used car lot.