New 360 Owner With a Mechanic Question

Well, I finally realized my dream and paid cash for a 360 Modena (1999) in Rosso Corsa. It took me 6 months to find and I bought it out of state with full service records from it's entire life. I sent it over to the owner's local F dealer for an inspection - which it passed with only a recommendation to replace the battery.

I received the printout from the dealer which showed no error codes, and they took it on a test drive with no issues. When it arrived it cranked hard, but started. It showed a "check engine" light the next day and I replaced the battery. The engine light went off and didn't return until a week later. I didn't drive it for 2 days, and then the battery was dead. I chaulked this up to a bad battery and swapped it out. It started right up and the engine light went out.

I took it to an independent mechanic who was highly recommended for a smog test. This is where I learned that disconnecting the battery clears the errors out of the ECU. He told me to drive it 80 miles before the smog check. During those 80 miles I got the engine light and a "Suspension Warning" light. I called the independent and he said that it was most likely the motor mounts. He quoted me $2,500 plus parts, but in all fairness he hasn't inspected it for that yet.

Since I am the cautious type, I called my local dealer. They quoted me $1,500 parts and labor to replace the mounts.

Now, I went into Farrari ownership knowing full-and-well that there will be expenses, but how can my highly recommended mechanic charge more that +$1,000 over the dealer for the same repair?

It could be that the warning lights are just sensor related, but thinking the problem might be larger, my question to the group is would you take the car to the dealer or trust my independent? I don't get a "warm-and-fuzzy" from this independent already quoting me more than the dealer.

I am hoping I didn't get screwed since the previous owner was a well known and reputable dealer. I am just thinking if you want to fool someone you just disconnect the battery to clear out any error codes, then take it to the dealer immediately and have them run a report from the ECU (which presumably would report no error codes). Then you have a clean report to show your prospective buyer.

I am keeping my fingers crossed on the repairs, and still go look in the garage every couple of hours and pinch myself that I finally bought it.

Any comments would be appreciated!

 

Thanks for the advice. If I lived up North I would just bring it to you Brian.

No one would agree to do a true PPI (liability concerns evidently). I guess calling it the owner's F dealer was a bit confusing - He used an independent, so I used the F dealer in his area for the inspection since I didn't think I would get an objective opinion from his mechanic.

I asked the independent any guess on what it could be, and he answered, "Well, could be the motor mounts." Not holding him to anything since he actually didn't inspect if for the mounts yet, I asked what mounts would run. He replied, "$2,500," and I used that quote to call the dealer and ask the same question. That really is the only point of comparison I have at this point. I will get written estimates, but I was just concerned that my highly recommended mechanic would be +$1,000 more than the dealer. Not exactly what I wanted to hear from a guy that everyone uses and apparently trusts.

Thanks all for the input. I will report back after repairs to close the thread.