My frustration finding a good local LA shop to give my money to!!!

Here is what I posted at Audizine.com, spelling out my frustration with the shop I was hoping to work with.

Here is the thread; Audizine Eurocode Thread

Subject: Who do you deal with at EuroCode in Torrance?

I am really interested in using them to get a bunch of stuff done to my new S4, but am having a tough time with the salesman I got saddled with.

I am looking at spending close to $4000 with them, and its almost like the sales guy I got could care less about my business. They are located exactly where I want a shop to be and have the facilities to handle my powder coating needs, but man, its like pulling teeth to get anything out of my salesguy there.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? if not who is your contact there that has always taken care of you, because I still want to give them my business, but I am on the verge of going somewhere else because of the inability of my contact to handle my needs.

Just for those that are wondering what's going on, here it is.

I'll start by saying that I haven't done business with them at all yet, so this is all pre-first visit to their facility.

I called 8 days ago and spoke with this guy there, and he was very helpful, and spent 30 minutes on the phone with me giving me advice about Audi aftermarket options. I told him I had some things I wanted to do to my car, and I wanted to know pricing and if they could handle my needs. Which are;

1. Remove brake calipers all 4 corners.
2. Take tires off of wheels.
3. Bring Calipers and Wheels to powder coat place. (He quoted me 50-70 a wheel and between 250 and 400 for the calipers)
4. When they come back sell me and install stainless lines (he quoted me $160 all 4 corners for stoptech).
5. Sell and Flush with Motul Brake fluid.
6. Sell and Install Pagid RS42 Blue on all 4 corners.
7. Sell me JHM 2 piece rotors front and rear.
8. Sell and Install JHM Short Shifter.
9. Sell and install black wheel lug covers.
10. Sell me and custom tune using REVO and the seitcher (his suggestion, over the APR solution, and he doesnt resell GIAC).

He said it was all no problem, and then told me he would get me quote (as I hoped to have had this all ordered and installed by now, whereas I am still havent even found a shop to handle everything for me yet!). 2 days go by, no quote. I call and a leave a message, no call or quote, I call again the next day and I think it took 3 calls before I got him, and then he FINALLY sent me a quote, 5 days after the day he said he would send it to me intially.

And the quote was about 45% wrong. He was missing items from the quote, and the estimate for powder coating went from $500-$750 to a straight $925. Part of the reason I wanted to go with them is because the powder coating wasn't going to cost me $1000, but was going to be 50% or at the very worst 75% of that amount. None of this is that major of a deal, but I called him and kind of laid in on the line.

"I want to be your customer, but you are making it very hard when you cant get me a quote in a timely manner, can't get it correct, and tell me different pricing on the phone than what is in the quote. I am ready for you to order all these parts for me, and take my credit card and ring me up for maybe about $2000 today, but not until the quote looks a little more sorted out and the pricing is correct."

So he says he's sorry, and that he will send me the revised and fixed quote right away (that was of course 4 hours ago, and no quote in my inbox, imagine that). We also basically agree that *I* will have to take my car to the powder coater to get a real price from them as to how much it will cost for my calipers and wheels. My entire purpose for taking it to Eurocode is because I have no time to work on my car. Everything I am having them do I can easilly do myself, I just don't have time to do it. I am willing to pay them the 3 or 4 hours of labor its going to take to get the calipers/brakes off and then back on the car, as well as the labor to install JHM shifter, plus they are going to make some margin on all the parts I buy from them.

Maybe I am just small potatos, or maybe I just got the proverbial rotten apple of a guy who works there who either doesnt have his act together or just doesnt really care. He is a nice guy, and willing to give out loads of advice, and I like that about him, but I am trying to give them my money, and they are making it awfully awfully hard to do that.

Another idea for a license plate... I think I like this one..

What do you think? I am thinking I want to move away from my previous theme which was MY xx. After seeing that guy with his MY V8 M3 over the weekend I think I am over the theme. Ideally I would get S4AVANT or B7AVANT but those are already taken.

So I came up with this, I think its kind of cool how the S from the RINGS also works for the S4.

I am wondering if there are other cool combinations in this style.

S4RINGS maybe?

Help me pick out a license plate!

Hey all, I need some help picking out a license plate for the new car. Here are some ideas I came up with, let me know which one you like, or what you think;

2006 Audi S4 Avant, the new toy.

So, I just bought a 2006 Audi S4 Avant. I haven't even taken delivery of it yet, but its mine nonetheless!

I've already started to discuss my possible options with my buddy "AudiExpert". There is most likely a fairly long list of things I want to do to the car, but to start with here is the order I plan on tackling things;

1. Bring the car to Audi and plunk down between $200 and $500 for 2 new keys, as this one only came with a single key (SOOO lame, I wish I could get a hold of the last owner and get the damn keys from them).

2. Take off the shifter and fix the detached shift boot (it looks like it is probably just a retaining clip that needs to be re attached).

3. Potentially replace the passenger side sun visor, as the previous owner clearly had a garage door remote control hanging off of it, and it left some permanent indentations in it. If this is less than $100 I'll do it, if its more I'll not bother.

4. Bring the car to a detail shop and have them steam clean the headliner, as there is some dog hair and maybe splashed fluid up there. Looks like kids maybe spilled a coke or something and some got onto the headliner. Also, while its there have them try to buff out the scuff marks that exist on the top of the rear bumper.

5. There is also one of the removable carpeted panels in the trunk area that has some gouges out of it, clearly from a stroller or something, and I want to replace that piece as well.

6. I will also put on clear side markers, and smoked taillight covers, as well as clear front headlight covers.

7. I need to find some black non-rustable wheel bolts as well, for after I get the wheels powder coated black.

8. Those are the basics. Now I want to drop it off at a shop, which is probably going to be Eurocode Tuning here in Torrance and have them do the following;

• Install a new exhaust (which I would rather buy used, and woudl like to hear before I decide which one to buy).
• Install a drop in filter (NOT K&N, maybe a Green filter or a ITG).
• Do a chip reprogramming. They resell a few chip manufacturers tunes, but not GIAC, which is pretty much my favorite.
• Have them remove all the calipers and take all 5 tires off of the 5 wheels. Then drop the wheels and calipers off to get sandblasted clean of all rust and paint. The wheels will have their curb rash sanded and smoothed, and then wheels powder coated a semi-gloss or satin black, with the calipers in maybe a medium silver, or perhaps just gloss black.
• Then when it all comes back to the shop, pick the 4 tires that don't have any patches and use those as my main set of 4, with the patched tire as the spare. If more than 1 have patches I'll pick out the best looking out of the tires, and make sure to mark the inside sidewall to identify it as a patched tire.
• I'll also have the shop put on stainless lines, new pads (maybe Axxiss Ultimates, Maybe Hawk HPS, maybe Mintex), and flush the whole system with super blue.
• I also want to discuss with them putting a trailer hitch on, and making that work. Since I can find CLass II hitches for the A4 Avant, but not the S4 this is going to take some custom work to make it all fit I fear.

Now the rest of the items are all "Want to Do's" for now. But I am not really sure what order they will come in.

1. I also want to eventually replace the front grill with a blacked out RS4 grill, and then need to figure out what I am going to do for more blackout on the car. Perhaps the brushed silver trim and roof racks, or maybe I'll leave it the way it is and simply do the front grill and fog light grills with something that looks like this;

2. Then a nice medium tint on the back 5 windows, and something very very light on the 2 front windows.

3. I want to find some bumper protector for the rear of the car. Where I can permanently attach a piece of rubber or foam that I can easily swing out of the car and dangle against the rear bumper to protect it.

4. I also want to find some pieces of ABS plastic and glue them onto the front bumper valance/splitter section. So that if and when I scrape on something it doesnt hit paint but rather hits a piece of black ABS plastic.

5. The stasis center diff that allows a torque biasing of 4:1 rear to front instead of the stock 2:1 rear to front.

6. Lastly I want to get some form of coilovers. This very much depends upon what people say about towing, and if coilovers will work better since I can stiffen up the back end when I am towing.

The ELISE is sold! A Sad and Happy day for me.

So, as you may know I sold the Elise to a fella in Wisconsin. We spent a lot of time chatting on the phone about cars and we are very like minded people. I am confident that the Elise is in good hands and will be enjoyed for years to come. He plans on taking it to Road America once the snow clears up, and I am happy that the car wont just sit in someones garage not getting driven properly.

I don't feel like I went above and beyond, considering the guy bought the car from me, close to my asking price without ever having seen anything expect 30 or so pictures of it. But he was so excited about our interaction he wrote me this very nice email;

**************
The car arrived late Saturday (after dark) and it looks great. My son, Robert, came home from college for the weekend just for the occasion.

We still have a ton of snow here, but a stretch of warmer weather melted most all the snow from the roads. We just couldn’t resist, so we went for a short drive as soon as the truck pulled away. WOW!!! Was that fun. We both got behind the wheel, and I even got it on the second cam for a short stretch. The next day we got 5 inches of new snow.

The car is exactly as you described, and I couldn’t have asked for a better seller. Thank you for all of your candor and patience.

I’ll forward photos and updates as they become available. Your car has made us very happy. (The previous sentence was a vast understatement.) I hope you don’t mind me sharing some kind words about you on the Lotus Forum.
*************************

Basically the guy is what my dad would call a "Mensh". Real great to deal with, totally on top of things, flexible when it came to payment. Just a great experience. But now that the Burgundy baby is gone I have some figuring to do. Buy a 2007 Exige S? (If I can find one in my comfort price zone) Buy a full race car? Do something I have always wanted to do, and buy an 1988-1991 e30 M3 replace the motor, and completely convert it to a fully prepped track car? buy an 01 or 02 BMW ///M Coupe and strip the interior, upgrade the suspension, add a roll bar and harnesses, a new seat, replace the steering wheel and have one of the fastest hatchbacks on the planet? Too many choices, too many choices.

I have been saying I am selling the Elise because I want an Exige S, and that's the truth. An Exige S is damn close to the pinnacle of a sports car. I am certain nothing feels quite as connected and fun as one (even though many cars are faster). It is fast enough though to feed that need I have to not deal with being passed all the time on the track. I dont mind people passing me perse, what I do mind is people holding me up in every turn, and then punching their 405HP Corvette's down the straight keeping me from passing them just to be holding me up again at turn 2. The Exige S with a tune pushing 250HP or so (and weighing 2150pounds wet with driver) I hope would be a VERY fast car around a track. It might not have EXPLOSIVE acceleration like a Z06 or a GT3, ubut it has SOOO much handling capability that you should be able to maintain so much speed through the turns that you can get to the end of a straight at a higher speed than an even faster car who has to come onto the front straight at a much slower speed.

So decisions to be made, but in the interum I am shopping for a daily driver, than a house, than a track car!

A Mazda 6 rental and my impressions

This is my rental car;

2009
Mazda 6
Grey
Cloth Interior
5000 miles
Automatic slushbox


Here are my impressions of this car;

First off this car is nice, but very soft. I can not get comfortable in it, I cant adjust the seat and steering wheel to actually feel good at the wheel. And let me tell you, automatics suck, they really, truly completely suck. This car has the old steptronic "put it in a gear manually and 'shift' nonsense", which kind of helps, but here are my problems with it (or at least my findings);

1. It will stay in gear when you manually choose that gear and ride the rev limiter, which would be good, but really isnt because you cant hear the motor at all, so you have no idea whats going on until you look down and see the tach at redline. It doesnt bounce off the limiter, but just sits there riding it.

2. If you manuallly choose a gear, and are at say 3500 and you punch it, you want to floor it in that gear, not necesarilly downshift, and THEN punch it. Which is what happens.

2a. So you are going through a light, in 3rd gear that you manually chose, and you punch it to get through quickly, instead of just leaving it in 3rd and increasing the gas/air into the motor it does this;

PAUSE------PAUSE-------DOWNSHIFT INTO 2nd-----THEN GO

Which is much damn slower then jus increasing your speed a tad in 3rd gear, its not like 3500rpms is that taxing on the motor or anything.

3. The throttle is overboosted, meaning that the first 2 inches of the throttle are quite hard to modulate, its hard to take off from a stop without the car 'rushing' to get off the line. It makes the car feel fast, but they need to make the throttle pedal more linear.

4. The brakes are as touchy as any brakes I have ever used, it makes me feel like I am bad driver, I can not smoothly and lightly apply the brakes. Its kind of an all on or all off sort of deal. Weird coming from a Mazda.

5. Its handling is .... well what you would expect from a mid grade mid sized crappily tired family sedan. I would say from my limited driving it is marginally better than a Monte Carlo, but only marginally so. It does NOT bestow confidence. i.e. when I take a few turns going to my work in even a Honda Accord or Civic the car feels planted and while it has lots of body roll still begs me to feed on the throttle. This Mazda 6 feels wet loose and just floaty, and I am somewhat scared to feed on the right foot, since the car is so wallowy. A fun track car this would not be, at all.

6. Fit and finish are nice. Its decent quality, somewhere between a Mercedes and a Ford. Its solid, and looks 'nice'.

7. The placement of things is a total mystery to me. I am not short, or do I have short arms, and it is damn hard to reach half of the controls on th radio. The door lock and door handle are so far foward in the door it is actually awkward to lock the doors, so much so that I find myself not doing it, and I ALWAYS lock car doors when I am driving.

8. It has a 1/8" mini AUX input, which every single car in the world should come with, this is one of the first cars I have driven where I get to h0ok up my iphone, its nice. It also can read MP3 and WMA disks, but really who cares in this day and age. The Audi SD card slot for MP3s is way more slick if you ask me.

9. Lastly, something is weirdish with the windshield. The angle of the windshield or just the curvature of it makes my vision look a bit weird. When I am loking straight ahead things are just the slightest bit off, maybe its an interaction between my glasses and the windshield, but it would be enough to bother me if I owned this car.

So in a nutshell, this car is OK, but pretty lackluster and pretyt unmoving. I think I would rather have the Toyota/Honda/Nissan offering in ths same class if push came to shove, but I am sure they are slightly more money.

The REAL sad part about this rental car is that I was on the verge of renting a Porsche Cayman for the 2 days, but they didnt have one available. It woudl have been a waste of $300 considering my pretty boring ass commute, but at leats I would have been in a very cool car that I have never driven before (even if it was the wimpy non-S version and had the "I am a complete lame-ass" automatic tranny).