The German Car Shoppe — Local services in Littleton

I've been here a couple times and was happy with the service and cost both times. Thinking I could trust them to do a competent, honest job I sent my wife to get an oil change and didn't bother checking up on how things went.

This was a mistake, and I'm now out far more money than I should be for this basic service.

Most importantly, by my wife's account the guy she dealt with (Dave) was extremely rude and condescending to her. She's a small blonde woman who very obviously knows nothing about cars and they must have thought they could just get away with whatever.

Another big issue I have is that they began work before obtaining actual consent to start working on it. This is a pretty big no-no in the auto service world; I'd know as I used to work in the industry.

According to my wife the tech came and grabbed the keys and went to pull it in. Not until 15 minutes later did the Dave begin interacting with her, at which point he told her the car needed an additional minor service. She called me to confirm the details of that service (which we turned down as it was obscenely overpriced and not critical, despite them insisting to my wife that it was), and while on the phone I asked what the cost of the oil change was ($170ish)... upon hearing that figure I told her "Forget it, go elsewhere" and she looked in the service bay and said the car was already up on the lift and had the oil draining out of it despite her not having explicitly approved any work. As a result, we were forced to go through with a service that we otherwise would not have. Again this is second hand as I'm hearing it from my wife, but by her account she very clearly heard Dave muttering obscenities under his breath as he was walking away to let her call me. That's not ok.

The cost of the oil change was nearly $70 over what the highest rated shop in my area wants, now that I've called and inquired with them. Part of this is likely due to them charging nearly 3x the market rate of the oil filter. We generally will go out of our way to support a business that we know is good, which is why we didn't go to the closer shop in the first place. TGS has now lost our business so at least we can save a bit of driving time moving forward.

The type of cars this shop specializes in are generally of the more expensive variety, and service costs follow that. This is well understood and a non-issue. The issue is when they charge significantly more than other German-specific shops for the same service on the same vehicle. The other problems I've mentioned above are more important to me, but I wanted to address that particular argument...

I will start by giving credit where due: Ed seems to be a very nice guy, we can all agree on that, and he also was really good about providing me with a loaner car, and he even worked with me on the billing, and actually gave me a decent deal on what they provided.

But here's where they fell short -- in my opinion -- and that is Quality Diagnostics, and follow-through on repairs.

I took my '02 Audi A4 in about a month ago; they diagnosed a bad fuel injector. Ed called and suggested they might have to replace all four injectors, which was fine with me, it makes sense, the car is old, lots of miles, let's do it.

I also asked him to check my fuel pump, since it had been quite noisy for the past few weeks.

A few hours later, Ed called back with good news: He said they checked all the injectors, and as it turned out, only one really needed to be replaced, and they also checked the fuel pump, and it was fine ... good to go.

I went in, paid a bill of about $500, but about a mile down the road, the car died,and it felt a lot like a dead fuel pump.

So, Ed sent a tech to meet me, he gave me a loaner, and somehow got my car back to the shop. A day or two later, Ed called, confirmed that it was in fact, a bad fuel pump, and another $500 or so should do the trick.

Fair enough, we did the fuel pump, he cut me a fair deal, and I was on my way.

When I picked up the car the second time, I asked Ed if he had looked at the car himself, or driven it at all. He said he had not.

That was a month ago. Last night, I lost another injector, which is less than shocking. Of course, now I am really wishing we had just done the job right the first time, by replacing all four injectors.

As I said, good guys, decent shop -- but in my case -- they could have done a much better job with diagnostics and follow up. Obviously, their initial diagnostics on my fuel pump was dead wrong, and now, as it turns out, their diagnostics and advice on my injectors was also off the mark -- lesson learned -- don't just replace one injector, better to just...

Brought Car in for filter change and tuneup. They come back with a nearly $14,000 estimate. I laughed and said no thanks the car is worth 7000. They corrected me and said the car is nearly worth 22,000. Because of the low miles. This was their first lie. No truth to it at all. They told me I could not have the car that week because it would take a while for parts. I said no problem and when my secretary called to let them know that she would be picking it up whenever it was ready they informed her it was already done. I picked it up and it was not running right at all. The engine was making loud noises. I called and brought it to their attention and the manager told me he was too busy and had other clients before me and could I be put on hold. After 10 minutes he came back and said he would have to call me back. He never did. I drove my car to church in Genesee and if I turned, left the car would go right. And if I turned right, the car would go left. Somebody in front of me slammed on their brakes and it sent me flying three lanes over. Between 10 and 15 cars had to lock up their brakes, including a big truck. I swore I was dead for sure. Everybody was furious at me. I drove the car 5 miles an hour home and brought it to the shop. The manager said he doesn’t know why he told me the car was worth 22,000 because it’s not and that was his fault and he told me it was a faulty part that they installed and should never have put inside and so my steering Rod was just loose and going everywhere. He said I was very lucky to be alive. As if he did be a favor somehow. They have not wanted to do anything for me and I am now going to file this in court and the whole city will...