Car Craft — Local services in Riverside

Where to begin...I'm not at all shocked to see the other negative posts here. After another shop failed miserably, I decided to get one of Car Craft's zero mile 1700cc engines. They were polite until they had my bus hostage, then they were total pricks. My engine? Has not stopped leaking oil since I picked it up. The first leak I found was due to their having re-used a torn o-ring distributor seal. I fixed that with another shop (used as my witness). Next leak was the oil sender (no thread sealant). Then the front crank seal and the fuel pump gaskets. All of this in under 1000 miles. And the carburetor they sold me is complete crap and won't idle properly When I spoke to the owner about these problems (and his staff's lies) he said all VWs leak and insisted that there's a mystifying difference between a drip and a leak and he defended the liar. I didn't mention the carb to him. The last thing I'll do is take the bus back to them to fix any of this. They're dishonest, rude and they're liars. If you take your VW to them, be ready to bend over, and keep bending over chasing your oil "Drips" Mine driped at a rate of 1qt per 400 miles. I now have it down to dripping 1/3qt every 1000. ...

I've been buying sandrail parts at Car Craft for years. The prices are the best you can find, comperable with internet prices. The difference: Ed won't hardly let you out the door until he's sure you know what you're doing in installing the part. He's a wealth of knowledge on the air-cooled machines. I recently needed help with rebuilding and tuning my motor, so I let them have it. I was very pleased with the work they did, and I seldom let anyone touch my vehicles because of shoddy work that 'others' do. The mechanics did a great job on the rebuild and tuning and came outside to talk about the work when I picked up the car. The job was done when promised, and I didn't even expect that. The only comment I have about improvements would be less 'Made in China or Taiwan' parts in the store itself. I believe that while some customers come in to save every dollar possible, the majority will spend more for quality...

One of the specialized places in classic VW and beyond... air cooled cars, from bugs to buses to 914 /911 Porsche. A lot of parts in stock, included some used parts, very knowledgeable employees. Edit, after few months : I dropped my review to 1 star because the totally uncool/ patronising way they talked to me when I request just to talk to someone about machining a cilinder head. They refuse to even consider quote me a simple opperation unless I leave the part with them come back some other time. I live 60 miles away so I could not let it and come back for just a simple quote one can get in 2 minutes. If they do not welcome their clients I'm moving my business elswere... I can not recommend their shop or their machine shop anymore. BTW...the part i need it quoted was damaged due to a failure of an new EMPI carb set sold to me by...