Who works on Bugs in CDA?

Toph · Joined: 24 Oct 2009 Posts: 65 Location: Coeur d' alene

Does anyone know of a shop that works on Bugs in Coeur d' Alene?

Troy Hobbs · Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 766

Jason at European Motors maybe. You can go north to The Shop in Sandpoint, or bring it to Spokane.

Toph · Joined: 24 Oct 2009 Posts: 65 Location: Coeur d' alene

The guy at European motors is not so nice. I went in there a few months back and he just went off about working on air cooled. Said he loses his ass hard to find parts so on and so on. What is the place in Sand point?

Sprø Norsk · Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 331 Location: Oly

youngm357 · Joined: 08 Sep 2009 Posts: 29 Location: Liberty Lake, WA

What do you need done to it?

Troy Hobbs · Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 766

The place in Sandpoint is called The Shop (208)265-4277. In Spokane there is Custom VW (509) 499-9986, or Barrys Downtown Automotive that still work on Air cooled VW

Toph · Joined: 24 Oct 2009 Posts: 65 Location: Coeur d' alene

I just replace my alternator. I have had to pull it back out twice because I can not seem to shim the fan correctly. Its rubbing on the fan shroud. I really dont have time to keep pulling it apart and I really don't know what i am doing wrong.

motofly196 · Joined: 23 Jun 2008 Posts: 442 Location: Medical Lake

When you had it out, was the fan rubbing on the shroud? Does the shroud look tweaked at all... Fan look bent?

Scott

69 Jim · Joined: 02 Jun 2007 Posts: 13 Location: Nine Mile Falls

I can't say enough good about Mitch at The Shop in Sandpoint. Top notch tech, and person.

Toph · Joined: 24 Oct 2009 Posts: 65 Location: Coeur d' alene

The fan was fine before I pulled it. Made no noise at all. Once I put it back in the first time it was really loud. Nothing appeared to be damaged. It all seemed very straight. The second time the noise was way less, but still present. So I want to purchase a new shroud and fan and get it put in.

HotelVW · Joined: 31 Aug 2010 Posts: 2 Location: Coeur d 'Alene Idaho

I just wanted to warn anyone about taking their vehicle to Hayden Lake Automotive. The guy talks a good story but I have had nothing but a Nightmare dealing with him to rebuild my engine (over 8 Months to do!)and also the first check up (Said it was free and then tried to charge me $138.00 for hoses he was supposed to replace in the original rebuild!).
He never returns calls and always jacks up the price he originally quotes without letting you know. Sad way to do business...and several of his past customers and I may be taking him to court. I heard from many that it's gone downhill since the original Owner left it to Mark.

Jason at European Machine is just not so much into Air Coolers anymore as he can make the same if not more money doing the routine Audi repairs in much less time and ease in availibilty of parts. I do take mine to him for some repairs (He may be a bit expensive) because he does know what he's doing and does not rack up a bill on you.

Thanks for the tips on the Sandpoint Shop...I will check him out. Any good or negative feedback is greatly appreciated as we ALLl lose when bad businesses continue to take advantage of us and our passions of remaining "Air Head" Fans.

Chris · Joined: 22 Feb 2009 Posts: 100

Barrys downtown automotive is a good place at least for me. Barry does work quickly and never over his original quote. One of the things I like is him and his guys will talk cars and show you the repairs that they did on your car. Overall really good experience.

mikeyj007 · Joined: 18 Jul 2010 Posts: 21 Location: Downtown

I have to say I'm still in shock. I just got back from Barry's Downtown Automotive to see how the work was coming along on my VW Thing. I didn't get a quote in writing when I took it in to get the brakes lights and turn signals fixed. When I originally talked to them he guessed it would probably be around 2 to 3 hours shop time to get it going but wasn't sure.

Granted they ran into problems with the wiring which of course was why it was in the shop to begin with. An electric fuel pump had been wired wrong and there were some issues from the previous owner having a cheap paint job done to it. Wires were painted over some and were hooked up wrong.

It still seems to me that 11 hours of labor is a bit overboard when you're going into it thinking something in the neighborhood of 2 to 3 multiplied by $80 plus. I know some shops use books to estimate how long a job should take and bill by that. If it takes longer to do the job because the mechanic isn't experience enough to troubleshoot it in a reasonable amount of time then it's on the shop not the customer for picking the wrong shop with an inexperienced mechanic.

To be fair I haven't received the final bill so I'm withholding judgement. Barry mentioned he would do something like a %15 discount on labor.

Am I wrong here? Is this the cost of owning a somewhat rare air cooled Volkswagen? I'm expected to pay a mechanic to figure out how to repair it when I'm thinking they should already know how to fix a Volkswagen? Was I naive thinking it would be somewhere around $400 instead of closer to $1,000? If it is anything over $500 I definitely won't be a return customer.

Troy Hobbs · Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 766

You can't go by book time when it comes to trouble shooting, too many unknowns. But after spending the quoted time on it, they should have called you to update you before proceeding.

motofly196 · Joined: 23 Jun 2008 Posts: 442 Location: Medical Lake

Troy is right...some shops won't even touch vehicles that have been modified for just that reason. Sure they can fix it, but at your cost. We used to charge "shop" labor for regular stuff, brakes, tune-ups, routine stuff. But when you get into somebody else's wiring mess, you're looking at shop rate, troubleshooting time, and then straightening it all out. Some jobs are just better to figure em' out yourself...or make some friends that can talk ya through it!!!

Scott