Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1998 22:28:46 -0700
Reply-To: Malcolm Holser <mholser@ADOBE.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Malcolm Holser <mholser@ADOBE.COM>
Subject: Re: Fast German Auto rebuilds and core charges?
In-Reply-To: <5e650641.36202849@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
This is a rant, so be forewarned...
At 08:38 PM 10/10/98 , Curtis Gatlin wrote:
>Someone from the net said they paid a lot for the core charges, what
>charges,$400 as they list, which I suspect mine will need. Is there more,
>were there more on yours. I deleted your message quickly without thinking I
>should reply. To anyone else, let me know how your rebuild turned out by
>them. I am very interested in finding out if there are hidden charges?
>
>Curtis
>
I have an FGA rebuilt air-cooled in my 1980. I was not impressed with their
quality, but it has actually run quite well. It was not handsome as engine
rebuilds go, but it has been trouble free for about 30k miles.
My issue with them was that I was severely injured in an accident right after
I ordered an engine from them. They hit me for a tremendous core charge, and
only 30 days to get the engine returned, most of which was over by the time I
got out of the hospital. I called, they were *real* nice, an said "no
problem,
take a couple of weeks to get it back". A few weeks went by, and with two
broken legs and lots of help from friends, my old engine was ready for return.
They would not take it back, and said I had never called. I had made notes
of the time called, and produced the phone bills to prove it. After lots of
threats, and faxing copies of my phone bills to them (and lots of
long-distance
charges), they allowed me to return the engine. Suprise! There was something
wrong with my engine (duh, why do you think I wanted a new one guys?). They
returned almost none of my core charge.
Now this engine was tired, I'll grant that, but compression was still OK, and
it was running fine when I replaced the engine. There was no damage, yet FGA
claimed that the heads both had dropped seats, and the case was shot, etc.
Since they now had the engine, there was little I could do at this point.
They
gave me something -- I think about $200 of the $700 core charge. This
basically
made their $750 engine deal into a $1250 engine deal -- plus several hundred
in shipping charges. Basically, similar to the charges from AVP or MS.
Now $1600 is a reasonable price for a rebuilt engine, probably -- it seems
about
what they all charge. The engine has been faithful as well, so far, and we've
put quite a few miles on it. I just did not like being called a liar and
having to fax records of phone calls to pry anything from them. Then I think
they cheated me on the core. But truthfully, I don't see how they can sell
a rebuild for what they charge without finagling the truth a shade or two. If
I had to do it all over, I'd do it with one of the straight-shooters and pay
the $1600 or so outright. Actually, I'd rather do it myself, but at the time
I could not find the parts at all and resorted to this.
If they are listing a $400 core charge, I'd just buy an engine outright
from them,
and figure the core in. Save the shipping charges and hassle. I always
find it
funny that core charges are only for _perfect_ return parts from some of these
guys. I don't even bother to return stuff to MS -- I just ask what each
deduction
will be, and weigh the deductions against what the core is. I have a whole
pile
of "core" heads, but it isn't worth shipping 'em back.
Malcolm H.
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