Complaint Review: Superior Autohaus - roswell Georgia

I was looking for a good mechanic to take care of  my new to me 2005 911s and after researching my options in the Roswell area I called Superior Autohaus for a quote on some specific work I needed done. Hans quoted me and then called me back a few minutes later and offered a reduced price as he "wasn't very busy that day". I took him up on his offer and received very good service from his shop on that work and other work he performed over the next two or so years...water pump, clutch etc. I then had a persistent check engine light issue that needed to be resolved and I asked Hans to check into it and also change my oil while he had the car. The next day I received a call from Hans telling me he had bad news...he had found metal in my oil filter. He said it most likely was the result of a failed IMS bearing, which in early 997 Porsche's is catastrophic and the end of your motor. In shock I went to his shop to see what they had found firsthand.

A mechanic named Jason, who I had never met, had worked on the car. He took me into the bay where my car was up on the lift and showed me a large piece of ferrous metal (mangled bearing) that was in a magnetized dish on the work bench. He said he took this out of my oil filter. I asked if that was a bearing and he confirmed it was. About this time Hans appeared in the shop and after talking about the situation for a few minutes he presented me with an invoice from Hennesey Porsche for $18k for a "re-manufactured" Porsche short block engine. With the addition of the necessary machining of my cylinder heads and installation I was looking at close to $30K!. I told Hans I would have to "get my head around this" and get back to him. I asked to see the mangled bearing again and Jason searched the workbench and "couldn't find it"...said the nearby floor fan might have blown it somewhere! ??? I went home and spent the rest of the day researching my available options.

In the process I contacted one of the top Porsche engine builders in the U.S. who just conveniently happens to be located in North GA. and descrbed my situation. Neither of us could understand how the engine ran fine when I dropped it off if my IMS bearings failed unless it just happpened to fail precisely when I turned off the ignition at Superior...what are the odds of that happening. He convinced me to flat bed the car to him for a second opinion. Hans was not happy about my getting a second opinion...I was questioning his expertise. If you'll notice in some of his customer reviews he doesn't want you to take your car to anyone else but him or he won't work on it again....hmmmm wonder why?

I received a call from my second opinion guy the next day saying he could find no metal pieces in the engine. He informed me that whoever worked on my car (I hadn't shared the name Superior Autohaus with him at this point) had snapped ALL the muffler studs off at the block! Also they couldn't understand why anyone would take the muffler system off to investigate this scenario in the first place! They had basically vandalized the car. My second opinion guy said he wanted to re-drill the muffler studs ($750), put the mufflers on, fill the car with fresh oil and drive it to see what he could determine. I agreed.

A day later I received another call from my second opinion guy...he had driven the car and done another oil change but could find no "metal in the engine". I paid the bill, retrieved the car and drove straight to Superior. I pulled up in front of the bays and was enthusiastically greeted by my friendly mechanic Jason who raised his arms in the air and exclaimed "you got your engine rebuilt already?" About then Hans came out of his office and I told him what my second opinion had resulted in. He got very defensive as did Jason who swore the mangled bearing he had shown me came out of my engine. I asked them why they sheared off my muffler studs and Hans said they were rusted and wouldn't come off. My second opinion guy completely blew up the reason Hans gave for taking the muffler system off in the first place. Porsche Master Technician huh? WOW. If that wasn't enough, Hans then had the nerve to offer me a $750 credit on "future work" he would do on the car to offset the cost of having my muffler studs redrilled!  UnbelieveabIe. I told them both what I thought of them and their tactics and drove off. And no I never did go back to take advantage of my "credit".