Avoid European American Motors.

It's with haste I post a negative review of any sort, but fair warning to others out there with a European vehicle requiring repairs, needs to be made. Rudi (owner) and Ron (son) are very nice and good guys. They do know German vehicles well and indeed are more than capable of completing basic mechanical repairs at a reasonable price (brakes, oil changes, etc). However, advanced mechanical work and diagnostics are not their forte and will cost you in the long run. I've had 3 vehicles through them in the past 8 years - a Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes.

Their basic work was always spot on, fairly reasonably priced, though always lacked a prompt turnaround and communication. Having said that, advanced work - radiator replacement, head gasket repair, spark plug/wiring jobs, etc ALWAYS bit me in the rear. Their repairs landed me on the side of the road several times, voided a previously performed dealer warranty once (I moved out of state from where my BMW was purchased) and incurred about a 65% cost addition to re-repair their work on several occasions. It's not that European American’s repairs didn't render the car working, it was just that they were done in such a way that other shops looked at their work and said things like, "that certainly is an interesting way to have put that piece back together;" or "strange, I've never seen someone do it that way before."

I despise dealers for their sales tactics and relentless up-charging. However, had I gone to the dealer for all repairs in the past 8 years, I would have certainly made out ahead financially, minimized my stress in knowing whether or not the repair was performed adequately/completely, and would have had better customer relation experiences in the way of car rental (not offered at European American) and communications (usually was greeted by a phone call days later to pickup the car by 6 and pay the bill).