I'm doing some research and I want your opinions.

What would you look for in the "perfect" aftermarket shop?
A place where you can get upgrades to your car, a place to hang out, etc

Besides labor cost, what are things that you are looking for. this could be building design, lighting, tools, location, etc etc

 

must be clean and organized. That is the first thing I look for in a shop.

 

a spotless operating room-like cleanliness. if you can eat off the floor, that may be a bit too extreme lol but you catch my drift. music, complimentary beverages

 

If I'm going to a shop to have either maintenance on or modifications done to my car, I'm looking for reliability, honesty, experience and reputation. I want to know that the person working on my car is very experienced and can be trusted with something that is very important to me. I'm not looking for another bull**** artist who's better at bench racing then he is at the real thing. Frankly, in my opinion shops like this are a rare find. Personally, when it comes to Porsches, I want someone who has built race cars, has raced them, serviced them and has had lots of experience in setting up cars for a particular purpose. After all, some guys race, some guys like a good high performance road car. These are two entirely different animals. Whoever is tuning your car better really understand the difference. 12 years ago when I was looking for someone to modify my 91 964 turbo I spent weeks talking to and visiting shops. I was fortunate to find Sol Snyderman of Perfect Power in Libertville, Illinois. He was a Ruf dealer then and he did a conversion on my car. I still have that car and I love it as much today as I did then. Sol still takes care of that car. Over the years he's done Audis for me and, in the process, he's become a good friend, in large part, because of all the things I said at the outset. His shop isn't particularly convenient for me, door to door he's about 1,000 miles from me. But, that doesn/t matter. He does great work and I trust him. How many can say that about many of the guys who work on their cars. If you can great, then you know what I'm talking about. Finally, Sol did mods to my 2002 X50 this summer and the result was the same: Great work and the car is even more special to me. Botton line: You can drink coffee at Starbucks, when it comes to your fun car, find someone who you can trust who REALLY knows what they're doing.

 

A hot receptionist who likes to pose with the cars is a must.

Everything else is gravy...

 

There are 3 things that make or break a good business of this nature. A successful one must be more honest, more knoledgeable than the competition, and have better prices than the competition. This is what makes one tuner stand out from the others. Of course any good business has to have style, organization, and take good care of all of their customers, but the first 3 are the most important.

...And the woman answering the phones, etc has to be a knockout. This will keep many of the male prospective customers coming back and hanging out for extended periods of time, thus spending more money on **** they probably dont even need.

 

The perfect aftermarket shop in terms of selection is something like Super Autobacs.

Those who have been there know what I mean.

The perfect aftermarket shop in terms of service for most things is Lucent Motors. Even if they are not perfect, they are always striving to be, and that's what's important.

If you spent a few days at Lucent, you would see what I mean.

 

Tyson: Arling has corrupted all of us!! I guess we all love him

 

If you only knew the half of it... some weeks I practically live at his shop.

 

To me the ultimate after market shop is Lucent Motors for sure. a very family environment. he gives you parts at cost. as for his service A++.

 

Yeah...Lucent is the standard. I mean, hot chicks are great and all but come on...we have the Arling/Tom show to keep us entertained!

Lucent is for the boyz and that's how I like it. Shoot the ****, smoke a Cuban, and talk about the rides. Then head out for a run. Awesome.

T

 

Lucent with a better driveway

 

Autobacs is like a ricers dream store. I wish there were more performance oriented shops like that!! I have to admit, walking into that place at first is overwhelming

 

Lucent is the "Four Seasons" of shops. You leave broke but VERY satisfied.

All kidding aside. Arling and Tom are awesome. They are friendly; they offer great pricing; and are beyond competent.

 

I like SP engineering