Anyone had experience with Aston Martin Service in NJ/Phili(FC Kerbeck)?
I usually use Washington DC but god the service is painful
Looking for alternative "dealer" services outside of independent
Thanks

 

I purchased a 2019 Vantage a few weeks back from a non-Aston Martin dealer in NJ. Since they are not an AM dealer, they sent the car to Kerbeck to have the car looked over and serviced before they put it on their lot. The service receipt states that they replaced the oil, filter, and brake fluid. They also did a full inspection of the car and gave the car a clean bill of health. I purchased the car, brought it home and the battery went dead a day later. I know batteries go bad, but it’s pretty clear that Kerbeck did not check the battery health as part of their “clean bill of health” assessment.

Since I’m equidistant between Kerbeck and another Aston dealer, I brought the car to Summit Aston Martin, in Summit, NJ and they said that the battery tested bad and they put a new battery in, and addressed a few other things that I thought that Kerbeck should have noticed. For example, the windshield wipers were not adjusted correctly, and they were hitting the A-pillar, the hood was slightly out of alignment and needed adjustment, the hood bump stops were missing and needed to be replaced, the coolant for the turbos was low and needed to be topped off. I was surprised that Kerbeck hadn’t noticed and corrected these things.

I know that Summit is pretty far from the DC area and probably not in consideration, but I felt that other than providing a different battery than the one that I had requested, they did good work.

One last point about Kerbeck, they have an eBay store and they have some car covers for sale there. I sent them a question about one of them, providing my VIN to ensure that it fit, and they responded a few days later, saying that it would fit. I then went back to the exact listing that I had sent the question about, and they had raised the price of the cover by $100. Pretty poor business practices if you ask me “looks like we have a live one on the hook, so raise the price”. Needless to say, I didn’t buy the cover from them.

Of course YMMV, but since you asked, I thought some of this might be of interest.

 

thanks for the feedback; sorry to hear about your troubles; might have to consider summit!

 

You can try Steel Wings in Ivyland PA or maybe another exotic brand name independent shop can still fix your AM in your area.

 

Used car dealers , well all dealers can stretch the truth. I truly doubt they asked Kerbeck to do a proper ppi. I bought a certified 2015 Vantage from Aston Orlando last year. Twice I have had my car at Kerbeck for little warranty niggles and just had them do my annual service. I live in Hershey,Pa and both times they flatbed valeted my car for service. Both times the car was returned to me fixed precisely and cleaner than I am able to get the car myself. I can only speak for myself, but their workmanship and professionalism have exceeded my expectations.

 

Personally I would contact Jon Clerk at Steel Wings. They do all my service on my DB9. When I had just bought my car, and drove it to Maine, with the temporary tags still in place, I attended a English car show. There were 4 other AM there -every single one of the owners told me to go to Steel Wings, and to stay away from Kerbeck. My dealings with Kerbeck were less than stellar - form salespeople that had excessive BO at 12 in the afternoon, to rude and obnoxious service desk people. They didnt want to talk to me if I bought the car elsewhere.

Go with Steel Wings.

 

I am now very interested in speaking with steel wings, thanks for the recommendation.

 

Your timing is about right. I bought my car from the DC Aston Martin dealer but have serviced exclusively with Aston Martin in Summit. I'm thinking about moving over the Steel Wings since I'm getting tired of overpaying for service.

Steel Wings is the independent that everyone talks about.

I had a minor issue with FC Kerbeck. Checked the online price of a battery maintainer. Called made sure they had it in stock. Took a little drive down there (always find an excuse to drive my car). When I got there, it was a different price (higher of course). I complained and they gave it to me for the online price. No harm no foul, but that was shady.

 

How we're you overcharged for service? Haven't heard anything like this from AM Summit previously?

 

Summit charges fair hours, the correct hours for the job, but you're still paying $210+/hour instead of the $100 most indi shops charge. Personally I always considered it insurance in case the worst case happens, and extremely luckily in my case my 4.7 melted down after the oil filter imploded which [after 10 days of nail biting] AM covered under failure of a dealer installed original part.

That said I'm also growing a little weary of the costs for some simple things and by what I'm told, the company has changed and the likelihood they'd agree to replace an engine now would be pretty slim.

I've been given the name of another local shop that does alot of Aston work and comes highly recommended,
http://www.possumhollowmotorsports.com/
about the same distance to Steel Wings though who are marque specialists.

 

Has anyone had experience with Zeigler Exotic Cars - where the possum hollow link above takes you? This is about an hour closer to me, and a lot more convenient for simple stuff like oil changes. I noticed that the owner has a 2008 DB9.

 

That is what I have heard as well. Dealers are going to be more regardless, but you also get what you pay for. I really haven't heard anything negative about Summit, and they're my local dealer. For piece of mind its not worth cutting corners to me.

 

The only complaint I had with Summit is a broken air box. After the service I had an error code and one of my airboxes was glued back together and leaking. They said it was broken and they fixed it, it wasn't fixed and I never got any error messages before it was serviced. I had to pay the $800 for the airbox, after paying $6000 to have a VAP clutch installed and the regular service. John is an excellent mechanic, but I didn't feel that was quite right, although there's a chance that's the way it was.

I've never had a problem with the service from Kerbeck, Steve is an excellent mechanic, but I got the "what do you want us to do about it" after they covered the inside and outside of my car in overspray because it sat in the shop so long with the windows down. The rates were always fair when Christy was the service writer but now everything is a few hours more. A battery is 2 hours, 1 at Summit, brakes are 6 hours, 4 at Summit. The excuse everything costs more now. Well then raise your hourly rate, because everything doesn't take longer to do now. Note the distinction.

DC is just out of their minds, 9 hours to do a clutch at Summit, 14 in DC. They all charge basically the same per hour, it's just how many hours they decide they're going to charge for any particular job. Like AM did in England, AMNA needs to get involved to make sure dealer service departments are charging what AM determines a job should take. Their book says a clutch should take 9 hours, Summit charges what the book says. The rest pad the hours and at $210+ those hours add up fast.

 

Wasn't talking about Summit. I have no problems with my service at Summit. I was talking about FC Kerbeck.

 

Gotcha!