ArborMotion

Joyriders - car enthusiasts beware! Went in for an alignment, came back with extra mileage and an oil leak. I took my collector car, a Nissan Skyline GT-R, in for a basic four wheel alignment at ArborMotion. They had high internet reviews so I was expecting them to treat my car with respect - the opposite of what happened. For toe adjustment front and rear, they put 10 miles on the car - a ridiculous amount for an alignment check. My gut sunk at realizing my car had potentially been joyridden, but I did not want to jump to conclusions. A quick glance under the car was all I needed to confirm - puddle of oil, which when further investigated was a significant oil leak. The car was clearly beat on, and driven far more roughly than would ever be needed for an "alignment check." I quickly walked back inside and the tech admitted it was taken on several rides, along with some BS about needing to check the rear end noise (it has a clutch type LSD) despite noting it likely had a locker in the work notes, and never once calling me to ask about it. Aside from not having an alignment machine, I perform all of my own maintenance and the car was in excellent condition prior to leaving it with ArborMotion. Of course, being an old car things can and will fail - but they don't sprout an oil leak like this just sitting on a lot or in gentle driving. Being as the techs were observant enough to note the rear differential maintenance (new looking axles), they certainly would have noticed an oil leak of this size before working on the front end alignment. In all likelihood, they aligned it, beat on it and got the oil pressure and temperature extremely high, and set it in a parking spot without looking back twice. I spoke with the owner, Sebastian, who seems to believe the fact that they work on high end vehicles exonerates them from any potential wrongdoing, despite the fact that he was not in the building at the time of the incident. The vehicle now needs front camshaft seals and front main seal - a timing belt off job approaching $1000. This is just to rectify the visible damage and abuse - who knows what wear and tear they put on the clutch, transmission, turbos (OEM ceramic blades - highly sensitive to over-reving), etc. The only positive things I can say are that the alignment seems straight, and the shuttle driver Steve was very polite and courteous. Go elsewhere for your car maintenance needs.

Changed battery and said alternator was fine. Alternator failed within a few hours driving (a couple weeks calendar-wise due to travel out of town). Unfortunate, because the oil leak repair included all of the disassembly labor that the alternator then required for a second time. They did drop $50 off the part price to partially make up and picked up and dropped off car at my house, which was well appreciated

I was quite impressed with the place. It was very clean, and well equipped. They were equipped with a road force balance machine as well as a more traditional static / dynamic setup, and were able to inform me that the road force could be used, but was unnecessary. (saving me $!) The waiting room was comfortable, and the staff were friendly and helpful. Prices were in line with averages for the procedures I had done. They were quite thorough, doing no unnecessary work, but recommended work that ought to be considered (in the near future) after thoroughly inspecting my vehicle. Work was performed in a timely fashion. They washed my vehicle gratuitously at the end.

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I took a car I wanted to purchase to Arbor Motion to get a pre-purchase inspection. I was extremely pleased with the service here. They gave me a shuttle ride with an extremely friendly driver to and from work. The workers gave me the low down on the vehicle. They even helped me find a good price for the vehicle through kelly blue book and gave me tips on how to go about asking for repairs or getting a cheaper price on the vehicle I wanted to buy. The only con, which I don't really consider bad is when I wanted an estimate for the repairs, the prices were almost double that of other auto shops but this is because they use genuine parts to the vehicle, as I had asked why the prices were so high. Surely a place to go for classic cars in that case! 

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Very well
Completed in about 2.5hrs while I waited
Good results

The infuriating experience of attempting to have a leak repaired and later an alternator replaced was so negative that it has taken me months to be able to write about it. Tim Potts' attitude and behavior were AWFUL. Essentially, when we confronted him about the fact that they had taken money for repairs and left us our car in non-working order 3 or 4 times in a row, he told us that since we had shopped around for prices [they were HIGH, as others on Angies List point out], he felt that we were really "not his customers" (despite the fact that we DID bring him the car to be repaired [replace water pump, which they said would fix heat as well]) and therefore, he felt no obligation to do a good job with the repairs.
When I initially brought the car in (based on good reviews online) because of a leak, I was given an estimate for around $3000+  for a smorgasbord of knit-picky, unnecessary repairs including a timing belt replacement (which I had already had replaced around 100k, elsewhere). I was disappointed and felt discouraged about the prospect of working with this shop (despite the good Angies List reviews) because I have always maintained the car very well, and at that time had a very specific problem that needed to be fixed, preferably at a reasonable price; it appeared that the main objective of the sales reps at Arbor Motion was to transfer money from my pocket to theirs. Arbor motion turned having my 2001 Audi (obviously no longer new) in the shop in to an opportunity to come up with an alarming list of lucrative repairs that would have cost close to the value of the car rather than the hundreds it should have cost to repair [properly] the water pump. I picked up the car without doing any repairs at that time (Dec 2014).
Later in he winter/spring the water pump leaked out dramatically and the heat stopped working at the same time. I spoke on the phone with a rep from Arbor Motion and was told that repairing the water pump should take care of the problems (leak and heat). At some point they suggested that the timing belt be replaced, but I had already had it replaced, so declined that suggestion. I brought the car in and they supposedly repaired it and left it in the lot for us to pick up. When I picked the car up, the heat was luke-warm. Lots of shenanigans (honestly, I tried to block out the details to spare my brain) and 3 or 4 trips to Arbor Motion later, the heat was slightly better, but still not right. Tim was acting as if he genuinely felt bad about the problem and I felt embarrassed for him not being able to figure out how to fix the heating problem, so I just said it was ok and left with a marginally functioning heating system.
Some months later, the alternator went bad, so I returned to Arbor Motion thinking that Tim, despite his incompetence, had really worked hard for us with the heat. He gave me a very high estimate for the alternator repair, which, again shocked me (especially b/c I thought we had built some good will based on our flexibility with the heating mess-up). I became irritated on the phone when Tim asked me why I didn't want to have the alternator replaced by them at his extremely high price--I didn't feel I needed to explain the obvious, and we agreed that I would pick up the car without doing the repair.  When I went to pick up the car as agreed, they had left it in the lot un-startable (I think they had let the battery drain down or had disconnected the battery). That was interesting. Ok, so Tim said they would look in to it and have the car ready to drive away the next day. When we returned the next day, advised by them that it was ready to be picked up--we were again unable to drive it away. At this point, or maybe it was the 3rd time they told us it was ready and we could pick it up, we got in to a more heated discussion with Tim--which led to what he told us above--that we had been disloyal customers [i.e. we had not agreed with a smile to his highway robbery prices and to doing the {unnecessary} timing belt replacement] and therefore he felt less obligated than usual to take care of us. We were not looking for special treatment--just looking to not have our time and money wasted or our rationality insulted. FINALLY, after much discussion, Tim agreed to recharge the battery (which was essentially fully charged when we delivered the car to them [I had it tested by AAA before bringing it in]) and promised that we would be able to drive the car away the next day, and we did--to another repair shop. Hallelujah. Never again.
In summary, here's a short list of the ridiculous situations we walked in to each time we tried to pick up the car, which they had left for us, supposedly repaired [and paid for], in the lot: car wouldn't start, battery dead, heat not working, air conditioning not working. The only way to interpret these events is that either they are extremely incompetent or just plain dishonest (with people who push back on their pricing)--it seems to me that it is a combination of both. In summary--if you like to hand over money in fistfuls to people who  behave arrogantly, speak nonsense and make you waste your time driving your car back and forth to their repair shop for the same problems over and over, go here. If you prefer to work with professionals who do not act spitefully and incompetently, go elsewhere!!!
I hope that this review will spare someone else the trouble of getting in to a struggle with this company--the experience was truly miserable and costly in terms of time, energy, and money.

They gave me all the options and a detailed break down of the costs of front. I left the wheel and shredded old tire behind and drove home on my spare. A few hours later they had a new tire put on and they reinstalled it on my car. They checked all my other tires and gave me recommendations on when to get them replaced before they get too worn down.

Timely shuttle service to and from; the best inside and out automotive detailing I've found thus far in Ann Arbor.  They are not inexpensive but in this instance, you get what you pay for.

Overall, my experience with ArborMotion was fantastic.  Chuck was very informative and talked me through the quote before they performed the service.  
I originally scheduled an appointment for an oil change, tire mount and balance, alignment, to take a look at my e-brake and give the car a full inspection.  They started working on the car exactly when they said they would and got me a quote within the first day.  Turns out they found quite a few things that needed to be done, and all of them are known issues for higher mileage on this vehicle, so they did not suprise me.  For the work I asked for plus serpentine belt replacement, power steering hose replacement, valve cover gasket replacement, brake flush, rear spring replacement and full repair of Ebrake, they wanted $2700 to fix it all.  I didn't really even pay that much for the car, so I did not want to do all of it right then.  I decided to go ahead and do the brake flush and rear springs for sure.  Luckily, I asked them  to temporarily fix the ebrake to lower the cost so that the car is driveable but not fully complete, they were happy to do as i asked and it cut my cost down $400 dollars.  So for all of the work I asked them to do it came down to $1350.  It was a pleasure dealing with these guys and they seemed very knowledgeable.  All said and done it only took them 3 days to finish my car and the only reason it took that long is because they were waiting on the tires to be delivered (that i ordered and shipped to them through tirebuyer.com).
They charge $116 per hour of labor, which is a little high, but you get what you pay for.  The service and attention you receive as a customer is well worth the money.  
My only complaint is that I did find them on Angie's List, I completely forgot to present the coupon to save 10% on labor (up to $100), so i called them the day after i picked the car up to see if they'd be able to credit me the $100.  They said that they could not change the paid invoice, I was a bit disappointed in that considering how great their service was beforehand.  
In my eyes, Arbor Motion has become my new go-to shop in the area.

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I am pleased with the services received.  The experience was positive.

Excellent work!

They were thorough, timely, professional, and very friendly. arborMotion services all foreign models and came very highly recommended. They are a "green" facility and support public radio and other local groups. They increased the value of our vehicle with the service they provided.

Fit me into their schedule quickly, isolated the problem quickly, followed up with me on the phone, fixed the problem, called me that the car was ready, cleaned that car and had everything ready when I arrived.

Lead is no longer a problem.  We were afraid it was going to be a more costly repair.

Service was delivered as promised and of high quality.

They do a good job and do oil changes along with maintenance works for number of makes and models.  They are very friendly and keep you updated about how things are going in case of any service.  Their prices could be lower and I will use them again in the future.

They are very thorough and really know what they do. They work on furrowers and Swedish cars. They are really good and very good in explaining people.

Find cheap ways to fix things!

All went well. As I said they are a bit pricey, but the the attention to details and the quality of work is great and it is worth the price