R&D Automotive Bavarian Rocket Science

"Thank you very much for the review, we really appreciate the feedback. While we never want an unsatisfied customer, sometimes unrealistic customer demands are beyond our means. We were originally apologetic for the delays; however the root cause for these delays was not mentioned in the negative review. We hope readers of this response will appreciate the emphasis we put on the importance of regularly scheduled maintenance and also the possible side effects of modifying your vehicle to use biodiesel as an alternate fuel source. This particular vehicle was retrofitted to burn biodiesel as a fuel by the customer. Biodiesel is a cheap alternative to conventional diesel fuel made from recycled deep fryer vegetable oil. However as this case illustrates, biodiesel has some drawbacks associated with it as well. Biodiesel is not nearly as well refined as conventional diesel fuel and therefore burns differently inside the engine. This causes excessive build-up of carbon in the combustion chamber, essentially fusing the glow plugs to the cylinder head from the inside. This, combined with a lack of regular maintenance, caused the glow plugs to snap off when attempting conventional removal. This “damage” was caused by the burning of biodiesel and created the need for an entirely different type of repair that is much more labor intensive and therefore more expensive. All of this was explained to the customer previously. After having this more intensive repair performed somewhere else, the customer again came back to us for diagnosis of other issues the vehicle was having, which we agreed to diagnose for free as a sign of good faith and our commitment to customer service. However after diagnosing several issues stemming from a lack of proper maintenance and overall neglect, the customer insisted we repair all the issues for free and also include a complimentary oil change. While we were sympathetic to our customer’s situation, we explained that overall neglect and lack of proper maintenance on his part simply was not a sufficient reason for us to perform free service. Needless to say, we declined his unrealistic request and asked him to find another mechanic. We at no time charged this customer for the original repairs performed or the later diagnosis."