One day I took my BMW 325i to The Dealer for its regularly scheduled maintenance. When I got my car back they gave me this superbly crafted 11 page document that explained everything that ailed my car, why I should get it fixed and that $3,000 is a small price to pay for peace of mind.
Even though I have had many fine experiences with The Dealer and generally got good service, most of the scheduled maintenance and repair work was covered under warranty so I hardly ever had to over pay. Sorry Dealer, I'm no Wall Street insider, $3,000 is serious. Your tastes are too rich for me, time to move on.
Determined to find a reasonably priced and reputable repair shop, I dialed up Yelp and bimmershops.com, got a list of the best reviewed repair shops and called each one looking for a price quote. All of the shops were cheaper than the dealer and generally had comparable prices for parts and labor. I ended up choosing Wizard Werks for a few reasons: First, their location is perfect for me, its pretty close to downtown (near where I work and live) so it is easy for me to drop off the car before work and pick it up afterwards. Second, and most important, Karim, the shop owner is passionate about cars (especially BMW's), is very professional, responds quickly to phone and email inquiries and stands behind his work. Thirdly, he's a one stop shop. He does complete repair work, including wheel alignment and body work. Finally, he is willing to work (and fight) with the extended warranty company that The Dealer talked me in to purchasing.
I have used Wizard Werks twice now. The first time Karim went through The Dealer's laundry list. He very carefully explained what needed repair, what didn't and what, based on his experience, my 325i would need down the road. I chose what I wanted to get fixed now and he got it done that day. Not only did he do a great job on my car, I was very pleasantly surprised to get back a freshly washed and squeaky clean car!
About a month later (during a 3 mile, 2 hour commute through a snow storm) I hit something which caused my brake, abs and traction control lights to light up and also caused my power steering to go all wonky. I called Karim and he looked at my car right away and let me know that after swapping out most of my power steering system they found that the rack and pinion had busted.
I showed him this fancy extended warranty thing that The Dealer sold us. He worked with them to cover the rack, abs sensors and also a few other things that needed some TLC. After a few days of wrangling with them the warranty company picked up almost the entire bill. Weird!
I've never had such great service from a repair shop before. I have greatly appreciated all of Karim's efforts and will continue to use Wizard Werks to maintain my car.
