I want everyone to know what happened to me so others can benefit from my bad experience at Andy's Auto (NON)Performance.

I want others to post here if they had a bad experience not matter how small it is. If you are not comfortable posting here, please email me your story and I'll post it here anonymously. My email is impala_1995_ss@yahoo.com

I got a motor from Mark in March of 2002. It was a 383 and worked fine. Then it started losing oil pressure really bad at high RPMs. I took it to Mark in early August to find out whats going on. He couldn't find it but he replaced the oil pump (so he says). It still was losing oil pressure and took it back to him a week later. Within a week, he told me that the main caps are BROKEN! He said he would build me a new one because it was less time consuming for him. I said fine and told him he has MORE time to build it because I wanted to order heads from Combination Motorsports and they wouldn't arrive until early October. He said that was good because he's build me a motor in the meantime. All was well until I got the heads and asked Mark when it would be done. He said within a week. I got that EXCUSE from October THROUGH November 2002. Then after reapeated calls, he said the motor was at the shop. I went over there unexpectantly and there was no motor to be found. I couldn't stand the lies anymore so I yanked my car out of there the first week of December 2002 only to find my car all banged up.

Upon removing the motor myself, I had a shop tear it down with me so I would have witnesses. It went from bad to worse. The motor has about 6000 miles on it. All the bearings were copper and beat up, pistons were all scuffed from being built in a dirty environment. Here's the kicker: The cam that I was supposed get wasn't there. When I pulled it out, the cam specs on the face of the cam were GROUND OFF. He obviously had something to hide. I had the cam profiled and it was NOWHERE near the specs I asked him to order. Want more? I paid extra for BILLET MAIN CAPS and I got cheap cast main caps. There's more to this story which I will not reveal pending litigation. For those of you who don't know, THIS IS FRAUD!!!!!!

He dug himself a hole and now he can't climb out of it. I have asked him repeatedly to refund me my money and pay for the damage he caused to my car but is stalling for whatever reason. I tried to keep this of the net but he hasn't done ANYTHING to rectify the situation. So here I am.

THIS is the kind of guy you are deal with. I, for one, will not let this go. I'm gonna warn everyone about him from here on out!


Noel

 

Although this is my first post don't disregard it's authenticity.

I also was screwed by AAP. My car was there for a Year! It is my daily driver so, what was quoted as a two week job for a mild stroker turned into three rebuilds over a twelve month period with the last atttemp 300grams out of balance, different sized exhaust valves, shaved rod bolts to clear the block and two bolt main caps ( paid for four bolts). Also he told me Race Prep did the work on my heads and they flowed 280cfm but he couldn't find the actual flow specs. I called Race Prep and my heads NEVER were there, I repeat Race Prep did not do the work on my heads but Mark used their reputation and even had the nerve to blame them for not doing it right. This is only a small portion of the lies and fraudulent activity I experienced at AAP. I realize Linear Velocity you have had good luck with Mark and always jump to his defense however, you can't tell me what Mark did in any way is acceptable. I tried many times to reach Mark and it wasn't untill I posted here that he responded. I have many e-mails from Mark indicating he wants to settle with me only to shut me up. It has been several months now and I have kept it out of court in hopes to resolve it privatley, however Mark has not responded to my emails and I hope this post will get some results and serve as warning to others. This a quote from his email:

I said:
"I actually thought you were going to handle this in a timely manner and I have held off on discussing the situation with others only indicating that it was being resolved privately"

his response:

"Our difention of "timley" must vary. Court may take over a year, so timely to me would constitute less than that...i.e. weeks or months".

After all I have been through he still refuses to handle it like he should. He also tried to blame everyhting on the Larry's Performance stating they screwed up on the balancing/machine work. I went to Mark and asked if he would go with me to speak with Larry's and he refused siting he was too busy, after he gave me Larry's # he left without telling anyone and was gone the rest of the day. I went directly to Larry's and was told by the manager they had not done work for Mark in months.

I am sure a will get bashed but facts are facts and what Mark did was 100% wrong. And since then I have had to pay for essentially a new motor all over again.

 

A couple of years ago I was screwed in a similar way by another dumbass mechanic, here in Scottsdale. I fired him after I realized he couldn't finish the top end engine rebuild correctly. In other words, he couldn't even get it to run. So I took it to another shop, they finished it in about 2 weeks. It cost more due to the first mechanics screw ups, but they did it right. The second mechanic told me to sue the first mechanic, so I did. I decided to sue him in small claims court because it's easier and I didn't need a lawyer. Only problem is, the maximum suit in small claims is $2,500, but I figured some money is better than none. I filled out the papers and paid the filing fee of $60. I served him and followed the procedures. The whole thing took about 4 months. The second mechanic went to court with me, he wanted to ream the first mechanic a new "A" hole, but the first mechanic didn't even show up, so I automatically won. I then hired a paralegal to help me collect. You can collect yourself, or sell it to a collection agency for about .50 on the dollar.

I strongly suggest that you sue him. Don't let this dumbass get away. Hurt him where it counts, his wallet.

Kurt

 

ITs going to small claims court if he doesn't pay me soon. Here in CA, the limit is $5,000 which covers the short block and the damage caused to my car. So it's all on this A-hole but I'm not waiting at all to see IF he pays.. Once I file, I get a court date within 40 days.

 

Sounds like you did your lawsuit home work.

I was just thinking, maybe you should file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, before filing a lawsuit. This might get him to pay.

Another thing you should do as soon as you win is record a lien against him and his company. This will immediately ruin his credit rating.

Put as many names as possible on the lawsuit. For example, name his wife in the lawsuit, if he has one. Or any partners. Reason why, he might have his assets hidden under other peoples names. In addition, the other people may be willing to settle out of court.

Kurt

 

I hope his shop goes under. I didn't encounter anything that grave with him, but I did submit my resume along with several emails regarding an employee positiong there at his shop. I called him several times and never received a returned phone call. (yea, I know it's a small thing ....but you said it didn't matter how small). Anyhow, I know EXACTLY what you're going through. It furiates and saddens me to see a fellow car enthusiast get handled/treated in such a way. I was screwed majorly by a shop called Gourmet Garage several months ago when I had my '99 turbo chrysler sebring. This shop is located in the city of Rosemead. The shop vandalized and stole so many parts off my car that it was declared a "total loss" by my insurance company. They stole my wheels, seats, gauges, stereo equipment and many other parts. They rebuilt my car twice, because the first time they built it, they put in the pistons and rings backwards. It's pissing me off just talking about it........good luck with your case bro. I hope you get the full $5000.

-Steven

 

Another one, here.

My car has had a history of missing / hesitating at about 4000+ rpm. Also, the car was failing (badly) on all measurements of the smog test. I read a couple of comments here and there that Mark specializes in these cars, so I decided to give him a try. Here are my experiences with Mark, in a nutshell:

1. I had him replace my spark plugs and plug wires, thinking this would solve the performance and emissions problem. Turns out this did need to be done, he did it fine. No problem there. At this time I had also asked him to fix some oil leaks that the car had, and to diagnose an exhaust leak. Diagnosis, a cracked header tube. It was true. $273 so far. The problem here was that all of this took almost two weeks, and it was absolutely impossible during that time to get a status update - not even a courtesy call from him. He literally falls off the face of the planet while he has your car. Durng these two weeks I heard from him ONCE, despite several attempts (by voicemail) to get him to give me a call.

In addition to that, when I got home, the car was still bleeding oil just as before.

2. I got the headers replaced under Edelbrock warranty, so I brought the car back to Mark to have him install them, and FIX my oil leaks once and for all. Again he had the car nearly two weeks, and again it was like talking to the ocean whenever I left a message for him. $380 this time, and the header installation was ok, except that the cat was welded onto the y-pipe (I had specifically asked him NOT to do this, since I was probably going to have to replace the cat soon), and the y-pipe ground-clearance was extremely low (like 1.5 inches), so the car scraped badly just about everywhere I drove. He said I could bring it back and that he would adjust it for me.

With respect to the oil leaks - no improvement. Total cost so far: $653.

3. I had planned to take the car to him again to re-re-address the oil leaks, and to look into the missing / hesitation that has been getting much worse the past couple of weeks. But before I had the chance to bring it in, the car felt like it blew up on me after the hesitation got very bad. Suddenly the car was undriveable.

So, I bring it in. It turned out that some of the material inside the cat had broken off an gone sideways, causing a massive pressure buld-up which popped a header gasket. So, my belief was that this bad cat converter was probably the culprit for the hesitations this whole time. So he put in a new cat. He also tested the optispark (my 4th on this car, already) and said that one side was putting out less juice than the other. This was a relatively new optispark, but I agreed to let him replace it anyway. Also, here is the third attempt to fix my oil leaks, and he made some adjustments to the y-pipe for me, to regain ground-clearance. By now I'm hopefull that between the cat and the new opti (in addition to the new plugs and wires) the hesitation and stumbling would be but a memory. I also hoped that this meant the car would now pass smog with flying colors. In fact, Mark said he took it to his buddy for a smog test and it passed. AGAIN, more than a week, and impossible to reach him for updates. $940 this time, for a rolling total of $1593.

Result? Absolutely no improvement in the performance. Still hesitates as badly as ever, even in the low and mid rpm ranges. The car sometimes feels like it wants to die-out completely right from a mild take-off. Also, now the exhaust system rubbs (badly) against the floor of the car, or the firewall, or somewhere. And, the car ALMOST passes smog now. Just the NOx readings are out of spec.

4. SO! I bring the car back to him yet again to try and resolve this elusive performance problem, to fix the exhaust rubbing, to diagnose a knocking sound coming from the rear end, and to figure out why the car fails the smog test on NOx. He says he'll try a few things, and drive it around, and that it ought to be done within a few days.

I spoke to him on the 7th day, and he said he was still having trouble with the diagnoses, and that he was going to drive my car long distance the following day to get a better handle on it. We also had a discussion about the fact that the car just barely fails smog on the NOx reading. I mentioned to him that if the car were running properly, the readings should be NOWHERE NEAR failing, and that even if it were to barely pass, something must still be up. He agreed.

And now began another 11 days of being totally unable to reach him for so much as an update. On the 18th day, after several increasingly serious messages, I finally got fed up and went down there to take my car back. Upon arrival, I find that he is on vacation starting that very day, and that ABSOLUTELY NOTHING has been done to the car since he's had it for over 2 weeks. The tech says they've basically been driving the car, hard, trying to reproduce the problems. "Everytime I get to like 5000 rpm, it shakes and cuts out..." I had the tech get Mark on the phone, and he basically had only this to say: [paraphrasing] "I can't hear the noise in the rear, I can't figure out why the car hesitates, and I took the car to my buddy for a smog test and it passed." So, basically, that's over 2 weeks of absolutely nothing. So, frustrated, I just took the car and left.


It gets much worse. About 20 minutes after driving off his lot, I suddenly have a blown head gasket! In addition to that, they majorly scuffed the paint on my car, just below the gas filler, and the car is STILL hemoraging oil.

So, to recap, for $1593 I got the following benefits:
* A new Cat (and I'm going to check now if it's really new)
* Header installation (not the parts, just the labor)
* Plugs and wires changed (not the parts, just the labor)

All the rest of it has been for nothing, and the car is in worse shape now than it ever has been. I now have to deal with AT LEAST $1500 in repairs for the blown head gasket, and that's assuming no damage to the head! Not to mention touching up the paint, and whatever the hell else I'm going to find out about!

Thanks, Mark. See you in court.

-Rob