Who is everyone using for servicing in Wellington?

[Herbmiester 931]

Who are the chosen independent garages in Wellington worth using? 

[balancerider 778]

Slim pickings since Jon @ Auto 38 moved IMO. Value service pricing at CC BMW isn’t too horrific 

[Driftit 2093]

Been trying to find a reliable indy down here for a while.  Very different scene in Wellington.
Is the same for Mercedes and wheel alignments past tyre shop absolute basics.

They all want you to drop your car off.  Not say a word.  Pick up and Pay.  Anything out of the norm gets ignored.  If your car is old they treat it like sh*t and just don't care.
Gazley promised a full Merc spec alignment.  I assumed they had their own machine.  Nope.  Just were going to get one of the kids to take it down the road to the closest tyre shop.
 

[Eagle 1679]

Business equivalent of yes men. Local dealer here did the same for my control arm bushings on my W140. I asked if they had the special tool, said they did then proceeding damage one of them when installing one of them because they didnt have the tool.

My Mercedes never tracked properly after after a local tyre shop touched it, even the dealer couldnt get it right after that. 

[Herbmiester 931]

I have had a number of average dealings with Gazeley, my wife likes Skodas. It's just a lack of interest as they just change the oil and dont even check for any other faults. The Superb is dues a timing belt and has a faulty reverse sensor. It has a sticker on the window that says it had a DSG service a few months back. All they say when I get it back is. It needs a transmission service. Complete and utter muppets. 

In the past I have tried.

• Vogel Motors, apparently they have a Euro specialist. Only in there for Tyre fitting ex Hper Drive, but excellent service and the front person couldn't be more helpful. 
• Hutt City European, pretty good used them a few years back, seemed to care about their work, more VAG oriented than BMW from what I could gather.
• Mendoza Mechanical, super helpful and really honest in what they were doing. Pricing was really fair. I dont think their Euro guy is that experienced on BMW.
• Star Moto, charged me $200 more than I was quoted for a DSG service. 
• Jon at Auto 38, the best. 
• Brendon Foot for my Mitsi ute. $700 for new brake pads, rotors were fine.
• Powehaus, did a precheck on a 911 for me. Glad I took it into them. Again not BMW experts. 
• Mike Page in Kapiti. Really good but just a bit too far way. 

[adro 1084]

Can’t stand Gazleys , I’ll be going to Sutherland Performance for the Golf if I need more than an oil change. 
 

Powerhaus - haven’t used for a while but they use to be good, just real far away from my house. 

Wellington European - get the job done but I’ve had a few instances where I felt a bit done over.  one time we needed rear pads and they up sold me rotors as well, that I wasn’t that keen on and then when I went to pay they gave me a discount because they said it didn’t really need them. 
   Second was a DSG service that when l went to pick it up was way more expensive as they quoted for 6 speed wet clutch and it was a 7 speed dry clutch so they had to get fluid from gazleys, however at 60,000km the dry clutch wasn’t due for 120,000km so I was a bit miffed they didn’t call me, or acknowledge it didn’t even need to be done. 

ive been using MJ motors in Miramar for anything E46 as they seem happy for me to supply parts and it’s a small local business, my car is old though so isn’t anything to specialized to work on. 
 

 

[BozzaFC 300]

I’ve been using Peter from All European Service for my E36 since Jon left Wellington. Really good service - no complaints. 

[Jun 233]

We have used Jon at Auto38 before for our M5. Since he has moved we have used Powehaus, we have our old Cayenne done there as well. I do some repair and maintenance myself. My tools and skills are limited. I have also used A1 auto electrical as Aaron is good for electrical issues. I have used C. Moore motors for our Skyline and Prado, he is good if you are not too dear with your car. Premiair for aircon is very good. All my batteries are done by Luke at Battery town in lower hutt. I have visited Mike Page once just to check our M5 after we purchased it, he is too far for me. There are good mechanics out there just need to find them, not all are perfect. Even the best has made mistakes, I either fix it, let them redo or occasionally get a 2nd opinion.

Edited March 27 by Jun

[aviation_hacker 5]

Hey folks, thought I'd just chime in with my experiences as well, though a few aren't particularly recent:

• Vogel Motors in the Hutt - had pretty good experiences with them when I used them, always helpful and after an owner change in about 2019 I think, they were still good to deal with (probably last time I used them was about 2020?). My parents are out in the Hutt though, and if they needed a mechanic I'd most probably send them there I'd say. Also they used to have a Gearbox Specialist called Ben - I think he ended up leaving, but awesome guy and did some awesome (non-gearbox) work on my car!
• Hutt City European - again reasonably good experiences with them. My car previously had an issue with not being able to plug a scanner into, and then conveniently developed an Airbag light which needed rectifying. First time round they did this pretty well and got the code and all was well, the next time (again about 2019/2020 perhaps?) they'd had some staff move on, and this time it was an ABS Light. The tech did manage to get the two codes from the unit, but couldn't figure out one of them (one was a wheel speed sensor, the other was the unit not turning on). I eventually solved all the issues myself (including the non-diagnosis ability), and the ABS unit turned out to be a faulty relay, where it made a click but didn't connect one of the two output poles, so it seems they didn't check the relay function, which didn't leave me super impressed given the time and money factor. Still, hear very good things about the shop and the owner and a couple of the higher up techs are definitely car-nerds, which is always a good sign. Plus, when I was there they were working on my car, a Saab, an Alfa, a Ferrari 355, a Maserati Granturismo, a Porsche Cayenne (Fuel Pump) and something else I can't remember, so they've got experience with a lot of brands (and quirks).
• Jon at Auto38 - Easily the best BMW Mechanic in the region (well used to be) - knowledgeable, friendly, helpful, and also was passionate about the cars, so knew all the random stuff you find by owning these cars and scouring the internet for the strange things they do. A shame he shut up shop (but understandable)!
• Wellington European - I went there for a warrant, and there were loads of nice older/newer cars, but I found they were quite rude and condescending to me - a very strong "Your kind isn't really welcome here" vibe as I've got an E36 (one of the cleaner examples on the road), and they seemed like the kind of shop that was about money/status/flaunting etc, rather than car-passionate. With that said, a wide mix of Euro vehicles when I was there, including an Isetta.
• Auto Tech Miramar - not a BMW Specialist (or even Euro Specialist), I just happened to go there for a warrant. The owner seemed pretty nice and to care about the quality of work, however I was charged both labour for the warrant and a warrant fee, so was close to a $180 Warrant (with no mechanical work required). Heard from others that they were happy with his work working on their non-euro cars.
• Sutherland Performance - Again only experience was a warrant, but seemed to be a pretty good shop full of car-passionate folks, and quite a mix of cars/things in there - when I was in, there was an E90 getting some subframe bushes done from memory, a Civic Type-R (current generation) getting an exhaust and a tune, a Saab getting Saab stuff done to it, as well as the usual Golf Suspension work etc. So clearly got some experience with Euros and with a variety of stuff, my only thought was the labour rate is $150/hr, so if any tasks blow past the estimate, that has the potential to stack up pretty quickly. Was thinking I would go there again for a warrant, but might check out All European Service looking further up the thread.

Hopefully this is helpful to someone!

Edit: Managed to get a Warrant by Peter @ All European Service - was just a WOF in the end as I sorted out some driveshaft stuff myself, but my experience was he seemed like a decent & reasonable guy (practical as well) - so can recommend him I'll likely be going there for my next warrant again I'd say.

Edited June 25 by aviation_hacker

[Bmwfan87 2]

On 3/16/2024 at 3:34 PM, Herbmiester said:

Who are the chosen independent garages in Wellington worth using? 

Midas in Arthur st Wellington.