Review on Mac Auto by Eddie Shields

I just wanted to say, that after reading all those great reviews about Mac Autohaus and seeing them advertise on Craigslist and other websites (including German Car TV & X-Car), and reading and watching what a wonderful thing it is... well, we also went there yesterday. We were looking at getting my wife's 2.5 year old A4 avant repaired as it had been rear ended (not too badly). To give you an idea of how much work they did, imagine if someone opened the hood and then took a sledge hammer to everything inside! All smashed up bits everywhere! They also pulled out each individual instrument cluster from its housing - apparently the insurance company paid them about $2k to totally trash the interior and exterior of this vehicle (and according to them, refusing any and all insurance company arrangements for having this done).

I had read that their accommodation for 'used parts' is very small - but we had read that even if they might not be able to help with a specific part or color code, they would help as much as possible. This was NOT the case at all! I asked what options there were for a replacement radio unit... "We have one from Illinois, but you'd have to talk to our parts guy". I said ok, let's see it... guess what? It didn't work. Period. When asked why he told me something along the lines that it must have been from a car that had been submerged in water - when asked what the chances were of two such cars being in an accident with him, he said that was not his department. In fact, I wanted to do a deal on the radio and some other parts for my other A6 quattro, which is suffering from rust due to snow damage... But again this was pointless as they wouldn't even offer me a price without seeing it.



And there was more! While we were waiting, several people came in to get their cars repaired or inspected. Every single one of them left unhappy! The main reason was the extremely high prices Mac Autohaus charges for any work done - apparently about 50% higher than others would charge - enough to make everyone so angry they almost came to blows! On top of that, the service is EXTREMELY slow. We were quoted at 2-4 weeks completion time for all work! And this was because they have no room for storing cars! Even though they have 3 large rooms just standing there empty... I was told to drop it off and pick it up when done - while that worked fine for us, it would be too late if you were moving or had a business where your car meant something.

If you ever need any bodywork done on your German automobile, do yourself a favor - take the extra time & gasoline to go to an actual shop rather than waste your money here!!! It's also worth mentioning that their website has no prices listed for anything that they sell. To me, this is a clear indication of what you will be paying - and I was right! Given the above experience, we decided not to let them "repair" our car. The damage wasn't too extensive, so we've been doing it ourselves.

My recommendation: Stay as far away from these guys as possible!!! And if you know anyone who's considering having work done here... make sure they read this before going there!

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(some additional details)



- Dent removed from hood by dealer: $350 (parts & labor) + $50 for paint = $400

- Dent removed from trunk by dealer: $200 + $80 for paint = $280

This is what I was paying at the dealer for uni-body repair. The last $80 was for paint materials, presumably because they didn't have the color code. As you can already guess, it took less than half an hour per car to remove these dents/dings - most of this time was spent removing the spoiler that they broke on my wife's vehicle while taking it apart (and then charged us $200 extra for removing and re-installing when we picked up).

Mac Autohaus is a German auto repair company that does not provide the best service or prices. The dent removal on my wife's car was expensive and took longer than I would have liked when considering how much they charged for materials. When it came time to get my own vehicle repaired, I didn't trust them enough to leave it in their care so we did everything ourselves.