Automotive Plus (MX5 Plus) change of direction, I was told

[smy0003]

Even having the car there a month means it will be filthy if the shop does fabrication. Even forgetting pushing it in and out 2-4 times a day.

Do you pay for a pro detail for every car? Cop the cost?

Do you give it back and just let 10% of customers be pissed off? It is what it is, Im moving more and more towards focusing on only the best cars with the most experienced customers, a lot of people new to the game dont yet understand the costs. You can bolt a manifold on using new nuts and bolts and spend $20 on nuts and bolts and sealants and loktite in 5 minutes, for example.

Dann

Every trip to the bolt shop costs me $30 or so. Speciatly fasterners, sealants and adaptors are not cheap and add up to a large sum. I can completely understand what you're saying.
I think too many people watched the MCM turbo mx5 series and thought 'I can get my car turbocharged for cheap if I just call the builder mate and pretend like we're friends.'

I also understand where mx5+ are coming from, although I hope they keep making reroute spacers and the like to save us all from BEGIs aweful, aweful customer service and shipping times.

[Magpie]

We have also found installing customer supplied aftermarket products/kits to be problematic at times which has resulted in Automotive Plus having to "fix" the product and not being able to fully recover the costs to do so.

This is why I had Plus do the entire engine/driveline package and why I will never have any other business touch it.

Yes there were some early teething issues with the build, however since the CAS sensor has been rectified it has not missed a beat. It is serviced regularly (after every few track days), this includes oil sampling and a general check. So far the oil sampling has not raised any concerns.

All that the car will need these days is changing out of normal wear and tear parts like bushes and wheel bearings. Pads and rotors I do my self unless the car is going in for a service

[tomli123001]

I just hope they will still build me an engine when my stock SP engine plant finally gives up. Already at 200,000km+ now and turboed from day 1 obviously.

[Magpie]

This sort of work will be considered case by case in the future.

Danny did not say that they would NOT be doing custom work, it would be on a case by case.

At a rough guess you could enquire about custom work, if Plus accepts then a scope/budget would be agreed, customer would say yes or no. Any changes to scope would have an impact on the budget and again the customer and Plus would have to agree on the changes. This was the same way mine was done, budget/scope agreed and then any changes discussed and budget adjusted.

Seriously, it is a budget price not a FIXED/FIRM price when doing bespoke work, hence the communication between the parties is significant. In my build Plus kept me informed as to how the budget was progressing and if any of my many requests were possible either technically or outside the scope. If outside the scope then budget had to be adjusted.

Have members considered that this change in direction is a positive one as it will result in better customer satisfaction when bespoke work is performed as BOTH parties have to agree (budget/scope). It is still Plus that has not changed and bespoke work is not excluded.

Hopefully the engine rebuild in mine is an existing recipe that can be ordered.

[tomli123001]

This sort of work will be considered case by case in the future.

Danny did not say that they would NOT be doing custom work, it would be on a case by case.

At a rough guess you could enquire about custom work, if Plus accepts then a scope/budget would be agreed, customer would say yes or no. Any changes to scope would have an impact on the budget and again the customer and Plus would have to agree on the changes. This was the same way mine was done, budget/scope agreed and then any changes discussed and budget adjusted.

Seriously, it is a budget price not a FIXED/FIRM price when doing bespoke work, hence the communication between the parties is significant. In my build Plus kept me informed as to how the budget was progressing and if any of my many requests were possible either technically or outside the scope. If outside the scope then budget had to be adjusted.

Have members considered that this change in direction is a positive one as it will result in better customer satisfaction when bespoke work is performed as BOTH parties have to agree (budget/scope). It is still Plus that has not changed and bespoke work is not excluded.

Hopefully the engine rebuild in mine is an existing recipe that can be ordered.

I have been told by person (Jeff) that they will not, but to outsource engine build elsewhere.
i.e. I give them an egine, they will take it. But not like what was before.

My last engine build was like yours in process. A scope + a quote, I accepted and they completed the job to the scope. But I guess this is exactly what their concern was, because they have to adjust the price half way and either PLUS or the customer may get unhappy.

Don't get me wrong. I happily paid for all the extras they asked, as long as they gave me a reason for it to justify.

Only time will tell, when we do come up with another job there. I guess you are a bit special, because yours is a sponsored car with branding image and has been a regular since long time ago.

[Magpie]

I don't see myself as a special customer, I'm a loyal customer, however yes the car does have Plus branding. The benefit of the 'branding' is that it makes me be a sensible driver on the road I guess Plus would 'appreciate' me more if I start delivering some success on the track, but that is another subject...

My response was carefully measured and took a while. What I deleted from my previous post was the reference to the literally hundreds of emails between myself and Plus during my build that was almost 18 months long. Not sure about your engine build but mine was bespoke, yes I could have gone to Gary Stewart but I WANTED Plus to do ALL the work to the car.

For example the airbox was discussed very early on in the build, however was excluded due to the cost. Further, the airbox would have introduced another unknown into the build. Lucky for me somebody else funded the airbox development (and revised head design) and I was able to have them installed on mine. The requirement for the airbox was necessitated by a limitation of the Pipercross sausage filter. The limitation is that it has only a limited lifespan in the way I was using it and requires regular changing, this information was not made known to me by the supplier of the ITB's nor was it known to Plus. The revised head design was due to valves being worn out, again due to the sausage filter degradation.

I'm not trying to defend Plus, Danny can do that for himself. I'm trying to explain that my build was NOT as smooth as it appeared, people who have done bespoke work will understand. If you have never received participated (and paid) for bespoke work then you will never understand.

[MattR]

So much angst for an issue that would affect only a tiny proportion of customers......

I have used Automotive Plus and ADE for work on my old MX5, plus a couple of other interesting projects for work and a cage for my new race car, that they were best suited for.

I am sure Danny is glad I haven't asked him to build my SR20 race motor, put together the suspension for my S14 or undertake the build of my old 265 hemi as they fall outside the area of expertise for the business, and probably his interests, i mean apart from sickos like me who wants to get work done on old datsuns and valiants????

If I get another car or work that is what Automotive Plus or ADE do,then i will go to Danny. If i have a project that may not quite fit into what is done, I can always ask the question, and if it is feasible for both of us, in terms of time, budget and profit then yay for us, if it doesn't fit then no biggie, I can find someone better suited to undertake the work.

I know from past experience in helping the shop out that sponsored my car in the late 90's early 2000's, the worst work to get in terms of dollars were the one offs. Doing engine conversions and such, whilst fun, is time consuming and generally doesn't make money as has been pointed out by others, especially when the owners of the cars have short arms and long pockets, as seem to be the case with most I have seen over many years.

I also know as budgets change in a job, most people get very narky when the price increases a lot but they can't see much progress happening because they don't see the labour burnt up in getting things to fit properly, or solving the problems left by others who did a half arsed job.

I am glad that I don't work in an industry in that the customers generally don't trust you or your work, because of a few bad owners. I find it bad enough in my industry to make a dollar, and I don't have to deal with joe public.