[TheBeast809]

AUTOCOUTURE Motoring in Fairlawn NJ BEWARE!!!!


Here is a recap of my experience with the shop so the rest of you can make an informed decision.

Had to replace my rear bumper due to being rear ended at a CVS parking lot in Boston. Chose to go to Autocouture after reading some review online and they were only 20min into NJ not too bad. Well this turn out to be a 21 day nightmare!!

Incident 1:Went the to replace a bumper as mentioned above, the rep Alex was the lazy lay back type who could not even bother to listen to me, and acted like an ass. Charged me $107 for labor just for talking to me and taking a look at my car!
Asked them to install some break pads I had in my trunk from **********s; the technician took my left wheel off and calipers apart and said the pad did not fit so put it back together 20min worth of work another $107.
After he put the week back on the car was pulling heavily to the right side something it was not doing before! the tech said it was my car and wheels and I needed to replace them and maybe order some M3 parts so the car could run correctly. 2 days later after I drove out like this I realized that the 2 front caliper looked drastically different. It turned out the tach left an entire piece of the left caliper off and put me in the road like that, once I went back to ask why the piece was missing he took a look and said (oohhh shit) went back inside found it where he left it and re-installed it. No apology when I ask how did this happen could I have had and accident he responded don’t worry about its on now.

Incident 2: not 5 mins after I drove of with my bad left brake caliper and car pulling to the right got a engine failure message on the screen turn around and went back to the shop. They read the codes and told me I need to replace the solenoids in the Vanos foolish me I had no idea what that was which I explain to them. So they decided they would charge me $150 a piece for both solenoids and told me it was 3hrs of labor at 100/hr, which they charge me for ahead of time. $600 and change after tax. They gave me my car back 45mins later and would not show me the solenoids they took out which I ask for.
As everyone here probably knows and I found out when I got home later that night it takes a fool like me that knows nothing 40mins with a DIY guide to replace solenoids and at the most expensive price at the BMW dealer they don’t cost more than $130 a piece.
So after feeling like the fool went back to argue for my money I got 3 diffent explanation all from alex:
First he explain to me that day what solenoids were He claim that he did not know how long it takes to install them or what they were. Again this is the rep doing all the charging so goes to speak to the tech.
Comes back with the following explanation “ the reason it took 1hr is we had to techs working on your car at the same time for 1hr so you could get out of here quickly. To which I responded that I watch a video on solenoid replacement and how come it takes 2 of their Pro-BMW techs 1 hour to do something that any 1 person with no experience seems to do in 30mins. And even then that does not add up to 3hrs of labor. Ok ok ok I’ll be right back comes back after talking to Sal for the 3rd time and says we will refund you $100 so still overcharged me over $150 but whatever.
So before they even order the bumper I went in for they had me for over $800; overcharges by more 100% that’s double the money. Horrible service, and put back a caliper wrong which could had cost me an accident on the road luckily I had not really driven the car.
But I came in here to replace my rear bumper so lets get to that:

Incident 3: I originally asked him to replace the bumper with a M3 rep for e90 from **********s that was cheaper than the OEM bumper but he quoted me way to much money by claiming that I would also have to buy quad tips and pay for extra labor for them to weld them on. So asked them to just order the OEM bumper that comes with the car paint it and call me when is ready for install so I can bring in the car. He said the bumper would be there in 2 days and all the work would be done within a week. Yea right!!! BTW he quoted me $1096 for all the work (400 for paint & labor, 100 for install, and rest was for the bumper and tax.)

Called me 2 days later said he found a Replica M-port bumper for my car and it was only around $40 more (had not even order the bumper yet). So I said ok go for it.

The following week when the bumper was in they had the insurance adjustor go in to write a supplemental check for extra charges. The adjustor of course said no because the shop did not have a license to do any body work. This is when I was that Maaco was doing all they paint an install these guys were just acting as a go between and inflating the maaco prices to make the difference.

They also order OEM parts from the BMW dealer at very different prices than what they quoted me bumper was 680 from dealer and diffuser was a separate 200. Far from the $40 difference they quoted me when I said to go ahead and order a replica bumper not OEM parts that would be 380 more. Why did they do this you ask well they are a authorize retailer for BMW so they make a nice margin for selling me the parts and apparently I’m a fool.

Also my diffuser is missing the 2 end plastic pieces that come with the bumper because these guys had the never to try and charge me an extra $ 65 a piece for them even though everywhere you buy the diffuser its included in the price.

When it was all said and done it cost me 6 trips to NJ, $380 and more than I was quoted time from work to make these trips to their shop. Not to mention the terrible service, aggravation and all the phone calls I had to make. In the end when they install the diffuser the cut it too low leaving a visible gap between the diffuser and the bumper it looks horrible so in the future I will have to pay more money to fix it.

bumper 680
diffuser 200
Paint and Labor 500
Tax @ 7% 96.6
total 1476.6
Original quote 1096
Difference 380.6

Im not saying these guys don’t know BMWs they probably do, they sure have some nice rides in their parking lot, they have a nice clean shop, what I am saying is they over charge me a lot of money cost me a tremendous amount of time and aggravation, gave me horrible service and install parts incorrectly putting me in danger in the road and those around me and the job wasn’t even done right. If you are going to spend this much money it should at least look perfect.

[Busa1]

I wouldnt have gone back after incident #2 happened

[michaelalex17]

i dont know about your experience but Mat from Camber-Toe works there and he is the best.

[Sales@AUTOcouture]

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