Tooting Our Horn on a White Horse

By Dave Trux

One of the greatest challenges of promoting your own business is getting people to believe that you’re sincerely committed to putting your customer’s needs first and foremost. Why, because the average person is inundated by sales people hyping their products as being the latest and greatest or new and improved. If that’s really the case, have we been settling old and crummy products all these years?

For those reasons, I was thrilled when I discovered the glowing five star review we received recently from one of our customers, Michelle Lowe, who was told by another shop that the repair bill on her 2007 Audi A6 could wind up being in the neighborhood of $4,000. She was wise enough to not cave into the pressure of accepting their diagnosis and came to us for a second opinion and we’re all glad that she did. Here’s Michelle’s experience in her own words, slightly edited to fit this space.

Valley Motorwerks stepped up to be my 'Prince Charming' in this matter, but true to form, I had to kiss a frog first, which was another shop who'd misdiagnosed my car's issue. I won't name the 'frog' here, but the owner estimated that my check engine light had come on as a result of a 'drive chain' issue. He advised the cost would be somewhere around $3,900-$4,300. Yeah, dollars. I realized that this is an Audi and therefore repairs would be expensive, but really?
Enter Valley Motorwerks on their white horse. I knew of them because they'd successfully completed a previous unrelated repair on my car. The following Monday afternoon, Justin advised that after consulting the issue with another master mechanic in his shop, they deduced that because the car was drivable and I had not experienced any mechanical noises nor engine hesitation, his good news was this was definitely NOT a drive chain issue.

He advised me that my car didn't have enough miles to have this part malfunction or deteriorate. Justin then gave me even better news when he told me his shop felt the issue was related to a faulty cam position sensor, which would cost approximately (wait for it...) only $300! Bottom line, the diagnosis cost, two cam sensor parts replaced, labor and an oil change cost me a total of $650!

I'd prayed to be led to an Audi mechanic with integrity, kindness and empathy, and this has been answered at Valley Motorwerks. If you have an issue with your BMW, Mini, VW or Audi, please give Valley Motorwerks a chance to treat you right. They are fast too, as they only took three days to repair my ride and have it back to me.
I was treated very respectfully (historically, sometimes a chore for male mechanics when dealing with female customers) throughout this diagnosis and repair process, and I was kept apprised of my car's status at every turn.

It’s true, sometimes you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you can find your Prince Charming, but personally I prefer my frog (legs) fried crispy, served hot and that's the end of that!

-Michelle Lowe