CG motorsports - Alignment - review

[325isMSPORT]

/edit

[BrRsn]

Avoid CG at all costs if possible lol. $120 labour to flash a car's ECU is absolutely ridiculous.

[bcrdukes]

CG is good but I've never had any experience with them myself.

I've had good experiences with Nixon Automotive in Burnaby. Super nice guys and they know what they're doing. The biggest problem is that they're booked out usually 2 or 3 weeks out.

For alignments - Dale's Automotive in Langley. Hands down the best customer service and technical knowledge. These guys don't screw around.

[SoulCrusher]

I went to Dale's yesterday for an alignment and its probably one of the better shops Ive been too in terms of customer service and quality of work. I paid 130$ for all four wheels and my cars lowered as well.

[dachinesedude]

I go to Advance in richmond, these guys deal with lowered cars all the time, will tell you straight up how much before they do it

[d1]

I've been to CG once and was not impressed on my visit either.

[604_EJ1]

Dale's Alignment is the only shop for alignments IMHO

[keifun]

+1 for Dales Alignment. They may be far out in Langley but its worth the trip.

[SpuGen]

PDM.
Wayyyyy closer to most people.

[unit]

same experience from cg from me as well.
good work but not always as clear about extra charges as I'd like.

[Gtrr33]

CG is a good shop imo, pricey YES! but one of the best euro shops in the lower mainland, OP i recommend you to visit your local Canadian tire, not the best service but it will match your minimal budget.

[BrRsn]

Originally Posted by Gtrr33

CG is a good shop imo, pricey YES! but one of the best euro shops in the lower mainland, OP i recommend you to visit your local Canadian tire, not the best service but it will match your minimal budget.

lol? You're kidding right? Stop trying to justify your own spending at CG.

If you want a knowledgeable shop at a cheaper rate for your Euro, Werner's Auto Klinik is the shit. He knows exactly what he's doing, tries his best to give you a deal, and if he quotes you a price, he will do whatever he has to do to meet it no matter how long it took him to do the job. If he finishes early, gives you back some of your money. Takes longer, no extra charge.

Get off your high horse, just because you drive a Euro doesn't mean you should be buttfucked every time something goes wrong with your car. Just because you don't want to spend top dollar doesn't mean you're cheap. There's alternatives to canadian tire.

[Volvo-brickster]

im on the +1 for the Dale's Alignment bandwagon

[!SG]

i donno, reading the incident, i kinda have to justify and side with the shop.
$110 for an alignment is a good price, this is under the assumption that all is going well, and nothing is going to need replacing or need fixing just to pull the alignment. you as the owner wouldnt know that parts of ur suspension are going, and the shop isnt psychic, they wouldnt know until they put it on the rack or the hoist.

you still had the option of taking ur vehicle and going if you didnt want to pay anymore more. every minute your car is on THEIR hoist, and not being charged for it, is money THEY are losing. they also have customers waiting and booked right after you. the only fault i can see is the advisor should have, and you should have said, if your car had any aftermarket parts, or has been altered in any way. modded cars change all aspecs of any job, and will more than likely make the job go longer. the price you are paying for, pays for every mouth in that shop, all the maintenance of the equipment, the rent, the electricity, and all the years that tech went to training for his knowledge and skill. lets face it, you would do ur own alignment if you had the know how, and the equipment, but u dont, none of us do in our homes, thus you pay someone for their time and knowledge to do it.

charging 1/2 an hour to do a tie rod is good, he didnt even charge you the time to diag whats causing your alignment to not go to spec. removal of tie rod, a seized one, is a BITCH. then to clean it, which means scrubbing, making sure the threads are still there, greasing everything, putting it back together, and then continuing with the alignment, all for 1/2 an hour??? i can garantee that it took more than 1/2 an hour. and that 30mins spent, factors in all the shop material used.

if your car is lowered, and has a hard time going on the hoist. the tech may need to spend 10 more minutes to lay out ramps to get your lowered car on the hoist, that time spent, was it charged to you? thats 10 minutes the tech lost, unpaid.

asking for a deal? why? because you spent 110 bucks on an alignment? if you spent $1000, its justifiable. the girl did her job, she asked for a deal on ur behalf. you made the decision to go to them because of their rep, and their price, now you are asking for more of a deal on an already low rate?

how much total time did they spend on your car? how much is their labour rate? if they spent more time on your car than their hourly rate, isnt that a deal already?

i myself have never delt with CG as i dont drive an euro. I know they have built their rep based on working on euro cars. however, as a previous acting manager at another independant shop, i understand why no discount was given.

as for the owner not coming out and chat with you, or your friend. you ever been on a job, or been working on something focused on. if the owner is a mechanic himself, and he is on a job, with a deadline, walking off that job to talk to a customer over a minor deal discount would be really bad, he has to keep every customer satisfied there, and sorry, but explaining why he needs to charge 1/2 an hour to do a tie rod is probably not on the top of his list. that is the job of the advisor you got.

there is a reason why most shops dont like or allow customers to stand around while they are working on their car. let the mechanic do their job, let them have the time to do their job. any time YOU spend chatting with them over their current job or if they are on your car = time wasted. you might want to shoot the shit, but they have to get shit done.

in the end, you are displeased with the $110 bucks for the alignment, and the bit more for a tie rod. if you were on a tight budget, you shouldnt drive an euro. all euro parts, on par with they domestic or japanese counter part, will cost more, dollar for dollar. even if its the same material, the parts supplier will charge more for the part, and thus, the cost is past onto the consumer. its called capitalism. YOU made the choice to buy an euro, and so you should acknowledge the higher price on parts. it sucks, because if you ever worked on the car, you would be swearing and yelling out, "why the fuck they made this part so damn hard to take out and put in?"

and if your wallet is empty because you spent $40 more bucks, you should carry a bit more money around. $40 dollars in vancouver wont even get you 1/2 a tank of gas, let alone a decent dinner w/ a gf at a decent restaurant.

thats my 2 cents.

Originally Posted by 325isMSPORT

So hearing CG did 4 wheel alignments for about 110 give or take , I book an appointment all goes smooth with the registering process.

Patiently watching my car get aligned I was quite pleased. Halfway through Kristina - the receptionist tells me "your tie-rod is siezed so I have to charge you an extra .5 hrs" I gave her the expression right away, a couple seconds later she also says "your car is lowered so it would be about 135+ the .5 hrs" Now I was quite cross happily I asked if I could maybe get a discount or something.
She tells me I can probably charge you 110 + .2 - I was pleased with that and continued my car getting aligned. 20 minutes later she came out and said sorry my "boss" is adamant about charging that .5. Now Bobby chimes in and says there is pretty much a line up of *bcb* people(3 or4) doing alignments and it'd be less costly for them to keep their customers happy than to find new ones.

At the end I was really displeased with the 110+ .3 (about 40 dollars extra)hours and Chris himself not comming out to talk to me about the situation - instead of playing puppet with the receptionist.

Also Chris did just walk right past Bobby without a greeting or anything(even though he is an "past" customer

My rating for them would be.

Technical skills : A - all the numbers were matching on the dot - which is really hard to do without camber plates.
Customer service: D - Kristina did a good job at keeping cool and not adding to the fire, but Chris should really have talked to me directly.

Recommendations to CG: You should really quote a price that is close to the price you may or may not charge , or at least mention it.
Most alignment shops just tell you "your tie-rods are seized "and recommend getting them changed for next time at no additional charge.
I am as dissatisfied as the time I went to do my EWS sync at Autowest bmw

Recommendations to people who need alignment: CG will do a good job at the same time probably emptying you're wallet

[!SG]

but, if you research around, you will find, for the same job, compared to a domestic or a japanese car, the labour book time on an euro is a bit higher.

eg. brake job. domestic and japanese, nice and simple, the wear indicator is a piece of metal that will scrape against the rotor, its most likely even built into the brake pad, so no extra time is needed. brake job on an euro, wear sensor that needs to be mounted correctly cuz its plastic might snap off, and depending on the euro, a sensor in every corner.
expansion tanks, nice and simple on a japanese car, heck, it may just slide down in place held by friction and gravity, and maybe just a single hose to and from the radiator. on an euro, a couple of bolts, a few hoses, a damn sensor , and a grommet to keep it from rattling against metal, and its own pressurized cap.

IF you drive an euro, expect to have way more complications to a simple system. dont expect to be buttfucked, but expect that more time is spent on the same job. expecting that its gonna cost more for a job. if all cars were the same, their wouldnt be specialty shops no?

Originally Posted by dhillon09

lol? You're kidding right? Stop trying to justify your own spending at CG.

If you want a knowledgeable shop at a cheaper rate for your Euro, Werner's Auto Klinik is the shit. He knows exactly what he's doing, tries his best to give you a deal, and if he quotes you a price, he will do whatever he has to do to meet it no matter how long it took him to do the job. If he finishes early, gives you back some of your money. Takes longer, no extra charge.

Get off your high horse, just because you drive a Euro doesn't mean you should be buttfucked every time something goes wrong with your car. Just because you don't want to spend top dollar doesn't mean you're cheap. There's alternatives to canadian tire.

[death_blossom]

Originally Posted by dachinesedude

I go to Advance in richmond, these guys deal with lowered cars all the time, will tell you straight up how much before they do it

+1 for Advance! Head mechanic John knows his stuff. he is an ex-autocross champ as well so he definitely knows how to do performance oriented alignments.

[Supafly]

Im happy with PDM. Great job, nice guys. Laser System with a printout. Besides, its a 5min drive.

[lowside67]

Although I am NOT a fan of CG, it is a bit unfair to expect them to be able to align a car with a seized tie rod...

[bcrdukes]

^
Agreed. Whenever I go in for an alignment at *insert any shop name* I always expect that something will not go smoothly. Tie rods, bushings, control arms etc. are all wear/tear items and over time, they will need to be replaced. If a shop discovers this, it's best you call the shots and tell them to stop and then decide for yourself what you want to do.

[toyota86]

CG is for bmw owners with tons of cash to blow who don't want to get their hands dirty. it is not for the enthusiast diy'r looking for good deals. just check out the pricing of their hourly rates, pricing of their new and used parts. They are comparable if not more than the dealer at times. IMO every bmw specialty shop in town is a rip off. Most pre-2000 bmw are not that hard to work on. There is really nothing that you must take it to a shop for. As for doing alignments, any competent shop can do it. There is nothing special about a bmw alignment. Every time I get my car aligned, I bring my own spec sheets, put the appropriate weight in the trunk and liquid wrench the bolts a day ahead before i go down. simple

[!e.lo_]

Originally Posted by dachinesedude

I go to Advance in richmond, these guys deal with lowered cars all the time, will tell you straight up how much before they do it

QFT, nice guys too.

[adamnur]

Something doesn't quite add up here…regular price is 110 for a 4 wheel alignment. The cost is 135 for being lowered. And some shops charge more for lowered cars as getting things in spec are different depending on the changed components.

Your tie rods were seized, which requires getting equipment, heating up each tie rod until it is loose and able to be adjusted, repeat on the other side. Turns out the best they can do is 110 + 0.3 (and 18 minutes for heating up and loosening/freeing up frozen tie rods is cheap).

Their labour rate is $96, so 0.3 is only $28.xx extra. All in all, including the extra work required for the tie rods, you ended up spending $138, which is right about the cost of just the alignment for a lowered car. I fail to recognize the issue here, they gave you a pretty good discount.

Also, you realize Chris, while being the owner, is also constantly working in the bay right? Did you ask to speak with him or just expect him to know you wanted to talk? Typically in a business, the receptionist will handle admin stuff as well as dealing with customers, this is not "playing puppet," this is standard practice. When I've asked Kristina if I can speak with Chris, I've never been refused this courtesy. Sometimes when you want something you have to ask for it.

[!Tigger]

^ shop supply charges?

[adamnur]

The point is, he said he paid 110 (already $25 discounted from the normal lowered car rate), and only paid an additional $28 to free up the tie rods. He didn't even get overcharged, he was undercharged...

[Supafly]

I think to make things short...OP is cheap(er) than the avg euro car driver....

didn't expect to pay more than whats asked because he doesn't understand.

Pay to Play....your BMW isn't a 20 Year old civic.