Trusted TDI Mechanics - By State

[oilhammer]

Hehe, I can't imagine anyone in New Jersey being "far away" from anyone else in New Jersey, LOL. But I suppose it's all relative. I drive more than the entire width of that state every day.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

Yes, but with less traffic.

 

[cp]

More to add to the list:
Volkswerks
4610 Merriam Drive
Overland Park, KS 66203
913-362-4111

Also, Autopia in Lenexa, KS will work on VW's but they are not a VW-exclusive shop.

Autopia LLC

Autopia, Inc.: Your top Independent Repair Facility for European and Asian imports. Award-winning technicians, modern facility, precise care. Experience 'The Perfect Place for Your Car.' Drive confidently with Autopia.

www.autopiakc.com

I used to be a customer of Richard Middleton at Cool Air VW in Belton, MO until he decided he no longer wanted to work on my TDI. I liked that guy! He did good work for a good price but that's of no value to me if he won't work on my car.

 

[hskrdu]

I used to be a customer of Richard Middleton at Cool Air VW in Belton, MO until he decided he no longer wanted to work on my TDI. I liked that guy! He did good work for a good price but that's of no value to me if he won't work on my car.

I don't understand (?).

 

[BobnOH]

My local wrench, Jon Hamilton, also expressed a desire to not work on my car as well. It is a beater.

 

[oilhammer]

It's tough as these cars age. Lots of things just don't come apart and go back together like they once did, and parts availability is getting really bad, which means you simply CAN'T fix things like you once were able to. Rust is something that really throws a wrench into the works in some areas too.

Now it really becomes necessary to have the talk with owners to make them understand it may easily exceed the real world value of the car to do certain things. If they're OK with that on the front end, it's not so bad.

I've currently taken on the project of putting a low mileage '98 New Beetle back on the road. I've gotten a verbal agreement for $5k to spend, but it would easily take double that to really make it perfect, and that's assuming I even could, which I already know I can't because I already know a bunch of the little things it needs are NLA. But to the extent I can, I could honestly find a solid $8k worth. That's a lot of money for a 26 year old car that was ~18k new.

 

[cp]

I don't understand (?).

He had worked on my car several times but when I asked when I could get on his schedule, his answer was, "Never." I took that as "Take your business elsewhere" so, although I don't want to, that's what I'm doing. I liked the work he did; I liked the price and I liked the guy himself. He makes some good videos and strikes me as a very intelligent mechanic. If you can get him to work on your car, you should consider yourself lucky.

 

[hskrdu]

He had worked on my car several times but when I asked when I could get on his schedule, his answer was, "Never." I took that as "Take your business elsewhere" so, although I don't want to, that's what I'm doing. I liked the work he did; I liked the price and I liked the guy himself. He makes some good videos and strikes me as a very intelligent mechanic. If you can get him to work on your car, you should consider yourself lucky.

Oh, I see. Wow- if Rich is requiring newer than 2006, that's a lot of MkIVs that won't get his care.

 

[Mozambiquer]

He had worked on my car several times but when I asked when I could get on his schedule, his answer was, "Never." I took that as "Take your business elsewhere" so, although I don't want to, that's what I'm doing. I liked the work he did; I liked the price and I liked the guy himself. He makes some good videos and strikes me as a very intelligent mechanic. If you can get him to work on your car, you should consider yourself lucky.

I have had several people coming all the way down to the lake of the Ozarks because he was unable to get them in.

 

[oilhammer]

Yep... not enough people willing to do this, getting worse all the time...

 

[JonA]

What do you think the cause is? Is it parts availability? I can't imagine it's that newer cars are easier...

 

[BobnOH]

Lazy bums. I'm a self employed enginering tech, can't imagine telling a client No, I won't work on your stuff.

 

[oilhammer]

There's probably more to the story...

We turn work away all the time, because we simply can't do it all. There are [a very few] situations where some sort of "personality conflict" comes into question. It's rare, but it happens.

 

[BobnOH]

I'm sure it's tough with an older car, but you can simply tell the customer what the dealy is, more cost or whatever. I mean we're in bidness to make money.

 

[oilhammer]

Exactly, in business to make money. And balance with reality.

If I have a line of five year old cars around the building waiting for routine maintenance, and a 25 year old car from the salt wastes of Michigan that has a grocery list of things broken, half of which involve parts that are no longer available, then guess what?

Not judging here (I just took in a 1998 NB TDI that needs ~$10k worth of work), but depending on the situation it may not always be realistic to do so. In this case, the car has been sitting, and is not anyone's primary means of transportation, and there is no time crunch or unrealistic goals. That's a big difference from someone that has the same car, it's their ONLY car, and they want you to fix EVERYTHING in a couple days.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

People who repair cars will tell you that when they get an older car for a specific job, it often either (a) requires a lot of additional work in order to make it run properly, or (b) the car is suffering from either neglect or previous repairs poorly done that increase the cost of the repair. Customers often get angry about that and either won't authorize the work, or won't pay for it. Most of the gurus I know have at least a few cars ready for pickup where customers won't (or can't) pay the bill. Or at best, a customer is angry and badmouths the shop. Long story short, taking on more routine tasks on newer cars can be a lot less hassle for shops that frequently are already short staffed.

For some reason it's hard for people to understand that as cars age repairs become more frequent and, often, more involved. People complaining that a repair cost exceeds the value of the car, even though there's no logic to that argument. Why does that matter, unless you plan to sell the car immediately?

 

[jmodge]

Also the learning curve of the constant changes and updates in technology of current and future models burning up the time of Techs and the overhead of those that employ them. It doesn’t leave any scraps for working cheap on older vehicles. The days of good ol’ boys called mechanics fixing cars with muscle and perseverance is long gone. You have to have a grease monkey’s mentality surrounded by a technical thinking mind. Those types of people existing are by far outnumbered by the need. When you do find them they’re burning the candles at both ends. God bless them poor basturds…..

 

[oilhammer]

I think my candle has three or four ends...

 

[jmodge]

I think my candle has three or four ends...

I’ll admit, I turned around and ran away.

 

[oilhammer]

It used to be there were a fair amount of folks (men, really) who were wrenching on cars, and good shops could get the best ones. So we had a lot of techs come and go over the years, we kept the good ones and ditched the losers. But as time has gone on, fewer and fewer of any are coming around, and the ratio of good to bad is FAR worse. Good news is, there are a few women getting into it, which is great. I think the trades have often excluded them, and anything that does so is excluded HALF the population. But there's not enough to offset the total lack of talent. And the older people in the trades are being overworked, often underappreciated, and have nobody to pass any knowledge off to. It's really shocking to me how lazy younger people have become (this is a generalization, I know not everyone is!!!).

While my children are gone, and were never going to be able to become a part of main stream societal norms, I base much of my observations on all my nieces and nephews, of which there are 10 and 3, respectively, ranging in ages from 9 to 27. As well as any of their friends and all of my cousins' children (I have a BIG family). It's amazing to me how little motivation there is with some of them. Two of them don't even have their driver's licenses, one is 19, one is 22. That was unheard of when I was a teenager. And a bunch of them have never had a job. Which is also shocking to me. I was working (babysitting, grass cutting, general yard work, picking up dog poop, walking dogs, cleaning out pools, whatever I could do, as soon as I was big enough to do it... and got my first "paycheck" type job when I was 15, which was the youngest age I could, and have been working ever since).

The idea of being 19, with no driver's license, no job, and no "plans", living in my parents' basement, is very off to me... yet that's exactly where my 19 year old nephew is right now. He's a nice kid, doesn't drink/smoke/drugs or anything, just barely passed high school and plays video games all the time. And I know he's not alone in that.

Ironically, my 17 year old niece, his little sister, has her license, has a job, and does great in school, and wants me to find her a car because she's tired of pumping gas into their 320k mile Sienna to go places, LOL. She was also driving the Ford 8N around the farm property this summer... that's girl's got it goin' on, she's determined. And her best friend just graduated from welding school (she's 19)... and just got offered a job for $65k/yr! Stark contrast. But we need more of that!

 

[MrCypherr]

We've seen it up here too. Seen people come into the trade and just dont have any goals in becoming a good at the job. They are younger guys and it seems they are just here to be here and make money. Being flat-rate, You gotta have motivation and learn or youll never make any money. Blows my mind because I'm on the other side of the fence where I look at these people like "What the heck are you doing?!". Guess cause I'm getting older I'm thinking like this. It sucks but it seems like no one wants to work anymore.

 

[jmodge]

It’s definitely a different world. My next oldest brother, never complained about work, just went after it and got it done. Both daughters the same way, one son never has worked. His wife runs the show and he’s great with the kids and around the house. Youngest long ago decided a career in video games fit him. At the time I thought, well, at least your wife’s not afraid of work. Turns out Joe was dead serious. He put his nose to the grindstone and eventually pioneered a project of converting old games to newer formats, he now supports his family with his efforts. I suspect every generation might view the next with serious skepticism. Somehow society soldiers on despite what seems to be regression by advancement. That’s how I view a majority of the technological advances available to the general public. Lots of great stuff to take advantage of, but it leaves little time and resource to apply to simplistic essentials of life and family. Speaking of family, I better get off my phone

 

[BobnOH]

The lack of mentoring and training newbies is epidemic. In the trades and technical fields. Not sure why, but it comes from management.
As for the kids, folks have been saying the youngsters don't want to work for thousands of years.

 

[oilhammer]

Oh it is different now. When I was 16, all of my friends in my class were driving (for better or worse), and we all had jobs. And I went to a Catholic high school, where there were plenty of boys (it was an all boys school) who came from much more affluent places. Many certainly didn't "need" to work, but they wanted to, and maybe in some cases their parents pushed them to.... you learn a lot about life from being out in the world. I had some great people that I came across at a young age from doing that.

But now, it's not at all uncommon for them to not want to drive, and they don't have to work.

And today, the amount of "adult children" that we see having to depend on their parents for simple things is also very different to me.

I was the oldest of six, it was normal for me to watch all my five younger siblings when I was as young as 12. And friends at the time who had younger siblings it was the same. Now, people freak out if they have to leave two kids home alone with one being at least that age. And we have cell phones now, so it isn't like you cannot get a hold of someone if needed. When my parents left the house, I had no way to get a hold of them.

 

[BobnOH]

Oh I don't disagree. My experience mirrors yours. Paper route at 12 (100 subscribers), work permit at 15 so I could work at a bakery before school. 55 years on, been without a job for a grand total of maybe 2 years.
I don't believe youth of today are much different. Social media has been a serious detriment.

 

[cp]

We can all swap biographies until we're blue in the face. Like almost everybody on here, my biography is typical--been working since age 8 (picking up walnuts to sell), worked at part (or full) time jobs in elementary and high school, plus college and have the scars to prove it.

But age brings on physical limitations that can prevent working on one's own car if there is nobody within a reasonable distance to do the necessary maintenance and repairs. If cars are going to become obsolete by a lack of either mechanics or repair parts, then maybe leasing is the way to go.

 

[tacoguy]

Any recommendations for Connecicut/Rhode Island I have a parasitic draw and rather have mechanic handle it.

 

[tomo366]

I am looking for someone in Maryland the list is very Old and although recommendation is over 100k the car only has 72 K miles but it is 9 years old

 

[JonA]

Any recommendations for Connecicut/Rhode Island I have a parasitic draw and rather have mechanic handle it.

My mechanics of choice for CT and RI respectively are BMB Motorworks in Plainfield, CT and TD Performance in Providence, RI.

 

[cp]

Any recommendations for Connecicut/Rhode Island I have a parasitic draw and rather have mechanic handle it.

Sorry for the late response. If you haven't found a mechanic, try pulling the radio fuse. The radio was the parasitic leak in my car.