IMO the difference is Sam wants to learn the motec and became a motec dealer. I'd have total faith that he'd submerse himself into learning the motec systems well. It's not said "eh hmmmm eh I dunno. I'm not so sure about this, but I guess I'll try to learn it"

 

Your point isn't about my requirements or costs. Your point is not about me or about Sam learning MoTec. Your real point is to take a stab at Sam. At least be forthright about it if you have something to say.

If you think his prices are too high you don't have to go to his shop. Its a free market.

But before you try to smear any further, I should mention there is a reason he is so sucessful in the Z, G35, Sti and Evo market. Sam is eminantly qualified to do cutting edge work. He does work on a Z that nobody else can do on the west coast.

You think GTM is sucessful for sitting on their *** and charging a premimum for it?

Quality, competance are reliability are intangible but valuable and desirable attributes. That is the premium paid for at GTM.

Bottom line is, I could have gone to a no name shop down the street and literally saved $1500. But then I would not have assured quality. And $1500 is a small fraction of the "boat load" of wholesale hardware costs.

I know that if there is anyone on the west coast who can tune a MoTec with other hardware on a 350Z, its Sam. And I know when the MoTec and other hardware is installed, it will work properly and will be a clean and professional installation.

You can dismiss his qualifications all you want, but I took my Z to GTM for a well considered reason.

----

Maybe you can take a jab at MoTec for their hardware prices. The MoTec price is ~ 3x higher than a Fcon, 10X higher than a UTEC or 20X more than a SS box.

Forget the fact that the MoTec is a premimum race car engine management system that can do what the others can't. Call MoTec up and b1tch at them. ...Or start a new thread for it.

 

^ I agree. Sam is probably laughing reading this thread anyway. No matter what type of bashing GTM gets in this thread (very few) they still have people lined up for service at their shop. Their shop is very well respected so good luck typing $hit behind your computer. Just my 2 cents.

 

I'm just thinking about every time someone took their car to have parts installed the mechanic has never installed before...

hell, my mechanic who installed my vortech had never previously installed a vortech before on a Z. But because he's a good at what he does and a perfectionist, IMO he really nailed install and got everything right. If any mistakes were made, it was my fault for choosing the parts I did. But yeah, I guess I did "pay to have him learn"

 

Everybody has to learn at some point, no shop is an expert right off the bat.

 

+1....but
so if you are are the "guinea pig", would you still pay to be the "guinea pig"? (other than the cost of parts)

 

Exactly!! And this so-called bashing is in a sense a compliment. The only bad thing that people can really say is that GTM is too expensive. Like Hydrazine said, if you don't want to pay their prices, go somewhere else. Nobody is forced to go to GTM. Those of us that choose to go their don't mind paying their prices because we know what we are getting. To me it's worth every penny. And believe me, GTM has people waiting to get in to have their G/Z/Evo/STi worked on so they are definitely not hurting for business.

 

+1

 

Very well said. last night between 10:30p-11:45p I was on the phone with Sam (trying to finish my UTEC tune overnight for the local meet this Sunday) I asked him so much questions and not even funny. He was very polite answering all my questions and committed a goal of WHP# or not the car will stay for more tune. My first experience at GTM was NOT good as I stated on my first post in this thread. I gave them another chance since No one near my area is VQ specialist, the second time I meet Sam was wow! He really wanted to go above and beyond to service my car. +1 on prices (Sam you need to hook a brother up ) I guess you get what you pay for and getting the utec at cost is not a bad deal I guess.

 

GTM R.O.C.K.S.

Quality honest work and professional. Now hurry up and get my ride ready. It's been so long that I even forgot what color it was.

[Edit]
Before anybody gets the wrong message, Sam already told me that it will be done by tomorrow so no worries. Better takes a little longer and have it done right than rush and get a half a** job. Won't go to any other shop except for basic things.

 

^lol

 

It depends on who approached who first.

If Sam approached me if to install a MoTec for the purpose of learning, I wouldn't be paying for it.

But I cold called and asked Sam to install it and I knew full well he had never installed one before.

Its not like I (or anyone) could go to GTM with some new device and demand a free install just because its never been done before.

Sam and I went through an itemized list of parts and procedures that needed to be performed and each of their respective costs.

All elements of the itemization were fair and reasonable with respect to time and cost. So it was a fair and reasonable deal.

And now that the setup and tuning is taking much more time than anticipated, the additional time and cost is being done on Sams dime. I'm not paying for anything more than I already reviewed and agreed to.

That's more than fair.

 

+1
that's the mark of a good shop

I remember way back in the day when I didn't know of many local shops I went to Vivid Racing to get my emanage ultimate installed - which they totally screwed up BAD messing with the jumpers inside the unit. They never got it working right and I had to send the unit back to Sharif so he could fix it. Then Vivid were going to charge me for the time they spent messing up my emanage saying "well we have to charge you something" because they worked way into the night on it trying to get it working. In the end, I had to get my credit card company involved to do a stop payment and I got my money back

 

This is starting to sound like a GTM lovefest! But it's true! When my Vortech went bad, I took my car to GTM and once Sam diagnosed the problem he called me and said they will pull the SC and send it to Vortech for warranty work and any parts or labor needed to fix the issue will be covered by them since they did the install. So I didn't have to do anything except wait for Vortech to fix my SC and get it back to GTM. However, I started getting that itch for more power, so while the car was there, I had GTM install an Exedy clutch, MD spacer, HFC's and Aquamist water/meth kit. I couldn't help myself.

 

And I'm not even trying to make it one.

I simply took my Z to the most qualified shop. Its that easy.

 

Me too. I did quite a bit of research before I chose GTM.

 

POST #102 SAYS IT BEST...I agree with Hydrazine...

But everyone has their flaws and nobody is perfect. I think there are just some people tired of hearing all of the nut riding on GTM which is understandable. I'm sure they have made their mistakes...as long as they do more positive than negative. I'm just surprised that there are so many people that can be that patient to wait so long and pay so much! Just my opinion though...GTM is not for me

 

 

true but....would you rather take it to a shop that charged less and have better turn around and does NOT have much experience with VQ engine? FI needs special treatment and VQ engines are not the strongest. I would hate to take it to a shop that have little knowledge with VQ and end up blowing your engine. Engine built hikes $$$$.

 

Others are reading WAYYYYYY TOOOO MUUUUCH into what Im saying . At least QuickSilver see it for what it is .