I thought I would take the opportunity to review a shop where I had a turbo install done on my 2006 G35 Coupe. I don’t usually go out of my way to bad mouth a company based on one experience but considering the expense ($8000.00) I felt compelled to maybe save the next guy from the same.

This past January I was working in San Luis Obispo, CA. I had been planning to get a turbo installed on my G35 but since I live in Michigan it was easier to have the work done while being in the west. I decided to take my car to Gruppe-S in Lake Forrest, CA. I had heard that they have been in the game for many years so it felt like a safe bet.
I delivered the car around the 3rd week in January and told them that I would be in the state until the end of March. I was told that once they received the kit it would only be a one-week turn around. Great!

After about 4 weeks I decided that I needed to call and get an update on the progress. The car was still sitting in the parking lot and had not been touched. Turbonetics had not shipped the kit due to a piece being on back order. Ok, I can live with that. They assured me that it would be there by the end of the week and they would get right on it the following Monday. So far, this is not a Gruppe-S problem, it is a Turbonetics problem.

The following week I call and they only have a partial kit with the mysterious piece still on back order. At least the majority of the kit has arrived and they can finally get to work, I am feeling better at this point. I remind them that I am only in town until the end of March again, they assure me that it will not be a problem.

Fast forward to the week of March 17th…I only have about a week ½ left in California before I need to be at my next work location of Brownsville, Nebraska 1700 miles from CA. I call the shop and let them know that I am not pleased with how long this has taken but understand that Turbonetics has not shipped the part. They again say that the part should be on the way. I let them know that the drop dead pick-up date is the 27th of March. They let me know that they already have a dyno day set up at Technosquare for the custom ECU re-flash and that it will be ready with time to spare for that date.

Morning of March 27th. I get home from night shift and go to sleep for a few hours before making the 4 hour trip to pick up the car. I awake at 11 AM to a phone call…by the way, the first and only Gruppe-S phone call that was not initiated by me! “Brett, we have some bad news. Turbonetics has still not shipped the part. It will be another week”.
I am really pissed at this point. I have been to that shop and seen that they could fabricate damn near anything they want so I ask…What is this part? Can it be fabricated?
Yes, that’s no problem. We didn’t mention it because it might cost a couple hundred dollars to get done.

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE SHI@#TING ME!!!! After explaining how important my deadline was on several occasions and spending $8000 do you think I give a rats *** about $200 to make sure that I get my car back?!!!! Get someone in there now and get this done!

The rest I will snap shot. They get someone to fabricate a section of tubing for me, loose the appointment for the ECU re-flash so now I have to take an early exit from my job to make time to pick up the car (cost of lost day of work: $1500 and potential damaged relations with employer). I go to pick up the car on the 2nd of April and it is still on the hoist with an exhaust leak. They pull the car around after waiting for quite a while and it is way dirtier than when I dropped it off. There is a big scratch in the front bumper, there is grease on the driver seat and greasy hand prints on the felt interior roof.

Under the hood…
Unfinished! Clearances cut for some of the tubing look as if they were done with a jack knife. There is no air cleaner! The clearance is tight with the front of the car where the turbo sits and something needs to be fabricated to accommodate an air cleaner so they thought I would be ok with just not having one! Gauges? What gauges? I ordered a boost gauge that was never installed or even ordered.

How does it run?
It dyno’d at only something like 319 whp. That is ok because it has stock exhaust and now I have an important part of the foundation installed for what I hope to end up with.
I tailored the car to Nebraska. Once I had a chance to drive it, it would pull hard until 3rd gear where it began to sputter and really wouldn’t go any faster than 80 mph. The check engine light came on also. I later found that some of the hose clamps were not tightened letting air escape. It now feels better but the engine light is still on. The car is considerably quicker than stock but not the beast I had hoped for. I drove it home from Nebraska (800 Miles) with a make-shift air cleaner and it ran good the whole way.

Throughout the bad experience with Gruppe-S right up till the end when I picked up the car they told me that it was not their fault. They said that I should realize that they had worked hard on the car and had to overcome some challenges of fabrication to get the kit to fit. Fine…but isn’t that what I paid you to do? Never an apology, never a phone call to talk about optional approaches to make sure the deadline was hit. No Customer focus what so ever from this company. I will not be back for the motor build next year or any other modifications.

…Oh ya, Turbonetics never did ship the tube needed. If I had not demanded that they fabricate the piece I would have left CA with a non-running car and left to deal with it my self.

End of rant. Sorry for the length. Beware of this company for your hot rod projects.

 

That sounds like pure and utter ******** on their part and Turbonetics.

I hope you can get something resolved from this matter or at least find a reputable shop you can deal with in the future.

 

hmm...granted you may not have the time or the tools but DIY and you have nobody to blame but yourself.

Sucks man.

 

I would have confirmed with Turbonectics about the part being on backorder. Sometimes shops say whateva, just to get them by to the next project

 

I agree 100%. Kinda wondering how you can sell a complete kit that isn't complete.

I think more people are intimidated than anything.

 

Where is Brownsville at ? If you can get the car to Omaha.....SubLime Speed.....Is a good shop and has installed a couple TN kits on 350Z's .

http://www.sstracing.com/sublimeweb/index.htm

Mike is the owner

 

U def got fugged....... Gruppe-S FTMFL on install time....

 

I would like to hear from Gruppe-S to hear what they have to say. This is the first time I have read on this forum that anyway has taken their car for installation.

~Robert

 

Like was posted, I somehow doubt that Turbonetics couldn't provide a part for the better part of 3 months... I have needed a few misc things for my kit at different times, and got all of them within a week of ordering.

Considering that the part in question is a piece of tubing, a pretty critcal part - does gruppe-s expect us to believe that Turbonetics was not turning out any kits for almost 3 months? Can you tell us exactly what part it was?

Sorry for your troubles man, sounds like you just got hosed by a company that didn't care. Get that car to another shop and have them sort you out.

 

I didnt know gruppe s did any kind of installs either..... OP, sorry to say this but you should have taken it to a reputable tuner/install shop(gruppe s is more of a distributor).. Thousands of posts and you couldnt tell me you didnt know you could have taken it to SFR, GTM.. etc.. Especially with your 3 month wait, im sure GTM could have even fit you in their busy schedule..

 

+1

 

That's surprising. They are on the evo boards, and when I had my evo at least they were very reputable with parts sales and installs. This is the first negative thing I've heard about the shop.

I would also like to hear what Gruppe-S has to say.