I just got back from Colorado to see this thread and I was happy with how it played out. That was a great reply @Ronnie@RSmotors and exactly what I was expecting from you. Like I said you're a great guy who cares about your work and stands by it. I think you just need to clone yourself a few times and get better at communication. Other than that I've always been happy with your work at the end of a project. I wish I was sending my car to get tuned by you to be quite honest.
+1,000,000 to Ron@RS, never had one bad experience with any of the EVOs I have owned. Ron has always gone out of his way for me, I treat him with the utmost respect and kindness because that is what I have always been shown and received back in return, that goes for anyone in my book. Losing key people or being short staffed regardless of the business reeks havoc on everyone else especially the owner of said business. I have several friends that are small business owners and struggle to be all things to all people all the time because of this. Now add your hobby, family and friends on top of an 80+ hour workweek for many of those people and you can start to get a sense of how thin people can be stretched. I think people need to show a bit more forgiveness and extend a bit more grace to each other. This world has enough problems of it's own, couldn't we agree? To be treating each other like this, with of all things...a hobby we all are passionate about on a public forum is pretty bad. Just my .02c
Both my FXT and my bro's old FXT both their engine's rebuilt and tuned at RS. Neither of us have any complaints. I've got around 60k on my engine with no problems. We are kind of blessed in Minnesota to have so many builders/tuners and awd dynos to vroom on. I also think we take for granted how many car enthusiasts are out there, of all brands, and how busy these shops get. We forget how much money cars as a hobby can be, and we all too easily blame others for our own problems. We have become a society of instant gratification, getting everything for nothing, and expect perfection. The reality is often more harsh. Work takes time. Good work takes longer. Quality parts and highly skilled labor costs money. And sometimes, things happen. A part fails, an engine goes pop, or there's some weak point or error that hinders the build/tune. Frankly I am impressed at how well these shops deal with customers rolling failures. I don't think I could do it. I couldn't put up with so much stupid so constantly. I know it's just a byproduct of ignorance, the same ignorance we all started with. Still, it all gets tossed on the builders/tuners like it's their fault that your car is a ghetto rig menagerie of "The Greatest Hits of eBay, Volume 3" (Volume 3 was the best). It's their fault your car has a boost leak, has too small of a fuel pump, or is on the brink of blowing up after beating the piss out of it for the last 50k miles. When something does happen, when something fails, it is ALWAYS...THEIR...FAULT. It can never be yours. Oh no, not you. The last thing you want is a sense of responsibility and ownership of the very thing you've owned, beat on, and poorly built up to the instant you place it in that tuner's hands and flop ALL RESPONSIBILITY UPON. Yep, makes sense. On behalf of all of the kiddies playing the brocar game, bravo to the builders/tuners for putting up with our crap. We thank you. You deserve more praise and free beer than we've ever given you.
RS Motors did some work on and tuned my '10 LGT earlier this week. As per my last experience with RS, it went great. Tune is great, communications via email were great.
I personally haven't been to RS motors. My buddy had his 06 tuned there after his engine decided it wanted to end it's life. He's put on a good 45k on the new engine. He's having a few issues now, but his car also has 130k on it. Things are 9 almost 10 years old on it. Bad experiences happen in business, as well as good ones. I've heard horror stories and glowing reviews at the same time. If you have any doubts about a place go to them face to face and work out your differences. If you don't like what you read then you should either leave your car stock or go somewhere else. Bashing the business owner is not going to get you very far. I'm sure he would be more than willing to work things out if you were pleasant to deal with.
I just thought I'd throw my $0.02 worth in here. I have done two major maintenance projects on my car in the last year with RS. First was the timing belt and everything that goes with it (belts, h20 pump, gaskets, crank pulley, etc.) and they knocked it out of the park. Silly me, I thought there might be a leak. I brought it back and they pressure tested and re-cleaned up everything. It was nothing more than a bit of spilled coolant burning off. No big deal. They explained it and were right. Mud on my face. Second was last week, they did a clutch job for me. My luck (their luck) the first bolt to come off... broke. Who's fault is that? NO ONE's fault. **** happens. You know what happened next? He kept on trucking. He fixed it. He hit my very hard deadline. He was a champ. He communicated with me the problems and solutions the whole way. The end result? I got my car back after 8 hours and made it to my ski race and wasn't late. The **** he dealt with? Apparently, the tranny didn't want to separate from the block, the bolt in the turbo broke, the exhaust had a burnt donut gasket, bolts were broken in the exhaust... maybe a couple other things. When I got it back? after 5pm on a Friday, everyone there was on hand to welcome me and make sure I was happy. Hand shaking, thanking for my business, smiles and guess what.... I'll be back. My car drives like new again. Thanks Ron. Oh, and thanks for sending me pics of the carnage. Sorry you had to deal with that crap.
