Need Good Service and Repair Bimmer Shop Monterey Bay Area

[johnewhite]

Hi, I'm new, this is my first post.
I did a forum search, but no joy.
Is there a good shop in the Monterey-Salinas-Santa Cruz area?
I've got to say this is the most active board I've been on.


Found 3 at http://www.iaibmwsp.org/ .
Has anybody had any experience with these?:

Fred's Foreign Car Repair, Fred May, 16415 Church St, Morgan Hill, CA 95037, (408) 779-8480, fredseuropean@yahoo.com

Monterey Bay Motor Works, www.mbmw.com , Thomas Andrew, 1875 The Mall, Seaside, CA 93955, (831) 899-4742, tmas@mbmw.com

Optimal Auto Care, www.optimalauto.com , Nate Smith, 2335 Soquel Dr, Santa Cruz, CA 95065, (831) 476-1332, nate@optimalauto.com

[Makakio]

My family has been customers for years (since Nate worked for SC BMW prior to their closing). The good: good rates, friendly, will only do what is necessary, are honest, good techs who know their stuff ON OLDER BMW MODELS.

The not-so-good: because BMW has such extensive maintenance and warranty service, car generations that are ive years or newer OR have less than 60k miles rarely IF EVER see his shop. Therefore the techs have little to ZERO experience servicing newer cars.

Example: took an '03 325i there for a complete pre-purchase shakedown inspection prior to buying it and they failed to find three major issues (damaged front strut, bent halfshaft and faulty wheel bearing) as well as two bent wheels. Pretty obvious **** once I got to a tech with a little "seat time" in the newer models.

They're honest enough to tell you straight up that they never work on models still under maint/warranty and their knowledge is pretty weak. Gotta respect that.

[johnewhite]

Thanks