German Auto Works

4825 Excelsior Blvd, St Louis Park, MN 55416, USA

Address:	4825 Excelsior Blvd, St Louis Park, MN 55416, USA
Phone:	+1 952-925-3322
Site:	germanautoworks.com
Rating:	4.6
Working:	7AM–5:30PM 7AM–5:30PM 7AM–5:30PM 7AM–5:30PM 7AM–5:30PM Closed Closed

Location

Photos 98

Reviews 5

Tom Hauge

DO NOT PATRONIZE THIS BUSINESS! - ASK ME WHY? See below….. I took my BMW X5 in for a valve cover gasket service back in July 2015. German Auto Works was referred to me by a friend who knows the owner quite well and has used them for many years and also bought several cars over that period of time. I figured my cars would also be in great hands. I figured wrong. Im usually a dealer guy but the valve cover gasket service is very straight forward and was most cost effective to have German Auto complete it. The repairs to my car went fine and were a couple of days late due to fault troubleshooting but they picked up the cost of my rental car which I appreciated (the dealer would have provided a loaner car for the duration of the repair so it was only fitting). Roll the clock forward to March 2016 – I received a call from my insurance company inquiring if I had been in a personal injury auto accident back in July 2015. After my initial shock I told them to get their facts straight and call me back – clearly I had not been in any sort of accident. I received a call back the next day indeed confirming that MY CAR had been in a personal injury auto accident on German Autoworks property. The service manager was backing my car out of their bay on their premises and ran over a customer/pedestrian who was standing in front of their shop on their property – the accident crushed his foot under my rear wheels and knocked him to the ground in the process. The police responded to the accident and my insurance information was given to the police officer without my consent. Further my name and insurance information were recorded on the police report without my consent and with NO NOTICE to me from those involved at German Autoworks that this accident occurred with my car!! German Autoworks never contacted me to advise of this accident taking place even months later. The only way I found out about it was the fact that German Autowork’s insurance company contacted my insurance company asking for payment from my policy to cover this claim for the accident victim!!! Instead of German Autoworks taking care of this situation with their garagekeepers insurance – as one would think should take place especially after bringing your car in for a repair, writing them a check for over $2,000 - now my insurance is getting socked with a claim for the negligence of their employee and my driving record/insurability is forever impacted. All this for trusting them with my car. The owners of German Autoworks never reached out to me after I contacted them to offer any kind of resolution. They are now effectively leaving it in the hands of their insurance company to come after my insurance as the primary policy in the accident!? I also recently learned that the employee that was driving my car negligently causing this accident is no longer with German Autoworks. One has to make certain assumptions as to why… I wouldn’t trust this shop with my lawnmower let alone my BMW’s. If you do decide to do business with them make sure you take your insurance card out of your vehicle while they are servicing it and perhaps better if you can be on site during the repair to monitor their employees driving your car. Absolutely pathetic excuse for a way to do business. I couldnt give negative stars and write this review otherwise I would have.

Anonymous User

I had my BMW 540i in for drive belt service/spark plugs. The rep mentioned the water pump was leaking (even though I was not able to see any coolant on the garage). Not a week later did the pump go out. The car had to be towed and replaced water pump and belts. A couple days after water pump was replaced, I noticed my bottom engine cover was missing. Took it back (luckily they hadnt throw it away yet). I questioned the manager how something so big and leftover could be missed. Were they going to call me back since they had left over parts?? The Service manager’s answer was they see several cars a day. It gets worse. The next weekend, Im changing the valve cover gaskets and I notice where they didnt put a bolt back on the coil-over covers on left side and on the other side, they didnt reconnect a ground wire that connects to the #3 coil-over. Thats 3 items! What else is missing?!?? What if these had been safety related?! (They wanted to replace my seat belt receptacle but thank god I did that myself or they may have forgotten to connect something!). At any rate, the service manager had the same stance "they see many cars a day" and only made excuses. In fact, he said he had his best mechanic on this job. To me, this is negligent and unacceptable! I will not be back!! I question whether they forgot to bolt something back up on my original repair on the belts/spark plugs that may have prevented the water pump bearing going out. Cost me an additional $600+.

Johnny Karlsson

Way overpriced! Im sure theyre very knowledgeable and competent, but they definitely overcharge on labor. I brought my Audi in for a coolant leak in the radiator and oil cooler, as well as a couple other minor things. They quoted me almost $5,000. I could easily get a whole new engine installed for that much. A radiator for my car costs about $600 and they quoted me $1,600 for that. A new oil cooler is about $100, and they quoted me $1,700 to replace it. While they were diagnosing my car they noticed that I need new control arm bushings, which cost literally $10 a piece, and quoted me $600 to fix. These repairs arent all that difficult, and I will end up doing the majority of it myself. I did end up having them fix the EVAP System leak that had my Check Engine Light going off. That was a $250 repair kit from Audi that I ended up spending $600 on. I cant imagine how easy that fix must have been. Before coming here I highly recommend you do yourself a favor and shop around, asking how much each shop charges for labor per hour, because I kind of feel like I screwed myself by coming here simply because the specialize in German cars. The only reason I give them two stars instead of one is because they had a friendly staff, and as I said before, Im sure they are knowledgeable and competent.

Eric Reed

Had to reschedule (from Monday to Friday) due to conflict. No problems except when I showed up on Friday they didnt have me on the calendar. The worked me in but said it would be 1-2hrs, fair enough. After 2 hrs, I inquiries about status and they told me the technician was reassemble the car and wouldnt be long. I peeked in the garage only to see the technician just starting the diagnosis. 2 hrs later still waiting. Reinquiried status and told almost done. They gave me a quote to fix the check engine light p299 error-$620. I grinned and beared it knowing a regular mechanic would changed $175-$200 to fix. Paid bill and left. Got 3/4 way home and check engine light came back on...same error code p299 grrrr. Called to have re-examined... we will see if they charge me to fix their mistake...

Benjamin Zehnpfennig

German Autoworks has a good operation and they provide a good quality of work. With that said I did find that their prices were on the higher end of the scale but I would say that the offset here is that they seem to be knowledgeable and have good expertise. My one recommendation is to get all work estimates in writing just to ensure that your pricing expectations are met before any work is started. I was slightly disappointed that they were not willing to work with me on a minor O2 sensor replacement job in which I has asked if they would be open to using less expensive OEM O2 replacement sensors from Bosch versus Porsche OEM ($88 vs.$345/sensor). All in all though they have a good staff and at the end of the day its on me to go somewhere else if I dont like the pricing.