So, heres an update on this story of frustration. After the Aristocrat fiasco, I spoke to the service manager who fully refunded my service bill, so +1 for them for at least trying to salvage the situation somewhat. For the record, Aristocrat charges $185 for alignment.
Took the car to Imagine Auto last Thursday for another alignment, since things were still not right after the Aristocrat alignment, which I explained to the gentleman when I dropped off the car. I was under the impression that Imagine had their own rack, but apparently they do not. When I picked up the car that afternoon, I asked the tech who as there how the alignment turned out, and he said "oh I don't know, I wasn't the one who did the work." When I asked for the alignment print out, he responded that "we don't have our own rack, we outsource our alignment and wheel mounting/balancing. A friend of Steve's (Kaspar, Imagine's owner) is the lead tech at Baron VW around the corner and is really a Porsche guy so he does the work for us." He said all he was told was that the alignment was way out, but it came in within specs (which I found very interesting, considering thats exactly what Aristocrat had told me less than a week prior). OK, if all turns out well thats good enough for me and off I went. Imagine billed me $305 for a "Porsche Factory Alignment."
Well, after all was said and done there, the car still had front end vibration through the steering wheel, as well as was making creaking sounds from the front end. I also had a nice, new dent in the left front fender. So I spoke to Steven at Imagine early this week to try to diagnose what could be causing this. We talked about swapping wheels with a set he had at the shop (which I considered a very nice gesture) but then told me that they had no free lift to throw my car on, so that I was welcome to pick up the other wheels but they would not be able to swap them on my car at their shop. I asked if they had a floor jack and that I'd be happy to swap them myself even, which Steve said due to insurance and OSHA bla di bla he could not allow that. Since I am new to KC and the Box is my only car, that would have been a real pain to ask a favor from a friend with a truck, etc. so we thought about another option. Well, Steve suggests having Chris (at the VW around the corner, whom I understood had done the alignment) spin the front wheels for trueness and balance, and gives me their contact information.
I call them today, explain the problem, and during my explanation I mention "you had my car in last Thursday for an alignment and we still have front end vibration." He tells me that they did not align my car, and had never seen my car at their facility. "Interesting," I thought. They schedule me to come in this afternoon to spin the wheels, and before I get there they talk to Steve at Imagine to clarify things. Well, turns out both fronts are, indeed, true and round, but one front wheel had thrown a weight and so was out of balance. Well, after all 4 are balanced (which they charged me $180 for, most I've ever spent for tire balancing, by far) the vibration is gone, but the creaking is still present.
After this, I drove over to Imagine to discuss the chain of events here. Apparently Steve had been over at VW to drop off a 997 for an alignment while Chris was balancing my wheels and noticed that they were true but that one had thrown a weight, so immediately upon my arrival Steve proclaims to me "I saw your wheels, one was out of balance!" I responded "yes," and that that seemed to cure the vibration, but that I still had the creaking and, further more, wanted to know who had worked on my car since VW said they hadn't seen it. He said "we outsource to both VW and to Aristocrat for alignments." I mentioned that I was told that Baron VW performed the work, and in a shocking display of rude and antagonistic behavior, Steve re-enforces his stance that they "outsource to both companies, that its none of my business who they have perform an alignment on my car," and that I "accused his employee of being a liar and that I should tell that to his face" as we walk from the shop to the showroom. I simply explained that while any decent shop with a decent alignment rack should be able to do the work, that I found it very interesting that if, indeed, Aristocrat had aligned the car twice over the course of a week, that it could be "way out of whack" both times, and neither time was I shown the before and after geometry. Steve says, in a very raised tone "I'll get your alignment numbers for you." Furthermore, clearly Aristocrat is the last place I would want the car going, considering they just saw it and had proved completely useless. This continued, with Steve almost yelling at me now in the showroom that I should not be "jacking with his suppliers by calling them directly" and that I was making his job more difficult. In summary, I don't think I've had anyone be more rude to me after taking my money in a very long time.
So, in retrospect, here we are, with the car allegedly being aligned twice now, apparently by the same shop, who cannot provide me geometry measurements, a dented fender, and a car that still doesn't drive right. I also find it very interesting that Imagine is profiting at least $125 on the outsourcing of their alignments.
Unless I receive a very sincere apology from Steven Kaspar over this incident, they will not be receiving any of my future business, nor will I see any of you fellow KC area Porsche guys at the Imagine Auto event coming up
Sorry for the long post.
Patrick