Sluggish ... little exaust output

[Hugh D]

Ok, here's my story:

Last Tuesday I took my car in to a reputable independent shop here in Houston. They were to fix a sensor in the cooling system (which did get rid of my blinking light), flush and replace coolant, oil change, AND fix a cam housing seal leak (replaced both gaskets... etc).

THey also gave it a good inspection and came back with some minor things.

Anyway, today I go pick it up and he mentions something new... "car loses power on hard acceleration... possible catalytics". I had never heard this before... he said my "cats were probably getting clogged". I thought "okay... we'll lets just see how it rides... I never noticed a prob before". I get in the car... drives fine for half a mile then I get a check engine light! NEVER seen that in the 400 miles I owned it. THEN I TRY ... TRY to get on the free way... the car, engine sounds fine, but the exaust you can tell something is going on. It just had a hard time getting to 50 much less 70. So, I take it back and he goes "yeah it's the cats" and resets my code. I of course let him know something is not right about this... but I leave calmly and plan on picking up the discussion tomorrow. Well, he calls me about 20 miles later (no check engine light... car still sluggish).... and says "hey... let me take a look at it tomorrow... I may be able to talk Porsche into getting you some new cats since youre just out of emissions warranty by a year" or whatever. So I'm like okay... at least he wants to work wtih me.

ANYWAY...

What do you think guys? What steps should I take from here? Any truth to this cats thing? Do they clog/"fall apart" after only 53k miles? I had NO problems with this before. How should I approach the shop?

How do I hold them accountable for whatever the hell happened to my car? Am I overreacting... it just seems to me when I pick up my car after $1,700 in repairs it shoudl run fine... not have new problems.

I put the repair on my American Express. I hope it doesn't get that nasty.

I will not name the shop here but I assure you it is a well-known independent.

Thanks, guys!