Specialty Cars

Tim Jacobs

★★★★★

7 years ago

If you are able to bring your car to Specialty Cars, consider yourself lucky to have the opportunity. I have known the owners, their family and workers for nearly 20 years and I am convinced you cannot find better people - or better mechanical or restoration work - for your Porsche. Even after a simple brake job, scheduled service or alignment, your car feels noticeably better for having been there. I see repeatedly cars get sent to their shop locally or from across the country to fix what some other "expert shops" or dealerships haven't done right. If you're fortunate enough to have them do any major work - prepare to be amazed. Somehow after 20 years I'm still impressed.

Tim Jackson

★☆☆☆☆

Edited 6 years ago

I do not recommend this business. In short, they are extremely expensive, very slow at performing work, and in my case, returned my beautiful car in worse condition then what I gave them. I’m not the only one with this kind of experience. See other reviews for somewhat similar commentary. The shop works on Porsche’s and garage is very clean, but it’s extremely small in size and seemingly only work on one vehicle at a time. In my case I waited weeks to get in for an appointment. When I drove there they committed to having my car completed in one week. By “complete” the owner explained (at length) that they would run a battery of tests on the vehicle in order to provide guidance on the strength of the engine and provide recommendations based on their findings. I called at exactly one week after it had been there and discovered that the only thing they had accomplished was an oil/filter change. They also came up with an entire laundry list of items that the car needed that no other Porsche mechanic ever found, including the dealer. I had initially requested that an alignment be done weeks prior to my appointment. While I declined their service laundry list I simply requested that they follow through with an alignment in addition to the oil change. He explained the the lift was now taken for the rest of the week with another vehicle and an alignment was simply not possible! By this time my car had been at the shop for.two.weeks and the only thing done on it was his engine “evaluation” and an oil change. I drove an hour and a half to the shop to get it the heck out of there. When I arrived the owner was on the phone putting on the same sales pitch he gave to me and let me stand there for 15 mins while he discussed how great his shop was and how he’s the best Porsche mechanic in the business (paraphrasing) to a prospective customer. However, here’s the best part. I paid the outrageous bill, started my car, and immediately discovered that my radio was no longer working which had been functioning perfectly prior to their “evaluation”. I went back to speak to the owner and he quickly and succinctly disavowed any knowledge and dispatched his son (a mechanic) to “take a quick look at the car”. At the same time the office manager made a joke that things were supposed to go wrong with the car after I sold it since I told her that I was planning on selling it in very short order. The mechanic briefly looked at the car, pulled out the fuse that powered the radio, handed it to me and advised me not to put the fuse back in otherwise the battery would drain. I asked him how this could happen and he said that he didn’t know and acknowledged that it worked fine while in their care. Clearly, I was upset when I left, but no one has called me to discuss it or try to make things right. Low and behold, later that day I went to get the car appraised as I already had an appointment and they noted that (surprise) the radio was not working and they deducted from the value of the car due to that fact since they needed to diagnose and resolve the issue prior to resolving the vehicle. At the end of the day the car spent 2 weeks only to get an oil change, a newly malfunctioning stereo, a huge “evaluation” bill, and a devalued Porsche by taking it to this shop. Unless you have a complete engine rebuild for them to chew on they put you at the bottom of the list for work. My advice to you is to keep looking for another mechanic to work on your treasured Porsche. This shop is one of two shops in PA on L&N Engineering’s site for a certified installer of the IMS Solution, BUT PLEASE HEED MY ADVICE AND KEEP LOOKING AROUND. I wish that I had not ever stepped foot into this shop and simply had my local mechanic (or even dealer) throughly evaluate the car. Edit after initial post - my local Indy has also indicated that this shop has a history of telling Porsche owners that their cars are trashed for some reason and have all of these issues. The Indy said that they have had several customers come in with very similar stories to mine.

Adam Puzio

★★★★★

7 years ago

Top notch repair center. I recently bought a used Cayenne that I immediately started having problems with. After doing some research, I heard Specialty Cars was THE place to bring your Porsche, so I brought it in to have them look it over and let me know what I was in for. They could have nickel and dimed me to death repairing one thing, knowing another few would pop up immediately after. Instead, Mark took about half-an-hour giving me the big picture and walking me through all the issues and what they meant for the life of the car. That's integrity. They aren't going to be the cheapest option, they aren't going to be the quickest option, but you can be sure they're going to be the best option.