European Car Specialist - Jan Vandenberg

My 80 year old father is out of pocket several thousand dollars for work which European Car Specialists (ECS) of Pukekohe failed to do on his classic Mercedes.
After having the car in for some simple work to bring the car up to WOF standards, primarily to replace the king pins, my parents were out driving when the car suffered a catastrophic suspension failure resulting in considerable damage, because ECS had failed to secure the suspension properly.
They accepted responsibility for this and had the car shipped back to Pukekohe to carry out repairs.
Upon receiving the car back my father took it to a local workshop for a WOF check, and it failed:
1. Too much movement in the king-pins
2. Bolts installed incorrectly in the bottom suspension bracket and seals and spacers have not been installed
3. Castellated nuts not pinned and incorrect nut fitted to steering arm (non-locking nut)
4. Grease nipple missing at base of king-pin
Note that the king pins were the primary item to be fixed in the first place.
Having gotten a report and photographic evidence of the sloppy and dangerous work that ECS has carried out my father requested in writing a partial refund so that he could have the work carried out at another Mercedes specialist.
Having received no response he rung them, and they have taken the position that they will not respond to his letter, and they then hung up.
Now my father, after having paid several thousand dollars to these people and being involved in a traumatic accident when the suspension failed, must pay someone else to get the work done that ECS has failed (twice!) to do, and must also go through the stress of taking these people to court to get his money back.
Do NOT take your car to these people. Their workmanship is sloppy and dangerous!!

Dear readers,

I had a great experience with ECS today. I had problems with my Land Rover discovery.
It wouldn't start anymore. I had the owner of the company (Jan Van Den Berg) on the phone and he helped me out. We went down a checklist together. After the list it still wouldn't start.

After this we were almost out of options. Then Jan decided to come and helped me out at my place.
Because it was a busy period Jan couldn't come straight away but that wasn't a problem.

After a few hours he showed up and started checking some things, right away he noticed that the floorboards was wet on the passenger side. He finally found the problem. The Land Rover Discovery 1 has 2 sunroofs and the front one was leaking badly. This caused the floorboards to get wet and below the seats are 4 computers. These computers are the brains for the car. (This was all told by Jan himself). He tried to fix it cheaply because I requested that and honestly I didn't had a lot of money but I still needed my car to work. He managed to fix 2 of the 4 computers with some logic sense. This fixed the car so it atleast could start and run.

Later I made an appointment and he replaced the other 2 computers.
The price for the labour was only for replacing the 2 computers.
Jan is an amazing guy and can help everybody out in every situation.

So I hope my story is convincing enough.

Came in with an MB G-Class I've been fighting bleeding brakes this last Sunday. Going through the standard yearly bleed, I got an ABS light and it appeared the unit restricted flow to the rear lines.

I came into ECS bright and early and met Jan. He couldn't get to my car right away but informed me how I could correct the error. Brought it back to my shop and gave it a shot. It worked, and my brakes are bled and the module is code free.

I appreciate the prompt help. Next time I run into something I can't wrap my head around, he'll have my business!

Avoid at all costs. I took my late model car to them for various things, brakes included. I complained that they put the wrong brakes on and this caused some bad feeling. A few months later my $45000 car started leaking from the cooling system, not in one place but half a dozen different places, effectively destroying the engine, which made the car worthless. Experts tell me that this was caused by someone sabotaging the coolant, probably with battery acid. So unless you want your car ruined, keep away from this highly dubious business

When the alternator failed on my Porsche 911 and left me stranded on a small two lane road in the middle of nowehere, I wanted to have it towed back home. But that would have set me back some $2,500 so instead, I had it towed to European Car Specialists in Pukekohe. It was Saturday and they were closed so I had no idea if this was a good idea or not.

On Monday, I called ECS first thing in the morning. Jan answered the phone and put my mind at ease. Jan was so forthcoming and helpful - my 911 was back on the road within the week and I was able to pick it up. The price was very reasonable and I could not have been happier with the service I received from Jan and his crew at ECS.