At PI Motorsports, we believe the customer is always right……to a point. Our customer Robert has been upset with our company and chosen to go live on this Forum. PIM was placed in a very bad light and from our view, unfairly and most undeserved. We have chosen not to speak out until now.
I created this Forum originally and ironically, even though I am no longer the Director of PI, our company carries the cost of the Forum. It is this same Forum that is now the venue for the barbecuing of PIM by an unhappy customer.
In our view, the worst thing PIM did wrong was to have the customer travel to our location to receive his car unnecessarily. For this an apology has been made and the customer has been compensated.
What is missing from Robert’s remarks is what we did right. First a little background. We are familiar with Robert’s GT5, having sold it to another party years ago who subsequently sold the car to Robert. We called her the “White Devil.” Condition-wise, this car was a 5 or worse on a scale of 1-10. In photos, the Pantera looked respectable but it was nowhere near the quality of Jim Coz’s car as an example. Let’s call it a work in progress. Weak paint and rough coachwork. It was not the toast of Cars and Coffee either by any stretch. Worse yet, I nearly was killed in this same car while it was in our inventory, when I made the mistake of letting an interested customer drive her while I was a passenger. The customer decided to put the pedal down during a test drive and almost lost control when the power kicked in. I felt the car was safe but in the wrong hands, it could be lethal. It scared the customer so badly he took off like an Olympic sprinter. The frightened customer probably settled for a Boxster or something tamer. Since my personal Pantera runs on the rare Campy Group IV 15 X 14 rims that Robert’s car had, I know that good, sticky matching tires are hard to find for the front and rear of these rims. I believe Robert was still riding on the same tires that were on the car when we sold it, years later when he lost control of his car, slamming into a bridge abutment and then getting hit by two more vehicles. Definitely, major, bone-jarring impacts.
I first saw the GT5 in Las Vegas and had the pleasure of meeting the owner while we were in town for the SEMA show. The damage was fairly significant and my first impression was that the car was an actual or constructive total loss. Robert for his own personal reasons did not want the car totaled and PIM became involved in the repair.
Initially, the customer was to bring the car to us for possible repair. The lowest estimate for towing to us was $700.00 which the customer couldn’t swing. I therefore took my own truck and trailer out to Las Vegas and brought the car back to our workshop. This was an approximate 11 hour round-trip. We did this at no expense to the customer and we also told the customer we would not require him to pay the deductible expense which was either $500.00 or $1,000.00. We told Robert he would have no out of pocket expense if we were allowed to repair his Pantera. It took a few weeks just to get the car to our shop and it took a few more weeks of negotiating to get the customer’s insurance company to not declare the vehicle a total loss. The claims adjuster felt this car was worth around $30,000.00 pre-accident and that the car was a constructive total loss. We argued strongly to the adjuster that the car was worth much more and finally, the adjuster caved in and agreed to repair the car. We were in a unique position to persuade the adjuster to go forward with the repairs. Our company sort of “wrote the book” on Pantera values.
Our repair estimate included repainting of the damaged areas of the car, not the entire car and certainly not a color change with all that entails, especially spraying an exotic color like Robert selected. From the description the customer makes on this Forum, you would think he brought his car into us for a cosmetic restoration. In truth, PIM took this very rough body that was rich with bondo and smoothed it out considerably. The whole body, not just the damaged areas. We applied a very nice paint job; color sanded it and fixed every last little flaw that the customer found, even though he didn’t have to pay for this repaint. We think the car looks terrific and it is ridiculous to represent that the owner would be embarrassed to take it to Cars and Coffee. For G_d’s sake, we aren’t talking about Pebble Beach here. If any of you have ever had bodywork done to your car and a good quality paint job applied with a color change to boot, you know or should know that this costs money. Our normal fee would be in the range of $7,500-10,000.00 for what was performed. There was no cost to the customer for this upgrade. We could have simply painted the damaged areas as we contracted for and sent this gentleman on his way. He wouldn’t have had to wait months and he would have had a partially painted, white, rough car.
Furthermore, the customer approved the selection of the wheels on the car and we modified these wheels to fit the car. 17 inch wheels don’t fit like 15’s do and you cannot place these wheels right at the edge of the flares as you can with 15’s. We tried to space the 17’s at the fender lip and during a test drive, the customer broke one flare. The 17 inch wheels have to be inset slightly and yes, we do know all about off-sets. This is our business. The car currently is shown in a raised position in the photos, so that it can clear driveways, trailers and move around our facility. The front air dam that Robert has chosen is simply too low for obstacles in our area. The customer can adjust his suspension and drop it to the ground if he so chooses. It is absurd to suggest this ride height is the final setting.
Getting back to the wheels and tires that are complained about, there is nothing preventing the customer from having his old wheels repaired and put back on the car with the rock hard tires and all. That’s right, the customer got to keep his wheels and tires and still got a new set with new tires at no additional cost to him! It doesn’t stop there. This car wouldn’t even run when we got it in here. We made mechanical repairs to it, re-did wiring to make his headlights work and solved a number of other problems to boot. The customer didn’t pay for that either. He also wanted further work thrown in and that is when he was told, “we have run out of money”. At that point any further work had to be done the old fashioned way, paid for.
When we put new deck lid shocks on the car (for free) one of the mounts failed when the decklid was raised damaging the trailing edge of the roof. We could have just put the free shocks in the trunk but as they say, “no good deed goes unpunished” and because we mounted them, the roof was damaged and cost us $600.00 to repair and match the exotic paint color. We also paid for the color sanding and a full detail. We also threw in new rubber trim around the doors.
During the course of the repairs, I sent photographs to the customer at significant intervals and at least every two or three weeks if not weekly. The customer was free to call us but he objected to speaking to Jerry accusing him of being a liar believing that more free work was to be done and had been promised. The customer favored emails even though by the time problems evolved we were working for free on the car. It is ludicrous to conclude that the customer was being hosed or f**ked as one intelligent poster suggests. When was the last time any of you got your favorite Pantera shop to do this much work on their dime?
In the thread that the customer initiated, there were many other half-truths or misrepresentations made. What was most concerning to me was how quickly some members jumped onto the beat down of PIM without even knowing the facts. Fortunately, some good friends called me and informed me about this thread and some other disparaging and defamatory remarks that our customer made. I told them I chose not to respond but my friends strongly urged me to post a response in the face of all of the postings.
I have discussed this matter with Robert and we want to move forward. We are confident he will eventually appreciate all the free work he received and the quality of our workmanship. As for the lack of communication or explanation he believes he did not receive, we will let the “Orange Devil” do the talking for us.
Dave Adler
PI Motosports, Inc.
