I read some mixed reviews in the forum about Ben's Workshop in Austin. Generally the consensus was "He's good, knows what he's doing, but expensive". Based on my two prior services there, I would agree with that.

But recently things have taken a turn for the worse. I learned from a worker there that Ben Schotz sold the business back in February '07. Also, the new owners haven't changed the sign on the building, and they haven't taken down his picture or his philosophy about the business off the front page of the website. So on the surface everything seems the same, but Ben isn't there to advise on repairs or to keep his workers in line. Read on.

So I took my '06 C55 in for a simple alignment and to remove a nail from the left rear tire. They did a fine job on the work. It was expensive (as usual) at $164, but the problem was fixed and done by people you can trust, right? Wrong.

The trip computer on my car showed that the service manager (who sounded very enthusiastic over the phone just after "verifying" the alignment was straight on) took the car out for a 36 mile joy ride lasting over an hour! I was wondering why he complemented me so much on how beautifully the car drove. The funniest part: he was getting 15 mpg during that interval. Wow. It takes some hard city driving to push the average below 17 mpg.

Anyway, I will grant that they may need to put 5-10 miles on the car to check driving performance, but 36 miles is F'in crazy, especially on a sports car that's all too tempting to abuse! I can't recommend these guys now that Ben no longer runs the show.