Motormeister Recent experience with Motormeister Downey California

I had the dreaded IMS bearing fail in my 2003 Porsche Boxster S with only 45k miles on it. I am in the car biz and knew about Motormeister from back in the day with the Porsche Club when I had my 911. I researched numerous shops and was quoted anywhere from $14k to $20k to rebuild or replace with a new engine. Motormeister quoted me $8k and I agreed to have my engine sent to them. I also agreed to pay $5k up front for parts and was told I should expect about 4 months for rebuild. I knew going in about their 'issues' as I had reviewed ALL of the nasty comments and complaints written about them in the blogisphere and I wrote most of them off due to the demeanor of the writers and because I am in the car business myself and irrationally angry customers are a normal part of the biz- so I took my chances.

At the 3rd month I shipped my car there. I stayed in monthly communication with them and finally went to visit the shop where I saw for myself over 200 other engines on the shelf waiting to be rebuilt. Once I saw that I knew it was physically impossible for them to rebuild my engine in only 4 months. I was order #1221and 79th in line for a rebuild. Even if they could rebuild 3 engines a week that would take at least 6 months. In actuality they were only averaging about 5 engines a month due to staffing issues and finding qualified master rebuilder's for Porsche engines. The exponential cases of IMS bearing failures has created a HUGE demand for them - and qualified master Porsche mechanics are few and far between because mechanics nowadays just diagnose and replace - they don't repair or rebuild.  

Anyway, 16 months later I finally got my car back - detailed and looking as if I had just sent it there. It runs awesome and my initial apprehensions are slowly diminishing. I kept my cool the whole time avoiding angry outbursts due to my frustration with the process abiding my the proverb that it is easier to attract bees with honey than vinegar. My calm demeanor with them paid off and I am very happy with the way they worked at making things right with me at the end.

As far as the quality of the rebuild it is 5 stars. The time it took to get my car back to me 1- star. If you don't need your engine back ASAP then they are the place to go ONLY if you have the patience of Job. I have been told that they are aggressively  working on reduced turnaround times - we will see.  Caveat Emptor!