John Vasos & Brookfileld Acura
I've been looking for a good mechanic here in the midwest for a while now but it's been hard to find anyone nearby with even minimal experience. I did some research here on Prime and landed on John Vasos, Parts and service director at Brookfield Acura. I decided to make the 5 hr trip to the Milwaukee after talking to John, who seemed very familiar with the fixes of every little issue that my car was experiencing. I was told by other service advisors that "this and that needed to be replaced" to fix the problems (as many service facilities would rather just replace with a new part than fix the existing one... which i do understand, actually) but John opted to fix everything when possible - saving me money.
My car was in there for 2 days. I'd decided to hang around and watch Bill (the tech) do his work on my car. What I really didn't expect was John just hanging out with me nearly the whole time I was there - talking about the nsx, racing, business, family, hobbies, he even took me to lunch! He is truly a gentleman. I found Johns knowledge of the NSX and just things in general to be quite intriguing.
I could go on about John and Bill but I'll get to the meat of this post.
They saved me big $$ and found some issues that I feel may have gone unnoticed at a less experienced shop. The hourly rate seemed a little high at just under $100 but John took 10% off of that without me saying anything about it (he took 25% off of parts as well). I had read that John usually never goes over his original estimate and many times falls below it but with the discovery of a few additional issues I knew it was going to cost me more. Little things added up - like the rusted out battery bracket that I failed to mention until late in the first day there. John had it overnighted from Cali at no charge to me... not even for the part! On the 2nd day Bill said he felt a bit of a pull in the rear on acceleration (which I hadn't even caught). They found a torn bushing in the rear - which is extremely rare. I won't go into it too deeply but long story short - they fixed it (I'm no longer in compliance back there if u know what i mean :biggrin: ) and did it without laboriously removing the suspension from the car (he consulted with Mark Basch to see if this was plausible - and they decided to try it :smile: ). Well after this unexpected problem I knew the bill was going to be much more than the original estimate.
ummmm... it still ended up being LESS than the original estimate!!
I am still thinking of things that I watched Bill do and checking the tally -only to find them not even listed (no charge)! I know that John personally contributed some things to my car and never expected a penny for it. Both John and Bill went way above and beyond the call of duty and I felt like I came out of there owing them much more... much much more than I actually paid. I also have all confidence that the car has been gone over very well. A clean bill of health from Brookfield somehow means more than one from my local Acura dealership! As a side I should mention that there were no fewer than 6 NSX's at Brookfield awaiting some kind of service work - they see plenty of these things. So, is it worth it to drive 5 hrs for this kind of service/experience? I'd drive 10hrs one way to have these guys maintain my NSX's!
In short - I have never had a service experience like this in my life... and I grew up in a Dealership family :smile:
Brookfield Acura - HIGHLY recommended!
I've been looking for a good mechanic here in the midwest for a while now but it's been hard to find anyone nearby with even minimal experience. I did some research here on Prime and landed on John Vasos, Parts and service director at Brookfield Acura. I decided to make the 5 hr trip to the Milwaukee after talking to John, who seemed very familiar with the fixes of every little issue that my car was experiencing. I was told by other service advisors that "this and that needed to be replaced" to fix the problems (as many service facilities would rather just replace with a new part than fix the existing one... which i do understand, actually) but John opted to fix everything when possible - saving me money.
My car was in there for 2 days. I'd decided to hang around and watch Bill (the tech) do his work on my car. What I really didn't expect was John just hanging out with me nearly the whole time I was there - talking about the nsx, racing, business, family, hobbies, he even took me to lunch! He is truly a gentleman. I found Johns knowledge of the NSX and just things in general to be quite intriguing.
I could go on about John and Bill but I'll get to the meat of this post.
They saved me big $$ and found some issues that I feel may have gone unnoticed at a less experienced shop. The hourly rate seemed a little high at just under $100 but John took 10% off of that without me saying anything about it (he took 25% off of parts as well). I had read that John usually never goes over his original estimate and many times falls below it but with the discovery of a few additional issues I knew it was going to cost me more. Little things added up - like the rusted out battery bracket that I failed to mention until late in the first day there. John had it overnighted from Cali at no charge to me... not even for the part! On the 2nd day Bill said he felt a bit of a pull in the rear on acceleration (which I hadn't even caught). They found a torn bushing in the rear - which is extremely rare. I won't go into it too deeply but long story short - they fixed it (I'm no longer in compliance back there if u know what i mean :biggrin: ) and did it without laboriously removing the suspension from the car (he consulted with Mark Basch to see if this was plausible - and they decided to try it :smile: ). Well after this unexpected problem I knew the bill was going to be much more than the original estimate.
ummmm... it still ended up being LESS than the original estimate!!
I am still thinking of things that I watched Bill do and checking the tally -only to find them not even listed (no charge)! I know that John personally contributed some things to my car and never expected a penny for it. Both John and Bill went way above and beyond the call of duty and I felt like I came out of there owing them much more... much much more than I actually paid. I also have all confidence that the car has been gone over very well. A clean bill of health from Brookfield somehow means more than one from my local Acura dealership! As a side I should mention that there were no fewer than 6 NSX's at Brookfield awaiting some kind of service work - they see plenty of these things. So, is it worth it to drive 5 hrs for this kind of service/experience? I'd drive 10hrs one way to have these guys maintain my NSX's!
In short - I have never had a service experience like this in my life... and I grew up in a Dealership family :smile:
Brookfield Acura - HIGHLY recommended!
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