SVX Back from Switzerland YEAH!
 

Well, I got back home yesterday after picking up my car on Monday. Had a terrific drive home in my "good as new" SVX. You wouldn't believe all the work that was done to the car. New head gaskets, shaved heads, replaced just about all the other gaskets, too. New spark plugs, complete new brakes in front, new pads and callipers in the back plus rotors polished, changed just about every hose and belt there is, new water pump, knock sensor, all fluids, filters done, you name it, it got inspected and probably had something done to it.

To top it all off, the new apprentice mechanic spent two days washing and cleaning every inch of the car, including conditioning the leather interior! I'm in heaven!

I learned a few interesting facts while in Switzerland. First off, my car isn't Claret or Barcelona Red. It is Mica Ruby! Seems that the colours made available here in Europe were different from the USA colour choices. Secondly, yes I have glass headlights, not plastic. (I checked since I couldn't answer when asked before)

I also found out that the idiot who installed my new rad didn't have the proper hose, so he cut a hose and spliced it with a little plastic insert joining piece. Yikes! My Swiss mechanic says that should be only done as a temporary fix and is NOT a proper repair at all!

I had my digital camera along and thought you might appreciate a little tour of the facilities in Switzerland. I also want to put in a plug for my favourite mechanics in the world: Mr. Egelhofer, Mr. Schneider, and the whole team. From now on baby gets inspected by them at least once a year.

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Wolfgang Egelhofer - owner/master mechanic ..... U. Schneider - head mechanic

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nice big facilities

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view looking out of garage - note the Swiss cows with bells! (and the SVX too)

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We're looking real pretty, shiny and polished. All ready for winter (those are our winter rims without the caps)
The silver SVX owner comes from Zurich for his servicing. (about 1.5 hr drive)

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what a Subaru garage should look like <grin>

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he's got one for sale ... hmmmm....

And that's my tour. Now perhaps you see why I trust these guys and made the long trip to Switzerland to get everything fixed properly. Seems like my car really wasn't properly serviced for the last three years.

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check out my bad brakes! Yikes!
We ordered new ones from Bremsa www.bremsa.ch

I actually passed a full mandatory inspection just last November with no faults found and no repairs required. No way these brakes got so bad in only 9 months! So from now on I won't trust the inspections at all, and just treat it as another tax on the car.

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the bad head gasket (but we replaced both)

Well... that's the limit for images, so I won't bother with more pics of partially shredded belts and other horrors that were found. I still can't believe that so much could go wrong in just three years. Especially when we thought that we were doing proper regular maintenance. I should have been suspicious when our maintenance costs went down after our move to Germany, but we thought we were just lucky. Oh, well... live and learn.

Now I'm off for a little drive <big huge grin!>

Cool pics Bipa, your car now is as good as new. Swiss mechanics are reputed to be the best in the business, they overhaul everything and restore your car to its original status. Now you have one happy SVX, again ;) :cool:

Thats the coolest garage. Ever. Period. :D

P.s. that shade of silver is awesome :)

wow, I'm very jealous.........just curious how much labor rates are and what your final bill was.....


Was it "service the SVX" day with that one pic??

thats what my house looks like once a week... whe John mike stop over and pretty soon I will see my Barcelona back in town soon enough :) Who would have thought it would go to Conneticut and then end up 20 mins away from my house? :) Good luck with the car Bipa

Tom

Thanks for the interesting pictures. That companies brake disks look very nice. How do they feel so far?

Nice pics Bipa! Enjoy the ride!!!! :cool:

-Chike

looks like those guys take pride in their work. i like people like that. ;)

That is awesome! I'm glad you got your car back, better than new!

Doug

Fantastic!!! That is a great shop. I would trust those guys too. I start to tingle when I see pictures like that. :D :D I am glad you have your car back and I would be very happy that the service and repairs that it got. :) :)

Originally Posted by msvx95
wow, I'm very jealous.........just curious how much labor rates are and what your final bill was.....


Was it "service the SVX" day with that one pic??

Nope, it wasn't "service the SVX" day. :p There's usually at least 3 or 4 SVX's hanging around. More if Wolf's brother or other friends come by with theirs for a coffee. :) The Egelhofer Subaru garage in Altstätten is known as the best SVX place in the region. Folks come from Germany and Austria, too.

The original estimate was total 4000 Swiss francs, or about $3,200 US. Usually Wolf is very accurate with his estimates. We went a "little" :rolleyes: over because I told him to not only repair the obvious stuff, but do a full inspection and also replace/repair anything that looked doubtful. So for example, the water pump wasn't completely gone, but he felt that it was on its way because of the overheating (it was starting to wiggle and shouldn't have any play), and recommended replacing it now. I also wasn't expecting to have to re-do stuff like the radiator hoses that had just been done here in Germany.

My attitude is/was that since the car was pretty much being taken apart anyway, may as well take advantage of it and do everything all at once so as not to duplicate labour costs later. More expensive in the short run, but less expensive and lots less hassle later, in my opinion. Now I don't have to worry about that doubtful water pump or other things that might have still been okay for another year, or might have left me sitting on the side of the road somewhere at exactly the worst moment.

To be honest, I got a special deal. I was in no hurry to get the car done, so he could schedule the work at his convenience. Because we have two cars and can survive with one, I never put pressure on mechanics to do a quick job. I prefer good, solid, quality work over speedy results. And I find that a rush job often means mistakes or things get overlooked.

In theory, my "no rush" attittude should and up until three years ago usually got me better service and better prices. But here in Germany, I guess it doesn't matter. I was charged top prices for hideous quality, and I will be taking our Justy to Switzerland one of these days for a full inspection, too. It seems fine, but I've lost all faith in our previous German mechanics. Our Justy is also a special car that not all mechanics have worked with. It is the ECVT model which is a bit rare now. Obviously there's not as much that can go wrong with the Justy, but I want Wolf to check it all out any way.

Originally Posted by svxstarship
Thanks for the interesting pictures. That companies brake disks look very nice. How do they feel so far?

Well, they have to be broken in a bit more, so for now I'm being careful and not doing any aggressive driving on the autobahn. I cruised home at a reduced speed of about 120km/hr or 75 mph and tried to avoid hard braking.

They feel very good, though, and I'm happy so far. The real test will be when Hubby is doing 150 mph on the autobahn and has to brake hard for a slowpoke who comes out without looking into the left lane to pass a truck and is only going at 80 mph. That's always fun :eek:

You wouldn't believe how many idiots just don't check behind them to see what's coming up in the passing lane before pulling out to pass. That's why we need the better brakes, and I'm hoping these new ones don't wear out as quickly.

Precious Words of Wisdom...

Say Bipa, this shop... ought to be a car showroom more than a service shop :D :D ,

Before the creation of the European Union, used car dealers over here tend to go to Switzerland to buy used cars... they had a flawless condition as if they were brand new. The same used car brought from Germany was a little cheaper than the same exact car brought from Switzerland. :rolleyes: that's because Swiss cars were better maintained than German ones... :rolleyes:

Cool same as driving over here!! Exactly!! :eek: :eek: :D :D

Your svx must be really happy now. :)

You too :D Enjoy the tour with your pics. :)


PS: are you going to make your tiger spin faster? :D:D