jostein

In early August of 2007 I searched Ebay for “Porsche 993 Turbo Engine” and found an engine at a company located in Los Angeles called Los Angeles Dismantlers (LAD), also called LA Porsche. Following an e-mail to the company I was requested to contact them directly by telephone and bypass Ebay. They told me that it was better to avoid using Ebay, and instead deal directly with LAD. We agreed that they would provide all required parts for a 993 C2 conversion to a 993 Turbo. LAD claimed that their quality was excellent and that they had verified and tested the engine and all parts. Basically I trusted the company to deliver what they said and went ahead and wire transferred a total of US$23 600 to LAD. They said they would ship the engine during the following days, but it was not until 2 weeks later and numerous calls from me that they actually shipped the engine. On the 8 of October the engine was delivered in Norway to Autotuning, a reputable RUF workshop not far from Oslo. Following the inspection of the engine it became clear that the engine was in a poor condition and not correctly assembled. It seemed as if the former owner had problems getting the engine to run and tried everything himself before he gave up. Following further investigations it turned out that both turbos were damaged to a condition where both had to have major rebuild. The extra cost in order to get the engine up to a reasonable condition cost me an additional 7000 Euro, or US$17000.
I called and wrote emails to LAD and informed about the situation, but they refused to take responsibility.

clubrsr993

I'm very sorry to hear about your mishap. I've heard mixed reviews with this company. I hate to say this, but definitely will learn from this incident. Thank you for sharing.

graeme36s

Sorry to read this but in this day and age you just cannot afford to be too trusting. No matter how helpful and nice they are on the telephone. I bought a 1970 Z28 Camaro from a dealer in Houston http://www.collectormotors.com and shipped to the UK. The replacement trim tag that they ordered from GM never arrived. (yes I know you cannot do this anyway, but not until I parted with the money). The original bonnet did not come with the car and has never been sent after several promises. It needed a few major problems sorted. Badly worn power steering box and three badly buckled wheels to name but a few major issues. The long and the short of it was that I was a complete idiot in believing that you can do business with a company many miles away without having the car or item inspected. We all have to live and learn by our mistakes.

IamSMC

Sorry to hear of your situation.

Unfortunately you didn't come to Rennlist first.

Here's a recent thread:
https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...ES+DISMANTLERS

And many more.....

Bradford

Unfortunately you have the disadvantage of being so far away. I buy from them on occasion as they are 5 minutes away from my office. I have not had any bad purchases from them personally but have heard of many people having problems. Sorry to hear about your misfortune.

Only1Buck

Did business with them once...NEVER AGAIN...

sparetireless

It showed up fast and was as advertised.

LA964RS

I bought a 993TT engine and a 993 N/A 6-speed and everything was excellent...no problems. I have since purchased a variety of bits from them w/never a problem.

OldGuy

I have a feeling that when one of the employees finds out a potential customers are so far away the temptation to "pull one over on them" gets overwhelming. Lets face it an employee at a wrecking yard probably has an IQ less than their shoe size and morals less than that. Notice the LA customers dont seem to have a problem.
I feel sorry for you that some *Americans* did this to you. Probably some illegal Americans.

budge96

I truly feel your pain and I guess it goes back to getting some references or
knowing with whom your dealing,but my experience with Todd at LA porsche
has been nothing but productive and fair,yes there seems to be many stories and conflicting opinions of character when it comes to auto yards,this one no
exception.
I have been to the location on some visits to Los Angeles as well as called from
across country back east and each time dealt with promptly,knowledgably,and
most important fairly.
Maybe this is one that got by them but on an instance where they sent the wrong part to the shop doing my work (3000) miles from me,(20 from them)
they promptly replaced and took the item back..
Now I know this wasn't a 23.5 K TT motor but hey with that kind of expense and distance ,just maybe you want someone to eyeball it firsthand..Just my .02
thanks Bert
PS where were you when I was selling my spare '96 993TT motor last spring?
PSS 7000 Euro is 10,500. US today

MarkD

+1
Except you don't really need to be too far away... I'm in NorCal and dealt with them. Not fun.
From what I hear Todd knows what he is doing but his employees are another story. I won't do business with them again... unless they have the ONLY surviving part available. Wordwide. And even then I will drive the 500+ miles to see it for myself.

jostein, I am very sorry for you. Good luck with your project!

jjf 04C4Scab

I bought a set of Porsche wheels from them that they represented as "new take-offs." The wheels had clearly been driven for more than a few miles - one had curb rash and another was scratched from stacking the wheels on top of each other in their warehouse. I ended up having two of the wheels re-finished. Not quite what was represented.

laporsche

TO ANYONE READING THIS, DON'T FORGET THERE ARE 2 SIDES TO EVERY STORY! I won't even bother going into all the details about Jostein's purchase but he basically wants us to pay for an engine overhaul that he told us he was going to do before he even purchased from us! He sent the engine to RUF, what do you think they are going to do, look at it and push it into the corner? We sent him a very good engine and he knows it. He threatened if we didn't send him MORE free parts he'd talk trash about us here. Wow, we're shaking in our boots. We know the shop who is doing the work and know more than he thinks we know. I started searching through posts, some good, some bad. Most that call want perfect for next to nothing. We have been in business since the 80's and aren't going anywhere. We have expanded 10 times over and continue to grow every year. We are a family owned business, we have a great team, we stand behind our product and do our best to provide the best service we can. It costs a lot of money to buy these cars, store them and dismantler them piece by piece, no we're not giving anything away for free. We're not perfect and we admit it. Are all of you and the companies you work for so perfect? If you have a problem with a previous order and you want to address a situation, let me know I'm here to listen.
Sara
VP
818 POR-SCHE (767-7243)
http://911pcar.com

MarkD

Nice rant... and welcome back to RL.

Yet, I still have the same opinion. I dealt with LAPD twice. Should have learned my lesson the first time. I won't bore you with my details either... but it all boiled down to very poor service and a serious lack of knowledge. Oh, and shipping me physically damaged parts. That my 4 year old could see were damaged. I wish I were kidding.

Since you are perusing the forums, run on over to the 993 forum and search there. Lot's of good reading.
Then pop on over to the 964 forum.

Good luck.

PS - I wasn't looking for perfect. Just an honest transaction. Hey, while we are here, how about you change your refund policy? A "store credit" doesn't work too well when the "store" misrepresents what they have.

laporsche

Wow, opinions are like ********, everyone has them. If you are going to talk, give me your name so I can see what you purchased big talker. When was this, ages ago? I won't say we haven't had problems in the past, bad employees and so forth. One can only look forward to the future and try to correct mistakes we have made. I did search, there are also a lot of very nice people who have made very nice comments. To be honest I'd rather deal with them than others who live in a negative world and want everyone to know it. Did you ship your part back? If you were unhappy we would have offered a refund we have never been firm about store credits unless you try to rip us off in return.