European Concepts

BEWARE! Do not disregard these reviews! Ruslan told my husband that Sebastian was a liar and we were stupid enough to leave our car there. In order to review this, I had to give it at least one star, but in truth, I would not give this any stars at all. My daughter and I were hit by a drunk driver and were left without a car, we took our little Mercedes 240D to European Concepts because some months before, Ruslan, the owner of the business, told us that he could replace the locked up engine with a 300D. Obviously, we were without a vehicle until the repairs could be completed. We were assured that the repairs would be done in 4 weeks. We dropped the car off on August 30^th with all assurances that it would be ready for pickup on September 27^th. We also paid $ 1000 of the total $ 2700 that would be our bill. On September 27^th, my husband called to make sure the car was ready, he called a couple of times throughout the 4 weeks to check in and see if things were going as planned-​we were told time and again that the car would be ready on the 27^th, but on the 27^th, the car wasn’t ready. It wasn’t ready the next week or the week after that. In fact, it took 10 weeks for us to get our car back. In all fairness, we were told by Ruslan that he got sick during week 7. I understand unexpected events, but if the car had been complete in the first 6 and ½ weeks what follows would not have been necessary. Finally, in week 10, after phone calls being dodged, being told by the shop next door that Ruslan hadn’t opened his gates for weeks and finding out that he was running, quite successfully, another shop, our patience was exhausted. We told Ruslan that we wanted our car back, along with the $ 1000.00 that we had put down, during this time we have had to borrow and rent cars in order to transport our family. Demanding our car and money back did not go over well. My husband had to contact the Sheriff’s department and was informed that not only did we have a case to be made in small claims court, but that a charge of theft could be made because money had changed hands and services had not been rendered. Ruslan, only today, returned our car and wrote my husband a check for the money we had paid upfront. Ruslan made the check out to my husband with his first and middle name and my husband had to confront him forcefully to finish the check with his last name as well, for purposes of immediately cashing the check, as we no longer have any confidence that dealings with Ruslan are trustworthy. If you choose to use this shop, I hope your experiences are better than ours. Upon deliver of the car, the only thing that was done to the car in this 10 week period is the engine was removed, so now we have a car in pieces and are no closer to a running vehicle.

This is not a fake review, I am an actual customer. My name is Sebastian Cowley and I brought my 1983 240D to be repaired back in January of 2012 after it had started to run rough when I lost too much oil from a leaking oil line. Ruslan, the owner and only mechanic on duty assured me I had damaged the head and rebuilt the head $ 1500 later. He was extremely behind schedule and had promised to finish almost a month before he actually did. Getting in touch with Ruslan is very difficult, he seldom answers your calls and when he does he promises to return your call and days will go by and he will never call back. You have to literally blow up his phone just to get an answer. Very unprofessional behavior. He never meets his promised deadlines and seems very big headed and arrogant and becomes very offended when confronted about his utter lack of professionalism. Everything is bad news with Ruslan. After rebuilding my engine head, i thought i was done. Turns out I wasn’t, more bad news «my cylinder is burnt out and i have no compression». After a compression test I agree to a rebuild of the block. He takes promises to be done in two weeks, but it takes him almost 2 MONTHS! Im finally fed up and I pick the car up. it’s still smoking and running rough. two days later I loose complete compression in more than one cylinder and the car burns up most of its oil right out of the tail pipe. So much for an engine rebuild. I flushed more than $ 2600 down the toilet with Ruslan for an engine rebuild that ended up tearing itself to pieces within 48 hours of having my car. I refused to return to him for «warranty» work because at this point I did not trust him. His work ethic is worthless, his word is worthless, his professionalism is non existent and his work is not only below par, its dangerous. The engine block was improperly machined and the pistons were improperly seated and failed within 48 hours. My car sits dormant in my garage while I look for a replacement engine and its value has drastically decreased. If you are the owner of a European vehicle and need work done to it, please consider another shop that is reputable and professional. Pay the extra money! Its not worth risking a nightmare scenario like the one I endured at European Concepts. As I stated before, this is not a fake negative slandering review. This is an accurate description of my experience with Ruslan at European Concepts. I have no issues writing honest positive reviews for businesses if I have a good experience and have done so on several occasions in the past. The reason for putting the effort into posting this review is to protect any prospective customer from having the same horrible experience I have had, and if I can persuade just one person from giving Ruslan their business, then it will be 100% worth it.

I took my 1984 Mercedes-​Benz to this guy by accident (I was looking for Kevin Automotive) and it was a huge mistake. When I call him on the phone I told him that I was looking for Kevin’s shop and he played ignorant. Next, he lied and told me that my motor was locked up and that I needed to rebuild my engine. I knew all along that all I needed was a starter, but his motive was to try and scare me into selling the car to him. Last but not least, he lies again and tells me that the starter I purchased was bad, and he tries to talk me into buying one from him for almost triple what I paid for my starter. This guy is a liar, a crook and advise anyone he needs their car fixed to seek another shop that is honest. My understanding is that he recently bought this business from someone less than a year ago. As it turns out, Kevin’s shop was right next door and he a very fair and honest person.