Mike’s Foreign Auto

I’m a VW Bug guy from way back but when I bought a new-​to-​me 1967 Beetle I decided to have her looked over after hearing good things about Mike from a friend of mine.
Mike made a comprehensive list that is very accurate although many areas were not finished on the form — However, I had a few issues with his work and pricing.
1: Mike said my old distributor was not working properly so he recommended a switch to the Pertronix electronic replacement with no charge to put it in — Well I see why — Street price is $ 125, my price $ 190. A little steep on the markup — Ouch. In addition he set the timing incorrectly so I had to reset that. You do not set a Pertronix to a static 7.5 degrees BTDC! You run it up above about 3500 (where it is at maximum advance) and scope it to between 28 – 32 degrees. It was set at 7.5 static and when run up only went to 26 degrees max — This causes overheating and is a VERY bad thing for bugs.
2: I had Mike rebuild the carb and jet it properly — After that I ran her 100 miles and did a plug and pipe check and she was way rich. Stock jet is a 1.25, he drilled out a 1.20 that measured 1.375. Way too rich for a stock 1600 and anyone should know that — I ended up buying a 1.30 jet and all is perfect now. In addition with a carb rebuild I would have expected a automatic choke checkup — No mention so I checked it and it was out of adjustment and I took care of it myself.
3: There was no mention of my transaxle other that the boots were cracked and leaking– I knew this as she left a small piddle wherever she was parked. I asked Mike how the fluid level was and he said it was full. Thank the Lord I did my boots a week later — A few piddles the size of a quarter and only 50 miles driven and I only got 2 pints out — I put 5.3 back in after boot change. NO way I dropped 3.3 pints!!! It also took an act of God to get the filler hole open — No way in heck was it checked!!! That could have cost me a new transaxle had I went on his word and waited a bit longer based on the small leakage.
I won’t be back.

An old school master with all Volkswagens. Honest, knowledgeable, patient, and reasonable, but don’t rush him because he’s a perfectionist and usually works alone. His documentation is professional and his estimates are accurate. If he can’t fix it, throw it away