Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Does any one have any experience of using Hartech in Bolton?

I have had a good quote from them to rebuild a 968 engine and wondered if any one has any experience of there services?

Hi:)

There are a lot of threads on Pistonheads about them and I have never heard anything bad about them on there, and they also do their own warranty system for cars the OPC system wont warranty any more....

Usually highly recommended although I have never used them personally...

All the best Brett

EXPERT 968ers

I had my 968 serviced there the year after I bought it. Had a gold service which included a full report on the condition of the car which was useful as it gave me a to do list to go forward with.
They are well respected within our little 968 community.

Have bought exchange wishbones off of them, very helpful on the phone & very good & obliging service. Never actually met them but what I've read & head from Barry Hart I'd recommend them.

+1 for the wish bones. Like Jim, never met them but very helpful and friendly on the phone.

They sell some bl dy nice cars as well.

Ben

There good but not cheap. The company Boxster was serviced there every year with out fuss or problem. Added to it's value when it was sold. You do pay for the name though.

Wasn't Barry Hartech one of the original founders of TIPEC?

I''ve always found them useful for free advice on the telephone. Used them in 1999 to have the clutch changed in the 944 2.7 Lux. It was £700 then, and I think it still is now.

After reading through their extremely informative and very comprehensive Technical documents on their web site I had my 944S2 Cabriolet Serviced with them Twice (Journeyed from Lincoln to Bolton x2) :- in 2005 just after a private purchase to get it sorted, they did an excellent job, new wishbones Discs, Cambelt/rollers etc etc. Then the following year before selling it & moving on to a 944 Turbo (which I now get serviced at JMG Bournemouth who knew the new car well)
I would have no hesitation in recommending Both Hartech & JMG, distance is no object for good reliable service.

Not had a good experience with my 911 at Hartech. They were to do a category C service and a report. They kept the car for over a month and when I got it back they charged me £1500 for the service and to "sonically" clean the warm up valve. They told me they had spent 14 hours rectifying an idling problem and that they hadn't charged me for it. The problem with this is that it never had an idling problem!
Having read the "Engineers report" supplied, I phoned to ask questions about some of the problems they had found. One in particular was for the heating system as it was not working properly. They told me "We tried to turn it on but it didn't work". I asked if they had any idea as to why and they said "No, we just turned it on and no heat came through". As an Engineer myself I was ed that this was classed as a report, my old mother could have sat in the car and twiddled dials and nobs to find out what worked or didn't. Surely the "Engineer" could at least have intimated as to possible causes for the fault/s. I know I do when I write a report!

I am deeply unimpressed and my personal opinion is that they talk the talk, but when it comes to aircooled 911's they don't have a clue and obviously have fat fingers when operating a calculator to come up with their pricing.

You learn from your mistakes and vote with your feet.

Did you do a swap with them on the wish bones? If so how long did it take to get your refund money. I bought some bottom arms from them and sent my old ones back pretty much the next day. And not got the refund on the
older parts, first time i have used them so not sure how they operate or how long it will take?
Regards

No personal experience but its extremely rare to hear a bad word about them on this or any other forum. Not to say there are none, but having watched posts on them on varying forums for over 5 years they would be my first port of call if I was in the area. I know there are 911 owners that plan trips up north for Baz to service the car !!!

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Having just registered for this forum this is the first opportunity I have had to read what has been posted and respond to appreciate those that quite rightly state that the vast majority of comments on other forums are extremely complimentary and also to answer the - as yet un-challenged - criticisms.

(1) Tri-man - Yes I saved the club (when it was originally formed as the 924 to 944 club) from extinction when it was being wound up with zero in the bank account (not even enough to contact the members to tell them what was going on) by paying all the additional costs for 4 years and contributed to the magazine and general organisation together with Lynn Reddall (who did most of the work and effort unpaid and deserves most of the credit).

(2) Met Bronze 911 - there are always some customers we fail to impress (often for fair
reasons) but while it is easy to criticise from an anonymous position - we have failed to dig up any records from your description but would like to respond (and in all fairness should be allowed to as you have identified us while we cannot identify you to fairly respond) so please let me know by E-mail (auto@hartech.org) the details (reg number and name) as we store ALL work and computer records and would like to remind ourselves what went on - respond in kind and allow your points to be discussed fairly.

(3) markGT3 - We supply hundreds of wishbones without problem or complaint every year and have a system of a returns note that identifies the purchaser and how to refund them. This rarely goes wrong and we send the refund within a few days of receipt. This is the first time I have read about a problem and I am suprised if you didn't contact us to reconcile it. Occasionally a set of wishbones turn up with no paper work so we don't know who they are from. If you didn't receive a refund please get in touch and if you did kindly inform the members - rather than imply that we tried to keep your money.


(4) Pasty - please let us know the details on auto@hartech.org and we will look into the problem and respond.

Forums are a very valuable source of information and opinion exchange (which we contribute to elsewhere regularly) - but also the very annonimity that they provide for unidentified contributors naming individual people or businesses is - in my opinion - and unfair opportunity to snipe. It may well be that sometimes the critisim is genuine (we cannot get on with everyone all the time - however hard we try and some customers have other agendas anyway or fall out with every business eventually) it can also be contrived and an attempt to discredit people for other reasons - sometimes simple business competitiveness - but at least an opportunity should be there to answer what has been said and I am happy to do so if I can identify the situation.

Barry Hart (former Chairman) AKA "Baz"


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Hi Barry

I do not know you although you may have heard of me lol... I am banned on so many forums its hard not to lol...

As an unbiased observer, I can at least give a totally unbiased view....

I have read posts about your company from others and the majority of them are complimentary about both you personally (help and advice supplied etc) and also about your companies work.

Owning several companies myself , there are always occasions when things go wrong, its about how you deal with those problems that are important and you seem open and honest, even when your company receives criticsm.

You seem to have a good reputation and I am impressed that you actually post in Forums.... there is another company owner who posts on Pistonheads (but not here) who also impresses me with his honesty (he sells cars ...911s lol)

I think in these Internet savvy days, posting and answering your customers is the best advertising you can do.....

I repeat for others...I have never met Barry or used his company, but have read many many posts about and from him...

All the best Brett