Dieter’s Independent Porsche Bmw and Mercedes Service

Left my car with this shop over night for an oil change to be done the following day. Picked it up the next day with a coolant leak which I’m 110% sure I didn’t have prior… Then as the owner took the $ 120 out of my hand for the oil change and opened up the register the mechanic who was working on my car came in and said «oh by the way I didn’t get a chance to do the oil change»
The people working at this shop might be knowledgeable, but they’re overpriced and disorganized in my opinion. (I was also quoted $ 600+ for a water-​pump and thermostat replacement, which three other BMW shops quoted for roughly $ 400 for)
Update: Brought it to another well know BMW repair shop and they address my coolant system issue for $ 70 compared to these guy who told me my water pump, one house, and thermostat needed to be replaced for $ 800
STAY AWAY FROM THESE GUYS

The only place I take my Porsche. Genuine and helpful workers, especially Tracy. These guys picked up my car from storage one time to replace the battery and then drove it back free of charge. Another time they came to my apartment parking garage and did a quick fix on site instead of making me get it towed. I also do my homework and have verified that their prices are as good or better for the same service as other people in the area. If you have a Porsche or German sports car and live in San Diego, you can feel safe taking it to Dieter’s.

They are so much nicer than most shops I have dealt with. Tech showed me all the items he wanted to take care of. Now when you are with the tech remember that they are there to do a job and sometime dont have the best bed side manner. They were very reasonable price wise and you could tell the tech new the car. Thanks guys

I’m over a month late writing this review, but here’s my tale: On 12÷9÷14 while picking up my boyfriend at the airport, my car got stuck in 1^st gear. We live in north county, but our plans for the day had been to sneak off for lunch and then to a hotel for some RnR since he’d been out of town for weeks on end most of Oct & Nov. We pull into the nearest gas station from outside the airport and assess the situation. Search on google and find the nearest Mercedes mechanic is on the other side of downtown, but we can get there on surface streets. Miraculously, when turning the car back on at the gas station, it starts to shift again, but we still make a beeline for Dieter’s. Right away the owner greets us, the lady who answered the phone is ready to check us in and the dedicated mercedes mechanic comes out to see what’s up. $ 99 for a full diagnostic and about an hour. Meanwhile we are starving so we ask if there is anywhere we can walk for lunch while they look at the car. I think the disappointment showed on our face as they mentioned what was around so the owner says «Where were you going to for lunch?» Blue Water over on Columbia. «I’ll give you a ride, drop you off and come back to get you.» WHAT??? Now, how flipping amazing is THAT? Midway through our lunch, he calls to tell me it was just the battery going out that caused the electronic system to not properly shift the transmission. They can put a new one in before lunch is over! Wow! We arranged a pick up time, he was there as planned and took me back to my completely fixed car. On top of that, the mechanic ran all the diagnostic messages for me, reset a bunch that were just a result of the shorting out battery and wrote out what I needed to get fixed within the next 1000 miles. Yes, it was $ 400 for a new battery — BUT — it’s Mercedes and just having the peace of mind to know exactly what was even coming up in the future was a huge relief! I wish I lived closer — they would get all my business on my ’02 C320 wagon.

I feel pretty lucky to have found this shop since moving to SD. They are less expensive than the dealer and I feel confidant in their expertise. Since I bought a 2007 BMW X3 with almost 100,000 miles on it, I’ve needed some things replaced, like spark plugs, break pads etc. Every time I’ve brought it in I’ve been impressed w how friendly everyone is and how quickly they get me back on the road. Today, they dropped me off at home and picked me up to return me to the shop within 3 hrs. Such a pleasure and yup, I’m back on the road all fixed up!

This is not where you wanna take your vintage Porsche! Unless of course you want your car back minus parts! That’s exactly what happened, they kept the car for 4 weeks, for a simple brake job, or so we thought. Not so! When done (and brakes still leaking!!!) multiple parts had been «exchanged»… Sad indeed, the original Dieters was a classy shop, this is not!

I called on a Friday night, and they took my car on Monday morning. They fix the problem the same day (brake switch needed to be changed), diagnosed and quoted another issue that I asked them to look into and gave me a better diagnosis and a cheaper pricing than my usual mechanic rated 5 stars on Unilocal as specialized in German cars. They gave me a very detailed explanation of what the problem was and the steps to fix it. My regular mechanic didn’t investigate the problem, he just went with the easy answer which was $ 200 more expensive and not the issue. They also quoted another issue I have with the turn signal element.
They also did a complete safety inspection on the car, filled the fluids.
So let me summarize:
— Changed the brake switch
— Investigated an electrical issue on the driver’s seat
— Investigated and quoted an issue with the turn signal element
— Did a complete safety inspection
— Filled all the fluids
— Gave me a ride back home (with their own car mind you, not with another customer’s car like my regular 5-​star Unilocal mechanic)
All of this for $ 180. I have a BMW and a Porsche, this is the first time I get out of a shop for less than $ 500. People complaining about their pricing should probably consider buying another brand… if you need any work done or any part on those cars, it’s going to be expensive — did you say luxury? Their hourly rate is the same as anywhere else.

Our used Mini S overheated one day so we took AAA’s advice and hauled it to Dieter’s. Steve diagnosed the issue as a bad radiator, a bad thermostat and a bad water pump (which happens to be bolted to the supercharger that drives the water pump, remember this later). $ 1500 (ouch)! But at least Dieter’s work was warrantied by AAA, we said, so we went ahead with the repair. That turned out to be a mistake.
A couple months later the car is again overheating! I take it back to them and ask them to diagnose the issue. Most shops charge you $ 50 – 100 for diagnosis. After a couple days (they were busy) they say come down take a look, you’ve got a bad supercharger — the gear is shot and failing to turn the water pump and thus cool the engine (sound familar?). Replacement of the SC will cost $ 2700 (triple ouch!).
It gets better: If we just want the car back without the repair then it’s $ 400! I never ever authorized $ 400 of work! Tracy said they actually had put 8hrs ($ 800) of work into it and that $ 400 was a break! I made it clear that was unauthorized and we agreed to only $ 100.
The issues I had are:
— dishonest tactics: asking me to pay $ 400 for unauthorized diagnosis when I never authorized any work other than diagnosis and and then quickly accepting $ 100 instead. That seems like you’re trying to hold my car hostage
— misdiagnosis: If the supercharger was the culprit they why didn’t they check it when they took the water pump off since it bolts right to the supercharger gear and is easily checked? Now I have to wonder if the water pump, radiator and thermostat even needed to be replaced at all? Are they just not thorough?
In the end I got a rebuilt supercharger for $ 1200 and did the replacement myself. It took a Saturday with the help of a friend but saved me $ 1500 and the car is not overheating anymore.

There used to be a mechanic with a black eye patch that really understood the early 4 cly Porsches. Well I took my vingtage Porsche in because it was hard to start and the idle jets were always getting pluged. The one eye mechanic is no longer there and there no one there now that understands the early cars, They may be great on newer cars with computer diagonistics but they demonstrated their lack of skill on the 4 clyinder cars.
I should have reviewed Unilocal before I took my car to Deiters again for service. The car was in their shop for five weeks for what was a simple carb. cleaning and new fuel filter (see the other post with a similar problem). After five weeks the car finally runs and starts but at a cost of over $ 3400. The shop foreman Steve became angry and shouted at me when I questioned him as to why it took so long and cost so much,
In addition to the poor customer service they charged me twice to re-​build the carbs. saying that it was my fault not thiers because after all my car was «A very old car». I have filed a complaint with the State of California for the double charge.
This was once a great business That I have taken my car for service (last time in 2007). I only drove the miles car 2900 miles in from 2007 until this last visit in January of this year.
Please do look for another repair shop if you have an early Porsche. Yes the final bill was $ 3421.53
UPDATE: THE CALIFORNIA BUREAU OF AUTO REPAIR CITED DIETERS FOR CHARGING ME FOR UNAUTHORIZED REPAIRS AND UNECESSARY REPAIRS. DEITERS WAS REQUIRED TO REFUND A SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT OF MONEY AND THE BUREAU OF AUTO REPAIR OPENED A FILE OF THE BUSINESS.

Was filling up on gas at the 76 across the street and noticed this shop. I’ve had annoying tail light sensor indicator for some time and have replaced all of the bulbs… so I thought. I pulled in around lunch time and Tracy had a mechanic take a look and they quickly found and replaced the license plate bulbs… for the price of the bulbs only. I will certainly recommend them in the future and would use them regularly but I live about 20 miles away. I was very impressed on my first visit — thanks Tracy!

If they were doctors the patient would be dead due to overtesting and unnecessary preventative surgery.
I took my Porsche in for a simple matter, changing the radiator fluid reservoir, which had a leak when I filled it. They proceeded to hunt down things wrong with the car and took a job that should have been a $ 300 job into a $ 2000 job. Their explanation is that it is their policy to diagnose all causes of the problem. And so I coincidentally had three causes all at once for a loss of radiator fluid. They won’t limit themselves to what you ask and intentionally create work for themselves as though they are doing you a favor by proactively searching out preventative maintenance. Don’t fall for that and don’t go there.

Yes, they are expensive. And, yes, they are very good and know what they are doing. That service cost (s) comes with the car, in my view.

Excellent service, and affordable over the dealership prices!
Work done: I had a battery replaced by AAA, and unfortunately, they did not reconnect the wires properly. Dieter’s was able to quickly re-​calibrate /​reconnect the electrical wiring and educate me on the battery replacement — mentioning that there was a possible recall on my battery. Needless to say, I wasn’t pleased with AAA and will be following up with them with some sort of reimbursement (that is another review!)
I was also impressed with the staff at Dieter’s. They have that family owned, business mentality — warm, personable and friendly. One of the employees provided me with a personal pick-​up /​drop off to my home with their car — convenient!
Thanks Dieter’s!

I agree with Russ and Sara. Steve does overprescribe service. As I’ve become more knowledgeable about cars I’ve come to realize this. I once priced out a suspension install and they wanted (in addition to the install) $ 350 for the alignment and $ 350 for a corner balance. First, you could probably get both of these from West End Alignment in Los Angeles for less than $ 200 total by a guy that has the best reputation in the southland (Darrin) and has experience setting up Porsche racecars.
More troubling is that the suspension I was asking him about was a non-​adjustable Porsche factory suspension. Unless he was going to use shims and a buch of highly non-​standard parts, corner balancing WAS NOT POSSIBLE. I wonder what he would have done for that $ 350 had I brought it to him. Yes, the dealer is overpriced, I suspect this shop is even more so.
One last note was that they seem to shy away from complex jobs. I once asked about an IMS retrofit on my NA 996 and he said they were totally risky and nobody does them. People do them all the time. There was one other job like this on my Turbo, and since then I’ve decided to shy away from this shop.

Along with Russ M. I will not be going back to Dieter’s either. Steve does over-​prescribe service — I had a similar experience where a simple maintenance procedure fixed what was presented as a horror story by this mechanic. It’s a shame as I’ve been going there for years. The worst part is he acts like he’s doing you a favor by working on your car.

Just took my 944 in to get a few things worked out. Overall I think it was the best experience I’ve had at a service shop. I met several team members including Steve and the owner; the entire team was great — very easy to talk to and very knowledgeable.
I was impressed with complete explanations I received on every point, even my follow up and pre-​service questions on email. Prices were fair, and the value I feel I received was very good. I’ll go back.

Recently, I had Steve from Dieter’s come to my office in Coronado, to diagnose a problem with my1962 356 which I could not get started. After coaxing the car for a while, he finally got it started and drove it back over the bridge to his shop. I was told that the old fuel in the system had become like «Jello» from sitting and that the entire fuel system would need work. The following day, I received a call from Tracy asking that I come to their shop so Steve could show me what needed to be done. To my shock, Steve produced an estimate of $ 2075 to overhaul the carburators and fuel pump, and to remove/​reinstall fuel tank and clean the fuel lines. I decided to get a second opinion, so I had the car towed the next day to Independent Performance Porsche. Within 24 hours I received a call and was told that my car was ready to go. When I arrived, I was presented with a $ 130 invoice to «clean dirty carburators». The car started right up, and I drove it home without incident. I (along with many of my Porsche owner friends) will likely never go back to Dieter’s due to this incident. It is clear that Steve over-​prescribed services that as it turns out were unnecessary. I write this so that other unwitting Porsche owners will take the extra step to obtain a second opinion when spending big dollars to get their Porsche serviced/​repaired. It will be money well spent.

Great Service, Quality work. A little on the pricey side but it’s worth it to know the work is done correctly. Highly recommended!