Mahdavi Motorsports?

Im about to post a story about an expierience that happened to a good friend of mine. This is not a flame war, this is FACTS with invoices attatched. i hate to bash a shop, but what happened to him is the most disgusting display of unethical business practices i have ever seen.

My friend Sam Knighten on November 23,2004 towed his 1996 Mitsubishi Eclipse to Mahdavi Motorsports. The car had a blown engine. Mahdavi Motorsports gave my friend a QUOTE for the work that he wanted done. The QUOTE was for purchasing a 6bolt engine, installing rods an pistons (forged) and reinstalling the engine in the car. Here is the invoice:




Total work Estimate:$10,111.68

If you look at the bottom of the second page, you can see the comments ARASH MAHDAVI put referring to deposit an monies PAID. it Reads :

Quote:
Comments:
MONEY TREE HAS DROPPED OFF MONEY ORDER TOTALLING $4199.58 on 11/23/04
Has put down $3200 for the engine
Has also put down $2430 towards project. Project is special order. No refunds on deposits once project has begun.


That means Mr. Knighten deposited $9829.58 towards his $10,111.68 estimate.

MAHDAVI MOTORSPORTS ordered the engine and his parts, and after some time went by, Mr. Knighten called to check on his vehicle. Mahdavi Motorsports told him additional money was needed to complete his car, at which time he was told he had only dropped off $6000, not the $9829.58 that was recorded on his invoice.

He was given a new invoice totalling:



The new invoice totalled:$11,256.96

In the comments section, the original comments were there, but you can see where ARASH MAHDAVI had hand written :
Quote:
TOTAL DEPOSIT:$6230


So what happened to the original DEPOSIT totalling $9829.58? lets come back to that.

The motor MAHDAVI MOTORSPORTS ordered for Mr. Knighten ended up having a cracked Turbo manifold. MAHDAVI MOTORSPORTS charged him $285 for a replacement turbo manifold. Why was that his fault? MAHDAVI MOTORSPORTS must not warranty their motors, and they sold him a junk accesorie, i dont see why he needs to pay for it.

Now, if you look at the INVOICES closely, youll see MASSIVE overcharges , i call price gouging, on certain parts needed for his build. Heres a couple i noticed immiedietely:
Quote:
EAGLE RODS $450.00
RR ENGINE $2500


Eagle Rods are listed for $326 WALK IN PRICE at Nopi Motorsports. EAGLES SUGGESTED RETAIL PRICE , meaning the highest price EAGLE sets is $382.50. They charged my friend $67.50 more than Eagles LIST PRICE.

Mahdavi Motorsports lists their labor hour at $75/hour. So they are telling me that it takes them 33 hours to pull and install a BOLT IN MOTOR SWAP??? Even if their labor rate was as high as a DEALERSHIP which is $90 an hour, that would still be 27 hours. I called Mitsubishi and they charge 17.8 hours DEALER RATE to pull and install a motor. Which is what He was having done. regardless of the ENGINE BUILD, they way overcharged him on the price of labor.

I question the $2500 to build and machine motor, because that just sounds rediculous, but i wont argue that cause i have no proof.

Lastly, this all came to an end yesterday when my friend Sam went to settle this face to face. He asked Sam and Arash Mahdavi why he was being asked to pay more, and they told him "because thats what it costs." My friend asked for the keys back to his car, and to take his car and they initially refused. After a heated discussion, they made Mr. Knighten sign a waiver form saying that Mahdavi Motorsports is entitled to ALL HIS PARTS AND DEPOSITS.

My friend was released his vehicle with:
No motor
No transmission
No transfer Case
no old parts
no used parts

He paid Mahdavi Motorsports $10,000 and broguth them a car with a blown engine in it, and after a year, he got a BARE SHELL BACK. How is this possible? When Mr. Knighten asked Mr. Mahdavi where his parts were, Mr . Mahdavi responded with "Get the fuck out of here, i never want to see you on these premises again. You parts are mine and you will never get them back"

I wuold think for $10,000 he would have gotten an an aftermarket turbo, manifold, some sort of tuning system, clutch, flywheel, cams, etc. Remember this was for a motor with rods an pistons, NOTHING ELSE. stock turbo, stock manifold, stock clutch, etc.

now i ask you, is this the way a business should be run? how a customer is sposed to be treated? We have contacted a lawyer and will be sueing Mahdavi Motorsports for all they have, restituion and all moneys paid. We are only posting this because EVERY AVENUE has been gone down and explored, and at the end , Mahdavi Motorsports has severely ripped my friend off. We were forced to this , and i will be posting this on every message board i can find until its resolved.

Thanks for your Time,
Seymour222

----------------------------------------------------------------

read this on IA and could not beleive it. take it how you will, but i thought you all should see it.

http://forums.importatlanta.com/showthread.php?t=49358&page=1&pp=15

 

sounds like MM got some bad dealings going on. I have no idea about the shop, I do not even know where it is.

 

They had this stupid as shit crx with an NSX swap that was supposedly slow as hell :lol:

Things like this is why I would have either done my own work, or checked other shops. I've heard bad things about MM and would never take my car there.

I guess this is just another example to add.

 

Crazy. I wasn't too much a fan of theirs after hearing their labor costs from a while ago.

 

Your friend needs to hire a lawyer. There is no way they can take his money and his parts, it's either or.

Hopefully MM will chime in and tell us their side of the story.

 

did the post on IA get deleted? I can't view...?

 

Must have been deleted a few moments ago.

 

Every shop has horror stories. I am very happy with the work they did for me, as are a lot of other people. I've also read my share of posts about people not having good service from them, and this thread is certainly one of those, but think about how many customers these guys service in a given month. I'm undecided about them in general.

And in regards to the crx-nsx, you must have no idea of what kind of fabrication it takes to create such a project... Perhaps you should at least recognize the skill it takes to pull of such a unique feat instead of hating. How exactly would a nsx motor in a crx chassis be slow?

 

Good they are getting a lawyer cause for that kind of money...lets just say "other people" would be involved.

 

I had no idea it took work and fabrication to put an NSX engine inside a CRX... thanks for clearing that up... :roflwtf:

And it's slow in the sense that they probably spent a shit load of money/time just to have something different that could do good on a dragstrip. Money could have been spent on a crx that could do good on a track and a drag strip and still be much cheaper. Besides, the NSX motor is not at the pinnacle at performance, coulda put a real strong motor in it or something if you are going to do so much custom stuff already. The NSX itself is an amazing car, but that's just cause it's the whole package that's amazing, it doesn't have much power from what i've heard. To each his own I guess.

 

ronin-ef and basha: please don't let this become an argument... feel free to discuss facts but bashing of any sort should be left off this board

 

with the exception to tuning I prefer to work on my car myself. Not only is it a learning experience but it reduces the likeliness of being ripped off. In all honesty I think most shops rip people off one way or another. This is an extreme example and if it is true I hope that MM get what they deserve.

 

+1

that's how I feel

 

Thanks Milo. I just caught this thread. Fellas, this forum is for mature discussions about topics related to vendors. Keep it on topic and above board. I haven't edited any of the posts so far, but those that are not related directly to the topic will be deleted and the posters will be warned one time via pm. As the original poster tried to present the facts as he knows them, I will let the thread stay. If this becomes a shop bashing thread or a pissing contest, the thread will be locked. If anyone from Madhavi wants to respond, they are welcome, but keep it civil...

 

HAHAHA....lmao

I have been to MM "many, many" times due to friends and wouldn't let them clip my toenails! Nuff said.

 

i'm not goin to defend MM just because they are freinds of mine. BUT do remeber that there are 3 sides to any story, the 2 different sides and the real story. the original poster neglected to tell all of the story.


just know this, the eclipse in question has been at MM since december of 2004, not 2005 but 2004! the owner was MIA for at least 4-5 months of that time. no phone call, no phone number to call, no-one that called MM to tell them what was going on.

i don't know the details of the money, but i was there at MM the day in january that he finally came into the shop wanting to know what his options were.

MM laid out his options on what needed to be completed, how much it would cost and how long they'd need the car. and he said he would give it some thought and would let them know.
MM charges for cars to be housed on their property and they told him that. he chose to let the car sit there for at-least 5 more weeks w/o doing anything.

remember that no business is perfect, fact is that MM has been around atlanta for as long if not longer than anyone else. people make mistakes and i agree that its how you correct the mistakes that really matters. no business is above reproach and no shop is perfect. i've "heard" from many of my friends of stories that would potentially turn me away from other tuning shops (on this board) in our area but i choose to make my own decisions and not be swayed too much by hearsay.

 

+1 I totally agree with that :bigthumb:

 

hmmmmmm :drama:

 

seems like a pretty meaty situation here.

its gonna take a while to get to the bone, i have a gut feeling that this will go to court, no matter what happens. however i saw on IA that they are working something out when Mr. Knighten (or whoever's eclipse that was) calls MM back.

 

i personally went there once with my wrx, all stock
and just asked 1 question :- what kind of cold air intake should i go with?

and there comes all kinds of bs answers, this that and later they quote me 600 dollers.. i was like i will be back in 30 mins with my c.c
never went there again
M.M IS A RIP OFF
thats my point
it's been made... \later

SUE THEM!!!!
dont look back..
so they know they dont need to cheat some1 off their money.

 

sounds like MM has stepped up and worked out a deal with this guy. props to them, if they make it right

 

hmm, apparently the guy was MIA a few months at a time, maybe in jail who knows, he left the car on their lots with no word, and not full payment

who knows what the real story is. but the moral of the story is get good friends and do the work at home. tada......

 

just remember that what you and everyone else read was only half of the story. half of the story does not account for much.

 

For once I will agree with Yerrow. I hang out at a shop enough that I can figure out what the real story is.

Hold on let me try this.

Guy drops off car to get various work done, shop orders parts, guy calls back, he has changed his mind on a few things, now he wants to add some more stuff. Shop says ok bring more money, guy says ok, never brings money. Months go by, shop tells him to pick it up. More months go by, shop calls again tells him to pick up the car or they will sell off parts to recover labor money. More months go by, shop sells off parts and charges labor for removing said parts. Guy gets pissed tells have the story and post it on the internet.


Now that may not be anything like what happened, however it very well could be. The amount of bullshit I have seen from customers while hanging out at various shops is unbelievable. People try and pull the dumbest crab.

Matt

 

amazingly, while not exactly correct, its closer to the truth.

MM could have really put a shop lien on the car back in '05 since for all intensive purposes, its was abandoned. they could have charged him $25/day for storage if they wanted.

 

It seems that this issue has been resolved. At least Rolling Trip posted that it was. Since a bunch of speculation isn't going to help clear up the issue for either the poster, or Madhavi, I am going to lock this thread.....


Nothing to see her, move along, move along....