[jfoj]

Just to let all the M5 and other BMW owners know that I can confirm a good Indy in the Washington, DC area.

Took my car today for a 4 wheel alignment and road force balance of all 4 wheels. I went to Curry's Auto Service in Falls Church, VA. Special note for the BMW owners, Curry's will ballast the car for an alignment and if you request will also alter the ballast!! So +2 for the fact they have a road force wheel balancer and know to ballast for alignments on the BMW's!

Turns out the main alignment specialist, Steve S, is a former BMW tech and knows the E39 M5 well. He checked out a few other items for me while the car was up in the air and reported back honestly. I was also surprised that he seemed to know a lot about the Dinan add ons as well as noticed my UUC DSSR shift linkage. We also spoke briefly about Royal Purple SynroMax and Powerflex bushings, he seemed to like those product and had experience with them.

Kind of nice to find someone that knows these cars pretty well, knows how to work on them and knows something about some of the aftermarket options available as well.

Thought I would pass on my experience and satisfaction with this shop.

 

[Mfreakin5]

Dude, you couldn't be more wrong.

Curry's is terrible. My fiance took her E46 M3 there for years before we met. They don't have the first clue about BMW's. I've known about them since my VW days, they're a terrible shop (all of their locations) and they won't admit when they don't know what they're doing.

Took them 3 attempts to balance (not an alignment, mind you, just mounting/balancing tires) the OEM wheels/tires on my fiance's E46 M3 and they still couldn't get it right. I finally gave up and took it to NTB. They did it right the first time. They tried to blame every suspension component/bushing under the sun for the vibration but I knew they were full of it.

They tried to tell me that Castrol Syntec is the same as the BMW oil and that I should run it in my Beast. My fiance took her car there 3 times in 6 months for a CEL. They just blindly started replacing parts: MAF, expensive smoke tests and replacement of vacuum lines, new air filter (yes, an air filter to cure a CEL), and yet, a year and $1000 later, the CEL was still there. A professional shop sees a "coolant temp implausible" error on a 60k mile car and doesn't think to replace the thermostat? I had the thermostat replaced and the code and CEL disappeared.

Curry's is bad news, I would never take my car there.

 

[jfoj]

Hey, sorry you had a bad experience. Do not think I should be singled out as "Wrong".

Maybe you had different luck, but this was my experience. I also spoke with another M5 owner who has used the Falls Church shop for a long time and he was very have with this location as well.

Curry's has multiple shops and some of the staff move around the stores, but I had good luck today and spent some time talking to Steve and he seems to really know BMW's and M5's.

So you may want to consider tracking Steve down if you ever want to get them another chance. He was at their Falls Church location.

 

[Mfreakin5]

Hey, sorry you had a bad experience.

Curry's has multiple shops and some of the staff move around the stores, but I had good luck today and spent some time talking to Steve and he seems to really know BMW's and M5's.

So you may want to consider tracking Steve down if you ever want to get them another chance. He was at their Falls Church location.

I'm glad you had a good experience. If you found someone competent at any Curry's location, grab on and don't let go because you won't find that treasure again.

And yes, some people do tell me that Curry's is a good shop but those are either Porsche people or non-enthusiasts. But again, I'm glad you found a shop you like cherrsagai

 

[NogginM5Beast]

I've never gone to Curry's(I don't go to any shops for anything, ever) but Curry's has a reputation for being super-expensive. A friend of mine got his tires mounted and balanced - they charge $40 a wheel for this. Glad you had a good experience with them though.

Another indy to consider in the area is Reese at Fairfax Service Center. He knows his m5's inside out and a great guy to boot.

 

[mattmartindrift]

$40 per wheel isn't unheard of with low profile tires on reverse-mount or regular wheels. Add on a computer balance (often $20/wheel by itself) and $40 isn't unheard of; albeit, it is on the high end.

 

[jfoj]

Yes Curry's may be a bit more expensive, but not by much from some of the numbers I was quoted elsewhere.

I am aware of Fairfax Service Center and have heard some good things about them and did call there, however, it seems you really need to deal with Reese on everything. Seems like the shop might need to have some additional help for the front office from what I can tell? But I may give them a shot on a few items in the future if I need to have work performed, mainly if I need Dinan support.

I find if the front end folks in the shop are not capable of passing along the message (dealers are famous for this, but being vague makes it easier to fleece both the customer and manufacturer), your requests never make it to the shop floor.

I rarely have any work performed on my cars by other than myself, but I do not happen to have on hand or unlimited access to either a road force tire balancer or an alignment machine these days, so it is far cheaper for me to pay for these services than buy the equipment.

What I found with Curry's in Falls Church today is they listened to my requests, may allowances for my requirments, performed quality work in time frame I gave them, provided feedback and did not damage my car. I can can assure you this is not the case with the local BMW dealer!!

For anyone else in the area, another place that I have not personally used, however, I have heard fairly good things about is Foreign Service Auto Repair in the Tysons Corner area.

 

[herrubermensch]

Another indy to consider in the area is Reese at Fairfax Service Center. He knows his m5's inside out and a great guy to boot.

+1