Has anyone gone to Steve Taub in Santa Monica for service? I'm thinking of trying it, but I wanted to get some feedback first.

Any response would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I can't speak for everyone of course, but my own experiances there have been rather good...far better than Rusnak Westlake, not that they're horrible...but they're by no means good either.

You should search the archives for my past posts on Steve Taub. My car is pretty heavily modified and they've given me no flak about it...they even aligned my car for free after I had it lowered...then they fixed the shotty install that the tuners did...put one rear shock in wrong...Steve Taub fixed it w/o any questions.

They may not be the biggest Audi dealer...hell sometimes they don't even have Audi's on the lot...but they seem to know thier stuff, actually I have an appointment on Tuesday...should go well.

James R.

99 1.8TMS (Neuspeed K04, K&N Filter, Remus Exhaust, Neuspeed Sport Springs, Neuspeed Front Anti Sway, Bilstein Sport Shocks, Brembo Rotors, Mintex Red Box, Ronal R28's 17", Euro Corners, Clear Sides, Full Tint...and some other stuff I probably forgot)

I had several frustrating experiences with Steve Taub.

They are open on Saturdays which is cool. But I had to go back 3 weeks in a row for various reasons. Once they hadn't ordered the necessary parts to fix my car - even after assuring me that they would have them. When the parts came in and I brought my car back, I also asked them to try to hunt down a rattle. They did the original fix but said they didn't have time to look for the rattle. They told me to come back next Saturday. So I did. But when I got there, they said they wouldn't have time that day either. They suggested I make an appointment during the week. Which I had tried to do from the start but they kept telling me they wouldn't provide a loaner since the repairs did not require the car to be worked on for more than a full day.

All that is annoying, but here's the kicker. While my car was at their shop the last time, it got a small scratch by the door handle. When I picked up the car, they drove it around and the door was open when I got in so I didn't notice it. I noticed it the next morning when I got in my car. I called the shop and asked what their policy was on scratching customer cars. They said since the car had already left the lot there really wasn't much they could do. But I could bring it by and have Steve Taub take a look. By this point I was really tired of dealing with them and haven't ever gone back. As a side note, the rattle they supposedly found and fixed was chattering as usual as I drove home from the shop that day. Although it had changed in pitch slightly.

One more thing - my car was there on numerous occasions - both weekends and weekdays - and was never washed. Which is fine. What pissed me off was that on several occasions, my car was noticably dirtier when I picked it up than when I left it. They must park the cars where they are exposed to water or sprinklers or something.

I probably just had a really unlucky streak, as I doubt any Audi service department could be that consistently bad. But for my next service, I'll be trying out other dealers.

Good luck.

Actually they've done a pretty good job of fixing stuff for me, but they didn't fix a rattle I complained about also. I got the could not reproduce the problem consistently enough to locate it line. This time I'm gonna make sure they fix it or I'm getting a field rep involved this will be my 3rd complaint about the noise. Once to Rusnak and Once to Steve Taub...as for the scratch, that's why I always force the service manager to walk the car with me before they take it...cause mine is pristine no dings, no scratches just the way I like it.