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October 2024 by Andrew Kana
My 2014 GTR had a very strange rattling noise that sounded very expensive lol. Every single person I spoke to told me to bring my car here and these guys know what they’re doing. I took my car in and was helped by James. Within minutes he did the clutch re learn process and was able to get rid of that rattling noise for me . He wouldn’t accept any payment and told me not to worry about it. Very honest and professional I would 10/10 recommend to anybody. Saved me a lot of headache !
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May 2024 by A B
This is not to say the workers are bad..it's just that James is a prick.
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May 2024 by Bomb Supa
I have my GTR to different shops throughout San Diego area. Let me just say that, since the first time I sent my engine here for a built, I’ve been a regular customer since. James and his team takes care of car that comes into their shop like it’s their own car. I had the opportunity to speak with his team members and Bernard, the team lead, and I can tell that they care about their customers’ cars. The level of knowledge, as I’ve seen it first hand, how they diagnose the problems, and it’s spot on every time. I brought my car in for a built transmission, which I tracked the car the very next month after getting it back. Car works perfect. I brought in my car for an Omega 12 turbos upgrade. James even gave me a huge discount, since he knows that I’ve been spending a lot of money here. And I mean, huge! And if I have questions regarding the work they’ve done or any questions regarding the cars, future plans, etc, I can always call them. James always keep an eye out for parts on the markets. I told him the plans for my car/build, he calls me whenever he sees something that may peek my interest. Many times, that saves me a lot of money.
I have confidence spending money at this shop, because they backed up their work. It is a small team here, including the owner, so if you call them and no one answers, understand that the owner is always inside the shop working as well. If you don’t have the patience and a common sense, go somewhere else (yes I see some of the bad reviews about punctuation).
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January 2024 by Artiom Yalanji
BEWARE! If you decide to go with this company I wish you best of luck with all the grey hairs that will come with it. The owner James will lie straight to your face just to get an extra dollar out of you. He will tell you exactly what you want to hear just to take your money and run. If I could give them a zero star review I would. If anyone is looking to give their cars to this shop, I would think twice. Originally when looking at their reviews I wasn’t to impressed, however a famous YouTuber built their car with them so I thought to myself “Oh I can trust these guys.” I can see why this youtuber never left a review. I decided to take the chance with ACG Automotive to get my 2021 Nissan GTR built as well as a simple tune on my Lamborghini URUS. I had so many problems with my GTR and I thought to myself maybe its not the shop, maybe its just the car. However, I trusted them with my Lamborghini urus as well and they completely messed up on it as well and didn’t want to come fix the car for a year, kept giving me a bunch of lame excuses.Story time- They originally quoted me $50,000 for a “Fully built Alpha 10 Package” claiming that it will be doing 1000whp safely and reliably without any issues. Little did I know… The build took about 2-3 months. They finished and sent me over the dyno sheets which quoted low 800’s whp. James claimed that he was using a different dyno but on a different dyno it would be making 1000whp, however never showed me any proof. I was too gullible and was excited to get my car back that I didn’t question him at all. I received the car within a week or so. It was faster, but nothing crazy. The charge pipes blew on me three times within a month. Had to bring them to his “buddy” here in Sacramento to have them put on. The transmission solenoid went out so I had to ship the car back to ACG. They returned the car to me within about 2 months. In the span of a 15 mile drive back home from receiving the fixed car the opposite side solenoid blew. James did not want to cover shipping even thought his shop didn’t even think about checking the opposite solenoid when fixing the right side.James originally advertised the transmission as being “fully built” and won’t give me any problems unless I push the car past 1300hp.5th gear went out so I called James and explained everything to him. He told me that the only piece in the transmission that is upgraded is the 1st gear and every other gear doesn’t have warranty. I told him that I can’t keep sending the car out to San Diego for it to sit at his shop until one of his workers finally gets to it. He told me that I could bring it to a shop in Sacramento if they can fix it faster and he will just reimburse me for it. As I arrived to the shop which has built many GTR’s (wish I knew this before) asked what I had done to it. I told them that it is fully built and that it costed about $50-60k. As soon as they opened the hood, they turned around and said “you got scammed.”The hose clamps as well as all the vacuum lines are from eBay. Bolts missing everywhere, brackets loose, pipping rubbing against bolts. They ended up fixing the transmission and quoted me $3,200. I sent the bill over to James and he told me “I can’t pay for this since it wasn’t my shop that did the repairs.” I was furious as how a shop owner (James) can lie to a customer without blinking an eye. I ended up paying for the transmission.-Continuation below-
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January 2024 by Olesya Yalanji
2 months later my turbo blew. Since I had warranty I sent the gtr to him. Finally got it back within 3 months with what he stated are better and bigger “upgraded turbos.”When the car arrived I went to the nearest gas station since it was almost empty and filled up 91. When I drove out I gave it some gas and the entire car just bogged and then accelerated. I called James right away and his only excuse was “oh the 91 tune isn’t a good tune that we did so just run e85” I pay over $50,000 for a build which isn’t even close to 1000whp and the owners says “owe the tune isn’t good.” He then told me to ship the car back to San Diego so they can fix it. I told him that since it is his fault why should I pay for shipping and loss of my time? No reply after that…4 months later the solenoid blew yet again and since he didn’t open up the transmission I had to pay the other shop to fix it. 7 months later the “ Upgraded turbos” blew yet again. Called James stating that I haven’t even drivin 3,000 miles on them and they already blew. In lament terms he basically told me to screw off and that he wont be covering anything. I ended up bringing the car to the Sacramento shop. As they took off the turbos they said “these turbos are just stock turbos which are bored out and have a bigger propeller, also maxed out to the max.” James completely stopped replying to my messages and doesn’t even want to help me with his screwup. The shop told me that this build costs about $15,000 with the parts that they put on. This has been the worst experience I have ever had with a shop, all they want is your money and will cheap out on every part of the car just to save an extra dollar. Didn’t even put a catch can smh…Second Car- They tuned and installed meth injection into my 2020 Urus. Completely messed up the transmission tune and the lag was so bad that it was embarrassing to drive it. Broke my door handle and didn’t even want to own up to it. Kept telling me that he’ll fly out to fix the URUS. Guess what ended up happening? I had to bring the car to them after a year for him to spend an hour on it to fix. The worst customer service I have ever experienced. I can now tell why they have no good reviews since 2018.Hopefully everyone reading this will learn from my mistake and not even consider this scam of a company.
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May 2023 by Mike E.
i have been working with ACG for a few weeks now on a new (actually old..2012 E92 BMW). I am in the process of upgrading the performance of the car through some modifications as well as addressing some deferred maintenance and other unexpected issues. James and his team have been very on point through out the process helping me find the most reasonable and cost effective solutions. Their level of expertise, attention to detail and genuine concern for maximizing value based on my particular needs is truly appreciated.
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November 2022 by Beau Brothers
James at ACG let my challenger Hellcat sit at the dodge dealership for an entire month straight in the sun. My clear-bra shrunk, battery died and he pretended as though nothing was wrong at all. Thankfully I went to the dealership myself and had to do his work for him, getting all required information for the transmission warranty, convince them to install a new battery etc. Had I not followed up, there is no telling how long it would have sat if I wasn't proactive.My car was under his supervision for an entire YEAR just for a transmission install. There we're issues with dealing with the warranty so but I had to do all the leg work even though the warranty contact would only talk to a shop owner which he was obviously aware of. About 10 months into my car being at ACG, I decided to just buy a build trans instead which they installed but there were still issues.My battery died AGAIN after getting my car back a year later so I had to buy a new one. I called everyday for a week, sent emails to Marco and videos of the power draw issue. I troubleshooted for hours pulling fuses to reset the dash, updating firmware etc. It's as though he intentionally makes it difficult to get in touch with him. I had to walk in the back bay doors and tap him on the shoulder while he was on the dyno just to get a word with him. The interesting part is he knew there was a power draw because he said, "Yea I noticed your car had trouble going to sleep". He was aware of this issue the entire time and agreed with me that when the battery died, it reset the steering wheel voltage monitoring settings, drawing power. He declined paying for the battery that HE was at fault for letting die. At that point I realized I would never take my car back to this shop again.
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October 2022 by Beau B.
James at ACG let my challenger Hellcat sit at the dodge dealership for an entire month straight in the sun. My clear-bra shrunk, battery died and he pretended as though nothing was wrong at all. Thankfully I went to the dealership myself and had to do his work for him, getting all required information for the transmission warranty, convince them to install a new battery etc. Had I not followed up, there is no telling how long it would have sat if I wasn't proactive. My car was under his supervision for an entire YEAR just for a transmission install. There we're issues with dealing with the warranty so but I had to do all the leg work even though the warranty contact would only talk to a shop owner which he was obviously aware of. About 10 months into my car being at ACG, I decided to just buy a build trans instead which they installed but there were still issues. My battery died AGAIN after getting my car back a year later so I had to buy a new one. I called everyday for a week, sent emails to Marco and videos of the power draw issue. I troubleshooted for hours pulling fuses to reset the dash, updating firmware etc. It's as though he intentionally makes it difficult to get in touch with him. I had to walk in the back bay doors and tap him on the shoulder while he was on the dyno just to get a word with him. The interesting part is he knew there was a power draw because he said, "Yea I noticed your car had trouble going to sleep". He was aware of this issue the entire time and agreed with me that when the battery died, it reset the steering wheel voltage monitoring settings, drawing power. He declined paying for the battery that HE was at fault for letting die. At that point I realized I would never take my car back to this shop again.
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January 2022 by Jeff Hendrix
Extremely helpful and nice over the phone! Prices are very affordable as well.
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December 2021 by Oliver S (23GT.net)
I had ACG install an Android-based infotainment system in my Nissan R35 GT-R to replace the OEM system. Unfortunately the install took much longer than expected due to a missing part and some quirks of my car's audio system but ACG worked overtime to finish it the same day since they knew I'd driven a long way from out of town. I don't know of many shops that will work past closing time to ensure a customer leaves happy but ACG did so I definitely recommend them!
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September 2021 by Yousef A.
Great service as well as staff members! Big appreciation to Thai who took care of me as well as my car and he was very helpful and kept me up to date on every step of the way until I recieved my car. Would come back again needed anything in regards to my car!
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June 2021 by Claude Jonna
James and the team gave my car an extra 100 horsepower to the wheels for a great price and made it sound better than I could ever imagine. I had regrets of not getting an M8 but my 850 is faster and sounds better than one now. Highly recommend. I won’t take my cars anywhere else. Garage full of GTRs and Lambos; these guys are the heavy weights of SD
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May 2021 by Claude J.
These guys really know what they're doing. Tuned my m850i that nobody else in SD knew how to work on. James is laid back, professional, and easy to deal with. Going back to smoke my lights and install a stage 2 tune soon - highly recommended.
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March 2021 by Brian Buck
Great work, they take care of your car and the work is professional.
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February 2021 by The L.
I'm new to the Dyno Tune game but read reviews and thought ACG Auto would be a good place to go. I took my 2014 M6 w/ Competition Package in today to have them look at it and do a Dyno Tune. I have a new engine installed and it only has 7k miles. It was running a little rough when I stomped on it. They ran some tests found the battery was not registered, found the positive terminal loose, tightened it and cleared the faults. This was why the car was missing because of the electrical power issue. I was planning on having a Diagnostic Check and Dyno Tune done to my car as well. I learned that this is not how it is done. There are some things that must be done first in order for ACG Auto to Dyno Tune you car; All New NGK Laser Iridium Plugs $147, Install them $375, BOOTMOD3 S63TU - BMW-F13 Tune $895 and Real Time Tune $250+ for a Grand Total: $1,747.97 I will likely take it back but learned how this process works and figured it might help someone else who is not as well educated on the Dyno Tune process like me.
