Best Independent in Northwest - Hartech Ltd
Best Independent in Northwest - Hartech Ltd
Author
Discussion

rickky_san

Original Poster:

6 posts

239 months

Friday 19th January 2007
quotequote all
I'm relatively new to Porsche ownership, but I thought I'd share a good news story.

I'll save you the gory details but my Porsche was getting into some serious difficulties, and the options the OPC were offering were not pleasant, and fairly unhelpful. Also when you factor in their labour rates everything gets expensive quickly.

Anyway, thanks to this forum I found a place in Bolton called Hartech. These guys are excellent, thoroughly know their cars, give you all the options on how to get back on the road and they are genuinely interested in doing a good job, and very reasonably priced.

An honest independent Porsche expert garage - probably a rare thing.

I'm back on the road, and in much better shape. So for what's it worth I'd highly recommend them.


peterpeter

6,438 posts

287 months

Friday 19th January 2007
quotequote all
i think they are brilliant.

Just a shame they are up in Bolton.

They really need to open a branch down south. Their maintenance programme would clean up in the Indie market here.

BliarOut

72,863 posts

269 months

Friday 19th January 2007
quotequote all
yes

thegoose

8,077 posts

240 months

Saturday 20th January 2007
quotequote all
I don't doubt that Hartech are good, but it seems unreasonable to call them "the best in the Northwest" when it seems they are the only specialist in the Northwest you have used!! It makes it sound as though none of the other independents in the area are any good, which is certainly not the case.

You will find many happy customers from Unit Eleven (www.uniteleven.co.uk - they do most of my Porsche work & look after my race car - it has never failed to finish except when I've had an "off" ), Sports & Classic (often on here helping answer owners' technical questions), Ninemeister, Tech 9, ABG and so on.

hartech

1,929 posts

247 months

Saturday 20th January 2007
quotequote all
Rickky thanks for that - a rare bit of appreciation.

However I must point out that there are actually quite a lot of good independents in the North West - often with different areas of specialisation to suit different models and applications. We do not (for example) get involved much in tuning or track work - nor work on 928's and concentrate on sales, service and repairs for mainly standard cars and keeping them that way.

Unfotunatley very few of the local specialists could run their businesses for the same costs down South and their costs would escalate too much to maintain the time they can devote to problems at the moment up here. But in this day and age - what is the problem with taking a car "up North" for a major service that includes perhaps engine work or brakes etc and collecting it again a week later.

We have many customers form the South (including the Isle of White and Holland) who find it worthwhile and anyone on our maintenance plan who's car stopped and was in say the AA or RAC should be able to get it recovered to us FOC for repair (because of the warranty) - and before we get any North V South arguments - I am actually from Surrey - so I do know a bit about the differences.

There are also some very good independents down there but for all you down there that seek something different - why get put off by the distance from benefitting from those many independents up here that offer excellent value for money in various different areas of expertise?

Baz Hartech



roygarth

2,674 posts

278 months

Saturday 20th January 2007
quotequote all
Where is 'North West'? I've heard of 'Oop North', is it near there?

hartech

1,929 posts

247 months

Saturday 20th January 2007
quotequote all
Can I also just point out that I did not see the previous message (from goos...)before I wrote my reply about other independents - it is not therefore in response to that although it appears just afterwards - it was being typed and posted when the other posting must have appeared and I only saw it when I had posted and looked back at the result.

Baz hartech

peterpeter

6,438 posts

287 months

Saturday 20th January 2007
quotequote all
hartech said:
Rickky thanks for that - a rare bit of appreciation.

However I must point out that there are actually quite a lot of good independents in the North West - often with different areas of specialisation to suit different models and applications. We do not (for example) get involved much in tuning or track work - nor work on 928's and concentrate on sales, service and repairs for mainly standard cars and keeping them that way.

Unfotunatley very few of the local specialists could run their businesses for the same costs down South and their costs would escalate too much to maintain the time they can devote to problems at the moment up here. But in this day and age - what is the problem with taking a car "up North" for a major service that includes perhaps engine work or brakes etc and collecting it again a week later.

We have many customers form the South (including the Isle of White and Holland) who find it worthwhile and anyone on our maintenance plan who's car stopped and was in say the AA or RAC should be able to get it recovered to us FOC for repair (because of the warranty) - and before we get any North V South arguments - I am actually from Surrey - so I do know a bit about the differences.

There are also some very good independents down there but for all you down there that seek something different - why get put off by the distance from benefitting from those many independents up here that offer excellent value for money in various different areas of expertise?

Baz Hartech






it really is too far Baz. Might be ok for some, but it involves taking too much time out. Most of us are too busy to take two weekends out getting a car serviced.

The Opc I use pick the car up one day and drop it back a couple later. no hassle.

But my car is going to be unwarrantiable (is that a word?) soon. either I sell it and get a new gt3 or find a great independant to maintain it with some sort of indie warranty (that concerns me a great deal)

BliarOut

72,863 posts

269 months

Saturday 20th January 2007
quotequote all
There are PH'ers who run transport services idea

sportsandclassic

3,774 posts

248 months

Saturday 20th January 2007
quotequote all
like said before you can try a few different independats as mentioned by goose and i can personally recommend john holland at unit 11 and baz at hartech as i have met both of them and seen the way they operate....oh and by the way both can drill straight too!!

Mike

sportsandclassic

bigsi

202 posts

238 months

Saturday 20th January 2007
quotequote all
if we are voting for good independents, GTOne in Chertsey get my vote! They have looked after my 996 for a few services now, replaced discs and been great to deal with.
give them a try if you are in this neck of the woods!

MJK 24

5,679 posts

266 months

Saturday 20th January 2007
quotequote all
BliarOut said:
There are PH'ers who run transport services idea


I am to whom you refer

scruffy101

540 posts

245 months

Saturday 20th January 2007
quotequote all
My car goes in to hartech to go on (hopefully )the lifetime programme thing.They have it for two days so it must be thorough.I know the results will depress me but i may have to sell it soon and i want a clean bill of health to show the buyer.